The new version of Cosmoe includes the following changes: doing a “make doc” in the libcosmoe directory will make html API documentation in the docs directory (you must have doxygen installed). Partially fixed a bug in LayoutView reported by James Dean Palmer, so that Guiprefs runs better. Here is a screenshot of Cosmoe running both locally and remotely, on single, dual, and quad CPU machines.
In related news, Syllable’s web site has been updated to include screenshots of Syllable 0.4.1.
Cosmoe 0.5.6 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
its nice to see these guys get results so fast since their work has started. good work!
Check out the OSnews props in the Syllable screenshot. ( http://syllable.sourceforge.net/screenshots/latest/05.jpg )
I’m not saying this is the project I predicted as being the one to take the crown from X, but Cosmoe a few years down the line may be there. I’ll just keep tweaking and adding to one of my projects; and maybe I’ll share someday…
Why does OSNews post about every new version of Cosmoe? I mean, it may be a cool thing, but I don’t see it being more than a niche product. The vast majority of Linux users are still going to run X11 with KDE or GNOME or the like. If this makes progress and is viable competition with X11, then maybe we should have more news. But every single minor release? That seems a bit ridiculous.
And, Eugenia, please don’t give me the “I can do what I damn well please with my website” talk. I know it’s yours; I’m just wondering why you do it.
A couple of months ago when Cosmoe was announced the impression was given that it was Atheos/BeOS on top of the linux kernel or something. Existing apps could be quickly and simply ported with no trouble they said. Then, contradicting that impression, a bounty was offered for people to code apps for Cosmoe. Then it was revealed that the releases needed to be “compiled” or something under linux, run under an existing linux distribution, etc. I don’t get it. What is the purpose of Cosmoe? Is it just a way to run BeOS and Atheos stuff under linux, or a way to make linux look like BeOS and Atheos, or what???
Because we report on all OSes, as we did for SkyOS yesterday as well. No matter how small they might be, we report on the biggest news of every OS we can, even if in comparison these “big” news are actually small, when compared to news from other OSes. In principle, I am trying to report on the “biggest” news of each OS. So, if you compare the release of Cosmoe 0.5.6, and the release of Gnumeric 1.1.8, you will see that the Gnumeric release will impact more people. However, in comparison to the whole Linux news, the Gnumeric release is minor. I hope you understand what I mean.
BTW, OSNews is NOT a Linux or a Windows or a Mac news site, and it is certainly not an “open source news site”. We report on everything (even movie news sometimes) that it might interest people. There are a lot of people in our readership who are interested in the AtheOS/Syllable/Cosmoe/BeOS/OpenBeOS pentagon (because that is what really is)…
> Is it just a way to run BeOS and Atheos stuff under linux, or a way to make linux look like BeOS and Atheos, or what???
It is all written in their FAQ, if you had bothered to read.
In simple words, Cosmoe is JUST the graphics engine (“windowing system”) of AtheOS, ported on top of the Linux framebuffer. It is an XFree replacement, even if that was not exactly the first target, and it does run inside any Linux distribution when launched from the command line.
The target of Cosmoe is to *modify* the AtheOS API that exists for this graphics engine, and to make it BeOS API-compatible, because AtheOS’ API is similar to BeOS in principle. It is not about “looking” like BeOS, it is more about being compatible in the source code level. BeOS applications will have to be recompiled and in some cases altered a bit (not the whole API has been cloned yet), in order to work under a Linux with the windowing system of Cosmoe loaded.
Agree with Eugenia. At least here I can find information about projects related to OS (especially the small one) that can be refered to. Search engine is good but at least latest news can be found here easily.
But sometime some people are too confined inside the free/opensource/Linux world and think this website just for that purpose.
Are there any other X11 alternatives similar to the Cosmoe project?
“Are there any other X11 alternatives similar to the Cosmoe project?”
Directfb ( http://www.directfb.org ) is probably the best, but i think it’s still incomplete, and i also don’t know how the app porting from x11 to directfb is done… 🙁
Here’s is a screenshot
http://www.directfb.org/screenshots/XDirectFB-MultiApp.png
It is great to be able to come to a site like this and get the latest on all OSes. And, on the other hand, if I had the knowledge and skill to be working on something like Cosmoe or Syllable, it would encourage me greatly to see it getting some attention and help generate interest.
>Are there any other X11 alternatives similar to the Cosmoe project?
The upcoming commercial release of Athene, which will have some basis in Unix, will not be using X11, or even DirectFB. Yet full hardware acceleration will be provided. If all goes well there could be a very big announcement on this sometime in September.
I wonder what it could be? 🙂
how does it affect applications ? How would mozilla or openoffice would deal with it ? I guess some of the code in many apps are built upon X, or am I missing something ?
If a LOT of apps need to be rewritten, it will be *very* difficult for a new windowing system to enter the “market” ?
Is there any hope for a project like Cosmoe (or any other X replacement) to take over X11 ?
X11 really just… is not what I want for every day desktop use (duh)
“Why does OSNews post about every new version of…”
Why? What’s wrong with that?
What’s wrong with posting details/news about every single update that huh? OSNews is doing an excellent job by posting details about each OS, even for the smallest update. Where else will you find details about all OSes at once? You would have to visit their sites all the time. OSNews saves you valuable Internet time and money! I can always rely on OSNews.com.
See, when I first visited OSNews I didn’t know about, AtheOS, SkyOS, FreeDOS and other projects. I learned about these OSes from OSNews. Thanks to OSNews.com, I also learned about Athene, Syllable, Cosmoe and OpenBeOS.
I would have never learned about these OSes without OSNews.com or I would have learned but much later.
I like the way OSNews is ran and is doing an excellent job.
Why do the Archiver use Windows XP icons? That doesn’t seem very legal.
Seth: Are there any other X11 alternatives similar to the Cosmoe project?
Fresco is one of the best X11 replacement out there. It is that simply because it is built for the future, not for the current market.
http://www2.fresco.org/
There is DirectFB, but all it changes from X11 is the way it works with the hardware. It doesn’t solve most of the problems with X11, which would be amplified in the future, For example, the XProtocol in the future would be too bandwidth hogging it wouldn’t be worth it anymore.
There is Athene, but I’m not sure how it runs.
liberte: how does it affect applications ? How would mozilla or openoffice would deal with it ? I guess some of the code in many apps are built upon X, or am I missing something ?
OpenOffice.org and Mozilla are easy examples because they aren’t bogged down by X11. They just implement their APIs no X11. It woould be hard porting apps to a new window system, but not impossible, and certainly not a rewrite. Simply because most X11 apps either use gtk+, QT, motif and tk – all of which could, theorically, be implemented on a non-X11 solution.
dardu: Why do the Archiver use Windows XP icons? That doesn’t seem very legal.
I doubt Microsoft would waste its time suing a project that is so minor. Microsoft knows by suing it, it would actually help to promote it. Microsoft is all but stupid.
Problem.
DirectFB is Linux only at the moment, not I’m sure about its future. Not having the ability to run it on FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, Hurd, etc seriously hurts… I know I won’t be using it.
However, has anyone actually tried it? Although it is still incomplete (they said), from the screenshot it looks very complete to me (WOOHOO transparency!!). So, what is it like?
what are the different fonctions of X11, the window managers (like fluxbox or kde), APIs embedded in apps, the different toolkits (motif, gtk, qt)…
I dont understand quite well how everything is tied up, and I’d like to either read a comprehensive doc (not a technical doc) or have some insight about it. Could you provide us with that ?
Would it be possible to make a windowing system including widgets and window decoration, so it is skinnable ? What should the main requirements of a X11 replacement be ? What are tuhe current drawbacks of X11 (or using X11 + window manager and everything that goes with it) ?
I really would like to learn about the subject, but not from a technival pov. From a user pov, from a desktop pov.
There is Berlin, a derivative from Fresco. See here: http://www.berlin-consortium.org/
And, working more or less like Athene, QubeOS: http://www.qubeos.com/
Apparently there are tons of windowing systems, more or less advanced, like Crystal, MGR.
I’m wondering if it is more realistic to fork the XFree86 code rather than starting something from scratch. Remove or change stuff that’s wrong and add stuff that should be there. Does XFree86 license agreement allows this sort of fork to happen?
Yes, but XFree is 60-80 MBs… it is huge, and it is not just some of its legacy code that creates the problem, but its *architecture*. And you can’t just change a whole architecture easily…
BTW, all this X11 discussion is off topic. As I wrote in the previous message, Cosmoe’s primary goal is to provide the BeOS API on Linux, not to directly undertake X11 – it is A LONG WAY OFF yet to do so, IF it will do so -, while Syllable is a completely seperate OS and has nothing to do with X or Linux.
> Is it just a way to run BeOS and Atheos stuff under linux, or a way to make linux look like BeOS and Atheos, or what???
It is all written in their FAQ, if you had bothered to read.
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Well, if the first and only explanation a newbie gets is a variation on the “RTFM” theme, then clearly Cosmoe is just a variation on the usual Linux theme, i.e. delusions of adequacy coupled with chastisement of those that won’t play along.
Silly penguin, *nix are for kids.
We adults will wait to see what is done by Syllable, Menuet, SkyOS, Qube, etc.
TET: Go to hell!!! I work on Syllable, because I want to and I like to. Yes I think it has potential to become a great os, but that is not why I work on it!!! And I applaud any(any) computer programmer that work on an operating system. And another thing, none of us are morons!!! So let me say this again “Go to hell!!!”
Everyone else: I appologize for replying to this ***hole, but someone needs to put him into place!!!
What wrong with this guy? Did everyone that wrote other OS because they love to keep on give bite to his a*s? I think he is the one who should shut everything up.
To me all those programmer are great in their own way. Doesn’t matter whether their software/OS succesful or just became vapourware.