Using SkyOS is, well, boring. Why? Well, there isn’t much to do as of yet. Since I stopped playing games when I was like two years old, I only use my computers for email, surfing, university, music, playing with operating systems and of course writing articles for OSNews.com. And, to put it bluntly, I cannot do that as of yet with SkyOS. Since networking is disabled, I cannot connect to the internet. Again, in the interview there is more on this, the next beta will (finally!) be the networking beta. I can’t wait for that one, because, from then on, SkyOS will really be viable for me.
Beta 7 is, though, a huge improvement over beta 6. It’s faster, has more functionality, and looks prettier. The multiuser support is great for those of us who share their PC with others (I don’t, actually), and the matching security and rights management system is truly amazing; even someone who perfectly fits in the ‘But-I-thought-that-that-was-my-coffee-cup-holder’-anecdote can understand it.
The real problem with SkyOS is (still?) the lack of basic applications. Even though we're already as far as the 7th beta, there's still no email-client, no IM-client and no up-to-date browser. There is a lot of talk in the community, but (pardon my bluntness) no results. Robert is doing a wonderful job; when he says something will be implemented, it's implemented before you can press the refresh button on your browser. That's real nice, but we cannot expect Robert to do all the work. What SkyOS needs, is more developpers. Since beta 8 will feature a nicer development environment, I'm pretty confident it'll all turn out to be okay after all. Another problem is the lack of drivers. Again, SkyOS needs external support; Robert cannot do all the work himself.
So, what is my overal judgement on SkyOS at this point? Well, system and kernelwise everything seems to be pretty mature, maybe even more mature than you thought. SkyOS is damn stable, the crashes you do encounter are mostly from applications, not from the OS itself.
So, SkyOS' real weakness at this point is its lack of applications and drivers. This is no real shame, as skyOS is a new OS, and most people don't even know about it. So, I think this lack is not really a problem that will be around for too long. When SkyOS gets more exposure, more people will be attracted to it.
On the other hand, we should not forget that SkyOS is still in beta phase, and therefore any predictions on how the final version will be are irrelevant. SkyOS has a very solid base, stable, mature, and comparable to other kernels. What really needs extra attention are the basic applications everyone needs in an OS. Once that's achieved, I see no reason why SkyOS cannot gain a solid userbase. And if not, they still have us: the friendly and fluffy community.
Interview With Robert Szeleney, Lead Developer Of SkyOS
Thom: I’ll start with a question that has been on my mind for a while. What are your favorite operating systems (system-wise and/or GUI-wise), and why?
Robert: My favorite OS? Hmm, well, in general, I'm using Windows all the day at work and at home. I like how it is performing, and what you can do with it. I never really worked with Linux for more than a few hours, so I can't really make a judgment about it either way. Nevertheless, everything I need to do can be done with Windows, so I would say, yes, Windows is my favorite OS. Aside from SkyOS, of course.
GUI-wise, I'm not sure. I've never tried MacOS X, although I have seen many pictures and videos of it. It looks really nice, but as long as haven't tried it, I can't really compare it.
Is SkyOS also inspired by these OS’s, and if yes, to what extent?
I'm sure that a few techniques from Windows made it into SkyOS; as I said above, I'm sitting in front of a Windows machine the entire day. From the BeOS side, I got really excited about their filesystem. As soon as I discovered the OpenBFS, I ported it over to SkyOS, making it the primary SkyOS filesystem.
As far as MacOS X is concerned, you always are inspired by their GUI. I can't think of any benefits from Linux techniques that have made it into SkyOS, but as I said above, I almost have used it very little.
Another thing that popped into my mind (seeing you seem to, well, code like hell): were you ever contacted by a major software company, in the lines of Microsoft, Red Hat, IBM etc.?
Yes, I have been contacted in the past by a few companies, but I'd prefer not to name them.
Naturally. Currently, the much-awaited version 5.0 of SkyOS is in beta-phase. It seems that you decided on disabling certain aspects of the system per beta in order to better focus on the enabled parts. Could you explain this in more detail?
I think that the less system parts there are to test, the more intensive they are tested. Additionally, whenever there are critical bugs, it is much easier to fix them if there are not too many possible error "sources". By disabling the networking, which will be enabled in beta 8, we (myself and the developers in the beta community) can fully concentrate on network stuff.
Furthermore, bug fixing is more efficient when errors are reported for similar system parts. For example, you don't have to fix a driver one hour, the next some GUI issues, then the shell, etc. You can fully concentrate on networking. The same will be done for USB in beta 9.
Recently a new bug-reporting tool has been implemented into the SkyOS website. Is the SkyOS project already picking the fruits of this tool?
Definitely. I think in no beta version prior to beta 7 have there been so many bugfixes. More than 120 bugs have been fixed. Additionally, people make much more detailed bug reports when there is a bug reporting system, and I think that people are simply "more motivated" if they can report bugs in a nice database, instead of just sending an email or making a forum post.
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