hello

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

Screenshot

What?

This repository is where developers and interested advanced users brainstorm on helloSystem.

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

Based on FreeBSD. Less, but better!

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.

Download

Live images at https://github.com/helloSystem/ISO/ – .iso files can be written to USB drives.

Boot your computer from one of these drives, or boot a virtual machine (e.g. VirtualBox) from an .iso – take an early look at helloSystem without installing to your computer.

Why?

• 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
• @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.")
• 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/

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

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

How?

Just follow Bruce Tognazzini's First Principles of Interaction Design

https://asktog.com/atc/principles-of-interaction-design/

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)