"Originally stemming from MeeGo, birthed under Nokia's watch, Sailfish has since gone its own way and is maturing into a mobile platform getting ready for launch. This week at the Mobile World Congress, we tracked down Jolla and Mosconi again, getting the opportunity in the process to check out a live Sailfish demo. We check out how notifications work, look at the Sailfish take on a status bar, and get to see the media player with all its gesture support." By far the most unique and interesting of the alternative mobile platforms. Very fancy.
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Member since:2006-05-30
1. Can you really SEE an Operating System?
Yes. Because outside of the XWindows world, most desktop managers are unique to the OS (Windows, Mac OS, QNX Neutrino, OS/2 etc.)
Much like languages,when does a dialect stop and a language start? I'd say - listen to the manufacturer. If they call it a "OS", it's an OS, if they call it a "distro", well...
BB10 is nothing to do with LINUX also, it is based on QNX, which was its own OS long before LINUX grew to be popular.
For me, "Desktop environment" is very much an invention of the LINUX desktop. Before LINUX, I remember using SUNOS on Graphical terminals (1990's), but there was never a big deal made about the Desktop it ran. We had "Windows managers" and that was about it really.
Member since:2008-12-26
Member since:2010-06-08
It's a composite distro. It uses Mer (https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Main_Page) and parts of Nemo (https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo) together with Sailfish specific parts. It's fine to call it an operating system and it is a Linux distro in more senses than Android.
Edited 2013-02-28 17:47 UTC
Member since:2011-08-13
The GUI stuff is the only new part of the OS - and that's what's cool. The rest of it is the rock-solid GNU/Linux foundation we know and love. It even uses Xorg! With the right configuration, you could make it start a regular X window manager on the secondary display when the phone detects an HDMI output, and since it's GNU/Linux it will take about ten minutes to port a desktop or terminal application. This is real convergence, not the "let's jam Unity onto a Dalvik-less Cyanogenmod and call it Linux" crap that Ubuntu is doing.
Member since:2011-01-28
tidux,
"you could make it start a regular X window manager on the secondary display when the phone detects an HDMI output, and since it's GNU/Linux it will take about ten minutes to port a desktop or terminal application."
I asked this recently elsewhere but didn't get an answer. Do you know if the hardware that's used in tablets actually supports a secondary HDMI display or if it can only clone the primary display?
Member since:2011-10-17
Porting desktop apps to mobile devices usually involves rewriting the interface for the form factor. Many linux desktop apps are not written in a way where the UI is cleanly separated from the backend. So porting desktop apps to mobile may be more involved than you suggest. Also, most mobile linux distributions do not come with the libraries that are usually bundled on the desktop distributions. Getting those libraries on the mobile OS may be simple or tedious depending on the library.
I do not understand this popular claim that it is simple to port desktop apps to a mobile interface and form factor.
I do not agree with your opinion about the Ubuntu mobile effort but I will not get into that now.
Member since:2010-03-08
I think the answers depend on what you call an operating system. Myself, I accept as an operating system any set of software which offers an interface between raw hardware, end users, and developers.
From this point of view, both the Linux kernel AND Linux distros qualify as OSs in their own right. Because one CAN operate a Linux kernel without any extra software through the standard shell if masochistic enough, whereas distros would be other OSs based on the Linux kernel.
Linux DEs taken separately, however, would not be OSs in their own right, since they require extra runtime support.
Edited 2013-02-28 23:08 UTC
Member since:2006-01-10
Actually you really can't do anything with just the Kernel. Sure you could have busybox, which provides a shell, but you still have GNU libraries, which is why the hardcore people always refer to distributions as GNU/Linux, because you really can't do much with out the libraries/software outside of just the kernel. Granted Android doesn't use the GNU part all that much, which is why Android is just a different Linux based distribution, but very dissimilar to other Linux Distributions.
For the record, I use "Just Linux" with a shell all the time, and it's awesome.
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"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
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The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?You can say what you will about Windows Phone and Windows 8's Metro interface (I refuse to drop that name) - it's inefficient, unpopular, cumbersome, beautiful, ugly, organised, clean, limiting - but there's one thing we can all agree on: it's unique and distinctive. CNet has published a profile of Microsoft's Albert Shum, the man behind Metro, and he highlights what I think is at the very core of Microsoft's problems in mobile right now.
Member since:
2012-01-13
Nice! Two questions though.
1. Can you really SEE an Operating System? I always thought that I can can only see the interface: the Desktop Environment/ Window Manager. On a PC, I can for instance see "hey! this is a KDE, Gnome, XFCE, Unity, ....". But I cannot see what OS is underneith. Is it Gentoo Linux? Ubuntu, Fedora? Or FreeBSD? Why are new Desktop Environments sold to us as new Operating Systems?
2. Should we call Android, Meego, Sailfish, Tizen and BB10 "mobile Linux distributions" ?
So, should Sailfish be called new Operating System or new distro with it's own newdesktop environment...?
Edited 2013-02-28 16:41 UTC