OSNews

I am not sure designing and envisioning great things prioritising over getting simple things like working media player apps and such is a good thing

Is this really relevant to anyone but the small number of beta testers (Last interview I read from Robert that was limited to 100, things may have changed).

An article covering the major points of the API might be interesting reading, but even then it's impossible to play with the API when there isn't even a live CD of SkyOS currently available.

That's not a criticism of SkyOS, just me pointing out that perhaps this article belongs on a SkyOS Dev board, not OSNews.

Somehow I already knew about this slightly ealier so it got featured on eXp Zone before OSNews However.

http://www.expert-zone.com/index.php?module=announce&ANN_user_op=vi...

"I am not sure designing and envisioning great things prioritising over getting simple things like working media player apps and such is a good thing"

What do you mean? SkyOS has excellent multimedia performance due to the Intergrated Streaming System (ISS), it has FireFox, GAIM, AbiWord etc. etc. What simple things do you mean??

There are well over 300 now-- last time I checked (few months ago) there were close to 350. I think it's approaching the 400 at the moment.

Other than that, it might actually be stuff like this that draws people towards SkyOS. If this news doesn't belong here, then where do the newsposts about the Apple Seeds belong? They aren't publically available either.

if you mean why aren't the skyos developers (mainly Robert but also Chris) working on creating more apps instead of this framework, note that Humble_Programmer is not involved with the coding of the OS and he is a very experienced programmer who just wants to help others code apps much easier and quicker.

i don't know any C++ but this seems like a great thing to me. very easy to understand as well.

That's, ah, nice and everything, but since nobody can use SkyOS (read somewhere that the "Buy the Beta" phase was closed), that's pretty freaking pre-emptive - nobody can even test the efficiency of the humble framework because they can't use SkyOS.

Weird!

at least 1 person can

The beta is open to anyone who wants to pay... It was closed for a while but now it isn't.

Quote:
----
I am not sure designing and envisioning great things
prioritising over getting simple things like working
media player apps and such is a good thing
----
End Quote:


Yeah, I mean look at how well it worked for Microsoft! Their software is top-notch in terms of stability and security.

Uhh, yeah.

> not a criticism of SkyOS, just me pointing out that
> perhaps this article belongs on a SkyOS Dev board, not
> OSNews.

News. About an OS. What website did you think you were on again?

Slashdot is thattaway, sonny.

What does Pig! do?
Is there a screenshot

I RTFA pretty quickly so I didn't see much. Sorry if it's a dumb question

Why would anyone want to pay to beta test this OS. First of all, it's a hobby OS. You can't really do much with it yet except the basics. If it was free to test, I would consider it. But having to pay is rediculous. I've never even heard of anyone having to pay to be a beta tester...maybe I'm wrong though.

Zeta

Mac OS X

Remember that *a lot* of companies do not give out betas at all, free or not.

"it yet except the basics"

by basics do you mean play media, IM/IRC, Email, Surf the web, do Office work, and most other daily tasks?

if so ur right....

"
by basics do you mean play media, IM/IRC, Email, Surf the web, do Office work, and most other daily tasks?
"

all that in a poor way...

dont tell me abiword is enough for office work

News. About an OS. What website did you think you were on again?

Slashdot is thattaway, sonny.

You know I was going to actually make a decent response to this. Thoughtful arguments, consideration of other people's position, willingness to indulge in debate etc, but why bother?

I mean what's the point?

Any time someone makes a comment that is even vaguely critical of anything around here they get abuse piled on them.

Did you even bother to read the article? Even load up the page? Make any attempt whatsoever to understand the point I was making?

Don't bother replying. Your snide little self-gratifying response gave me all the answers I need.

Anybody know if Nforce2 GeForce4 will be supported in SkyOS 5?

Actually, the SkyOS system we will be selling is composed of an nForce 2 with a GeForce 4. I am currently using it in SkyOS. It works very well.

Here are screenshots of said SkyOS system:
http://www.skyos.org/board/viewtopic.php?t=19052

I still don't get it. As the person before pointed out, paying money to participate in a beta (essentially paying money to help someone else make money) is quite odd in my books. I could understand it if I was already involved heavily with the OS and would find it advantageous (like the Windows nuts who pay for betas). However, I'm not involved with the OS, I know little about the OS, it's still in early stages, documentation and support is limited, etc.

I could easily go onto the net and grab a CVS of the latest linux stuff, see the actual source code of it, and develop software to my heart's content. No paying money to beta test, the OS is already well known and in a well progressed state, it's open-source and I can fiddle as I please, etc.

Basically, I'm asking: If you want to gather up support for your nice little SkyOS, why charge for the unfinished product? I don't go off willy nilly paying money for little-known OSs to see if they provide any advantage to me, let alone closed source ones.

This news does belong on OSNews though, I'd think. The site has lots of utterly useless news related to every other OS, why not some possibly useful news for SkyOS?

Beta testers are not only paying for the betas, they are also paying for the final product. On top of that, they get direct access to the developmental process of SkyOS, and can thusly influence the course of its development. I can't think of the number of times we have added something because one of our beta testers asked for it. Finally, they get to use SkyOS long before the general public.

Do any of you people whining about having to pay for the beta ever consider the fact that you get the release version when its out as well as get to test all the betas for 30 bucks?

"Do any of you people whining about having to pay for the beta ever consider the fact that you get the release version when its out as well as get to test all the betas for 30 bucks?
"

not if the operating system is at this very immature stage. if it was a mainstream OS with a strong community then maybe.

the current approach is a business disaster. for 30 dollars you can get multiple distributions of linux and flavors of freebsd shipped to your home. ubuntu even ships ANY amount of cd's world over for free in ubuntulinux.org for example

windows sells a restricted version of XP for 38 dollars in several places in Asia. around 508 dollars in the average *monthly* income for many people in Asia.

dont be so narrow mindedly focussed on US markets

Uhm ... MS just started selling the stripped down XP in asia ... so stop beating down on the little guys for starting where all the big guys once were. SHEESH.

Keep it up SkyOS!! I've actually got $30 burning in my pocket for a beta copy .... Xmas present to me I thinks.

Cheers

Cool. And BTW, you did a really nice job on that GUI, Kelly, despite what some of the doubters might say.

"What do you mean? SkyOS has excellent multimedia performance due to the Intergrated Streaming System (ISS).."

So then the SkyOS kernel really is similiar to the BeOS kernel, isn't it?

If you don't want to pay for it, simply don't do it.

If you want to pay, be welcome to play around with a nifty os which offers nifty applications.

Whadda ruddyhell is this whining about paying for beta ood for? don't you know how it runs on the market? Lads, wake up. you are grown up and can decide for yourselves if you want or not, but leave that f***ing whining. This leads to nowhere and sounds as if a buncha adolescents bickers round.

Besides, I've cosen to participate in the beta program out of curiosity. Kinda cool thing this is, and well .. no one has told me to. I've simply buildt my own mind on this and then decided.

Thanks.

Actually, the SkyOS system we will be selling is composed of an nForce 2 with a GeForce 4. I am currently using it in SkyOS. It works very well.
I hope the specs will be more up-to-date than the ones mentioned on that page.

Beta testers are not only paying for the betas, they are also paying for the final product.
This is indeed different from other beta-programs.

On top of that, they get direct access to the developmental process of SkyOS, and can thusly influence the course of its development. I can't think of the number of times we have added something because one of our beta testers asked for it.
Yes, and this doesn't happen with any other (free) beta-program? Why do you think beta-programs exist?

Finally, they get to use SkyOS long before the general public.
Yes, and again this doesn't happen with any other (free) beta-program?

So all in all, there is only one reason why one has to pay for this beta-program, the final product, which is a very weak reason IMHO.

I agree in the end it is up to the individual to decide whether to join or not, but why can't there be for instance a free beta-program that doesn't include the final product besides this one? I can't say upfront I will use/want the final SkyOS but access to the beta (besides bug-testing it etc) would definitely give me more insight into whether or not I would want to and if I would want to pay for it.

"Actually, the SkyOS system we will be selling is composed of an nForce 2 with a GeForce 4. I am currently using it in SkyOS. It works very well."

I hope the specs will be more up-to-date than the ones mentioned on that page.

The SkyOS PC isn't made to be the best of the best; it's made to be cheap. The team held a poll on SkyOS.org, asking how much you'd be willing to spend on a SkyOS PC. It turned out to be that most people obviously wanted a cheap computer. So, this PC has been assembled according to the user's wishes.

"On top of that, they get direct access to the developmental process of SkyOS, and can thusly influence the course of its development. I can't think of the number of times we have added something because one of our beta testers asked for it."

Yes, and this doesn't happen with any other (free) beta-program? Why do you think beta-programs exist?

Open beta programs draw thousands of users, with thousands of complaints and wishes-- in The Netherlands we have a saying for that: "You can't see the forest no more due to the trees". SkyOS' beta program makes sure that the amount of testers (+/- 375), and therefore the amount of wishes, is managable.

And if you're concerned that the number is too small to represent the total group of people wanting SkyOS: remember that election polls are already accurate withtin an error margin of 2% when using a sample size of n=1500.

The SkyOS PC isn't made to be the best of the best; it's made to be cheap. The team held a poll on SkyOS.org, asking how much you'd be willing to spend on a SkyOS PC. It turned out to be that most people obviously wanted a cheap computer. So, this PC has been assembled according to the user's wishes.

Also, remember that SkyOS is not Windows. Linux and MacOS run on hardware that would be considered sluggish for Windows XP. SkyOS runs a lot faster on machines with less power. Startup time for SkyOS (past the Bios stuff) is about 10 seconds. Shutdown is about 2 seconds. Response time on this machine is at least as good as my Windows XP machine, which has a lot more horsepower, and SkyOS isn't even close to being fully-opimized yet.

"
Whadda ruddyhell is this whining about paying for beta ood for? don't you know how it runs on the market? Lads, wake up. you are grown up and can decide for yourselves if you want or not, but leave that f***ing whining. This leads to nowhere and sounds as if a buncha adolescents bickers round.
"

Look. we will complain if we dont like it. if you dont want to read all the complaints you can just choose not to read it instead of whining about that.

see how that backfires?

if there was two or three choices for the PC's like the one specified, then a "Power user" version maybe a AMD 2600+ (Barton) with a decent graphics card for around 800 or so, then the "Elite System" with AMD64 compatability... maybe a s754 ...ummm 2800+(you probably wont need to offer many of these, but I would definently buy one) I am happy how far SkyOS has come... and to all the spoiled Linux users who complain about PAYING FOR BETA... so fu*king what! why not actually use the time of your life that you wasted here bitching about $$BETA$$ and go change the world, for better or worse, I care not.

Cool. And BTW, you did a really nice job on that GUI, Kelly, despite what some of the doubters might say.

You're smoking something right?

my god. We *KNOW* that. you don't have to keep spouting it everytime theres an article about an OS thats not your precious linux. Not everyone wants to use linux. get over it already.