MountainWatch - Win, Mac, Linux Mac OS
MountainWatch - Win, Mac, Linux Mac OS
MacOs-Linux, an operating system based on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) that imitates Mac OS X as closely as possible, is now available for download.
- Mountain Watch - Win Mac Linux Mac Os Catalina
- Mountain Watch - Win Mac Linux Mac Os 11
- Mountain Watch - Win Mac Linux Mac Os X
After the downfall of Pear OS, which was the number one Linux distribution that was taking the Mac OS X imitation almost to perfection, no other operating system tried to do the same. It's not all that difficult to imitate some of the features that you can find in Mac OS X, but copying the entire desktop down to the last feature is a lot harder.
There are many Linux users who love the way Mac OS X looks, and the proof of that fact is that Pear OS 8 is still being downloaded by a lot of people months after its demise. Many users assumed that it had something to do with Apple, which didn't look too kindly towards an operating system that was trying too hard to imitates its products.
Now, another developer has put together a distribution that tries to do the same thing: copy the way the interface of Mac OS X looks and acts. To make things even more interesting, the developer is not even hiding that fact behind a fake name. The new Linux distro is called MacOs-Linux, which is a dead giveaway.
I could not found anything really efficient to detect correctly what platform (Windows / Linux / Mac) my C# progrma was running on, especially on Mac which returns Unix and can't hardly be differenciated with Linux platforms! So I made something less theoretical, and more practical, based on specificities of Mac. .NET 5.0 downloads for Linux, macOS, and Windows.NET is a free, cross-platform, open-source developer platform for building many different types of applications. Windows 10 will likely become the most used desktop operating system at some point, but Apple's Mac OS X and Linux have their purposes and places in the enterprise, too.
Granted, there are some weird things about it. For one, the base system used for MacOs-Linux 11.04 is Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), a Linux distribution that was launched back in April 2011 and that reached end of life some time ago. It's no longer used, so the choice is a little bizarre.
It's very likely that the developer had some packages present in that particular version of Ubuntu that he needed in order to make things work, but that remains to be seen.
As you can see from the screenshots, the developer did a really good job with the desktop environment, which is not only a dock with some icons. The same font is being used, and the functionality has been copied as much as possible. The distribution uses a clever app called MacOS Linux Manager for some of the features and a modified file manager from the elementary project.
The system looks to be pretty stable, but the lack of updates from the official repository and the fact that this is just the first release makes it hard to recommend. It's worth testing though and it's actually quite fun.
You can download MacOs-Linux 11.04 right now from Softpedia.
UPDATE:The project has bee terminated by the developer. Read more about it in our report.
All of the Operating Systems covered in this article are based on the Raspbian Buster OS. Do note that this OS is 32-bit, but these options are extremely elegant.
Anyone that has a Raspberry Pi system has most likely installed and used Raspbian. The OS is the ‘default’ OS that comes with the Raspberry Pi if an SD card came with the board. It is the first download on the RaspberryPi.org website’s Download page (here). It is now called 'Raspberry Pi OS' instead of Raspbian.
The three Operating Systems are as follows:
- iRaspbian - MacOS Desktop
- Raspbian X Night Hawk - Windows 10
- Twister OS - MacOS/Win95-XP-10 (switchable)
Let’s look at these in a little more detail.
NOTE: Be aware that these OS images are being removed from the Internet. The Twister OS has a Home Page and hopefully, it remains available for download. If you want these images, you should find and download them as soon as you can.
iRaspbian
The OS has the appearance of MacOS, as shown in Figure 1. Everything from the startup sound to the desktop is straight MacOS. The desktop appears as a Mac system and feels like it. The iRaspbian OS can make it look like your Raspberry Pi is a very tiny Apple system.
FIGURE 1
The desktop has a very smooth feel to it. Everything does appear to be just like a Mac system until you run an application. Say, for instance, you start ‘Finder’ you will see that the apps listed are Linux apps and not Mac apps. This is why I say the Apple portion is only ‘screen deep’.
To use the iRaspbian OS you need to download it first. Here are a few places to find it for direct download:
It is possible to download the image as a Torrent. You can perform a search on your favorite Torrent site or get the Torrent file at:
- https://archive.org/download/raspbianx/iRASPBIAN.xz - the Torrent download contains both iRaspbian and Raspbian X Night Hawk images
The image may take a while to ‘burn’ to the SD Card, but once it is done, you can put it in the Raspberry Pi and boot from it.
Once the OS is loaded, you will be asked to log into the system. The Username has already defaulted to 'pi' and the password is 'raspberry'.
After the desktop is loaded, you need to connect to your WiFi or use a direct connection. Be sure to set your time zone as well as the time and date. If needed, you can adjust your display settings for the monitor.At this point, you are running what appears to be a MacOS system.
Raspbian X Night Hawk
The OS has the appearance of Windows 10 as shown in Figure 2. After the desktop background is changed to another image on the SD Card it looks more like Windows as seen in Figure 3. The desktop appears as a Mac system and feels like it.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3
Just like iRaspbian, the desktop has a very smooth feel to it. The response time is very nice. Everything does appear to be just like a Windows system until you run an application. All of the Microsoft labeled apps are Linux apps.
For the Raspbian X Night Hawk OS, you can find it at:
It is possible to download the image as a Torrent. You can perform a search on your favorite Torrent site or get the Torrent file at:
- https://archive.org/download/raspbianx/iRASPBIAN.xz - the Torrent download contains both iRaspbian and Raspbian X Night Hawk images
The image could some time to ‘burn’. Wait for it to finish and place the SD Card in the Raspberry Pi and boot it.
After the OS is started you will be asked to log into the system. The Username already defaults to 'pi' and the password is 'raspberry'. My logon screen was only about a fourth of the whole screen size. You will need to adjust the monitor size once the system starts.
After the desktop is loaded you need to connect to your WiFi or use a direct connection. Be sure to set your time zone as well as the time and date.
At this point, you are running what appears to be a Windows 10 system.
Twister OS
The Twister OS is a lot easier to find at TwisterOS.com. I downloaded version 1.5 and version 1.6 was just released as I was writing this article.
Click the 'Downloads' link at the top of the screen. Once the 'Downloads' page opens you can select which version you wish to download. I would suggest downloading the newest version.
The ‘TwisterOS’ file is a ZIP file which you need to extract and then use BalenaEtcher to ‘burn’ the ‘xz’ image to an SD Card. Once done, you can insert the SD Card into the RPi 4 and boot it. You will then see a screen similar to Figure 4. The screen is the ‘Twister OS’ Desktop which is set by default.
FIGURE 4
You should see an icon on the screen called ‘ThemeTwister’ If you double click the icon you will be presented with the options as shown in Figure 5.
FIGURE 5
Initially, you need to press ENTER to be able to choose the Theme you want to use. Then, you are presented with the Theme choices:
- RaspbianX FIGURE 6
- Nighthawk - FIGURE 2 (after you change the wallpaper)
- iRaspbian - FIGURE 1
- iRaspbian - Dark - FIGURE 7
- Raspbian95 - FIGURE 8
- Raspbian XP
- Twister OS - FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 8
Mountain Watch - Win Mac Linux Mac Os Catalina
FIGURE 9As with iRaspbian, the screens look identical to the specific OS it is imitating. Intro sounds for iRaspbian and RaspbianXP are the same as the original Operating Systems.
Mountain Watch - Win Mac Linux Mac Os 11
NOTE: Do not confuse Raspbian95 with the Virtual Machine that is included in some of these systems. It is only a visual similarity and the programs you execute are those of Linux and not Windows.
Running these systems over a while may cause some people concern about their Raspberry Pi 4 overheating. If you have concerns then read on.
Checking Temperature
To check the CPU temperature you can run the command 'cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp'. The value that is given you needs to be divided by 1000 to get the proper temperature. The value given is given in Celsius and you may need to convert it to Fahrenheit.
To verify on an RPi4 or another system you can run the command 'cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/type' which should come back with a result of 'x86_pkg_temp'. The type shows that the specified zone is the proper zone. To find the number of zones you can run the command 'ls /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone*' You should see 'zone0' to a higher value. Any of these could be the CPU on another system. The CPU will vary zone by the system.
If you want to check the Graphical Processor Unit (GPU) then use the command ‘vcgencmd measure_temp’. The value is in Celsius.
NOTE: The GPU command is specific to Raspbian.
Values 82 and above, in Celsius, are getting too hot; where values 100 and above are critical.
Conclusion
For some people, these Operating Systems can be a fun way to 'run' an OS that that reminds them of another system, but still be using Linux.
Mountain Watch - Win Mac Linux Mac Os X
If you have a Raspberry Pi 4 and want to try something a little different, then definitely give these a whirl. You may be amazed at how smoothly the system runs.MountainWatch - Win, Mac, Linux Mac OS