All applications which were used to configure settings like graphic, audio, themes, network, devices, keyboard etc. on SkyOS were rewritten as DLLs and are accessible through one application now: the System manager. Check here for two screenshots too.
SkyOS Integrates Preference Panels
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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i see many article on skyos and i am unsure what exactly it is. the blurb say it use DLL so is it microkernel os like windows nt? what language is it written in, assembly or C or C++? skyos looks very windows like, are they going to try for windows compatibility? or do they use their own program binary format like linux?
Now, if they could just do this in Linux, that would be even cooler
SkyOS is a desktop operating system. The kernel is a monolithic architecture but can be exteneded by .PE DLL’s. Large parts of the kernel are extendable by this DLLs. E.g. Scheduler classes, device drivers, emulation layers, binary formats, filesystems, memory manager classes, opengl extensions, etc.
The system is written in C and a few lines of ASM.
Windows compatibility is not on the todo list and there are currently no plans for it.
SkyOS supports following binary formats:
PE-I386, ELF, COFF, AOUT. (PE is the primary format because SkyOS is able to parse .PE resource files embedded in each applications).
I’ll try to answer the questions as far as I know …
“the blurb say it use DLL so is it microkernel os like windows nt?”
AFAIK, Windows NT isn’t really a microkernel (as QNX may be, for exemple). It’s more of a shade between monolithic and microkernel, and I believe SkyOS stand in the same way. An hybrid if you will.
“what language is it written in, assembly or C or C++?”
As for most OS, it’s mostly C, with some critical part of Assembly.
“skyos looks very windows like, are they going to try for windows compatibility? ”
Definitely no Windows binary compatibility. But Windows being a very influencial OS, I bet it’s one of their major inspiration.
“or do they use their own program binary format like linux?”
On that I’m not sure. But IIRC, they switched to ELF binary format, which is the one also used by Linux. But that’s doesn’t means it’s compatible with Linux.
(Please someone with a better technical understanding of SkyOS to correct me if I’m wrong.)
Hehe oups, *the* Robert answer few seconds before me … ignore my post, I’m pretty sure he knows better than me 🙂
Well, it seem that this OS is just a copy of Windows… I mean, why do they copy everything in Windows, including the use of dll? If you want to make a new OS, why not make it original?
Well, it seem that this OS is just a copy of Windows… I mean, why do they copy everything in Windows, including the use of dll? If you want to make a new OS, why not make it original?
Curious, did you even bother to read the response from SkyOS’s author in this thread about it “copying Windows”?
Looks good.
Does the “rounded corners” option refers to general transparency capability of the rectangular, window-frame pixmaps, or does it just enable the top two rounded window corners, as shown in the screenshot?
can we have fog cloud corners and edges?
is NVidia’s hardware accelerated driver based on the NVidia’s driver or the xfree86 driver?
Robert,
the last time I tried SkyOS the graphic manager was unable to tell me in what actual resolution my monitor was running.
Even if I changed the resolution, there was no message or any hint what the actual resolution color depht was.
Maybe it’s a good idea to add a static control for this info.
Yes, that’s right.
Will implement this tomorrow. Thanks.
I visit SkyOS’s web site regularly and I must admit, I am trully impressed. I’ve tried this OS my self and looks very promising. I am looking forward to SkyOS 5.0 and the new Wind UI style (even though I voted for the ones that looked more like Windows)
Robert– You can’t tell me that you are alone anymore, there must be like a million, like, I dunno, hobbits or something, maybe little green men helping you, you can’t do this alone!
This looks great though, can’t wait for 5.0! (But I’ve said that a few times before…)
Robert, I think Thom sums it up pretty good. I think it is absolutely amazing that you have progressed this far programming an operating system by yourself. I could only wish I was half as good of a programmer as you are, but I guess I have something to strive for hehehe. But anyways, keep up the good work, and I can’t wait till version 5.0 comes out. Keep up the good work!
By the way, I just wanted to let you programmers know that we are still looking for people to work on our software team writing drivers, porting apps, and making new apps, so if that is something you are interested in helping with, and you have experience programming, feel free to send me an e-mail with any questions.
[email protected]
I didn’t try SkyOS yet, bet i’ve seen a lot of screenshots. The fonts look really ugly. How about using Anti Aliased fonts?
Windows NT 3.5 was a microkernel (sort of) but it was so damn slow they dumped it for a monolithic kernel. So yes it was a microkernel at one time, but it is not at all now.
We will be adding support for AA fonts (optional to turn on or off, to adjust for performance).