Simon Peter, creator of the self-contained AppImage package format, has released helloSystem 0.5, a FreeBSD-based distribution positioned as a system for ordinary users that hobbyists can switch to. macOS, dissatisfied with Apple's policies. The system is free of the complications inherent in modern Linux-distributions, is under the complete control of the user and allows former users to feel comfortable macOSA bootable image, 1.2 GB in size, has been created for familiarization with the distribution.
The interface is reminiscent of macOS It includes two panels: the top one with the global menu and the bottom one with the application bar. The global menu and status bar are generated using the panda-statusbar package, developed by the CyberOS distribution (formerly PandaOS). The Dock application bar is based on the work of the cyber-dock project, also developed by the CyberOS developers. For file management and desktop shortcuts, the Filer file manager is being developed, based on pcmanfm-qt from the LXQt project. The Falkon browser is the default, but Chromium is also available as an option.
ZFS is used as the main file system, and exFAT, NTFS, EXT4, HFS+, XFS, and MTP are supported for mounting. Applications are delivered in self-contained packages. To launch applications, the launch utility is used, which finds the program and analyzes errors during execution. The system for building live images is based on the FuryBSD project toolkit.
The project develops a series of its own applications, such as a configurator, an installer, a mountarchive utility for mounting archives into a file system tree, a utility for recovering data from ZFS, an interface for partitioning disks, a network configuration indicator, a screenshot utility, a Zeroconf server browser, an indicator for configuration volume, a utility for setting up a boot environment. For development, the Python language and the Qt library are used. Supported application development components include PyQt, QML, Qt, KDE Frameworks, and GTK, in descending order of preference.
Main innovations of helloSystem 0.5:
- The base environment is in sync with FreeBSD 12.2.
- Significantly reduced the size of the iso image (from 1.7 to 1.27 GB).
- Implemented automatic updating of the system menu when adding, moving or deleting subdirectories and applications.
- The configurator now allows you to select different keyboard layouts. Support for saving keyboard settings between reboots is provided.
- The /Applications/Developer set comes pre-installed with the QHexEdit application.
- Added support for AMD Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M GPUs used in 2011 Macs.
- The Filer file manager has initial support for spatial mode, which opens each directory in a separate window. In addition, a new “Go to…” menu has been added, an option to open files/directories as root, a context menu to unmount the drive, Command+Up to navigate to the parent directory, and Command+I to display file options.
- Added a utility for accessing files on mobile phones using the MTP protocol.
- Implemented support for hiding the area with the window title by double-clicking on the title.
- The global menu now has the ability to control the volume of running applications (when right-clicking).
Source: opennet.ru
