SkyOS Archive

Robert Szeleney released version 3.9.1d of his OS, SkyOS, including a number of fixes, while he ported the first game to SkyOS, Quake I (screenshot). In the meantime, Syllable also recently got a port of Doom and Quake. In other small OS news, ReactOS has a preliminary graphics system able to run simple Windows binaries (screenshot, running inside the Bochs emulator). The team expects more and better compatibility to come when the WINE port gets finished.

Robert Szeleney have applied a new GUI engine on SkyOS, and it now supports themes. Screenshot available (albeit the way the 4 shots were not resized correctly so it doesn't look right). Additionally, MenuetOS 0.71pre1 was released recently.

Robert Szeleney made the switch and now all SkyOS applications are .PE and all are using the DLL format, reducing the overall code size. Robert has also published a new screenshot of SkyOS, showing his new Windows-like Start panel. In the meantime, MenuetOS 0.69 has just been released, and it includes many bugfixes, improvements and for the first time, an Ethernet interface.

New version, two new screenshots and also an implementation of a TCP/IP stack this month holds for MenuetOS. In the meantime, the SkyOS project also gets along and it now features a printing kit along with other feature additions and improvements.

Robert Szeleney emailed in to tell us about the new version of his PDF documentation for SkyOS: "This PDF File has a lot of information about SkyOS, it's design, applications and much more".

Two new releases for the two of the three "really" alternative operating systems. SkyOS now includes some basic debugging capabilities, while the beta version of MenuetOS now has more appearence options. Expect soon a comparison/review article of the "big three" of the really alternative hobby OS scene: AtheOS, SkyOS and MenuetOS.

The long awaited SkyOS 3.7 is now released, in a beta form. The new version includes a new networking stack, a media player and more. You can download the 7 MB archive and make sure you send feedback back to Robert if you encounter bugs. Update: A newer, fixed version was uploaded today.

Today, the major "hobby" Operating Systems are AtheOS (which is currently stalled), MenuetOS and SkyOS. Without doubt, SkyOS is the one that moves with the faster pace. Since our interview back in October (and the subsequent Slashdoting), Robert Szeleney has put all his free time on the (270,000 lines of code) project. He wrote a media player, the documentation for SkyOS, more device drivers and applications, networking, SkyFS, the ability to boot from a CDRom and install on a native partition, speed optimizations, some basic Linux emulation (without having SkyOS to be a UNIX) and much more. Robert expects SkyOS 3.6 (binaries and source under the GPL) to be ready for public consumption in the next few weeks.