On Syllable 0.4.2 there are new GUI classes, public message ports, kernel fixes, a new POSIX threads library, Daryl’s new preference apps. For a full list of changes, look here, and you can download 0.4.2 here. Installation notes here. Now that Syllable 0.4.2 has fixed a bug which has previously caused Samba to fail, it means that Samba now compiles and runs. A basic precompiled binary can now be downloaded, which you can install and use once you’ve upgraded to 0.4.2.
Syllable 0.4.2 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
Good Work, this is really cool to see how peapole take a “dead” Os and turn it back to life, but I don’t think really that Syllable is going farther than a very narrow community, Beos is the Future OS !
The problem is device drivers, I guess. As always. We really need a Common Driver Interface of some sorts. It’s probably hard to be efficient that way, though. Well, the hardware guys could theoretically provide “CDI” versions and tie special backends for certain operating systems into them. Something like that.
Eugenia, I’d like an article that touches upon this issue. Why not gather some independent OS developers, let them discuss what they’d like to see, whether or not it could become a reality – and then format and publish it? What do you think? 🙂
Maybe something like the Uniform Driver Interface?
http://www.projectudi.org/
http://www.projectudi.org/
You might also want to subscribe to alt.os.development
While the website hasn’t been updated in a while, there was still development (and still are) on the project.
check it out.
I really wish people wouldnt put down hobby OSes, especially here. Its not slashdot, its OS news, its about learning about OSes, not putting them down.
…its OS news, its about learning about OSes, not putting them down.
..And of course also about commenting about them. I’ve never heard this board’s got restricted to only positive comments, yet.
…is that, as far as I’m aware, nobody is actively developing the kernel. At least, I think that’s the case.
There is no lead developer in charge of the kernel itself, but that doesn’t mean no one is working on the kernel. I’ve done various fixes (fcntl()) and additions (Public message ports). Someone is working on fixing virtual memory, Ville has raw sockets working (Integration and testing to be done there), and various other people are doing bits and peices. So the kernel is being developed, and it is improving
Still, I’d like to hear from some developers what they think about the ProjectUDI approach, and so on. I still think an article is a good idea.
There is an alignment bug in Syllable’s driver support for Matrox cards. If anybody knows how to fix it, other Matrox users will be thankful
Syllable really needs PPP/modem, IDE & ATAPI support too
Is there a list of the issues that the Syllable team needs to fix for the kernel/OS? I have seen some comments here about ATAPI, IDE, PPP, sockets, and virtual memory all needing fixing.
Is there anyone on the Syllable team able to reply or point to a complete list of issues for us?
Thanks
There is no one working on the kernel, so dream on about having all those features (until there is somebody working on the kernel).
Yes, drivers are a problem, but its not as big a problem as some seem to think, there is a healthy enough list of hardware supported. It supports all mine, and I never purchased it with Syllable in mind.
As to the comment about no kernel development. This is only partially true, there are people working on fixing VM/raw sockets (DHCP). I just realised I am repeating Vanders’ comment above, read that also.
Hey, Rajan r, quit with the negativity. It’s a small project with only a few developers, but there is some good code being written. I was playing with Henrik’s new image classes earlier today and I am amazed by them, they are fantastic.
We track most of this on the Wiki pages at http://boing.nu/scripts/wiki.pl?topic=Syllable&web=syllable
What’s your stand on OBOS?
Could you consider borrowing code from them, co-operate and set application standards for OSS Desktop OSes or anything like that?
Do you plan to implement something extra-ordinary in Syllable, something that OBOS won’t?
If you aren’t interested in it, don’t read the article. Don’t install it. Save yourself the time it takes to type up the flame.
It looks like it has enourmous potentiual. i wish i had a third machine to try it out on.
I won’t comments on anyone elses project. However, out of all the BeOS clone projects, OBOS appears to be the farthest along.
I’m not asking of you to comment on the OBOS project itself, rather on your stand – from a Syllable perspective – on OBOS.
Why I ask this is since OBOS, to me, seem to be the “leading” OSS desktop OS, while Syllable might be no 2.
Also your goals seems very similar… Maybe a Be API compability layer? (Cosmoe comes into mind here…)
With other words: How are you planning to progress with Syllable? Through code re-use and/or co-operation with other projects, or through only organic growth?
I see you’ve already borrowed some elements from KDE – Konqueror and the crystal icons.
Well, I don’t really stand anywhere on OBOS. OBOS is trying to recreate BeOS from scratch, and Syllable is trying to be Syllable
As far as Syllable and OBOS go, they’re not related.
I wouldn’t personally say that OBOS or Syllable are “leading” anything. I do think that the OBOS guys seem to have underestimated the amount of work they have in front of them. Maybe they havn’t and they’re just really, really, really fast coders. I don’t know. From this side of the fence, Syllable is way ahead of OBOS as a standalone Operating System though.
Our goals may seem similiar on the surface, but Syllable isn’t trying to recreate BeOS. Syllable is a fork of AtheOS, and Kurt (The AtheOS developer) wasn’t trying to copy BeOS, and neither he nor I even used BeOS.(*1) Syllable is trying to create a well designed, usable, complete, GPL’d Operating System that can be used on your home computer. I’m passionate about Syllable because I believe that Linux really isn’t suitable on the desktop and has many design issues that have not been solved, and cannot be solved with the current Linux development model. Syllable will hopefully fill that gap
There is nothing to stop someone from writing a Be API layer over the Syllable API, but I don’t see it as being part of Syllable officially. I dont think there is much of a need for it at this point, and I don’t want Syllable to become bogged down in the details of implementing those API’s.
Syllable is already using massive amounts of code from other projects. GNU provides almost every user space shell tool you can use, the shell is bash, we really completly on the GNU compiler toolchain (GCC, binutils, libtool, make, autoconf, automake etc.), we use the GNU libc (Glibc 2.1.2 at the moment). A lot of NIC and soundcard drivers are ported from Linux, and the video drivers from X (Although the driver models are completly different, but the X drivers provide a good reference code base to work from). As you note, a lot of the current icons come from KDE, although that is really simply because the KDE icons look quite good
Put simply : Good luck to the OBOS guys, but Syllable wont be joining BeUnited any time soon
Got you, thanks
Hope Syllable will offer something uniqe though, and not just become another “to-some-degree-posix-compatible Desktop OS”. A more refreshing design could be welcome.
Anyway, your work is highly appreciated. Might try Syllable out at some point. Good luck!