Comment by adastra22
4 years ago
This is one instance where that approach probably pays dividends, if they can pull it off. Most macOS-like clones that I've tried fall short, due to there being only so much you can do to paper-over the Linux desktop experience. A sort of uncanny valley that I just can't get over and adjust to using.
To have the full experience they also need to clone the Objective-C and Swift frameworks, and IDE tooling.
The GNUStep project has already done much of the ObjC framework cloning. I wonder if they're using that. Not sure about Swift frameworks, though.
They mention in the faq that they do not use GNUStep's implementation of the frameworks, but they do use GNUStep's implementation of the libobjc2 runtime. There's licensing and goal issues. Apparently their Cocoa implementation comes from "the same source" as Darling's, but I don't know what that means. (Cross referencing with Darling's faq, I guess it's The Cocotron.)
GNUStep is GPL though, and one of the stated goals of ravynOS is to be BSD and MIT licensed. On the FAQ page they address this, even saying they might be willing to use it despite the licensing.
If what you understand by macOS is how Panther used to be.
2 replies →
It's hundreds of person-years of work so no, they can't pull it off.
See also Linux, and Firefox, neither of which got pulled off.
Snark aside, sure, it starts small. But it's so much easier to pitch in if there's some code base to work with. It snowballs.