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Operating Systems Software

Syllable Project's Developer Newsletter #1 34

Posted by timothy from the starting-fresh dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The July issue of the Syllable Development Newsletter is available, featuring updates and progress from Syllable, the open source desktop OS, over the past month. Highlights include a new 3DFX driver, major ATerm updates and UI principle discussions. Good progress is being made."
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Syllable Project's Developer Newsletter #1 More

Syllable Project's Developer Newsletter #1

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  • 3dfx driver?! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That would have come in really handy, oh, I don't know, like five freaking years ago!

    ~~~

    • Re:3dfx driver?! (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You'd be surprised. Still if you're a little more modern you can use the Radeon or maybe GeForceFX driver with your hardware instead..Maybe some other card? [sourceforge.net]

    • Re:3dfx driver?! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jarito030507 ( 537910 ) on Sunday August 08, 2004 @04:29PM (#9915003) Homepage
      As Syllable is still under heavy development, most people shouldn't run it on their main machine yet. The 3dfx driver was ported because someone needed it to support some old video card they were using in an extra box. The more drivers the better, why are you complaining?
      • because all of those developers should be developing for linux, helping the domination of the One True OS! Developers spread throughout many projects is inefficient! LONG LIVE THE PENGUIN! DEATH TO CHOICE AND FREEDOM!

        But seriously, he just seems like an ass. And kudos to the syllable team for trudging on. They have a nice little system coming along.
      • ``The more drivers the better, why are you complaining?''

        Probably because they think there are better uses of one's time than writing a driver for a long obsolete piece of hardware.

    • Re:3dfx driver?! (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yeah, but bear in mind that Syllable will probably run well on that five year old box. Recent Windows versions won't, nor will desktop Linux distros (unless you're willing to hack it to pieces and run Fluxbox, SIAG Office, Amaya and other low-feature non-integrated apps.)

  • Stuff for upcoming release (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 08, 2004 @04:26PM (#9914981)

    Here's a few screenshots for stuff I'm working on. Updated Windows-like titlebars:

    http://msa.section.me.uk/syllable/win98-update.gif [section.me.uk]

    Shaped window decorations (should be in 0.5.4, depending on a few technical issues):

    http://msa.section.me.uk/syllable/beish-testing.gi f [section.me.uk]

    Of course, those are just cosmetic and pale in comparison to the BIG developments in 0.5.4. These include integration of the new Dock panel and file browser:

    http://msa.section.me.uk/syllable/desk053.gif [section.me.uk]

    along with an updated CD-ROM driver (should work on more machines) and revamped Terminal app. Plus all the usual fixes, improvements and cleanups. I wrote an article on Syllable explaining how well the OS is progressing and what it offers already:

    http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=7900 [osnews.com]

    BTW, for coders out there, Syllable includes a fully-fledged GNU toolchain along with Emacs, Vim and other goodies. Worth checking out if you fancy coding with a friendly team of developers for an up-and-coming OS.

    • Re:Stuff for upcoming release (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      maybe you could in the next developer newsletter include a list of things help is wanted with? Off hand I can think of PPP, SiS chipset PS2/USB bug, Intel Express video & Matrox Millennium one and Gx50 support, SB16 sound, etc

  • The website says that the OS is "for the home and small office user".

    Why would those users use this OS instead of Windows or Linux?

    Does it feature hardware (ie. driver) or application compatibility with Windows or Linux?

    • Linux is a really, really, poor desktop OS. It just isn't designed to be one. Without serious hacking, involving everyone from Linus and Alan upto Miguel and the KDE developers, Linux will always be poorly designed for the desktop. In over five years of using Linux as my primary system of choice at home, I still find it clunky, rough around the edges, obtuse and anoying. It's only redeeming feature is that it is free, and it annoys me less than Windows.

      I'll be honest with you; our goal is to replace L

      • Ok. You guys have mentioned some of the problems with Linux + Gnome/KDE.

        But you haven't mentioned one of the biggest problems: support for enough applications and hardware.

        How will your OS deal with this? Obviously it is impossible to start from scratch and create your own, so what application platforms will you support? Java, Mono, Wine, Gnome/Mozilla?

        Tom.
        • Well hardware is fairly easy; we just port from Linux or X or BSD.

          Applications are going to be a problem, although I don't know that it's "impossible" to create your own; KDE managed to write and maintain their own web browser and office suite.

          Will we support Java and .Net in the future? Yes, probably. Will we have a port of Gecko/Firefox? Almost certainly. Will we chicken out and add X support so that we can use Linux applications without any modification? Probably not.
    • ``Why would those users use this OS instead of Windows or Linux?''

      Syllable is open source (Windows is not) and Syllable is a desktop OS (Linux is not). Syllable's APIs look like BeOS's (which most people hold in high regard), and in addition it offers a degree of compatibility with POSIX. That's attractive for developers - and with developers come apps, and apps are good for users.

      ``Does it feature hardware (ie. driver) or application compatibility with Windows or Linux?''

      AFAIK, no. And the drivers Sylla
      • The last few times I've tried to install it it either messed up the display (without which it doesn't work), or crased during boot (IDE driver problem). This was using standard VESA and IDE interfaces

        The ATAPI driver was crap, but the latest version will hopefully fix all of the problems we've had with it so far.

        If your display was not working I'd suggest that Syllable was not in fact trying to use VESA at all, and either your card was unsupported or the driver did indeed have a bug which caused you pr
        • Thanks for your reply.

          The video problem I had was, at the time, a known issue. I believe it's fixed now, but have been unable to test it due to problems with the IDE driver.

          I tried LiveCD3 today (under QEMU, as I don't have a working x86 PC at hand), but it fails to mount the root filesystem and eventually bombs, being unable to spawn a boot-shell. I tried following some instructions from the FAQ, but to no avail. I think there is a problem in the interaction between QEMU and Syllable.

          I seem to have hurt
          • I believe there are still issues with the ATA PCI controller emulated by QEMU, so Syllable does not correctly detect the controller. I think the latest CVS versions may fix this, but I don't know.

            As for IDE and VESA..well you're half right. VESA is a simple standard and it really does work perfectly in Syllable. As I said, I suspect you had a video card which Syllable was trying to use one its video drivers for. It probably never had a chance to try to use VESA. So the problems you had are really not
            • Ok, sorry for my short-sightedness on ATA. It's always worked for me, but that was on just 2 systems. I will surely try Syllable 0.5.4; in fact, I am putting together a x86 system just for testing new releases of certain systems, of which Syllable currently the most promising.

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