[HN Gopher] New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS
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New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS
Author : kasajian
Score : 55 points
Date : 2025-11-20 20:24 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| Klonoar wrote:
| This has been a slow going effort for a few years now, it's not
| "new".
| skynetv2 wrote:
| > A BSD-based OS project that aims to provide source and binary
| compatibility with macOS(r) and a similar user experience.
|
| I am curious - what is the motivation for this project?
|
| Is it to replicate macOS? - If yes, why?
|
| Is it to provide application compatibility on a non-macOS? If
| yes, why a full OS? Why not take the route like Wine or other
| such layers that make compatibility possible? Also, is there such
| a need for running macOS apps on a non-macOS? Who is the target
| audience?
|
| Would the energy be better spent in making Linux more stable or
| usable for the general public?
|
| If its just a hobby, sure, that is well & good.
| MangoToupe wrote:
| I would much rather emulate linux apps on a more stable and
| consistent OS than vice versa. The sheer number of toolkits and
| window managers leaves my head spinning, and unifying their
| behavior even before you can begin to improve it feels like a
| nightmare.
|
| I personally don't care much about the dock or the look and
| feel or whatever; I just want access to the usability of macos
| without having to accept how closed it is.
| astro1138 wrote:
| If it is no longer closed, it might proliferate just like
| Linux once it gathers a critical amount of users. :)
| eikenberry wrote:
| It's hard to get a more consistent and stable kernel than
| Linux, not counting academic or experimental kernels w/o
| extensive hardware support.
| rhet0rica wrote:
| A lot of these questions are answered here:
| https://ravynos.com/faq
|
| To summarize...
|
| There is a WINE-analogous project, called Darling:
| https://www.darlinghq.org/
|
| The goal for ravynOS is to be analogous to ReactOS. Much like
| ReactOS and WINE, ravynOS and Darling share a lot of Cocoa
| code.
|
| For the problem of OpenStep implementations specifically, a
| bespoke software stack has the benefit of being able to put
| Mach messaging into the kernel, where it is much more
| performant.
|
| They chose the FreeBSD kernel over Darwin for the sake of
| hardware compatibility (though of course NeXT Mach is one of
| the most widely-ported kernels of all time...)
|
| There is also overlap with GNUstep, helloSystem, and other
| projects in the broader "open-source Mac/NeXT" space, though
| ravynOS (obviously) prefers BSD/MIT/Apache-style licensing over
| GNU-style licensing. Nevertheless, ravynOS currently uses the
| GNUstep libobjc2 runtime, a bit like how most of the Unix world
| used to depend on gcc.
| 9dev wrote:
| > There is a WINE-analogous project, called Darling:
| https://www.darlinghq.org/
|
| Missed opportunity to call it Cider.
| linguae wrote:
| I'm not affiliated with ravynOS, but I've been periodically
| following the project for a few years.
|
| The main page (https://ravynos.com/) expresses the philosophy
| of ravynOS:
|
| "We love macOS, but we're not a fan of the ever-closing
| hardware and ecosystem. So, we are creating ravynOS -- an OS
| aimed to provide the finesse of macOS with the freedom of
| FreeBSD."
|
| rayvnOS seems to be designed for people who love macOS,
| particularly its interface, its UI guidelines, and its
| ecosystem of applications, but who do not like the direction
| that Apple has moved toward under Tim Cook (soldered RAM,
| limited and inflexible hardware choices, notarization, iOS-
| influenced interface changes, increased pushiness with
| advertising Apple's subscription services, etc.) and who would
| be unhappy with either Windows or the Linux desktop.
|
| Speaking for myself, I used to daily-drive Macs from 2006
| through 2021, but I now daily-drive PCs running Windows due
| primarily to the lack of upgradable RAM in ARM Macs. I'm not a
| big fan of Windows, but I need some proprietary software
| packages such as Microsoft Office. This makes switching to
| desktop Linux difficult.
|
| It would be awesome using what is essentially a community-
| driven clone of macOS, where I could continue using a Mac-like
| operating system without needing to worry about Apple's future
| directions.
|
| On the Unix side of things, I believe the decision to base
| ravynOS on FreeBSD rather than on Linux may make migrating from
| macOS to ravynOS easier, since macOS is based on a hybrid
| Mach/BSD kernel, and since many of the command-line tools that
| ship with macOS are from the BSDs. This is known as Darwin.
| It's not that a Mac clone can't be built on top of Linux, but
| FreeBSD is closer to Darwin than Linux is.
| raw_anon_1111 wrote:
| So somehow running MacOS in 2025 on hot, loud, horrible
| battery life x86 based computers is a good thing?
|
| Not to mention x86 Mac apps are not long for this world. I
| can't think of a single application I would miss moving from
| Macs to Windows. It's more about the hardware and the
| integration with the rest of my Apple devices.
| kombine wrote:
| I have the same sentiment. I am forced to use a MacBook in my
| new job while waiting for them to procure a laptop that I can
| put Linux on. I can say that Linux with KDE Plasma desktop is
| in almost every way superior to Mac OS. Much better UX,
| configurability and core applications. And even little things
| are more polished and thought through compared to what a
| trillion dollar company was able to produce. It's really beyond
| me how people use Apple products, and it's the absolute
| majority of them in my field.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| "Better" is largely subjective. For some (including myself),
| a Windows-like paradigm like KDE uses is not desirable, and
| UI papercuts like the many that KDE has are highly visible.
| andai wrote:
| It would be great if it runs on mac too. macOS doesn't have
| much compatibility with itself.
| opengrass wrote:
| Can it run stock macOS programs like Photos? I want a non-chaotic
| way to import my old fart's iPhone galleries without a Mac Mini
| (HEIC and Lives are annoying), and docker-osx/vm's don't work for
| everyone.
| prmoustache wrote:
| They say source-compatible, not binary-compatible.
|
| GNUstep failed to get traction, I doubt they can do much
| better.
| darkwater wrote:
| It's a totally different path but you could try Immich to do
| that.
| daniel_iversen wrote:
| This is so cool, the little mini screenshots look gorgeous
| because it replicates MacOS. I'm not sure if a lot of people feel
| the same but over the years I always thought it was a shame that
| Linux' overall UX and aesthetics seemed a little bit more rushed
| and "crowd sourced" (in the sense that it felt diverse in terms
| of ui opinions and taste etc). It almost makes me want to try
| Linux again just for that look and feel (because I love my Mac's
| but would like something different and more free)
| linguae wrote:
| I've been paying attention to this project periodically over the
| past few years. It would be nice to have a FOSS clone of macOS,
| similar to how FreeDOS, ReactOS, and Haiku are FOSS clones of MS-
| DOS, Windows, and BeOS, respectively.
|
| The only thing is that this project has been quite slow going,
| which is similar to the histories of FreeDOS, ReactOS, and Haiku,
| where it took a long time for those projects to get to a usable
| state. It is a lot of work cloning an operating system,
| especially with an aim for binary compatibility. The Linux kernel
| benefited from the fact that there was an entire GNU ecosystem of
| tools that can run on Unix, and even in that case, the GNU
| ecosystem was seven years in the making in 1991 when the first
| version of the Linux kernel was released. It would've taken much
| longer for Linux to have been developed had GNU tools not
| existed.
|
| Writing an entire operating system is long, hard work, even when
| provided the resources of companies like Microsoft, Apple, and
| Google. Hopefully projects like ravynOS and the similar
| HelloSystem (https://hellosystem.github.io/docs/) will lead to
| FOSS clones of macOS eventually, even if we need to wait another
| 5-10 years.
| wwweston wrote:
| Sometimes it strikes me that something like this might be one
| of the better litmus tests for AI -- if it's really good enough
| to start 10x-ing engineers (let alone replacing them) it should
| be more common for more projects like this _should_ begin to
| accelerate to practical usability.
|
| If not, maybe the productivity dividends are mostly shallow.
| s3rv3rsi7e wrote:
| test
| Alifatisk wrote:
| The website looks sleek, I get the impression that the ui for the
| os will be the same. But then when I look at the screenshots, it
| look like macOS stuck in 2008.
| wmf wrote:
| The Mac UI only got worse after that.
| andai wrote:
| https://ravynos.com/screenshots.html
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(page generated 2025-11-20 23:00 UTC)