Walking Through SkyOS 5.0 Beta

Hexydes writes "TechIMO has published the first preview of the next-generation SkyOS platform. The article includes a first-look at what users can expect in the next version of SkyOS, a review of how development has progressed from previous versions, and many screenshots." SkyOS is a free operating system for x86 systems; it looks very polished for being "mainly (99.9%) a one man project."

Comments

Ob. Joke

[sohp]

Please tell me that that IP stack on this thing is not called SkyNET.

Re:Ob. Joke

[ooby]

Silly, it doesn't use IP. It runs on a neural network. It's a learning OS.

Re:Ob. Joke

[Samus]

SkyNet won't come around until .NET is ported to SkyOS. Then we all have to worry as the 5 machines that are running this os try to take over the world. Or something like that.

Re:Ob. Joke

[PD]

Informative?

We're not going to make it, are we?

hobby os

[wed128]

With no clear advantage over other free unixes, why is this hobbyOS getting so much attention? i tried a beta disc a few months back, and i didn't see anything special...i mean, a one man OS is impressive, but i can't see anyone actually using it...

Re:hobby os

[da3dAlus]

"With no clear advantage over other free unixes, [like Linux?] why is this hobbyOS getting so much attention? i tried a beta disc a few months back, and i didn't see anything special...i mean, a one man OS is impressive, [see Linus Torvalds] but i can't see anyone actually using it...[like everyone uses linux now?]"

Not trying to blow your argument out of the water, but do you have to immediately assume that there is no use for this because you can't find one? Gee, if nobody else uses my web portal software, why should I bother to develop and release it, too? Maybe I should just give up programming cuz nobody will ever see a use for it. I think it's great that someone can find a hobby, stick with it, and share it with everyone else.

Re:hobby os

[finkployd]

Linux was once the same way. People doing stuff like this (imho) is what pushes the computing world further. There may not be a real good production use for it now, but who knows what will happen in the future. 10 years from now we might be talking about another hobby OS and asking what benefits it would offer over SkyOS? :)

The reason it gets so much attention is that people are now convinced that hobby OSs can actually become more.

Finkployd

Re:hobby os

[visgoth]

but why should it be posted on the /. frontpage?

Sweet merciful crap. What is nerdier than writing your own operating system?! I mean honestly, if Lego can make the frontpage then this guy's work most assuredly should be there too.

Screen shot

[Anonymous Coward]

Screen shot

Re:Has anyone tried running this in VMWARE?

[Sklivvz]

Basically RTFA! The whole test is done with VMWARE... also the screenshots are done using that.

Hardware

[sonoluminescence]

The minimum requirments are a pentium and 32MB of RAM.... And from the load time of the web page I think that web server is running on a that exact hardware.

Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

The server is running slow so here is a mirror. Pasted Anonymously so as to not karma whore:

Many would say "thinking outside the box" is an overused cliche, but the developers with the SkyOS project would be the first to challenge such an assumption. Spearheaded by Robert Szeleney, the group of part-time coders is furiously hacking away at producing an operating system with one of the most intuitive graphical user interfaces ever. Gone are misconceptions about conformance. SkyOS serves as a reminder to GUI developers that the current status quo will only suffice for so long.

About SkyOS

SkyOS started life in 1996 as a small operating system project written from scratch for the x86 architecture. As underground support grew, the project rapidly evolved into a full-fledge, freeware platform. Sure, it certainly is not Linux or Windows, but those with an insatiable appetite for tweaking and bleeding-edge development will probably come to love SkyOS over the upcoming months.

While a wide variety of hardware support still remains minimal, SkyOS does deliver features commonly found with commercial operating systems: 32-bit processing, symmetric multiprocessing, virtual memory, memory protection, multitasking, multithreading, hardware 2D acceleration, TCP/IP networking, PPP support, and much more. Given the small size and part-time nature of the core development staff, SkyOS has came a rather long way in a short amount of time.

The real centerpiece of the project is the graphical user interface. With the bulk of low-level coding already established, the SkyOS team has recently transitioned to developing a high-performance GUI capable of delivering a unique desktop experience. Just as with the OS layer, the GUI includes many impressive features: 32-bit color depth, hardware acceleration (as applicable), a message passing subsystem, and even preliminary OpenGL support.

Sure, I could write volumes about the technical aspects of the SkyOS core, but it seems the development team is already well ahead of us journalists. A thoroughly documented SkyOS manual and SDK are already available, packed full with detailed information. What would an operating system project be without an adjoining documentation project as well?

SkyOS 5.0 Beta Release

Following a few emails with Kelly Rush concerning ATI driver support, I found myself in a position to receive a preview copy of the SkyOS 5.0 Beta release. Never being one to turn down free software, I quickly snapped at the opportunity, plus secured TechIMO an exclusive first look at the operating system. Following several days of testing, SkyOS 5.0 represents a true evolutionary step from the current version 4.x installation.

While I will refer to this release as a beta build, the version I received was more typically aligned with a pre-beta development build. Since initial receipt of the code, the development team has opened up a SkyOS beta program for those interested in testing the operating system during the next few months. A one-time purchase of $30 includes a SkyOS 5.0 disc and technical support via a beta forum. Once finalized, SkyOS 5.0 will be free as with previous releases, but the developers needed to cover expenses for supporting the beta test program, thus the small fee. Only 100 spots were allotted, and those are being filled fast!

Installation

Installing SkyOS seems painless enough, assuming you already have experience with Linux or another Unix-type platform. While several options exist, my installation was successfully completed using a hard drive with two partitions (SkyOS install files and SkyOS install drive) and a simple boot floppy running a preconfigured version of the popular GRUB bootloader. I also installed SkyOS under VMware 3.2.1 with little trouble, though a few minor changes were required within a text configuration file to successfully detect the VMware graphics subsystem.

Once booted, the installation routines look fairly generic. Most options are clearly d

Re:Summary of posts, present and future

[p4ul13]

25% will say "HA! You can't even do math! 30+25+25+25 != 100"

Some might say that, but I'll simply thank you for giving %105 to us, the slashdot community.

Thanks Haggar, you're an example to us all.

Re:It looks like a good project and all...

[Anonymous Coward]

But do we REALLY need another OS? I mean, it's hard enough getting Linux on the desktop, what about something even less known than that? Especially one that seems to be designed specifically to run only on the x86 architecture.

Some people don't have an agenda of "getting [my favourite OS] onto [other peoples'] desktops". Some people create things because they can, just the way other people climb mountains because they can. I feel sorry for the SkyOS people getting attention from slashdot, because it will get undeservedly slagged by large numbers of Linux bigots. OSNews is the right place for info about alternative operating systems because on Slashdot, there are only one or two "acceptable" or "worthwhile" OSes, supported by a political agenda. Would there be a Linux today if, 10 years ago, everyone had said "do we really need another x86 OS"? Some seriously closed minds around these parts. Sorry, but it's true. Not everyone, but a lot.

w000t!

[Anonymous Coward]

DOUBLE SLASHDOTTING!!!

Yes thats correct, we have successfully slashdotted two different sites in the same article! Keep up the good work and let's try for a triple slashdotting!!

Mirrors coming soon!

[Hexydes]

I'm sorry everyone, we didn't know we'd get Slashdotted! We're working on getting some mirrors up for all of you.

QUIT STEALING OUR BANDWIDTH! =D

Re:Mirrors coming soon!

[Hexydes]

Ok, here is one mirror, though I don't know about the bandwidth supply on it, so be careful:

http://skyos.lynx-tech.biz

/. effect

[Karem Lore]

Hey all,

Just a few little question:

If we manage to slashdot all these sites all the time:

how come /. never gets /.'d?
What the hell are /. running over at /. to maintain /.'s high speed at all times allowing /. readers access?
Everyone must come through the /. site so the /. site must be hammered at least as much as other sites...

Karem

Re:Atheos

[Vanders]

Development of AtheOS stalled for various reasons. Syllable was created over a year and a half ago by Henrik, Rick & myself to take the AtheOS codebase and open it up for further development. So while AtheOS itself is dead, the code and its spirit lives on quite nicely in Syllable. Some more developers have joined us (Arno and Kaj, with submissions from other developers such as Micheal Krugger and Hilary Cheng) We've developed the original AtheOS 0.3.7 codebase rapidly and released Syllable 0.5.2 only last week. I'd suggest you take a look at the Changelogs or just try it out to get an idea of how much work we have put into it.

But I think one thing that killed Atheos is the same thing that killed almost any alternative to X: inability to support any modern graphics cards at any resolution higher than VESA. Unfortunatley this information is locked up in X drivers that are so tightly integrated with internal complexities of X that it is impossible to extract and reuse it, despite the open source nature.

Syllable has drivers for the following graphics cards with full 2D acceleration, and the ones marked with an asterisk also support video overlays (Xv in XFree86)

• S3 Virge
• S3 Savage IX/MX
• Trident video (VLB & PCI)
• Matrox Millenium & Gx00 cards
• ATI Mach64*
• SiS 3xx/Xabre*
• nVidia TNT/GeForce*
• nVidia GeForceFX*

In fact the only notable omisions are the ATi Radeon, S3 Trio & Intel Extreme (i810), and I'm confident we'll have some support for those chipsets soon.

Porting drivers from XFree86 is not that difficult and lack of specs is a problem, but not as bad as you might think.