Submitted by The SkyOS website went offline last week following the expiration of its domain name. SkyOS was a thing way, way back in the day, but fizzled out due to disinterest from its lead (and only) developer. It’s definitively gone now – I used to have virtually every release from 2.x onwards on discs here, but I threw them all out a few years ago. If you’re feeling nostalgic, peruse our SkyOS news archive.
I opened that SkyOS archive..
First: “Szeleney: “SkyOS Is Not Dead”” just before this. Epic.
Second: on the bottom, there’s “Next” button.. WHAT THE HELL? Is this from 2002?
Edited 2013-03-18 13:45 UTC
this is a good news, because even if in fact skyos did die many years ago, some people still could not believe it at all, and some where still hoping that it will come back. To me it’s still a big question, why robert didn’t open up the code, which, i guess, could have been a better idea, than killing it.
Now I can finally removed the SkyOS webside from my favorites, all hope is gone.
The only thing I can think of why he didn’t make it open source instead of let I just die is that he maybe used some GPL code where he wasn’t allowed to and don’t what to get problems because he open sources it so everbody can see.
I never used it, but I appreciated its existence, adding to the OS world’s “biodiversity”.
Monocultures (be it tech, agriculture or what have you) rarely end well, and are definitely less interesting
Most alternative OS seldom move beyond the hobby status and as such are doomed to fail when their developers move on to something else.
The only reason GNU/Linux and BSD have succeeded is because the big boys saw a way to move away from expensive UNIX contracts while keeping an UNIX compatible environment.
Still, this being an alternative OS web site, it is sad to see this happening.
Guess it paid more off developing games for mobile devices…
You could check them out here: http://www.djinnworks.at
But sad thing he didn’t open source it when moving away from developing SkyOS.
Yeah he’s been doing mobile games for a while now.
Open source would be nice. Unlikely, though.
not completely sure about that.
let’s see what happened to WebOS. It was opensourced but it did not get interest from the masses.
maybe to have it and see how it was done does make some sense, but to have it being developed again… I hesitate so.
And the chances of a proprietary OS primarily developed by one person making any serious dent into a market carved up by several massive proprietary players, was always remote.
You would either need to carve out your own very narrow but lucrative niche (i.e. embedded), or open source it and hope you could gather some momentum with contributors. And even this was always going to be difficult, with Free/OSS competitors like GNU/Linux and *BSD.
I’m impressed with what Szeleney managed to achieve, but did anyone ever seriously think this was going to be big?
As I mention in a separate post even Linux and BSD only got funded because many saw in them a way out from the big UNIX vendors.
If they weren’t UNIX clones, I doubt they would have gotten so far.
Many hobby OS explores new concepts and are driven by passionate coders/users. They often get shelved when other interests generate even stronger passions for the developer(s).
Some others are under-pinned by hopes of some commercial success. For a small team, it would not take that many “sales” (e.g. the betas for a fee) every year to provide a decent income – even if complementary to a regular day job.
From many hints (e.g. the AppStore) I have seen on the SkyOS web site, it appears that Robert had hopes of a commercial success one day. As that day did not seem to get nearer, interest faded.
Hopefully, he will let-it-go and open-source it for others to be passionate about it.
Good night sweet prince. From all the “hobby OS” projects of early 2000s with at least the GUI working at that time, the only one still alive and relatively well is Haiku. Well, there is Syllable and ReactOS still kicking, but let’s not go there.
SkyOS could live or at least be available for playing with if the only developer would open the sources. Proprietary software sux ballz.
AROS is still alive and kicking as well.
Come one, please…
http://visopsys.org/
http://monaos.org/
http://www.minix3.org/
…
Kochise
Minix is not an hobby OS.
Is is an active mikro-kernel operating system being developed at Amsterdam university with EU funds.
Indeed and also it is far older than the 2000’s mentioned in the parent comment.
Yup, pity for us people around here does not consider operating systems based on a kernel with no modern capabilities (like memory protection) that runs in less new machines interesting despite the small memory and resource footprint; hope they might change their mind with the same technology wrapped on a more modern kernel like Anubis or Arix might be fnally released…
Why is memory protection always the only argument vocalized against AROS? If that is the only thing that makes it “not modern” or “legacy” would the dropping of 68k software and hardware compatibillity and swapping to a newer kernel spark more than an brief interest by the detractors? I doubt it very much!
The nostaliga bit is a part of the experience, but how would you solve the problem with bringing AROS around to be more modern?
A new kernel with SMP, AMP, and memory protection would indeed be nice. But as most amiga folks know that would break a great many things, is it worth the sacrifice?
[first of all am one of AROS supporters] Well the idea of Anubis or ARIX to have a linux or BSD kernel (or even a brand new one) and a translator for the Exec API calls to use the same system programs tools and architecture sounds like might have both, and to use 68k programs the actual janus UAE sandboxed approach might be enough; however those projects seems not to be developed actively at the moment; hope somebody might start again on it…
Edited 2013-03-19 01:06 UTC
I’m just brainstorming here, but I wonder if Robert would consider a Kickstarter (or similar) project to sponsor releasing the SkyOS source code? I know the project had some pretty adamant fans. If he could make $10-grand-or-so off the project, I don’t know why he’d decline the opportunity to make a little cash and keep his fans happy at the same time.
Then again, maybe it’s not worth the effort.
That’s a really good idea. I paid for the beta and would absolutely chip in some more money to see the project survive in one form or another.
That’s a mentality I don’t understand. You paid and were never given a finished product, so you’d be willing to pay yet more for an unfinished system?
I paid because I love operating systems. The experience was worth every penny. Even knowing how it turned out, I’d do it again. It was such a fun ride while it lasted.
I just wish I still had a copy of the last beta to play with.
Same here, but it was wasted money.
Their pretence to create a proprietary one man OS, which would “compete with Windows” (that is what I used to read back then) was preposterous.
Goodbye SkyOS, you won’t be missed.
The Wayback Machine has archived the SkyOS site a number of times – the last one being January 20th, 2013 although the site it-self had not changed much since January 2006.
One can still take the tour.
It looked interesting/promising and it’s just unfortunate that it forever remained in beta and that its source code was never release for others to refine it.
I still have the beta cds from robert
oh dear, getting old.
Robert’s motives don’t seem so clear for the whole SkyOS project. Doomed to fail if you ask me. Much scepticism from the community. What ever he wanted it really doesn’t matter anymore. Too bad too sad.
So, uh, I guess Robert’s not going to give us all refunds then?
I really don’t understand why the source can’t just be released. It was his project. If nothing is planned for the future with it then what is the problem there?
Mirror site http://www.Skyos.at is still up and running for the nostalgic
had a lot of potential, very sad to see it fall by the way side.