There is an article over at OpenQNX about a possible new desktop for QNX Neutrino. Elsewhere, check the VxWorks-to-QNX porting guide news.
A New Desktop for QNX?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
“Castle Technology’s RISC OS”
I think you should make it just like RISC OS for the GUI but on a QNX backend.
Keep it simple.
The last one was ok, but it really needs decent graphics drivers. Oh and more desktop apps would also be nice. Would be nice if it was a usable alternative to Linux and free for non-commercial use.
Wow!
Me being the huge QNX fan that I am, would surely like to have this on my beloved QNX machine! Awesome!
Definitely a go for me.
Way to go Garry! It look pretty good
Hey … you should join the #qnx channel on freenode.
jean-louis
Eugenia, what do you think of the looks of this desktop? Any thoughts?
ARE HUGE!!! but thats cool. I do wish QNX had more native apps other than ports of linux apps
Much as I love QNX, they really need to support the new hardware that has come on the market, and I don’t just mean vga and audio cards. QNX 6.3 will not boot on my Athlon64 laptop. 🙁
i don’t like this “free” software when there are so many good alternatives. but i confess i never tried it, and the microkernel desing looks interesting. if this gets open sourced i will try it for sure 🙂
What there really needs to be is a native Norton Commander like application.
I thought QNX already had a desktop environment/gui. Its called Photon (right?) Has a file manage, webbrowser, media player, email, sdk, etc… Very slick, better than OSX in my opinion (and I like OSX alot!).
What QNX needs is “desktop applications”. I read the article and I’m still kind of scratching my head trying to figure out why QNX would need another desktop. Unless they have a.) since removed Photon? or b.) has something to do with licensing…
BTW anyone who hasn’t experienced QNX yet, go to their website and download the ISO for free. You don’t even have to install it, just burn it and restart, it will work as a livecd. Its a cool little system…
looks better. This proposal for a new one is butt ugly. Icons fill too much space, some are rip-offs from KDE (it would imply the desktop software to be open source), the bars are useless. The current desktop is better. Much cleaner.
nobody design/build a new desktop design without stealing Mac OS X icons these days?? The various Amiga OS 4 Screenshots are also an example.
Why???
Just to comment on a few things:
About the icons, yes they are big in the screenshots, but they scale completely, like OS X, you could have 16×16 pixels icons if you wanted by moving the slider on the left of the filer.
Yes, the icons are mostly taken from websites etc, but I cannot draw to save my life, although I’d hope to stop using icons from other OS’s, as I agree that desktop design is a bit samey these days, and I’d love to be able draw new ones.
About QNX already having a desktop, yes it does, but it’s really just a backdrop and file manager, along with a ‘shelf’ for launching apps. It’s not at all bad, but it’s not a desktop UI the way Windows/Mac is.
Photon is more the graphical toolkit/system, rather than the desktop itself, my desktop uses Photon for it’s UI.
Could not agree more on needing more native apps.
This looks interesting. I tried QNX before and really liked it but I didn’t like the desktop “experence” not that it was particully bad but just didn’t seem disigned for deskopt use. I like the idea and look of this new one. I would love to give it a try. I don’t mind that it it isn’t open source or free but I do hope that a trial or demo would be make avaliable. I just can’t see me speding money blindly on something like this. If I can try it and like it then I will buy it. Would it be a complete package? QNX with the new desktop or just as a sperate app?
If the desktop goes ahead, then there would *certainly* be a trial version, I don’t buy software without trying it either.
It’s likely it would be a seperate add-on package for the standard QNX download, I’d try to make it as seamless as possible to install though.
While I admit it looks decent etc, I dont exactly understand how/why somone would pay money to replace an already usable desktop.
Theres nothing I’d really want other than desktop my atjulius. Let alone pay extra for functionality I dont require.
I also have to wonder if qnx is going to make much headway in the non-comm market anyway, seeing as the process to download the iso is becoming more and more of a nuisance.
I personally dont htink they want non-comm users, they just want trial users.
@Gary
Thanks for the reply. I look foward to giving it a try. Here is hoping that some sort of devlopment will pick up on the user apps for QNX. It is really a nice system and I always thought someone should try to make a better desktop for users… So, someone did!! Thanks!
Dave
While I admit it looks decent etc, I dont exactly understand how/why somone would pay money to replace an already usable desktop.
Oh, thats no problem ron_frown, because the purpose of QNX is not to replace your already usable desktop or replace the desktop at all. This website contains some people who are living in a dreamworld, somehow believing the world’s OSes, or desktops, are made for their needs and ought to be user-friendly for them — nevermind the fact thats not the purpose of QNX *at all*.
The point of QNX is not some kind of OSX or BeOS clone. The point of QNX is embedded markets; a cellphone doesn’t run a fullblown OS with all kind of applications either (a PDAs and laptops get near that these days though). The point of QNX is a *rock-stable* microkernel and OS. In this context, we mean the VMS definition of rock-stable, not the Microsoft or Linux one. I agree that they most likely don’t care much about non-commercial, non-potential commercial users; its much more open to e.g. arrange portable, stable versions for their licensees.
I think ron_frown meant that this ‘new desktop’ for QNX, not QNX itself. This desktop is not free (both as in beer and as in speech), and the question of “how good is it that a user will buy this one to use over photon?” is valid one, imo. Not that I have any problem with someone selling his work, but it seems a pretty small market to me.
I’ll definitely be buying if I’m able to do so. This seems like a very worthy product to pay money for.
And, I’ll be supporting one of my three favourite OS’s (with OSX and BeOS).
> I also have to wonder if qnx is going to make much headway in the non-comm market anyway, seeing as the process to download the iso is becoming more and more of a nuisance.
Huh????
6.3? get it from here: http://www.qnx.com/products/eval/index.html
6.2 get it from here: http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/qnx/qnxnc/qnxnc620.iso
> I personally dont htink they want non-comm users, they just want trial users.
In a sense, yes. But alot of there commercial users come from the trial user market. I believe that is the reason why Windows CE has any semblence of market share, because its big brother is king of the desktop market. I’m sure if tommorow a million people adopted QNX NC, QNX software systems would have no problem with it. If they didn’t want NC users, they probably wouldn’t invest so much time and money into making it so readily available and easy to setup.
It is not clear for me if you can download and use QNX for fre e (for non-commercial use) or it is only and evaluation which expires after 30 days…
Bill Allen: It is NOT the operating system itself that’s limited to a 30-day timespan. Only the Development Suite (“QNX Momentics”) is limited to 30 days of use. This development suite is geared towards the professional embedded market and therefor is of no relevance if you wish to give QNX Neutrino RTOS a try.
To sum it up:
1) QNX Neutrino: The microkernel (muK) used by QNX;
2) QNX Neutrino RTOS (Real-Time Operating system): The OS as a whole;
3) QNX Momentics Dev. Suite: The dev. suite used by professionals for the embedded market.
Only 3 is limited to a 30-day usage.
Enjoy QNX!
I’d pay for that!
Call me a QNX purist, but what QNX really needs is Users, and Apps! Not a desktop cluttered with icons. Come on! If you need icons, why don’t you just try elswhere? I for one thought it was about time QSSL ditched the damn desktop icons into oblivion, they’re next to useless when you have a neat shelf construction. Do you honestly think nobody would have implememnted this feature at QNX in two days if they saw it fit with the rest of the OS feel? And then… pay for this? Ridiculous! Inventing icons for a desktop OS is nothing new, but making people PAY for that is just gross!
I think vxWorks is a much more reliable OS than QNX for the work that it does.. why would anyone want to port it
Don’t be silly. VxWorks is far from a reliable OS. All the independant research ever done shows QNX to be faster and more reliable. You can find some white papers linked from QNX’s website. Heck, take a look at all the propaganda from the embedded Linux people – it almost universally applies to QNX as well (and then some).
It’s fine to say you “think so” but why not back it up with some real opinions? Give us some technical meat to chew on and spit back at you!
i think the current desktop is great just needs a few things as options at least….such as desktop icons, and a few other use friendly enhancements…..does it have a cd burner included with it? if so where is it i couldnt find one
@ Buck,
I’ve allowed icons on the desktop because this is something I see asked for quite frequently by new users. If you don’t want to clutter your desktop with icons, don’t do it, it’s not compulsary. As for making you pay for the desktop, I’m not *making* you do anything.
I quite agree that QNX needs users and apps, however.