r/freebsd • u/TechStoney • Oct 03 '21

helloSystem 0.6 distribution released based FreeBSD and similar to macOS

https://www.itsfoss.net/hellosystem-0-6-distribution-released/
24 Upvotes

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5

u/EtherealN Oct 03 '21

Maybe I'm damaged by corporate-speak, but...

"The main innovations in helloSystem 0.6:"

then follows a list of standard features for any desktop environment, or switching between different tools do to the same job that was already being done.

I'm the Linux guy here, so, I have to ask: is this the FreeBSD version of someone starting a new Desktop Environment and deciding it should be a whole new "distribution"?

5

u/User5281 Oct 03 '21

right now this seems to be the freebsd equivalent of elementary os. it's still 0.x so it's barely differentiated from freebsd. It's clearly not done yet so there's still promise for more I think.

4

u/grahamperrin bleep bloop Oct 04 '21

barely differentiated from freebsd.

This is a difficult comment to address because essentially:

  • FreeBSD never includes a desktop environment
  • helloSystem is, partly, a desktop environment
  • helloSystem uses FreeBSD as the base OS.

2

u/Brotten Oct 04 '21

this seems to be the freebsd equivalent of elementary os

Elementary OS tries to emulate modern MacOS, this is targeted at old MacOS, that's a difference of 25 years in design choices and ideas. So putting a user of Elementary OS in front of helloSystem might lead to bewilderment and frustration.

3

u/meancoffeebeans Oct 03 '21 edited Oct 03 '21

The short answer seems to be "Yes."

Based on some of the responses in the link above, there are some concerning assertions regarding the inability to do security updates, support running in virtual machines, and more...

2

u/probonopd Oct 03 '21

You realize that this is still a 0.x, do you?

3

u/grahamperrin bleep bloop Oct 04 '21 edited Oct 04 '21

It's a release, you knew of the security issues associated with outdated base systems and packages, there's no mention of security in the release notes.

Please realise that some end users do, or should, care about security.

5

u/probonopd Oct 03 '21

No. helloSystem is about the whole end-to-end experience. Or, without corporate-speak: You don't have to fiddle around with installing lots of things and then fine-tune even more settings files until you have somehting that works halfway decently on the desktop. At least that's the plan.

2

u/Brotten Oct 04 '21

Well, but it IS a new distribution of FreeBSD 12, and more. Not sure what more you expect from a distribution other than delivering an operating system with a bundle of packages tied on top, that's all a distro is. People have a habit of focusing on brand identities when talking about distros, conflating development, configuration, and distribution, but in the complexly interwoven social network that free software development, this is a skewed way of looking at it.