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Hello: Let’s make a FreeBSD for “mere mortals” (medium.com/probonopd)
39 points by codetrotter on Nov 16, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments


Good philosophy!

> Every application comes in its own directory that can easily be “managed” using the file manager, no need for package managers

Didn't catch just how it works, but makes me think of GoboLinux [1]. (Oh, there's a 2020 release of GoboLinux.) Is it not a bad idea to use .app when macOS already does? Perhaps .program would fit. Or could they be compatible so one .app runs on both operating systems?

[1] https://www.gobolinux.org/


Did...did they just invent statically-linked app tarballs?

How about we sandbox every app inside its own Docker container, just to be sure?


You should read the project page before commenting. Nothing in Gobolinux is statically linked, it's just a different place. Check this page for more details: https://gobolinux.org/at_a_glance.html


I've kinda been keeping an eye on Hello since I first heard about it, seeing as I share a lot of opinions on how personal computing should be with probonopd. I wasn't expecting the choice of FreeBSD as a base, though I guess FreeBSD's coherent base system and solid documentation does make it a good fit even if it lacks hardware and application support compared to Linux.


I downloaded and took this for a spin. I haven't been a serious user of FreeBSD since the 4.x and 6.x days. Your "Hello" distro is an absolute pleasure to use, and reminded me why I used to exclusively use FreeBSD. I am now thinking about installing it as the main OS on an older laptop that I have spare. Excellent work and best wishes.


Building upon FreeBSD has the advantage that there is the excellent FreeBSD handbook as a single source of authorative information on the OS. Good choice for the project!




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