helloSystem 0.6 Released For macOS-Inspired FreeBSD

[uid313]

It's funny how it looks like a very unpolished version Mac OS X from the late 90s or early 2000s. 😂

[Ladis]

Guess there just aren't enough devs that want an Apple clone that can program Objective-C out there.

Apple computers are very common and developers are one of its big user groups. You are searching for developers who want Apple, yet they don't want Apple.

I personally liked NeXT and GNUStep, but looks like it died years ago. I have to check that NextSpace you mentioned.

PS: The language of recent versions of macOS is Swift, not Objective-C.

[DMJC]

Apple's kernel is still C++ and most of the OS is still written in Objective-C with bindings for Swift. Yes, most applications on OSX are being rewritten for Swift but it's still being done, (GNUStep supports Swift already anyway), and there's a huge Objective-C component to the OS. GNUstep is still updated/maintained, but the developers are focused on the API, not creating a desktop.system. That's where NextSpace (A NEXTStep clone) and Etoile (an OSX Clone) come in. Sadly Etoile is dead/abandoned and NextSpace while good for NEXT enthusiasts isn't making code that's helpful to creating an OSX clone. Applications are where GNUstep/Etoile falls over. There's just not enough to support an entire desktop ecosystem and a web browser/Window Manager are the two critical components that need completing.

[tildearrow]

It's funny how it looks like a very unpolished version Mac OS X from the late 90s or early 2000s. 😂

Not all coders are artists.

[Leinad]

It's funny how it looks like a very unpolished version Mac OS X from the late 90s or early 2000s. 😂

It is not funny, because that exactly is the main goal of the project. Another BSD project, Airyx, is trying to copy nowadays macOs. But not helloSystem. Author of helloSystem hates modern systems because of nowadays complexity and he wants to return to simplicity of systems 30 years ago.

[You-]

AppImage is a great tool when implemented correctly (all deps actually satisfied), and I've learned gnome can be extremely hostile to it (that or I can't figure out how to add arbitrary files to the dash) which I think explains a lot of the hate for it. It's not a do-all, but where it works, it works great.

That's the thing - it cant be implemented correctly as it is currently designed. There is no way of knowing what deps a system has installed and if they clash with the app image, things break. His proposed "solution" to this is a non starter - everyone agree on what deps and versions to be shipped in a base install. The same as no updates ever.

Software distribution wise, it is the WIndows model of downloading random executables from anywhere and running them. This is being solved by central listings such as AppImageHub and Firejail, but it isnt default or universal - one dodgy app and you can lose all your data. If desktop linux ever made it big, ransomeware authors will want appimages to be the dominant model.

It does work great where it works, but there are no guarantees that it will keep working. No guarantees that an app that works today will work tomorrow when the base OS has different versions of dependencies.

If you want to use it in gnome or elsewhere, I think there is an "appimaged" or similar service out there that lists appimages to your system as traditional desktop items. you might want to install that.

[vladimir86]

The main beef with this is that it seems to be based in FreeBSD 12.2. Maybe it is just bad luck on my part, but I was unable to use FreeBSD in any post 2005 computer till FreeBSD 13.arrived because of many hardware issues (no wifi, no sound, or sound volume too low, no touchpad....)

FreeBSD13 just worked for me, so this is one version short to being usable in real hardware. I think the goal of the project is to port that DE to FreeBSD. It sounds to me like a really long way to achieve, but hey. The more, the merrier, I guess... I' ll give it a test as a non OSX user, just to see what it is about. (on a VM)

[danielnez1]

I am sad that Étoilé stalled. In its earlier days it seemed like they were updating GNUstep's OPENSTEP UI and bundled programs to a more modern OS X style UI, as well as building a desktop environment that was more friendly/integrated for non-GNUSTEP programs than what GWorksapce.app currently is. Then they seemed to change the direction of their UX and it went south. Étoilé's MenuServer (which gives a GNUSTEP desktop a far more Mac like menu bar with plugins) did still build against more recent versions of GNUSTEP's libraries until a few years ago.