Hello, a desktop system based on FreeBSD

I shall try it!

Hello, a desktop system for creators with a focus on simplicity, elegance, and usability. Based on FreeBSD. Less, but better!

Please see https://hellosystem.github.io/ for documentation.

This repository is where developers and interested advanced users brainstorm on helloSystem. If you are looking for documentation, Live ISO downloads, and other practical information, look at https://hellosystem.github.io/.

What?

A desktop system for creators that focuses on simplicity, elegance, and usability.

Following the published Human Interface Guidelines, and First Principles of Interaction Design liberally re-interpreted for today.

Based on FreeBSD.

For mere mortals. Welcoming to switchers from macOS. Not just a theme. Not a clone of anything, but something with which the long-time Mac user should feel instantly comfortable. The latest technologies, without the complexities of Linux distributions. Without lockdown. Without Big Brother. The user in full control.

Less, but better!

Why?

Because we used to like the Mac, since 1984.

• Consistent user interface across all applications (e.g., all applications have the same global menu bar, and all applications have File -> Quit in them with the same Command-Q shortcut)
• Consistent user interface over time (e.g., the above has not changed since 1984)
• WYSIWYG: Black text on white background, like on paper. Not amber on black or green on black like most computers before it
• No need to use the command line
• No confusing text messages when the system is starting
• Everything done via the global menu bar
• Menu shortcuts on the Command key (the key left to the spacebar)
• Easy to use disk images
• Spatial file manager (e.g. every document or folder has one, and exactly one place on the screen; each window and each object inside a window keeps its location on screen)
• Applications can be “managed” by drag and drop in the file manager
• Every application is one file (or one “bundle”, which is one object in the file manager)
• No complicated text commands to learn, no need to use a Terminal application

Because we used to like the Mac, since 1984. But it’s increasingly getting… difficult:

• Because according to Edward Snowden, Apple Just Declared War on Your Privacy (all the while talking about “privacy”, “security”, “trusted”)
• Because Apple has become Big Brother by even considering Client-Side Scanning, distrusting its users and treating them like potential criminals, searching through users’ data
• Because Apple runs services like Visual Lookupand mediaanalysisd on macOS which may leak data from the local system to the OS vendor’s servers (and potentially anyone surveilling them)
• Because Apple thinks that “Sideloading is a cyber criminal’s best friend” – and wants to be the gatekeeper for everything that runs on your device
• Because App Stores allow governments to prevent certain applications from being used https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/12/russia-putin-google-apple-navalny/
• Because we want “Personal Digital Sovereignty”, in other words: be in full control over what our devices are doing
• Because Apple has become “anti-hacking”
• Because we want to run apps from “unidentified developers” that need no blessing by the operating system vendor and no workarounds like https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/textedit-gatekeeper.html (Note: Maybe sudo spctl --master-disable does the trick if you are root on the machine, which means no luck on “managed” devices; normal users can do: xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/MyApp.app for each app)
• Gatekeeper (“It forced Mac developers, who had previously been legally free, to sign a strict contract.” Source) (Note: Maybe sudo spctl --master-disable does the trick if you are root on the machine, which means no luck on “managed” devices; normal users can do: xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/MyApp.app for each app)
• @antranigv on macOS to FreeBSD migration a.k.a why I left macOS https://antranigv.am/weblog_en/posts/macos_to_freebsd/
• https://hardware.substack.com/p/falling-out-of-love-with-apple-part1
• https://medium.com/@probonopd/bring-back-the-ease-of-80s-and-90s-personal-computing-393738c5e2a1 (Medium article written by me)
• https://memoryprotection.show/blog/episode-24 (“It has become very user-hostile.”)
• Because what used to be simple is becoming increasingly difficult. Example: Install a kernel extension https://twitter.com/CastIrony/status/1444077820041318400 – probably the process doesn’t even work on “managed” devices where some central IT department thinks it knows best which kexts the users “need”. Lock in and lock down
• https://bombich.com/blog/2021/05/19/beyond-bootable-backups-adapting-recovery-strategies-evolving-platform (If the soldered-in SSD fails, you cannot boot from external bootable media, because “security”)
• Because we want all software to be “sideloaded” rather than coming from monopolistic stores https://www.lunduke.com/2021/07/google-goes-to-war-against-sideloading/
• Because we disagree with phone-home, tracking, activation. Apparently it is not necesseary to activate Macs. Has the NSA ordered this “feature” so that they can track people even better?
• Because Apple is spying on you. Yes. Despite all the talk about “privacy” there is the DSID
• Because used Apple devices have to be thrown away if they are “FMIP locked” (which regularly happens with previously company-owned devices) https://twitter.com/TWArecycles/status/1444549353335509003
• Because all the locks and shackles Apple is putting on their devices is filling nothing but the landfills and their pockets https://twitter.com/RDKLInc/status/1477410245131616256
• Because Apple user interfaces are becoming less and less Mac-like (as measured by the original Human Interface Guidelines). Example: The Tragedy of Safari 15 for Mac’s ‘Tabs’
• Because Mac OS X has been deteriorating ever since the “Back to the Mac” event in 2010 https://512pixels.net/2014/04/aqua-past-future/, becoming less like the Mac and more like iOS
• Because the user experience has been getting worse and worse, and here is why https://www.fastcompany.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name
• Because Apple is watering the desktop down with inferior mobile UX and hybrid apps (“Catalyst”) that don’t behave like real mouse-centric (“AppKit”) desktop apps
• Louis Rossmann: A reminder of how computing used to be

Lock-down:

• https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/
• https://sneak.berlin/20201204/on-trusting-macintosh-hardware/

Irrepairable, non-upgradeable hardware:

• https://www.macrumors.com/2018/10/04/t2-macs-must-pass-diagnostics-for-certain-repairs/
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw9qk7/macbook-pro-software-locks-prevent-independent-repair
• https://uk.pcmag.com/old-news/117795/apples-t2-chip-makes-third-party-mac-repairs-impossible
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIFQC8iA65k Apple proprietary GSX Software needed to “pair” repair parts to the device, making straightforward repairs unnecessarily complicated to impossible

Less and less Mac-like desktop user experience:

• Riccardo Mori: The reshaped Mac experience
• Riccardo Mori: A retrospective look at Mac OS X Snow Leopard
• Riccardo Mori: A retrospective look at Mac OS X Snow Leopard – Addendum
• Carl Svensson: The Decline of Usability

How?

Just follow Bruce Tognazzini’s First Principles of Interaction Design

First Principles of Interaction Design (Revised & Expanded)

Contributing

This project lives from your involvement.

Please see https://hellosystem.github.io/docs/developer/contributing

We need help with issues flagged with help-wanted – maybe you’d like to look into issues flagged with good-first-issue. Other contributions are, of course, welcome.

Links

• helloSystem Documentation
• https://github.com/probonopd/hello/wiki
• High-level architecture
• Brainstorming
• Welcome and unwelcome technologies
• Make. It. Simple. Linux Desktop Usability – parts 1–6 – user experience (UX) discussion on Reddit (January 2020, archived)