There is no getting away from the fact that helloSystem is part cool project, and part homage to the classic era of Cupertino’s celebrated computing export (aka Mac OS X) Like Apple, these FreeBSD devs want to offer an “out-of-the-box user experience” as simple and fuss-free as mid-2000s Mac. View larger. A comparison of images of Pluto and its large moon Charon, taken in July 2014 and January 2015. Between takes, New Horizons had more than halved its distance to Pluto, from about. HoRNDIS, HoRNDIS (pronounce: “horrendous”) is a driver for Mac OS X that allows you to use your RNDIS to get network access to Pluto. It is known to work with Mac OS X versions 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) through 10.12 (Yosemite). Pluto, LG HI-MACS. Available from: $76.35. HI-MACS® is extremely hardwearing and durable and transforms the kitchen or bathroom throughout the day into universal function spaces. Comfortable, easy to care for handle and clean. This stunning and highly functional installation of HI-MACS® combine both elements into desirable living spaces.
Fair warning reader: this post has nothing to do with Ubuntu, or even Linux for that matter.
Instead, the following 600 words are about a promising (new to me) FreeBSD distro and why it left me rather excited about its potential.
So, for the duration of this ramble I’d appreciate you pretending it’s 2008 and this site is still called ‘FYIDYK’ — this was the forerunner to omg! with a worse acronym and a ‘cover everything’ attitude!
In this post I look at what this distro is, what it isn’t, and what it hopes to become. Plus, I share a link to download an install images (warning: experimental) so you can try it out for yourself.
helloSystem: FreeBSD for human beings?
A number of FreeBSD-based “distros” — I don’t know if there’s a different term for BSD flavours, so I’m rolling with this — are available but the first to catch my attention is called helloSystem.
This project was the subject of a talk at the recent FOSDEM event, and it’s that talk that pole-vaulted the project in to the eye-line of bloggers like myself.
Hello From Pluto Mac Os 11
What helps helloSystem stand out (to me, anyway) more than its ‘unique’ UI is its ambition. Devs working on helloSystem want to create “a desktop system for creators with focus on simplicity, elegance, and usability” built atop FreeBSD, an open source Unix-like OS.
Now, FreeBSD is a strand of computing I’ve never played with, not even during the exuberant and overreaching “FYIDYK” years. OpenSolaris? Oh yes! ReactOS? Roger that! But BSD? Still TBD, at least for me.
For me, new unexplored tech territory is exciting. And if Ubuntu is ‘Linux for human beings’ then helloSystem is close to being ‘FreeBSD for Mac switchers’.
Ahh, yes. Mac.
There is no getting away from the fact that helloSystem is part cool project, and part homage to the classic era of Cupertino’s celebrated computing export (aka Mac OS X) Like Apple, these FreeBSD devs want to offer an “out-of-the-box user experience” as simple and fuss-free as mid-2000s Mac.
“One objective for helloSystem is to be both easy to use for “mere mortals” yet powerful under the hood for advanced users, a combination that had been skillfully mastered in the first releases of Mac OS X,” the GitHub page blurb reads.
“The question is, can we take this objective of being easy but powerful but take it even further than Apple ever did?”.
It’s perhaps a but too early to answer that question. This project has bold ambitions for the future but humble roots in the present. Right now there are too many rough edges for it to function as anyone’s daily driver.
But it is coming together.
The system uses OpenZFS as its default file system, and has a custom Qt-based desktop (helloDesktop) sporting traditional windowing, a (basic) desktop dock, a unique global menu plugin (think HUD, but system wide), and right-aligned desktop icons and file manager (based on PCManFM).
Hello also comes with access to a range of apps, including LibreOffice, GIMP, and Chromium. Falkon is the default web browser, while a Qt-based text editor and Terminal are included for those who need them.
Neither the OS nor its desktop are “production” ready at the time you read this. Which brings me to the point of why I’m covering it at all.
I’m not expecting helloSystem to be the next big thing™, nor do I see it taking FreeBSD to heights that other *BSD projects haven’t.
But this project reminds me why I began experimenting with Linux and other systems in the first place: the thrill of potential; exploration without precondition; the bristle of possibility that open code (and open code alone) affords.
Download helloSystem Alpha
You can download alpha releases of helloSystem from GitHub.
Do read over the official help docs for assistance on getting it to boot in a virtual machine (which will need at least 4GB RAM, more than VirtualBox’s default).
- (via: Phoronix)
06.02.09
Words to know:
astronomer: a scientist who studies the planets, stars and space
Astronomical unit (AU): the average distance from the sun to Earth -- about 93 million miles (149 million kilometers). Earth is 1 AU from the sun.
elliptical: shaped like an ellipse, which is a symmetrical oval where both ends are the same size, like a racetrack
Today, Pluto is called a dwarf planet. A dwarf planet is round and orbits the sun just like the eight major planets. But unlike a planet, a dwarf planet does not have enough gravity to attract all of the space dust and tiny objects in its path. A dwarf planet also is much smaller than a planet, but it is not a moon.
On average, Pluto is a distance of approximately 39.5 astronomical units, or AU, from the sun. That is almost 40 times farther from the sun than Earth is. Because of its elliptical orbit, Pluto's closest point to the sun is 29.7 AU. This means that Pluto is sometimes closer to the sun than the planet Neptune. Pluto's farthest point away from the sun is 49.7 AU. Pluto is in a region called the Kuiper (KY-per) Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a large band of thousands of small, icy objects that orbit the sun beyond Neptune.
Pluto is only 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) wide. That is about half the width of the United States and slightly smaller than Earth's moon. It takes Pluto 248 years to make one revolution around the sun. Pluto takes 6 1/2 days to rotate, so one day on Pluto is about 6 1/2 days on Earth.
In 2005, this image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was used to identify two new moons orbiting Pluto. Pluto is in the center. The moon Charon is just below it. The newly discovered moons, Nix and Hydra, are to the right of Pluto and Charon. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team
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Pluto has three known moons. Its largest moon, named Charon (KER-ən), is about half the size of Pluto. Astronomers discovered Pluto's two other moons -- Nix and Hydra -- in 2005 using images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Nix and Hydra are very small. Scientists believe the moons are less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide.
Why Is Pluto No Longer Called a Planet?
In 2003, U.S. astronomer Mike Brown discovered a new object beyond Pluto. Brown thought he had discovered a new planet because the object, which he named Eris (EER-is), is larger than Pluto.
The discovery of Eris caused other astronomers to talk about what makes a planet a 'planet.' The International Astronomical Union is the group of astronomers responsible for naming objects in space. The IAU decided that Pluto and objects like it were not really planets at all because of their size and location in the solar system. The IAU decided that Pluto and objects like it should now be called dwarf planets.
Pluto also is called a plutoid. A plutoid is a dwarf planet that is farther out in space than the planet Neptune. The three known plutoids are Pluto, Eris and Makemake (MAH-kee-MAH-kee).
A drawing of the solar system shows Pluto's tilted orbit. Pluto's orbital path angles 17 degrees above the line, or plane, where the eight planets orbit. Credit: NASA
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Ideas about the universe and Earth's place in it keep changing as scientists get new information. This can cause scientists to rethink what they know and how they classify objects. Scientists are still considering what makes an object a planet as they learn more about the most distant objects in the solar system.
What Is Pluto Like?
It is very, very cold on Pluto. Scientists believe the temperature on Pluto is 375 to 400 degrees below zero. Pluto is so far away from Earth that scientists know very little about what the surface is like. Because of the cold temperatures, Pluto is probably covered with frost and ice.
Pluto has about one-fifteenth the gravity of Earth. That means a person who weighs 100 pounds on Earth would weigh only 7 pounds on Pluto.
Most of the other planets orbit the sun in a near-circle with the sun in the center. But Pluto's orbit is an ellipse, and the sun is not in the center. Pluto's orbit is also tilted compared to the orbits of the planets. The path on which Pluto orbits is angled 17 degrees above the line, or plane, where other planets orbit.
An artist's drawing shows the New Horizons spacecraft as it nears Pluto. The moon Charon is in the distance. Image Credit:Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)
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NASA has learned a lot about Pluto from studying images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists used Hubble photos to discover the moons Nix and Hydra in 2005. Hubble also has taken pictures of Pluto's surface showing dark and light areas. Even with the powerful Hubble telescope, the images are still fuzzy.
In 2006, NASA launched New Horizons, which is the first mission to Pluto. New Horizons is a spacecraft about the size of a piano that is flying to the outer edge of the solar system. The spacecraft will take nine years to reach Pluto. In 2015, New Horizons will spend more than five months studying Pluto and its moons.
New Horizons has cameras that will take pictures of Pluto. It also has scientific instruments that will gather information about Pluto. These pictures and data will help scientists know more about what Pluto is like. After it has finished studying Pluto and its moons, New Horizons will study objects deeper in the Kuiper Belt.
Why Is NASA Exploring Pluto?
Exploring planets is a historic endeavor and a major focus of NASA. Spacecraft have visited all eight planets in the solar system. Studying Kuiper Belt objects like Pluto may help scientists learn more about how planets form.
More About Pluto:
New Horizons for Students →
New Horizon Fun Facts →
Hello From Pluto Mac Os 8
Pluto Pals →Hail King of the Ice Dwarfs! →
Pluto: The Ice Dwarf → Pluto and the Changing Landscape →