Urbit
There is a new kind of Operating System slash running system rooted in privacy and ownership. You own the data to an extent, you own the access and you own your own piece of the universe that is Urbit.
Setting up
So setting up is easy to be honest. You download the binary and you need a key and you are good to go. However getting the key is a bit iffy. You need two things, Metamask plugin for the browser and a way to purchase ETH and DApps. The Metamask plugin is easy, you install it for your browser done.
The ETH (Ethereum crypto currency) is easy to get as well, it is the buying of DApps (Decentralised Apps) that is hard. If you do it like I did. See what I did not know is you can easily link your wallet to Metamask and therefore purchase it with Metamask in the browser. So I will tell you to do just that. Grab an app / wallet on your phone ( I found this to be the most easiest to use) and purchase about 0.15 ETH. Once you have it purchased, I used Edge Wallet to purchase the coins, however you cannot integrate it into Metamask. You can use Trust Wallet to get the Ethereum and then export the wallet using the recovery phrase, the same phrase you enter into Metamask and then you can purchase DApps. Finally you can go to the market place to get an Urbit ID. I got myself an ID and then could go to the bridge to get the private key. Now this requires so called GAS and that means a little bit more ETH.
Keep this private key somewhere sacred and you are ready to go.
First launch
Your first launch will take some time and I am running it currently on my netbook and therefore it has some down time from time to time. Updates happen OTA (Over the Air) most of the time and therefore your running system will be patched in place. Which is something really bleeding edge. Then you can run commands and they are sluggish for most of the time. The whole network is sluggish at the moment, it is something that is being worked upon. There is only one function running the whole OS after all so it is to be expected. I have successfully chatted with my colleague over Ames. Which is the network component of Urbit OS.
Moons
The general idea, which is what attracted me in the first place, is the idea that you buy a planet that can have 2^32 moons. A moon would be a phone, smart tv or even your home automation network. For me this represented a secure and safe entry point to expose my internal network and communicate with everything across a new dimension that made it secure.
This all is very very early alpha access and it has to mature a lot yet it has it's charm. My family has a planet. There are a finite amount of them. If this takes off and is around in the future, it might be a rare commodity. That is partially the reason I bought one, the other is sheer curiosity on what it all is and to immerse myself into a whole new world.
Hoon
The language that runs the system is Hoon. It is a esoteric language at best and I will study it soon and hope to give out some advice here.