September was the busiest month in the Syllable project’s history, and developments are summarized in the latest newsletter. Highlights include the 0.5.4 release, driver updates, and software enhancements. Also, a Flash demo of Syllable in action is now available, illustrating some of the new desktop features.
September Syllable Newsletter; Flash Demo
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I tested Syllable’s 0.5.4 release this week, and I must say I liked it. I had troubles getting it to boot, but in the end, after a new topic on the forums, I got it to run.
I wish the team luck and I’d like to congratulate them with the 0.5.4 release
(PS: I still prefer SkyOS, but that’s just me, as y’all know
.)
to try the latest version out! THat flash demo is nice btw
This project keeps going, at a rapid pace. I must admit I’m quite impressed with new features in 0.5.4.
What would be nice is a cool development environment, btw.
“What would be nice is a cool development environment, btw.”
In the works, and progressing very nicely! Rick Caudill is hacking away on Sourcery, an editor/IDE for Syllable:
http://www.freewebs.com/syldesk/screenshots/sourcery-latest.png
Also, note that Syllable uses much of the GNU toolchain (GCC, Make etc.) for development, so it’s fairly straightforward for most open source hackers to get going.
it would be great if Haiku (OpenBeOS) would report progress like that. In fact compared to Syllable and SkyOS Haiku looks like a second GNU Hurd.
than SkyOS (Not by much.)
I wish both would get people to do their Widgets and UI.
You’re welcome to do it, Ronald. 🙂
(I say that honestly; most of us in the existing Syllable community simply aren’t artistic types.)
Hehehe, I only wish I had developped artistic skills.
Now to get back to coding my C# application.
If I were making an OS, I would ask Stefanka if he would make my assets:
http://stefanka.deviantart.com/activity/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10310941/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10949392/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/4560044/
Or StudioTwentyEight:
http://www.studiotwentyeight.com/index2.htm
This is a Syllable thread, would it kill you to not mention your beloved SkyOS just for once?
C’mon, dude, he’s a SkyOS hippy and he just gave Syllable some serious props. Infact, he *encouraged* those props by making a mention that he was a SkyOS fan. That’s like saying you’re a BeOS whore but you really dig the flavah-flavah of Syllable – its a personal affront to other BeOS users, but its a compliment to Syllable.
Infact, let the baby’s soar!
Or web9design:
http://www.web9design.com
I agree, the widgets and things with slick customisations would be great, maybe an entire theming engine, it would make it a lot more aesthetically pleasing, but I have to agree with the other developers in that the kernel, drivers, and supporting structure should come first.
A lot of effort is being put into new drivers, kernel enhancements, and filesystem code. In fact, suddenly Syllable has SIS900 and NVidia NIC drivers, among others, and they keep rolling in.
In short, pretty is easy, but what good is it if you can only use it with specific hardware?
Jaguar (apple) is very, very pretty, utilises a fully 3D accelerated desktop, and is just simply smooth. However, they don’t have to worry about drivers and hardware support *remotely* as much as an x86 OS
I see many more mentioning SkyOS here. Please also name them in your next post.
@Daniel Nakata
Neat and elegant is the first thing to address to lure new users. People just don’t move to ugly OSes.
Well, people moved to Win3.11 once right? It was pretty ugly compared to some other technically superiour OSs (like AmigaOS).
We’re not trying to lure new users right now, we’re trying to lure new developers. So the “neat and elegant” bit is in the design, not the looks. The looks come later.
@rain
Are you kidding me? AmigaOS (1.3 and 2.0) was pretty fugly compared to Win3.1.
@Vanders
Some of those users might also be developpers. And under-the-hood design doesn’t always win.
To be totally honest if a potential developer is put off by just the look of the UI rather than the actual code itself, thats not likely to be a developer we want to work on Syllable anyway. I don’t think any OSS developer would say to themselves “It’s a cool project but I won’t work on it because it looks bad” If that were the case a lot of Linux applications would have no developers!
Well, I take that back. They are both pretty ugly.
But Win3.1 always felt old and ugly in action compared to WB3, much thanks to the amiga hardware.
Fancy icons and window borders is only half of the visual experience.
Anyhow, my point was that it was the software and not the looks that attracted people to Win3.1
Along with the fact that most people are sheep
“Well, if they can’t make the UI look right, there must be something broken under-the-hood!” — Me, circa 2004ish, believing that no one in their right mind would MAKE an ugly GUI unless it was absolutely no other way.
I’m a developer toooooooo!
UI is much better and more polished now, though.
September was the busiest month in the Syllable project’s history, and developments are summarized in the latest newsletter. Highlights include the 0.5.4 release, driver updates, and software enhancements. Also, a Flash demo of Syllable in action is now available, illustrating some of the new desktop features.
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Anyone ever notice that the Linux and BSD usersbases don’t tend to bother with this kind of garabage?
Maybe that’s because they have enough confidence in what we’re doing that we pretty much don’t need to….
A Flash demo of a rigged screen test intended to make a desktop enviroment look good…..
Give me a break……..
“Anyone ever notice that the Linux and BSD usersbases don’t tend to bother with this kind of garabage?”
Eh? I see stories all the time about new stuff in Linux and the BSDs. In fact, the inspiration for SDN, Kernel Traffic, has been around for years and is extremely popular. Your point?
“Maybe that’s because they have enough confidence in what we’re doing that we pretty much don’t need to….”
Who’s they? Who’s we? And what exactly is it you do for a particular OS or community? It all doesn’t sound cery confident to me.
“A Flash demo of a rigged screen test intended to make a desktop enviroment look good…..”
Uh, in what way is it a “rigged screen test”? The Flash movie was captured using Vnc2Swf — it’s real ‘footage’ of me using the desktop.
Congrats, anyway, for one of the most absurdly meaningless and clueless posts in the history of existence.
M
“Anyone ever notice that the Linux and BSD usersbases don’t tend to bother with this kind of garabage?”
Eh? I see stories all the time about new stuff in Linux and the BSDs. In fact, the inspiration for SDN, Kernel Traffic, has been around for years and is extremely popular. Your point?
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Do Linux sites like Kernel Traffic or their BSD counterparts create useless demos or news stories based on crap like Flash?
No.
Is Linux a desktop OS?
No.
“Do Linux sites like Kernel Traffic or their BSD counterparts create useless demos or news stories based on crap like Flash?”
Uh, yeah! I’ve seen several Flash demos of desktop Linux distros, many of which used the same tool (Vnc2swf). So what on earth is your point?
And I’d like to know why you think these news stories and demos are “useless“, because many people have found them to be informative and interesting, they’re generating a lot of interest in Syllable, and the project is even seeing new developers come on board as a result. So you couldn’t be more wrong.
You sound like you’ve got a massive chip on your shoulder about something, Rick — I dunno what, and I don’t care. Your posts are entirely wrong, and clearly you’ve contributed nothing of value to anything, so just be bitter and miserable on your own
M
I have no idea where Rick’s misplaced hostility stems from, though it seems he may be angry at Flash itself.
Please just ignore him.