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Syllable - The Little OS with a Big Future?
Vanders writes "Tired of endless Windows security problems? Intrigued by Linux's power but discouraged by its complexity? Tempted by Mac OS but not thrilled with the hardware cost? In an OSNews article, Michael Saunders takes a look at Syllable, the OS that picked up where AtheOS left off over two years ago. Michael takes you through Syllable and shows you what we have been doing these past few years."
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Now *there* was a great OS. Small, lean, easy to use, ran great. I know there's an attempt at an opensource BeOS but it seems to be a long way away. I looked at Syllables website, atleast they have a livecd, I might as well try it, got nothing to lose. Until then i'll still keep my midnight candlelight vigil until BeOS comes back.
Are you kidding me? For those prices you can get a PC with 5x the computing power.
I don't know if Syllable will be the ones to take advantage of it (or if anyone will), but I think that in the next few years there is a real opportunity for somebody to take over the PC operating system market. Microsoft has delayed Longhorn numerous times already, and it looks like the difference between WinXP and Longhorn will be as vast as the difference between Windows 3.11 and Win95. That added to the fact that many Windows users are already unsatisfied enough to be looking for something new.
Apple will not be the ones to usurp windows because their hardware is too expensive for most people. Linux or other BSDs won't be the ones to take over because they're too difficult for most people. Even the most user-friendly distros like Mandrake and Redhat, despite their continuing progress and great efforts, have some problems. Most fundamentally I think it's the fact that despite all of the friendly aspects, it's very difficult for a user of Linux to avoid ever using the command-line. I think the way OSX uses the command-line is much more appropriate -- if you want to use it and learn it, it's there and you can use all of its power, but realistically, no normal user will ever be FORCED to learn how to use it.
If Syllable manages to get some momentum, they might be able to do it. We'll see.
Apple could become a contender if they decided to take the leap towards porting OSX to the PC, or working to make their hardware cheaper. Neither of those look very likely though, but they're certainly possibilities, and things I would love to see happen.
To keep this on topic, the biggest obstacle to any new OS is the number and quality of applications available. It doesn't appear that they're using X, so it won't be easy to port existing applications. But since they're POSIXish, it may be possible to make an Xsyllable port much like the Xdarwin port.
Of course, that would just be bringing the problems of linux onto Syllable. You still wouldn't be able to, for instance, copy and paste non-text objects between different apps. But still, a working system with usable apps now may help generate enthusiasm for the system and bring in developers for native apps.
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I think the editor was pointing out that Syllable runs on any system you want (x86 for example) while you have to run OSX on comparably more expensive PowerPC MAC hardware. THe comment wasn't comparing the interface of the OS's at all.
Portage is better than urpmi because anyone can make an ebuild that works with the tree which requires no though for what the person has on their system. For example, if I want to use the video preview of KDE in a portage system I pass it a flag when I install. If I want to use a rpm based distro I woul dhave to grab the tar balls, grab the xine-dev rpm for my version of linux, futz with the makefiles so everything points in the right direction, then compile.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Define ugly graphics.
There are about 2000 themes for various desktop systems (from Gnome to KDE to WindowMaker) and of those there are probably about 20-30 that are solid enough that I would consider them full default-theme replacements.
Are you refering to all of those, or did you just install some random distribution and declare it "ugly" (by your standards)? Are you refering to the lack of 3D acceleration on the desktop (e.g. what MacOS/X gets from having written their desktop on top of an Open/GL layer)? If so, that's a valid concern, but starting with the work x.org has done and implementing the rest would certainly have been easier than writing from scratch.
Question: Is there any way to use Linux device drivers with this os?
Probably not, and even if this OS were able to take advantage of Linux drivers, I doubt that it could take advantage of the larger subsystems like filesystems, networking stacks, cryptography, etc.
What I'd really like to see is some of these (obviously massively talented) people who go off and do their own thing, actually starting with a working system like BSD or Linux, but building something of their own, not just a distribution.
For example, these folks seem to want a system designed for the end-user with lots of media features... ok, so why wouldn't you start with a Linux kernel that supports just about every graphics and sound board on the planet... then layer on pieces as needed. Perhaps a modified X server would help, perhaps not... use it if you need it. Perhaps the filesystems aren't quite up to what you want, but you can always modify existing code. Maybe gstreamer is a good support library for what you're doing, perhaps not.
Well, you get the idea.
When Linus started off, he wanted something that didn't exist. BSD wasn't actually available for x86 yet, and down-porting it from Suns and VAXen was more work than he could afford. Meanwhile, Minix was too limited to even work as a good starting point. That's no longer the case, and efforts like this one seem to me much like Linus having decided that he wanted to write his little terminal server by first designing his own system bus.
Still, I wish them all the luck in the world. I hope it works out well for them... it's just that I can't help thinking about how much more they could do with a good starting point.
Why do we keep trying to bridge this "gap" between Linux and windows? I mean really there is a gap there for a reason. I do not expect nor do I want every modern home user using the operating system that since its inception has been FGBG (For Geeks By Geeks).
There are other more geek-ish OSes, yes. However, linux is the mainstream one with the most support. There are a few reasons that the gap should stay the huge gap that it currently is.
If it became a mainstream operating system, maybe not even necessarily on the scale of M$ Windows, it would become even more prone to virus, trojan horse and other horrible attacks. I am not saying these things do not happen now. On the contrary there are vulnerabilities exploited all the time. However, most geeks know how to fix the holes pretty quickly and there are not enough linux machines to make a hardcore evil-doer write a virus for it. After all when was the last time you heard a nifty name on the news for a linux worm. I can name at least two dozen Windows worms/viruses.
For home users tech support is already enough of a pain in the butt. Dell and HP/Compaq must get millions of inane questions a day, and most those chimps they have working for them read from a book and probably could barely turn a PC on themselves. So I can see a conversation between tech support involving the install of a program. My mom has a hard enough time double clicking setup.exe.
Backwards compatibility is also a hold-back. I mean who wants to give up their present machine and lose with it all the other games and software which they came to love oh so much. WINE is good for a lot but there are still a lot of games that cannot keep up when in WINE. While there may be a lot of replacement programs available for users that isn't what they always want.
In the end Linux needs to just stay put. It isn't about catching the big evil M$. The fact is they will somehow manage to self-destruct themselves on their own. Leave Linux and any other "geek" OS alone. They should stay with the geeks and some of those lucky server admins.
I think Syllabus will prove to be another "fad", a fake "linux" of sorts that never quite made it. To be honest the OSes we have now are enough. If you want simple to use with a pretty powerful interface hidden away then use OS X. If you want a fairly stable, even if buggy, OS with lots of support and tons of software and ease of use (for the most part) use Windows XP (maybe 2K) all others are CRAP. If you want true power and don't mind the occasional frustration and want to seem cool around your geek buddies then use Linux, [fill in the blank]BSD, or maybe even that proprietary OS Solaris.
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It doesn't even integrate the application menus into the title bar. Another great part of MacOS is the fact it "just works."
Number one thing I HATE about MacOS is the application menu integrated into the title bar. And this is coming from someone who used Amigas and Macs long before Windows or UNIX/Linux. I can't tell you HOW many times on OS 9 I've had to handle support calls where the user is out of memory because they have closed all the windows and don't realize the applications are still open.
Integration to the title bar makes the interface screen-centric rather than window-centric. It means you have to mouse farther every time to get to the file menu. This was fine in the old days of 15 inch monitors and single tasking but for modern windowing systems it's not intuitive at all.
As for your second comment... "just works". Hahahaha Yeah sure it "just works". Sometimes, except when it doesn't - sort of like other operating systems. And yes I support OS X machines and know what I'm talking about.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
You just confused a lot more people. I'll try to help you a bit.
"The OS that was written in pure assmebly was, I think, SkyOS."
Wrong. SkyOS is coded completely from scratch. It was written in the 'C' language (except for small necessary parts, written in ASM). What you are thinking of is MenuetOS.
Syllable's web browser is based off of KHTML, the engine that runs KDE's browser, as well as Apple's Safari. This engine is also used in SkyKruzer, SkyOS's current web browser.
This sounds like the Amiga DEVS: directory, where each driver was a *.device file, IIRC.
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so far my experience with syllable has left a bitter taste in my mouth, not only did it lock up on startup, but left my machine hanging. (power button didnt even respond!)
of course maybe that was only a problem with the machine's hardware, or compatibility with it.. but still, even linux doesnt do that, nor does beOS or bsd or anything else I've tried..
I'd give it several more releases before trying it.