SkyOS Beta 8 was released last week to beta testers, along with a small patch released a day later to fix some issues (updatable by the SkyOS update system). Beta 8 of course includes re-enabled networking, along with a few networking applications (Gaim and Links, with more to follow). Beta 8 also includes an updated ISS with integrated video (allowing for features such as video preview in viewer window), updated GCC to 3.4.0, Blender 3D CGI application and many bugfixes. Up next: USB.
SkyOS Beta 8 Released to Beta Testers
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
It’s almost not fair. All these “releases” and i can’t use it…ho…hum….
Oh yeah, you guys have all this stuff going, and no USB?!?
What? SkyOS does not support USB as of 5.0b8?? Do we have to understand that SkyOS is only for old/older PC?
USB support is there, it was just disabled as part of the beta cycle, like networking. Now networking is back and b9 will see the return of USB.
>What? SkyOS does not support USB as of 5.0b8?? Do we have to
>understand that SkyOS is only for old/older PC?
Give them a break, creating an entire os is not for the faint hearted, nor done in a hurry. Support should be there for the final release anyway though
As much as I encourage developers to make their own OS I would still at least want to try out SkyOS before buying it. I know I’ve mentioned this before but I really want to try out this and I also think it would be good for both developers and users to make a public beta.
Anyway, good luck in the future of developing SkyOS.
You have to buy SkyOS in order to get the Beta…
I’m a Beta tester for Microsoft and they don’t ask me to pay for the software that we test. Best of all, they give it FREE to Beta tester at the end. That’s how I got XP Pro.
The last thing that was in Beta is SP2 for XP. Microsoft gave SP2 CD-ROM to Beta testers.
I KNOW, Microsoft as lots of money to spare, but hey! MS is allways pictured as greedy….
>The last thing that was in Beta is SP2 for XP. Microsoft gave SP2 CD-ROM to Beta testers.
Heck, Microsoft gives SP2 cdroms to _anyone_ for free. Recieved mine last week.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en…
Good job Robert! Better yet Good job to the whole Skyos Team! Keep up the good work. All it needs now is 3D drivers lol.
thats the shiznit i want some more….
Yeah… This is kind of messed up… They want you to pay for the privlage of helping them test and debug their software? Thanks, but no thanks.
“… I also think it would be good for both developers and users to make a public beta.”
Or what about a live cd?
Wow this is great. Every SkyOS post regresses into “omg omg omg omg a beta that’s not free?!!?!11?!!? they want me to pay to test?!?111!?1@” and “there’s gpl code in there, make it all open source.” I am especially partial of the people the whine about it not being open source. I can tell you right now, they couldn’t give a crap if it is _open source_, they just want it to be free. As for me, i love the project, it shows great deal of promise and personally if all you want to do is complain about, just save your time.. no one cares.
Does everything HAVE to be free? Zeta does the same thing… SkyOS is 30$ for all the betas and the final release…. Zeta is like 99$ to start and 10$ a release after that… (maybe download is free but from what i see its 10$ after that)
“Does everything HAVE to be free? Zeta does the same thing… SkyOS is 30$ for all the betas and the final release….”
SkyOS used to be free. People tend not to react favorably when a product that was free becomes commercial.
And besides, why would I want to pay $30 for an OS that has almost no software available for it?
Does everything HAVE to be free? NO… Alpha/Beta = YES! That goes for SkyOS, Zeta and the others….
BETA should be free with a time limitation built-in like MS does for their Beta. It’s easy to do, you get A LOT more people to test your product and in the end, MABE you can give the product for FREE to the best testers. That would be a good idea.
For normal users, this give the chance to try the product before buying it. And if you find bugs, you can report them to the Dev team.
I love to project too, i think they are totally justified in having a paid beta because they put the money to good use. Also Robert has the right to release the code under any license he likes.
I would prefer it was GPL or some open source system, but i don’t fault him for it.
However, i think the time to strike for SkyOS is slipping away. Linux and the Gnome desktop fortified by the Freedesktop movement are marching ahead at full blast.
Coupled with the recent obsolesence of Xfree86 and the rise of Xorg, the speed at which Linux grows as a desktop OS is going to explode.
When Sky 5 was first announced, part of my attraction was the emphasis on an attractive, useable GUI. Gnome is becoming a viable player, and the new Xorg release is giving it some of the modern features we’ve been waiting for. Meanwhile, SkyOS exists for most people as enticing, but intangible screenshots.
I respect their desire to have a robust, complete release, but Sky’s relevance as a real alternative drops every time linux moves ahead, and linux has been moving fast lately.
Mike
That was a great reply, and I do agree. I think linux is moving into the desktop market very fast, and with good reason. I also think that SkyOS still has a possiblilty for a part of the desktop market, i think there’s plenty of room for everyone…
Your comparing a company that has billions upon billions of dollars to pay for development to someone who has a full-time job and works this as a spare time project as of now. The money which im sure goes to development, its not like hes making a lot of money off of it.
To try the product use the live cd which should be out as of the final.
Yeah, there’s always room for hobby projects, but there’s only one number one. Sky could’ve been number one in the “alternative” OS world, possibly even besting OSX thanks to the massive deployment of x86.
If they had released Sky in some form back when the new GUI was implemented the demand would’ve been unfathomable. If the license was open source, the speed at which the OS grew would’ve been unprecedented (robert’s brilliant coding notwithstanding).
Sure, Sky was probably not ready for normal use back then, but i really doubt Sky5 will be the kind of windows-killer the devs seem to be shooting for when it is released. If coders have had the ability to work on it all this time, it would be in better shape then it is now. Not that it isn’t very impressive.
I followed the Sky forums for a long time after the GUI contest, and i understand completely why Robert has made the decisions he has. But unfortunately the choices he has made in my opinion will stifle the excitement surrounding Sky when it finally is released as well as stilfling the growth of the system, even though the speed is remarkable as is.
Linux has long held the inside track as the “glimmering hope” for taking down M$. I think Sky had a chance at taking that title. Now that the linux desktop is getting it’s act together Sky has less of an oppurtunity.
There will always been room for hobby OSes, but Sky could’ve been much more. I’m not sure that it can anymore. If it’s more important to Robert that he retains control of the OS, that’s a respectable choice, but i think that choice forfeits some of the potential of his creation.
“SkyOS used to be free. People tend not to react favorably when a product that was free becomes commercial. ”
People also tend to be complete jackassess. There is nothing wrong with charging for his beta, there is nothing wrong with charging for his finished product, and there is nothing wrong with giving someting away. I don’t have a problem with any decision he makes.
I’ve gotta echo Mike’s sentiments. I was onna’ those people rabid about SkyOS back when the new UI design was complete, but now I’m not so interested because Gnome is coming to the point where its offering most of that.
You can notice this sort’ve effect all around the software industry if you look hard enough; high profile gaming releases like Half-Life 2 aren’t generating as much excitement as they once were, technology wise, because games like Far Cry and Doom 3 have already streaked on by before HL2’s release.
A lot of enthusiam can be attributed to, “Hey, there’s no other like it!” in the sense of technological features like a meta-data based file-system, etc, etc, that people actually /want/. But once a feature becomes a baseline, its no longer generating enthusiasm or interest like it once did, and then you’re left to precariously balance on whatever relevant and unique features your software *DOES* have – which is a shrinking number of things, in SkyOS’ case. ;(
@Software: I am not having a go at you.
Do you realise how hard it is to implement a USB stack.
As an student engineer I tried to add USB capabilities to an embedded device. It was not exactly an easy thing.
USB for a developer: hard/moderately hard (depends on skill and experience).
USB for an end user: just plug in and it works (if the OS has the driver)
But of course as someone already mentioned. Robert of SkyOS is removing components from each release and adding them back later to minimise bugs when testing.
BTW: I am looking for using this OS when finished. Is a IBM T41 laptop supported? :B
The fallacy with your logic is that the end user doesn’t give a shit that its hard. =d
They want something that works: period. “We don’t have it because…” is a good excuse, but the consumer stopped listening to anything after ‘We don’t have it…’ ! ! !
By your logic, if USB worked in the betas, you’d buy it?
No.
The point is, the end-user doesn’t care why its not working or when it will be working – if they need something that works, and they need it /RIGHT NOW/, than “We don’t have it because…” is not an option, unless you’ve got money to burn and time to, uh…. what is it you do with time?
Shit. There goes my anaology.
Well that is the exact reason that SkyOS has not been released yet, because in our current state of development, people would complain about missing things. When SkyOS is ready for the masses, we will release it.
When i see SkyOS, i see a good closed-sourceOS.
Only few guys, making something special, well packaged, pretty…
It will be great if SkyOS use some freesoftware apps, like Epiphany/miniMo/Dillo, a port of microwindows (SkyOS on cheap videocards ;-), etc.
But.. its a good project.
Everybody is a beta tester for Microsoft/Gates – what do you call XP? 🙂
Okey them who think it’s stupid to pay for a beta release or something; build an os from scratch by yourself. And then you will se how much time you got to sacrifice from your friends and your sparetime…This sacrifice is certainly worth getting money for.
I was going to post a rebuttal, but then I reconsidered.
🙂 There is my smily right back to yours.
:b
This sacrifice is certainly worth getting money for.
—
building a proprietary commerical os is no sacrifice. maybe it is good business if you do it well. certainly not a sacrifice
Just I would like to give my support to the SkyOS project.
For me the most important think for this project has to be get fun and try to develope any crazy idea this project can have and the other big OS can not do since they have to follow compability issues, take care of customers……
Long life to any Hobbies OS even if their are GPL, closed code, ugly, beaty, usefull or useless. Just let the people who love computing get fun!!!
I thought the OS was based on a Unix derivative such as Linux with Gnome for the desktop but after reading SkyOS FAQ I’m more confused.
Example:
“Q: Is SkyOS a Linux distribution? Is SkyOS a *nix? Is SkyOS BeOS?
A: No, no, and no. SkyOS is an operating system written from scratch. It isn?t based on any other operating system.”
So if it’s an entirely new OS not based on Unix, Linux, Irix, Windows or OSX then what commercial applications can a consumer run on it?
Well, obviously there isn’t much commercial developer support since THE OS HASN’T BEEN RELEASED YET!
But it’s capable of running many applications built for the Gnome desktop because the GTK was ported to Sky.
I’m not sure what binary support is built into Sky, but i don’t think you can run linux binaries (a.out), i think you have to compile the code to whatever app you want to port with the GCC port for SkyOS.
“So if it’s an entirely new OS not based on Unix, Linux, Irix, Windows or OSX then what commercial applications can a consumer run on it?”
I don’t think there are any commercial applications. Every app for SkyOS is open source. They have to be ported.
SkyOS has been written from scratch, and the project started in 96/97 as a bootloader, but, obviously, it got kinda out of hand
. And your question is kind of.. weird, because what do you mean by “commercial applications”? Commercial applications for Windows cannot run on Linux (Wine doesn’t count), and comm. apps for OS X can’t run on BeOS and so forth. So, logically, one cannot run apps for non-SkyOS operating systems on SkyOS. What did you expect? 
>And your question is kind of.. weird, because what do you
>mean by “commercial applications”? Commercial applications
>for Windows cannot run on Linux (Wine doesn’t count), and
>comm
Your answer is even more weird, what he prob. ment was if there are any companies that are building native applications for SkyOS and sell them for money and offer support on their applications. That is what normally called a “commercial” application. Where was it that he spoke about Windows applications running on Linux and vice vera? I do not read that….
He didn’t ask that.
“So if it’s an entirely new OS not based on Unix, Linux, Irix, Windows or OSX then what commercial applications can a consumer run on it?”
Erm, if you look at this question he clearly states Windows etc.
Thom,
My question regarding commercial application support for SkyOS is valid and not as you called it “weird”. I work mainly in film so I have several commercial applications available to me even being a user of Linux. Currently I run Maya from Alias that is offered on Linux, Windows, OSX, Irix as well as other commercial applications, including some open source applications. I’ve run both highend software and typical consumer software some ported to Linux and others on Wine. The point is I did not have to compile these applications as they are already provided as a binary. SkyOS on the surface looks like a nice OS but the real concern for consumers is that at present application support is severely lacking. Even being in Beta doesn’t excuse the developers from not meeting consumer needs. Sure they can create a new OS but with out real world application support it’s just useless to the majority of consumers they appear to be marketing to.
As for your comment “Commercial applications for Windows cannot run on Linux (Wine doesn’t count)” makes it appear you don’t know what you’re talking about or have no clue as to what Wine (Wine Is Not Emulation) is or what Windows applications are supported on it. I suggest you do a little more research before commenting as such.
I am perfectly aware of what Wine is. Hell, I have used it many, many times myself; I have a copy seperate of Crossover Office here, and I have the one included in Xandros. My experiences: Wine doesn’t bring half the stability that the appliactions have on their native platform (Windows). Besides, running Windows applications through Wine means you’re not running them natively (obviously), so my comment still stands.
As for your initial question: every OS has to start somewhere. It wasn’t until recently that companies are seeing somewhat of a reason to port/create applications to Linux for the desktop market. And Linux has been around since 1991; SkyOS started in +/- ’97. See how many well-known software companies had ported their applications to Linux is 1998.
Things are getting a little warm here. Lets wait until SkyOS has actually been released before we start arguing over commercial app support.
For real. The OS is still in beta stages.
Dark_Knight, you’re making a moron of yourself. How can you make a statement like…
SkyOS on the surface looks like a nice OS but the real concern for consumers is that at present application support is severely lacking. Even being in Beta doesn’t excuse the developers from not meeting consumer needs. Sure they can create a new OS but with out real world application support it’s just useless to the majority of consumers they appear to be marketing to.
For one, the os is still in beta stages. Theres not a wide userbase so no real point at this time for some big app developer to make port thier program(s) to it. And “…but with out real world application support it’s just useless to the majority of consumers they appear to be marketing to.” comment is laughable. The ‘Majority of consumers’ are NOT going to be using this OS while its in beta stages. geez, get a clue.
I paid on Sunday, sent two messages to the team asking about the status of my payment, and have still not receieved either the OS or access to the beta forum a week later. An extremely poor way to conduct business if you ask me.
I can understand developers of software keeping their testing in a limited closed/secure environment until the final release but to charge prospective consumers just to find bugs the developer may have missed is insane. What other software developer does this?
First off I’m a Beta tester for SkyOS.
@Dark_Knight
Just because you have the idea that Alpha/Beta should be free, does not change the fact that Robert has full control to charge for the software he has ownership to. He also can decide to make it free to the public. And to answer your question about who makes you pay for Betas..
Linspire – I’m an insider – aka Lindows
Zeta
So this is not a new area for people paying for special Beta rights. Nobody cares if you would pay for SkyOS to beta test it. That choice is totally yours.
@The Rest
Why does everyone continue to disrespect SkyOS and it’s developers by saying that SkyOS has no chance, It’s not the Windows killer.. etc. There is not a Windows killer OS anywhere that I know of. The last time I looked MS had 70+ percent of the Desktop OS market. OSX hasn’t been able to kill MS. Linux surely has not come close to a MS killer. So why would you lump SkyOS that only has been out of a hobby OS for about a year or so in this category. That just absurd.
And for all you linux lovers out there.. I like linux and use it everyday. I like Debian based distro’s the best. (Linspire, Ubuntu, Libranet to name a few) Linux is not making the leaps and bounds that everyone thinks. Until linux has better standards for distro’s to abide by when creating the layout of the linux system, Linux will not make very many gaines in the Desktop market. Not a single distro has the same setup for config files or even file locations. And even the simplest thing of updating in linux is a pain unless you are running a debian based system, and even then there are issues. So please try to see the good in what Robert and his team are trying to accomplish. SkyOS is not perfect and it still has a long ways to go, I’m just tired of all the negative comments made on this site every time SkyOS news is released.
That’s it for me.. later.
the process is manual, robert is the only person with access to the payment logs, so if he doesnt have time to look at them you’ll have to wait, or if its a cheque you sent you have to wait for:
– postage
– processing
and that can take from 4days – 2wks depending on where your sending the cheque too.
«the process is manual, robert is the only person with access to the payment logs, so if he doesnt have time to look at them you’ll have to wait»
That can’t be good. No e-commerce would last very long with this kind of service. Why not use Paypal or something else to automate the payment??
I think the idea of having a free beta is:
1) Iron out incompatibilities, get feedback from your target audience, and
2) Get an installed userbase of people “buzzing” about your product.
If you do this and the OS sucks, well, too bad for you, you’ll have uninstalled beta’s and bad buzz.
However, it looks to me like if you DON’T do this, you get NO installed userbase, NO feedback (or very little) and NO good buzz from people.
The negatives tend to outweigh the positives here.
Also, something to consider: Because youd didn’t do a widespread beta, there will be many NEW bugs in the first “official” release, and you’ll get more bad press for having problems. Problems that could have been solved in a free, widespread beta distribution and fixing phase.
paypal is used, not even paypal is 100% automatic you can automate it but then you can end up with problems because it is possible to fake payments with paypal when its automated in that you can pay $3.00 instead of $30.00 just by a quick html code mod, so by having the process semi-manual he can verify people have actually paid $30
YEP! I did it, gave 30$ to see what SkyOS was all about.
Now i’m waiting for an e-mail, a download link.
I just hope that the CD will boot on my PC!!!
I paid by PayPal. One week and counting…
If you have paid and it has been over a week and you haven’t received any word from us, you can e-mail me about it. Occasionally, I e-mail people that have paid, but they blocked my message as spam, so that is entirely possible.
Well Kelly, seem like you have a couple of new Beta members to take care of!!! I hope to have news from you soon! (alias truckweb on forum skyos).
just saw this.
http://news.com.com/PayPal+hit+by+glitches+in+online+payments/2100-…