Head over to the SkyOS website to see the latest screen captures of the WindUI interface, as well as to sign up for your chance to win a copy of an upcoming internal beta release of SkyOS 5.0. All you need to do is fill out a short questionnaire. In other news, a large bug in the SkyFS has been fixed, and a few new features such as customizable viewer backgrounds and a new “flag” option to call attention to important files have been added.
SkyOS Beta Giveaway, New Screenshots
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Adam Scheinberg
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Someone gets the beta for free, yet I still can’t get it to install on my machine when I paid $30 to join the beta group, and Robert seems to have no idea why my machine regularly locks up while installing the last three betas.
Well, good luck to whoever get the free version. You may need it.
Adam
Please vertically center the window title bar text. It looks smashed to the bottom for no apparent reason!
The titlebars are next on the list to be completely changed.
Beta testers paid $30 to become beta testers. For their money, they get to download every single beta between SkyOS Beta 1 and SkyOS 5.0 Final beta. They get access to the forums to submit problems which we do our best to answer personally. Finally, they will receive a copy of SkyOS 5.0 Final, which will cost $30 anyway.
So for the money they pay/paid, they get as much as someone who will be buying the commercial version, plus a lot more in the meantime.
It’s the same fee the final version of 5.0 will cost, and you get the fianl 5.0 version as well. Pay now, get to check out the 5.0 version early, then also get the finished product as well. Not bad for $30 in my opinion. I already paid and have 5.0 beta running just fine on one of my computers.
Thank God. I’ve read in the SkyOS forums that the SkyOS team simply didn’t like it discussed and just pointed everyone to a previous forum post that said “We’re not doing anything about it now.” SkyOS is really cool, is developed at a breakneck pace, and has lots of potential to break out of hobby status, I believe. But those friggin titlebars are absolutely a deal-breaker in my book.
That may seem lame, but all I can see in the screenshots is the out-of-line text. I’m not using any OS that I find graphically annoying. Good luck with it, and I hope that fix gets into SkyOS 5 final.
Someone gets the beta for free, yet I still can’t get it to install on my machine when I paid $30 to join the beta group, and Robert seems to have no idea why my machine regularly locks up while installing the last three betas.
Well, good luck to whoever get the free version. You may need it.
Adam
The 15 people who win a copy of the beta win only one copy of the beta. They do not get subsequent updates to later betas. They also do not get access to the forums that you have access to. Finally, they do not get a copy of SkyOS 5.0 Final. I’m not really sure what you are upset about here.
We try to fix all the problems we come up against. I know you think that your bug that you have is the only one we should be concerned about right now, but we have many, many, many other things we are also working on behind the scenes. Robert does his best to address every bug that is reported, but sometimes that just can’t happen. I hope you will be understanding to that. SkyOS is still a beta, which means it is not going to work on everybody’s computer. Hopefully 5.0 Final will. So you need to have a bit of patience between here and there.
Re: Adam S.
Yes, we actually have all the mockups done, its just that we added the parts of the GUI that were a priority at the moment, now Robert has some other things to work on. When those are done, it will be back to the GUI, and we’ll add the new things, like new titlebars/windows, new notification window, etc.
Keep checking the forums, because as Alex (one of our GUI designers) did with the taskbar / start menu, he will probably post our mockups there a few weeks before they are implemented to get some feedback.
What is the SkyOS API like? Is it similar to Windows API?
As far as GUI is concerned, GUI designers need to be perfectionists. Both, Yellowtab and the SkyOS team should try to understand this.
SkyOS is to become a 30$ commercial product ?
I thought it was a hobby OS…
Well, then it is going to compete with Gnu/Linux and BSD distros… which are great os and basically free…
and OS X/Windows which are backed by corporations with plenty of money to throw into R&D….
My questions are : How is SkyOs going to compete…and win against those ?
What kind of niche is SkyOs targeted at ?
Does it have that much appeal/many features, that people will just flock to SkyOs and forget everything else ?
I pre-ordered 5.0 Final on cd. Any idea when it’ll be ready?
I just hope they send that OpenBeFS bug to Axel.
Then we could have a battle of the coders.
Robert VS. Axel, who will win?
Hey SkyOS Team..
The New screenshots are looking amazing, but the page is very vague on what the goals the highlights and sorta the background/history of the project is. Also what is the target User ? Business, Home, Corporate.
I loved watching the videos on the site (Booting) and (opengl) which for out-of-towners can be found here (http://www.skyos.org/media.php)
Is it supposed to be a windows / Linux hybrid (sorry for the Windows reference) but the WindUI looks like a Windows – Blackbox hybrid.
Thanks for Listening, and answering these questions.
SkyOS is to become a 30$ commercial product ?
I thought it was a hobby OS…
I don’t see any problem with this. The distinction “hobby OS” and “commercial OS” is really just one of convenience. I mean, Red Hat, SUSE, and Mandrake make a commercial OS, even though there’re mostly GPL. I think the SkyOS team deserves to be compensated for their work, just the same as you have a right to tell them to piss off and not buy it.
The program is nice, I think. Buy the beta – help fund the OS development, essentially – and you’ll get the final version. It’s a reward for your prepayment. I like the approach. If you could buy Longhorn right now and get a few beta build ISOs in the meantime, wouldn’t you? C’mon… most OS News readers would.
Out of pure interest, how large is SkyOS?
with what adam say…
My point is…I would like (out of curiosity) to know
where the SkyOS is going to. What are the ultimate goals of the developping team ?
The are of course many sub-milestones we would like to achieve, but ultimately, our main goal is to create an operating system that serves as an alternative for the average user on the x86 platform.
We find ourselves constantly trying to balance function with simplicity. For example: when I suggested the new “flag” system to Robert, my hope was to just have one toggle, important (red) or not important (blue). When we presented this to the community, many liked it, but many also wanted to make this feature very advanced, toggling it all sorts of ways, with all different kinds of elements. We eventually arrived with what we have now. You can do a bit more than I originally suggested, but I think we avoided the dreaded “feature bloat”.
Its all a delicate balance. Most of the people that are drawn to SkyOS want an alternative to Windows, but for one reason or another are not interested in Linux (too hard to use, not enough structure, whatever, many, many reasons presented to us). So we’re doing our best to satisfy the goal of making an all-around pleasant experience with SkyOS.
That first word should of course be “There”.
I’ve been avtive (and passive as well) in the SkyOS community for a while now– got to “know” some of the regulars there as well.
The problem I find is this: why do so many people act so hostile against Robert & Co? I don’t get it– they are delivering amazing work at an extreme speed, they actually listen to their “customers”… And still people start religious battles about the damn (sorry) GPL, they keep on whining about the lousy 30 bucks, they keep on whining about the fact that Robert decided to keep the door shut when it comes to the source, they keep on whining about the fact that SkyOS is moving away from the hobby sector…
I mean, let’s face it everyone: SkyOS is an amazing project, whether you like it’s features/goals/ideas or not.
Again, just my opinion
____________________________________
–Dutch translator for SkyOS, v5.0–
The amount of work that has been done by such a small group is astounding. The developers are open and fortright. You wont get this level of interactiong from too many OS projects. The $30 was well spent. While I am fustrated by the lack of drivers during the beta period, the rest is stellar.
Robert keeps the source closed….so whats your point? Thats his choice. There is A LOT of work going on and $30 seems almost too little for the amount of stuff the developers do and the speed in which it gets done.
Isn’t this route EXACTLY how Linux has matured through the years? Linux started as a “pet project” of one man. Makes one wonder about its future. R4 is slick…and the screenshots of R5 have me honestly thinking of a new purpose for my old 200 MHz K6. Keep up the great work, Robert!
J
I must say, its looking damn sexy 😀 Kelly, do u know what is going on WRT the C++ APIs? I may start up again, unless its been/being taken care of.
While I am fustrated by the lack of drivers during the beta period, the rest is stellar.
Believe me, we’re working on it.
Kelly, do u know what is going on WRT the C++ APIs? I may start up again, unless its been/being taken care of.
I’m definitely the wrong person to ask about that.
See if you can get ahold of Nathan, or just open-ask on the forums, Robert or Nathan (or one of the team coders) will see it and let you know.
Out of pure interest, how large is SkyOS?
75 Megabytes, zipped, but that is with a lot of extra applications like Abiword, GIMP, etc.
I still can’t figure out from the website what the focus of this OS is and what applications it includes. Still, it’s great-looking and I’m interested. Does anyone know if the final version will also work as a live CD?
The final version will work as a live CD.
Kelly- Thanks. That’s pretty compact by todays standards!
I echo the comments someone made about Linux, SkyOS looks to be one of those hobby OS’s that have staying power. Good luck to you.
Thank you. I hope you’re right (I think you are).
SkyOS looks very cool, and I’d like to try it out … but I have a laptop with a PCMCIA network card. I was wondering if anyone knew when or if PCMCIA will be supported.
I think this is a good project, and he team is doing pretty fast, regarding the huge amount of work to develop an OS. Best of luck,
The Yeti.
aghh… anyone got a mirror? or something. I wanna take a looksie too.
If you’re referring to the screenshots, they are back online again.
Where? Can’t see them..
Suddenly they returned..
Not sure if I liked the horisontal spacers in the SkyOS menu..