ravynOS

Finesse of macOS. Freedom of FreeBSD.

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.

ravynOS is an open-source operating system based on FreeBSD, CMU Mach, and Apple open-source code that aims to be compatible with macOS applications and has no hardware restrictions.

Download ravynOS Learn More
This is a developer preview image that’s mainly intended for helping build the system. You will need real hardware to run it. It should work on any hardware supported by FreeBSD-CURRENT (14.0) with at least 2GB (8GB recommended) RAM.
PLEASE NOTE: On 2022-02-14, we decided to abandon the current path of using X11/KDE desktop components and write from scratch a new UI that will align better with our goals. A very early UI on the new WindowServer is starting to take shape as of 2022-07-27. Thanks for your patience as we work to make ravynOS the best possible version.

Project Goals

Features that you’d love.

We intend to bring many of the features you’ve come to love from macOS to ravynOS such as clean design, global menus, and drag-and-drop installs.

  • An illustration of a clean window design

    Clean Design

  • An illustration of a global menu

    Global Menus

  • An illustration of Shift and S keys

    Consistent Shortcuts

  • An illustration of an app ready to be dragged to Applications folder

    Simple Installs

  • Four familiar folders - Application, System, Library, and Users

    Familiar Folders

  • An illustration with some Cocoa Appkit code

    Cocoa APIs

  • An illustration of the macOS’ open command

    Nifty Commands

  • The FreeBSD devil from the bottom

    Superb Stability

Apps

We’ve got your apps covered.

Many FreeBSD ports and apps, Linux apps, and even trivial Darwin & macOS binaries can run on ravynOS. And we’re actively working on improving it!

  • ravynOS, Always

    We're building familiar apps native to ravynOS, packaged as portable .app bundles and built with our core technologies of Cocoa, Qt, and Mach. These are guaranteed to work and fit seamlessly into your desktop.

  • FreeBSD, Mostly

    FreeBSD ports that support Wayland continue to work on ravynOS right out of the box, or with minor changes.

  • Linux, Sometimes

    Many Linux applications that support Wayland are expected to work with FreeBSD’s Linux emulation layer.

  • macOS, Maybe

    Trivial macOS and Darwin applications may run directly on ravynOS. This is an active area of work and research. AppKit-based source code may build and run natively.

Get Involved

Don’t be shy, come talk.

If this sounds like your dream system, please help us make it a reality! We’ve got a Discord, IRC, and Matrix. Chats are bridged. There's also a Telegram group (not currently bridged).

Spotlight

Sometimes we get covered.

This article appeared on Phoronix. XDA recently wrote about us. Bryan Lunduke covered airyxOS and helloSystem on Substack. Console issue #67 featured us along with an interview! LinuxGameCast gave an early version a look in their LWDW episode 287.