Slashdot Mirror
Syllable 0.5.4 Released
AtheOSParrot writes "Version 0.5.4 of the Syllable operating system has been released. The lightweight, BeOS-alike is aimed squarely at finally realising the dream of bringing an easy-to-use, free software desktop to everyday users. 0.5.4 is a significant milestone in this direction with the integration of the new desktop, which is completely unimpeded by any legacy X-Windows foundations or toolkits beneath. This is no tin-pot bootloader with bitmaps snapped on; other features include SMP, networking, ATA/ATAPI, audio & video, 2D acceleration, GCC, USB & a 64-bit journaled FS with attributes. With desktop Linux still not having dented the 1% mark, will Syllable be the one to do to Windows what Firefox has done to IE? Also reported on OSNews.com, Golem.de and Linuxfr.org."
Linux on the desktop is here. It's happening as we speak and it's fine.
This isn't some "far away dream" to "someday" have Linux work as a desktop OS. It's here now. People all around the world use it as their sole OS on the desktop and get along fine with it.
So the FUD of "Linux isn't "here" yet on the desktop" is just nonsense.
It's here there and everywhere...all you have to do is open your eyes. But I suppose if it doesn't work exactly like Windows then it can't be "here" yet. Then I guess OS/X isn't "here" yet either.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
While on the topic of alternatives for the desktop, what's happening in QNX-land? QNX is a very nice system, POSIX-compliant, based on a microkernel, nice GUI, good scalability, several open-source titles available. I haven't heard any news about it in a while, though. Is anyone working on an open-source clone yet?
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
How about embedded devices? If it has BeOS's multimedia capabilities it should be fantastic for those sorts of applications.
The most common complaint about Syllable I have seen is the one that I also have, it just doesn't boot natively on my hardware. An OS that won't boot on a stock Asus motherboard with a AthlonXP 2400, Radeon9000 and plain ol' IDE drives is not going to make a dent even with Linux users.
:-P
I would love to try my hand at helping to port software over, even if it is nothing more than working on helping to get Python ported over and write native bindings for Syllable. But I don't have the time to hack away at a hobbyist OS that won't even boot on common hardware. If it only works in VMWare, it might as well not work at all for me. Even the hacked new distros of BeOS booted on that hardware for God's sake!
The syllable guys need to spend more of their time working on getting such basic necessities as actually having it bootable on all common hardware before they even think of challenging Windows. Firefox is a bad project to compare Syllable to because Firefox is built on an incredibly mature foundation that is over 5 years and millions of dollars of corporate R&D money in the making. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Mozilla proper actually closing in on 6-7 years old now?
What would really help is if some of the Linux kernel hackers would take a break from Linux and work on the Syllable kernel. OSS does need a plan B for the desktop, and going from Fedora or Mandrake to Debian sadly doesn't count
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
X is flexible, configurable, extendable, and easy to make do what you want.
Giving novice users too much rope makes it easy to hang themselves.
A typical Linux desktop these days is getting pretty crufty. There are a lot of configuartion files (a good number of which are related to X), a plethora of files in a number of locations, and a mish-mash of scripts, loaders, and utilities.
Diverse widget sets are great; diverse font rendering systems are great, diverse printing system is great.
But all those things are not great for general-purpose novice level computing.
You don't want the hoops, don't use it.
The hoops are a feature.
They're designed to make the OS as customizable as possible. This is why it was originally referred to as a "metadistribution" - so customizable that you can even port it to cygwin and OSX.
Less hoops mean less more is done automatically, which means less is customizable.
Put up with the hoops and the users, developers, and documentation are more than willing to help you through them.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!