OSNews

Like always, we do not want to tie ourselves down to a date of release. We have been having some really great success with our beta testers, so we would like to work with them to make things as flawless as possible. So we can't really give a date, but we certainly are closer to the finish line than we are to the starting line.

Well, at least I tried.Now, do you have ány idea on where SkyOS will be going after v5.0?

It’s still a bit early to be thinking about that. We really hope to have hardware 3D support for nVidia and Ati cards, but this will depend largely on them. We have contacted both companies to attempt to get this support for 5.0, but they were not willing to work with us.

Lots of other things. More drivers, more applications, wireless support... All of these things will become more apparent as time goes on.

The following questions have nothing to do with SkyOS, I just wanted to ask them out of curiosity.

What’s your view on the current state of the OS market? Will we ever see a serious decline in Microsoft’s dominance? Which OS poses the greatest threat to Microsoft?

I think the only way to play in a league like Microsoft plays in is to have a very easy to use, very user friendly desktop operating system, which allows the user to run almost any possible software and gives good support to them by the company behind the operating system. I don't think that currently there is an operating system which has these criteria.

However, no company has ever been able to maintain complete dominance forever, so looking at historical precedence, one should assume that the market will begin to open up more. I don't think anyone really poses a threat to Microsoft. Microsoft will always be around, sort of like IBM. A better question might be 'Which OS do you think can find marketable success on the desktop?' I don't know the answer. Linux? SkyOS? There could easily be a number of successful desktop operating systems. Just because one finds success does not mean others cannot.

We have already seen quite a few builds of Longhorn, Microsoft’s next-generation OS. What do you think, thus far, of Longhorn?

I'm not really following the development of Longhorn in any great detail. From what I have seen and heard, it could bring a few nice features to developers and users. It mostly depends on how well they are integrated. But I think it's too early to give a judgment on this yet.

The only 'problem' (at least for the other operating systems out there) I see is that Microsoft will get yet another head start in the field of developing if their new features are taken up positively by developers.

How do you feel about Apple’s recent 'focus shift' (it might be a small one, but it’s a shift all right) from the Macintosh/Mac OS X to the iPod/iTunes?

Apple has certainly found a lot of success with the iPod. I think that it would be bad business for them not to think seriously about what options are available to them with it.

I don't think we will see Apple move out of the computer business though. There are just too many people that see the Mac almost as a religion. And all the more power to Apple for being able to derive for themselves such a dedicated user base.

Another interesting project I’d like to know your view on: Sun Microsystems’ 'Project Looking Glass.' What do you think of it?

It’s definitely an interesting project. I don't know the usefulness of it in the real world, but kudos to them for trying something new. It’s better to try it and find out it doesn't work than to never try it at all.

Well, this is the end of this interview, of course I would like to thank Robert for answering these questions. This interview/article was just to give you an idea where SkyOS' development stands as of now. Just remember that you can ask any question (especially more technical questions) either on the SkyOS.org forum, or on the SkyOS irc channel (irc.freenode.com, #skyos).

Note: All screenshots were taken by Alex Forester.

About the author:
Thom Holwerda is a regular visitor on OSNews.com and has contributed more than once. His first computer experience dates back to 1991 (a 286 entered the household). Over the years he has played around with several computers, but it wasn't until 2001 that he really started to experiment OS-wise with computers. His favorite operating systems are Windows Server 2003, Mandrake Linux and BeOS. He also has an affinity for the QNX Neutrino RTOS. He is also contributing to the SkyOS project, being responsible for the Dutch translation, moderating the SkyOS.org forum and the eXpert Zone (independent SkyOS forum). He will also be helping OSNews.com when it comes to moderation.