World: r3wp

It's a netbook.

Sorry, not yet. We've been working towards installing from and to 
USB sticks, but it's not complete yet. Syllable Desktop can install 
from a USB CD player with the regular install CD, so that's the normal 
way to install on a netbook or other machine without a built-in CD 
player

We don't have an install image to put on a USB stick to install from 
there, but the steps from a USB install CD should be small. There 
is some preparation for it on the install CD, so if you know your 
way around such things you could try to complete that configuration

However, there's still a limitation in Syllable Desktop involved:

http://web.syllable.org/news/2009-10-27-21-08-Acer-Aspire-One-ASUS-EeePC-USB-installation-targets.html

The situation with Syllable Server is much easier, although at the 
same time a bit more difficult. It doesn't have an installer yet, 
so although the installation procedure is clear and straightforward, 
it's manual. But that also means you can move the installation package 
from anywhere to anywhere

If you can manage to make an extra partition on your netbook you 
could even install Syllable Server from the included Linux (if you 
have that installed)

I tried to install the older Syllable Server 0.3 on an EeePC once 
on the second, external storage card. That's accessed as a USB device 
and Server didn't have the complete support for that. So it's likely 
that you need to install on a partition on the main storage (which 
is accessed as an ATA drive even if it is a memory chip)

If you don't have Linux or want to use the entire netbook drive, 
you can boot from some Linux live USB stick and handle the Syllable 
Server installation package from there

There are ways to do installations that are not possible in the above 
ways, but they are more complicated. You could start the install 
CD in a virtual machine after you have mounted a physical disk or 
partition in the VM, and install to that. Then afterwards, you'd 
have to configure the bootloader on the physical disk to start that 
installation

Kaj, thanks for the advice.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

for creating usb bootable distros

This works by installing SysLinux, so it may work with Syllable Server, 
but not with Syllable Desktop

For Server it's not needed, so although it's an interesting project, 
it works no magic for us

I tried that tool with Syllable Server and couldn't get it to work, 
but it's very possible that I was doing something wrong.

I just got Syllable Server running on an old 2003 Dell laptop today. 
Very snappy performance and easy on memory usage.

Congratulations, and thanks for the report. Unetbootin is dependent 
on the particularities of a Linux distro, so it's quite possible 
that it wouldn't work with the current Syllable Server

Specifically, Syllable's filesystem layout is quite innovative, so 
Unetbootin probably can't find the files it needs

By the way, if all else fails, you could run Syllable Desktop on 
the QEmu included in Syllable Server

When running the graphical version of Links (i.e. linksg), every 
keypress is printed twice to the screen. Has anyone had this issue 
before? The mouse works fine.

Kaj, if you had to do an elevator pitch for Syllable Server, how 
would you set it apart from all of the other Linux distributions? 
That is what the perception will be because Syllable Server has a 
Linux kernel.

That keyboard issue is very odd, although I have seen keyboard problems 
in other situations during development. That usually happens when 
the system is in an incorrect state during heavy system development. 
I would also expect such things on emulators, but this installation 
is on real hardware, right?

Elevator pitches depend on the person you give them to. If someone 
knows Syllable Desktop, you can tell them that Server has the same 
base, so the same advantages in simplicity, clear system layout and 
software management. We mean to make as much Syllable Desktop software 
as we can also available on Server

Linux people can be told that Server is among the leanest and easiest 
general-purpose Linux distros. Most lean and easy distros are very 
task-specific, while most general-purpose distros have become quite 
bloated or are still hard to configure

Of course, some of this is still in the future, because Server is 
still only a console server

For REBOL people, Server is the only Linux distro that caters to 
their needs, shipping a collection of REBOL software preconfigured, 
including Boron and ORCA. The latter are hard to try out when you 
have to install them yourself, and because most REBOL people come 
from Windows, they generally have a hard time installing and configuring 
a REBOL server when they want to use Linux

Have you seen our About page?

http://web.syllable.org/pages/about.html#Server

in that case, wouldn't they find installing Syllable server even 
harder?

Not necessarily compared to other Linux distros. And after that, 
much REBOL software is ready to go right away

Even just finding that software and the latest versions may be harder 
than installing Syllable Server

I know of several people with very limited computer skills who have 
managed to install Server on their own

Then again, I don't know of any elevator pitch that would appeal 
to you, Graham ;-)

Kaj, I've downloaded the syllable desktop 3x now ...  I think that's 
a pretty good response to your advertizing here.

Of course, it just happened to be the same VM 3x unchanged since 
way back ...

so I was no wiser...

Sure, but your question was about Syllable Server. Then again, there 
are probably tens of thousands of people who did manage to install 
Syllable Desktop

I think you said syllable server installation would be too hard for 
me .. I believed you!

see ... I'm quite amenable to elevator talk

To run syllable server, I personally need

1. ghostscript
2. hylaFAX
3. oracle or mysql
4. jira
5. pmwiki
6. apache
7. cheyenne

without my having to recompile anything ...

And maybe Vsphere one day

unless that uses its own os

Well, no, it's clear that Server is not that system, but then, there 
is no system that fills those requirements, so if you cling to them 
you will never be fulfilled

I run all of the above on Ubuntu server .. no probs

ie. those are the apps I currently run on Ubuntu server

oh .. and OpenSSH server

Sure, but they didn't come out of the box. So why is it difficult 
to accept the same for Syllable?

I didn't say out of the box .. I said without my having to recompile.

I just use apt-get and install