“It has been a while since the pre-beta release of Symphony OS, a user-friendly distribution with a rather unusual desktop called Mezzo. Back then, the project attracted quite some attention in the media for fearlessly developing a unique approach to performing general computing tasks. Replying to impatient queries about a new release, the developers finally produced a new downloadable ISO some two weeks ago. Labelled as ‘build 122’, I downloaded the new release to check out the progress the developers have made over the past few months.”
…DECWindows/Motif from back in the late 80’s. Not deriding it, I loved the simplicity and usefulness of said combination.
I also liked minimizing my apps to the desktop. I think that is why, before gnome and kde were as nice as they are today, I used Enlightenment as my window manager.
Anyway, looks great altho’ it does not sound like it is Beta ready, according to the article.
Just from the screen shots, this distro looks like it’s in the right direction. Thank God.
It’s excellent to see somebody doing something different in the Linux world!
Apt-Plus/OneClick sounds like a useful tool as well. Unless you know the name of the program you’d like to install, apt and even Synaptic are cumbersome to use. I imagine the pretty web interface would be very appealing to a new user in comparison
(see http://www.apt-plus.com/)
All-in-all, a promising distribution!
With a piece of software so elegant from the screenshots, it would be a shame if it doesn’t keep moving forward. Shows some real thinking into solving user interface problems.
I saw the demo of SymphonyOS / Mezzo at the Ohio Linux Fest 2005 and was disappointed. They use a hacked copy of firefox stripped down to display the desktop widgets. The widgets are all written in perl.
Great idea, bad implementation.
This must have changed, at least for a part : they say now you can use OS X Widgets, it’s 100 % compatible.
Four programs on 4 corners, Then other programs on desktop and applications minimizing to desktop…
whoa looks pretty bad to me. Usually people get familiar with where to click to start an appication and keep application start menus on one side of the destkop. This one will require so much more mouse movement.
Then everytime i want to launch a program, i will have to minimize my applications, that sucks well.
Same, if i have to re-open a minimize window, i will have to minimize rest of them again. No one place for minimized apps.
Sorry i don’t like this much. Why can’t one Linux distro just COPY the DAMN OSX UI perfectly?
Instead of having 100 sucky UI, it is much better to have one good one.
A linux distro hasn’t copied the OSX UI perfectly for a few reasons. The first likely being patent/copyright issues.
The second being nobody (that we know of) has sat down and done it. Perhaps developers simply don’t see a need.
OSX may be a nice interface. My experience is limited, so I won’t judge it either way. It’s not, however, the end-all be-all of User Interfaces, and as such, there is much room for improvement.
Many people may not like the OSX interface.
I’d guess that UI developers are far more interested in Enlightenment/Symphony/Gnome/KDE or something entirely new. After all, different people have wildly different preferences.
While your statement on 100 sucky ui vs 1 good one, one must remember that different people like different things. Some love Gnome’s standard layout. Others KDE. Still others like having a good old terminal for most tasks. To me, KDE is is my choice. Windows works. Gnome’s great and OSX is innovative. The reason such varied UI’s exist is because, yes, some people actually like them
I agree. Much room for improvement all around. I expect the communities will not let us down in the coming months/years…I’m very excited to see what comes next and I’m glad Symphony has been getting as much press and attention as it has – because it’s different. I couldn’t use it in it’s current stage, but that’s not the point
“OSX may be a nice interface. My experience is limited, so I won’t judge it either way. It’s not, however, the end-all be-all of User Interfaces, and as such, there is much room for improvement. ”
I am using it for 1 year, and I can tell it is made for the user. Simple, lean, fast, and Gnome is the best copy of it.
“Why can’t one Linux distro just COPY the DAMN OSX UI perfectly?”
Just go buy a Mac if you want OS X. There’s a reason that not every desktop environment is the same. People have preferences.
I would buy Mac if i had that kind of money. I like Linux but i hate its UI. I wish there was one decent UI on Linux.
Apple and Microsoft have UI designers and their job is just to create aesthetic UI. I understand Open Source doesn’t have that kind of money but then what stops your from taking “inspiration
” from OS X?
I don’t bash preference but i just want one good UI in linux, after that i don’t care if people make 100 different UI for their personal pleasure.
So my statement stays…It is better to have ONE GOOD UI than 100 sucky UI.
Please name 100 UIs for Linux.
If you can’t make reasonable statements and must keep resorting to exaggerations, how can one take you seriously?
Personally, I really feel that KDE doesn’t suck. I like it better than both OSX and WinXP. To me, it’s a very useable, highly customizeable and quite powerful UI. To each his own, I guess…
So you cant’ afford the Mac OS but you want someone who is working for low to no money to come up with the exact same thing as a company that makes 10 Billion a year in profits and can invest tons of money to hire 50 guys just to work on the UI (Since the rest of the parts of the MAC os they are using for free)
I think Linux does pretty good with what they are working with.
Also I like the MAC os UI but have they ever heard of a real file manager? LOL! Finder sucks.
Always the same idea : mac is too expensive. I bought a 1st generation MacMini upgraded at 512 Mb of ram, and I am using Tiger 10.4.4 without problem.
File manager ? You can have midnight commander using fink or darwinports.
You obviously didn’t read how mezzo works or you would understand that the icons in the corners are not individual programs. You would also realize that you don’t need to minimize windows to re-open an already minimized window. Please actually look into how something works before criticizing it.
“whoa looks pretty bad to me. Usually people get familiar with where to click to start an appication and keep application start menus on one side of the destkop. This one will require so much more mouse movement.”
Thank you for not understanding the project at all. The idea is to be *different*, not to do things the same way as every other desktop interface.
“Instead of having 100 sucky UI, it is much better to have one good one.”
Yeah, it really sucks that people try new and different approaches. Who needs invention and outside-the-box thinking?
Edited 2006-01-31 03:48
The one thing that I have a question about is the “location independent” concept. As an incorrigible packrat I’ll want to download a lot of stuff and store it away for later. Hopefully the copy function in their document manager enables this.
I’m downloading it now…
It is very nice.
Yay for Symphony OS!
Not much point going on about it when I can just link to what I think: http://zirconium.xisystems.net/
And I really have not seen much come out of Microsoft or Apple that justifies their so called research budgets.
And as far as file managers the only one I ever found on any platform that I really like is ROX-Filer – ROX does ROCK.
And I really have not seen much come out of Microsoft or Apple that justifies their so called research budgets.
That’s because the things they come up with are the subtle things people tend not to notice.
Mile high menus for example, one of the key elements of Mezzo, came from Apple research.
Also a lot of research goes into finding optimums. Apple keyboard layout for example, slightly nicer to work with than x86 keyboards.
Well many of my friends ask this when discussing about KDE vs GNOME. Most of us use the default UI of the distribution, I somehow have a liking towards KDE so I use kubuntu. Most of my friends have fluxbox on their gentoo/Arch system. When configured, fluxbox is as functional as KDE and much faster, gentoo documents provide an excellent way to configure it to our requirement. I understand that a good UI is very essential for doing everyday work, but also feel strongly that a UI must do its task and no more. How can just a UI make us decide which distribution to choose, or even worse make us quarrel in almost every second forum. For me, an average programmer, all that is required is OpenOffice, web browser, Kdevelop, konsole ( or any multi-tab xterm), IRC client, IM Client, gphoto, gimp, media players, pdf reader, a good package manager and a stable linux distribution.
I missed the point where the UI comes into picture. UI is just a facilitator for me to get my applications started, well I can start them through konsole also, but I am equally at ease with fluxbox and KDE. I have tried e17 and gnome too, but that was just out of curiosity and feel that I can get my work done with equal ease, irrespective of UI.
It is just the difference between looking at the display for liking it or starting the system and getting straight to the task at hand, I choose the later.
it might not be the best implementation, but i give them props for fully embracing the connected desktop and trying out new concepts. xerox never went very far with its ‘wimp’ UI either, but it inspired an industry.
how can we have a “user interface evolution” when developers just copy other user interface concepts. Innovation is important so we could move forward. I’m seriously interested in SymphonyOs new concepts, am downloading it right now.
btw i also like osx’s user interface, but don’t see myself using it for my work, although expose is really useful
Edited 2006-01-31 07:57
btw i also like osx’s user interface, but don’t see myself using it for my work, although expose is really useful
I can’t even work in user interfaces that do not provide me OR a way to set behaviour as in BeOS (right-click titlebar: send to back, double-click titlebar: minimize) OR Expose.
So yes, I’m pretty much stuck with OSX on my iBook and Zeta on my main x86 (or KDE on Linux). GNOME’s Metacity recetly added doubleclick titlebar = minimze, I filed a report on it [1].
[1] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=300210
i wonder when will microsoft “implement” expose like features, as i usually develop in windows (java stuff) and deploy in solaris
Anyone tracking the KDE Plasma progress. It is set for release in the fall with a beta soon.
Looks pretty killer:
http://plasma.kde.org/