Guest post by After two months of testing the release candidate, the Syllable project presents Syllable Desktop 0.6.7. The release notes detail many changes and additions, such as the first 3D functionality in Syllable (screenshot – the screenshot shows tearing because the demos are animating at full speed. This is an artifact of the screenshot process, not of the actual display). Other highlights include that REBOL 3 and Boron are now included and that the system is now prepared for the upcoming high-level Red programming language.
Download and installation instructions are here. The official location for extra software is here. Further, almost hundred SDL programs are here.
Further highlights of this release include:
- Improved documentation.
- Improved installation, with support for specific configurations such as the Asus EeePC.
- The system is much more usable with a keyboard. Installation and log-in can now be completed without a mouse.
- Auto-login: you can set a user account to log in automatically without entering a password.
- POSIX interfaces for memory mapped and async I/O implemented in the kernel.
- Improved support for Intel eepro100 network driver and Intellipoint PS/2 mice.
- Improved native applications. The web browser was fixed to remember cookies again. An FTP client was added.
- Improved support for SDL programs. Almost hundred SDL programs that “Bogomips†ported can now be used without extending the system.
- Upgraded multimedia support. Flash videos can now be played./li>
- First 3D support implemented, through porting of Mesa3D and PicoGL.
- QEmu now included for running Virtual Machines, with improved performance due to memory mapped and async I/O.
- SaMBa now included for Windows compatible networking.
- The server part of OpenSSH now works for remote access to Syllable./li>
- SQLite now included and Fossil version control system ported.
- System restructuring to make it more user friendly.
I have an EeePC going spare – i might test it on this. Would be interesting to see it on bare metal rather than the usual emulation route
Operating systems like Syllable and Haiku excite me. I feel as if they’re so close to reaching the tipping point of having “no users because there’s no applications / no applications because there’s no users” problem, but just need a little something to push them over the edge.
Maybe sometime in my life I’ll be using one of them as my primary operatng system. Linux has only been around about 20 years, maybe something like that will happen again.
I’m so glad to see Syllable is still progressing.