SkyOS: A Sticky Development
Am I the only one amazed at the progress being made on SkyOS? Kelly writes in to tell us that SkyOS has just gotten sticky note support (screenshot). Read on for more.
SkyOS Archive
SkyOS Gets an ISS
ISS (Integrated sound system) has been implemented into SkyOS. The ISS is a very well integrated sound system which makes it very easy to access the audio multimedia services of SkyOS, though providing a very powerful interface.
SkyOS Beta Giveaway, New Screenshots
Head over to the SkyOS website to see the latest screen captures of the WindUI interface, as well as to sign up for your chance to win a copy of an upcoming internal beta release of SkyOS 5.0. All you need to do is fill out a short questionnaire. In other news, a large bug in the SkyFS has been fixed, and a few new features such as customizable viewer backgrounds and a new "flag" option to call attention to important files have been added.
Two New SkyOS 5-beta4 Videos
Two new videos showing some of the new features and programs on SkyOS are now availiable on SkyOSnet. The new beta4 video shows off the crystal icons, OpenGL, SkyKruzer, the fileselector, popup dialogs, and the terminal. Keep in mind its a beta, and it was recorded in Vitual PC, so the speed does not accurately reflect the real running speed.
SkyOS 5.0 beta4 Release and SkyDeveloperStudio
SkyDeveloperStudio is available. This IDE makes it possible to create C, C++, Perl and Java projects with syntax highlighting, intergrated source level debugger and an intergrated profiler. Also, SkyOS 5.0 beta4 will be released today to the beta testing team including: SkyDeveloperStudio, GTK, Abiword, and The Gimp. On other hobby OS news, the AROS team gets nVidia support.
SkyOS Members Interviewed
Here is an interview with Robert and Kelly from SkyOS posted on SkyOSnet.
AbiWord and GIMP Ports for SkyOS Finalizing
AbiWord 2.0.2 and GIMP 2.0-pre3 are available for SkyOS. SkyOS 5.0-beta4 will include AbiWord and GIMP as GTK ports as well as a few other GTK applications like a Calender, Notepad etc. In other news, a new binary PE handler (faster program loading/linking) has been implemented as well as SkyGI performance improvements.
SkyOS meets GTK
GTK (The GIMP Toolkit) has been ported to SkyOS. With this GTK port, major GTK applications like GIMP, Abiword, and Gaim can now be ported to SkyOS. A number of additional libraries were ported as well to make the GTK port possible. These libraries will be available in source and binary form when SkyOS 5.0 is publicly available (internally, SkyOS 5.0-beta4 will be the first beta to include this).
SkyOS Gets Window Grouping, More Languages
The SkyOS Team has added window grouping to SkyOS. This decision came as a response to applications cluttering the taskbar. Similar applications will now only appear once on the taskbar, and a drop-down menu is used to access the individual instances of the applications. A screenshot of window grouping can be found at the SkyOS Website. Additionally, 10 languages are now available for most parts of SkyOS. If you are interested in translating SkyOS to a language, visit the SkyOS forums.
SkyOS Gets Localization Support
SkyOS is now able to handle and display text from all languages. Because of the recently introduced keyboard/UNICODE mapping and UTF8 handling in the entire GUI and applications you can type and view text from languages like English, German, Chinese and more. Check the news & shots here.
Interview with the SkyOS Developers
The developers of the SkyOS project sat down with TechIMO to answer a few questions about the promising alternative operating system.
OpenBFS Becomes SkyFS for SkyOS
Robert Szeleney, creator of SkyOS, was lately shopping for a new file system for his hobby OS and finally adopted the OpenBFS file system. OpenBFS was initially created for OpenBeOS and it is a re-implementation of Be's BFS. It is 64-bit, attributed and journaled, however it lacks built-in mulit-user, ACL support and other advanced security features. Robert promises changes to the file system (as opposed to a plain port) and so he now renamed his version "SkyFS". Full file system access (read/write/execute) is expected to be ready by the end of this weekend.
SkyOS.org Posts Mpeg Videos
After popular request, the SkyOS folks put up two mpeg videos showing the v5 of the OS.
SkyOS: Review with Shots, Bochs, SDL, and More
TechIMO has published the first preview of the next-generation SkyOS platform. With the new beta program gearing up, this article may provide some insight into what features one can expect when testing SkyOS 5. Many screenshots included. Ever busy with improvements, Robert and the SkyOS team have added the following to SkyOS 5:
SkyOS 5 Beta Testing Cycle is Open
SkyOS announced that they are taking pre-orders for people interested in joining their new beta program for SkyOS 5. This program will allow you to receive a copy of SkyOS 5.0 beta before it is released to the public. The cost to join the beta program is $30, and by joining you will receive these benefits.
SkyOS News: ATI driver, Notification Window, GLib 2.0
Quite a lot of development has been going on at SkyOS. After receiving a test ATI Radeon video card, lead OS coder Robert has created a driver that allows for hardware acceleration. Additionally, the new "Message Notification" system has been completed, and screenshots can be seen at the SkyOS homepage. Finally, Lycander, a member of the software development team, has finished porting GLib 2.0 to SkyOS.
New SkyOS 5.0 GUI Screenshots Released
The first round of screenshots showing off the new GUI for SkyOS 5.0 have been released. The three screenshots show various features of the new GUI, including the new WindUI theme, new Viewer window, and various window effects such as curves, shadows, and transparency. In addition to the new GUI, SkyOS 5.0 will have other additions, such as more support for hardware (e.g. an ATI driver to go alongside the NVidia driver), speed and stability improvements, anti-aliased text, and Bochs support.
New SkyOS pre-5.0 Screenshots
Here are two new screenshots showing the SkyOS 5.0 transparent/freeform-windows and rounded-windows support as well as window shadows.
SkyOS Integrates Preference Panels
All applications which were used to configure settings like graphic, audio, themes, network, devices, keyboard etc. on SkyOS were rewritten as DLLs and are accessible through one application now: the System manager. Check here for two screenshots too.
SkyOS: Don’t Miss the Chance to Innovate
September 16, 2003 marked the dawn of a new era for SkyOS. After the UI design contest poll was closed and the SkyOS design team and lead developer cast their votes, a winner was chosen: a very forward-looking and professional design dubbed Wind UI.