World: r3wp
[Syllable] The free desktop and server operating system family
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Kaj 17-Dec-2007 [1416x4] | Syllable Server is the Linux I have been telling you about in the past |
Server and Desktop are as similar as possible, enabled by my build system and the fact that Syllable Desktop was already POSIX compatible. But the lower layers of Server are Linux: the kernel and support software around it | |
We are porting the userspace of Desktop to Linux. My build system and package management are already there, including ORCA. We are working on porting Syllable's graphics system and desktop environment. It will not be based on X11 | |
The Linux gives us stability right now, drivers and applications. One of those is REBOL/Core, which is included in Syllable Server | |
Henrik 18-Dec-2007 [1420] | We are working on porting Syllable's graphics system and desktop environment. It will not be based on X11 <--- I like it better already. |
Kaj 18-Dec-2007 [1421x2] | We're using DirectFB on Syllable Server and are going to put our own graphics system on top of that |
The prototype is currently running on SDL | |
Henrik 18-Dec-2007 [1423] | very nice. I like that someone finally has the guts to ditch X11. |
Kaj 18-Dec-2007 [1424] | Thanks :-) |
Pekr 18-Dec-2007 [1425] | DirectFB? |
Kaj 18-Dec-2007 [1426] | directfb.org |
Henrik 18-Dec-2007 [1427] | how are they doing on drivers and such? |
Kaj 18-Dec-2007 [1428x3] | Roughly the same as Syllable Desktop. In fact, some of Syllable's graphics drivers are ports from DirectFB instead of X11 |
So we won't have as much video support as X11, but we will have a relatively lightweight driver system to build our own stuff on | |
It should definitely suffice for a server | |
Henrik 18-Dec-2007 [1431x2] | I wouldn't worry too much about driver support anyway. What I hate about X11 is the complexity and how easy it is to knock over. I encounter many people who move away from Ubuntu and back to Windows simply because X11 screws up its own configuration. |
so DirectFB is reliable and simple to work with? | |
Kaj 18-Dec-2007 [1433x5] | We hope so :-) |
It's rather unknown, but used quite a bit in embedded systems | |
There were a few ancient Linux distros using it, but we will bring it to the desktop/server again | |
The operating system for the Palm Folio that was recently cancelled used it the same way we are going to | |
Word was it performed extraordinarily | |
Henrik 18-Dec-2007 [1438] | a shame it was cancelled |
Kaj 18-Dec-2007 [1439] | Yes, a law of computing, it seems. Any interesting graphics system will be shot down |
Robert 18-Dec-2007 [1440x3] | Kaj, ok got it. |
Why not use the Desktop kernel for the server as well? | |
I mean, on the server I just need a text interface and no GUI frills. Just lean and mean machine. | |
Kaj 18-Dec-2007 [1443x4] | We've been doing that for the past half decade, and we have not achieved a breakthrough yet |
It takes longer to get stability and apps, especially for server requirements. And we are not going to design our kernel for server requirements, because it is optimised for desktop | |
Syllable Desktop doesn't have a text-only mode. It's really a desktop system, and Linux is really a server system | |
Other considerations include that systems such as Amazon EC2 run on Linux, not our own kernel | |
Kaj 8-Jan-2008 [1447x6] | OK, we beat REBOL 3 to the release |
I give you Syllable Desktop 0.6.5: | |
http://osnews.com/story.php/19126/Syllable-Desktop-0.6.5-Released | |
It has improvements all over. One of them is a new ORCA version | |
If you want to know more about it, I wrote a new introduction document: | |
http://web.syllable.org/pages/about.html | |
Henrik 8-Jan-2008 [1453] | Kaj, who's working on ORCA these days? |
Kaj 8-Jan-2008 [1454] | Karl is making fixes and small enhancements every once in a while, and I am making package releases |
btiffin 8-Jan-2008 [1455] | Congrats Kaj. |
Kaj 8-Jan-2008 [1456] | Thanks |
Pekr 8-Jan-2008 [1457] | hehe, Kaj ... just by few hours? :-) R3 is supposedly to be released today :-) |
Kaj 8-Jan-2008 [1458x2] | There can be only one winner ;-) |
And we released last night. Sorry, but I had to sleep before thinking of you guys | |
Graham 9-Jan-2008 [1460] | Linux's year on the desktop http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=260&tag=nl.e590 |
Kaj 9-Jan-2008 [1461x5] | Well, yeah, like the previous seven years or so... |
But have a look here: | |
http://web.syllable.org/pages/about.html#technology | |
By the way, OLPC is now working with Microsoft to get Windows XP on their laptop, and they're so pleased with it because it is so much faster than they could get their Red Hat Linux to work in several years of development | |
Of course, the memory needs to be doubled to get XP on it in the first place... After they already doubled the main memory and upgraded the processor to get their Linux to run | |
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