SkyOS

Post by **nazgul909** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:29 am

I found something called SkyOS thats apparently some sort of OS for x86 systems. It looks Linux-based but its not free.

Here: http://www.skyos.org

Anyone know what this is? It sure looks cool.

Post by **Andy** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:50 am

Looks like linux. I recognise a logo, possibly KDE (im not linux literate so correct me if Im wrong).

Post by **empireum** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:57 am

It's neither Linux or Unix. And if there was KDE, that's not a sign for Linux either because KDE can run on many platforms, including Windows

Post by **RentedMule** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:19 pm

Like the subject says, I am a subscriber to the SkyOS beta program.

SkyOS is an operating system written almost solely by a guy named Robert Szeleney. It has plenty of popular software ported to it like Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird, GTK+, CUPS, etc. The only thing about this OS keeping it from being fully labled "modern", is it's lack of a 3d Acceleration framework.

It used to be free up through the 4.* series, but version 5 became a ground-up rewrite, so to fund development, the pay for beta program supplies this. With your payment ($30 USD), you get unlimited access to beta ISO's and a copy of the final version when it is complete (Which will cost... $30 USD).

Also, the OS is hungry. Due to debugging information in every Beta build, you need at least a P3 with 512 MB of ram to be able to use it worthwhile. My first experience was with a Celeron 333 with 192MB of memory, and lets just say, it wasnt pleasant.

Post by **nazgul909** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:09 pm

Does the 5th version have the 3D acceleration framework like Compiz?
And will the final version cost the same amount?

empireum - you said that KDE can run on Windows. How does that work?

Post by **RentedMule** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:41 pm

As I said... no... 3d... acceleration.

And again... the final version will be $30 USD

To Run KDE in windows simply requires an X server and KDE. Both come with cygwin. The X server even has a "rootless" mode so it appears to be running on your desktop instead of in an X server window

Post by **ppc_digger** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:02 am

nazgul909 wrote:Does the 5th version have the 3D acceleration framework like Compiz?

Compiz is not a 3D acceleration framework. OpenGL is a 3D acceleration framework. Xgl and AIGLX are X11 servers that render the screen using OpenGL. Compiz is an X11 window manager that utilizes the 3D features gained by Xgl/AIGLX's usage of OpenGL.

Post by **empireum** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:42 am

nazgul909 wrote:empireum - you said that KDE can run on Windows. How does that work?

As RentedMule said, doing this requires an X server on Windows and a KDE installation. Cygwin provides you with everything required. I even have an old screenshot of KDE 3.x running on a German Windows XP using Cygwin. http://geocities.com/unixfreak87/kde-cygwin.JPG

Post by **Frozenport** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:20 am

Let me say that KDE for Windows is a big letdown and almost pointless as GTK has been ported and the other libraries are just ports from Windows to linux.
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My experiences with SKYOS have been horrid to say the least. I found there very little hardware support, little programs, a GUI that ran horridly (nvidia doesn't have working drivers) and finally little inovation.

I can see no point of another Unix clone especially if it brings so little inovation with so little features.

Don't spend you money on this, personally I think SKYOS is a trick made to get you 30 USD!

ps.
little is a common word with SKYOS

Post by **RentedMule** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:00 pm

The problem with SkyOS is, you likely either tried a REAL free version (>= version 4.*), or you got an early beta 5.

Nvidia is one of the better drivers for video at this point. Multitudes of drivers are added in every fresh beta build. For instance, this build just got DMA and CUPS.

The reason it seems "behind", especially since previous versions supported things not currently supported, is because version 5 is a ground up rewrite.

It has more promise than say Syllable or Haiku.

And it isn't a Unix clone. Its about as Unixy as BeOS. It has posix compliance if that is what you mean... or are you thrown off by having / instead of c:\?

Post by **Frozenport** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:36 pm

Well I run Arch and Gentoo...
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Anywhich way I fail to see the benifit of SKYOS and the differences between SKYOS at the kernel level... Its just BEOS with program compatibility issues.
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Progress has been slow and getting a copy of the almost not functioning alpha/beta/scam-a has been very costly - as much as a copy of XP.

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There is little reason to run it if it were free, but the 30 USD and slow development has made it clear to me its about the money not the OS

Post by **Betaman2000** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:52 am

Well I tried SkyOS and it is nothing to great ( Slackware IMO is better) Anyone who wants to try it go ahead but I warn you as frozenport said, hardware support is bad.

Post by **warbird** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:28 am

Can it run WINE? (This may be a stupid question, but it would really interest me)

Post by **spaceship9** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:48 pm

i have a skyOS install iso
it uses the KDE icons but not KDE
and IMHO it sucks... even compared to osX

it has it's own programs
you can't run mac, linux or windows programs on it
though ppl. are converting programs to it (obviously they're converting already opensource apps)
and some hardware doesn't work on it

Post by **innovati** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:09 pm

I've had my eye on SkyOS for a long time and I feel they went in a bad direction shortly into Beta5.

I felt they were close to a release at one point, but they kept coding away.

I think SkyOS is more of a subscription club for OS hobbyists and they have their own hobby OS that they love to tinker with more than a usable operating system intended for daily use - at least at the moment.

Still, something in my wants to go join up...

Post by **magicdave29** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:38 pm

innovati wrote:I've had my eye on SkyOS for a long time and I feel they went in a bad direction shortly into Beta5.

I felt they were close to a release at one point, but they kept coding away.

I think SkyOS is more of a subscription club for OS hobbyists and they have their own hobby OS that they love to tinker with more than a usable operating system intended for daily use - at least at the moment.

Still, something in my wants to go join up...

How is the driver support ?

Post by **xdragonfly** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:46 am

I was reading comments on this OS and decided to try it out. I have to concur that this is nothing great. It honestly did not stay in my system for more than a half hour lol. I commend the programmer for writing an OS, but nothing more.

Post by **spectreshadow990** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 6:03 am

in short, skyo in any form, is the private hobby of reactos, and no, its based on thre kernels,and had its own port.
kde was part, a darwinderivative was another, nt another, but an extra aused a huge bug and driver problem that set the projct off. bsids it was thought to contain microsoft nt code segments, so that didnt help either.
i have the source codes to skyos, ractos, nt4, and some other bits i found around the net.

dont bother with ny of the mentioned os clone, skyos mainly has a username and such ky, reactos is just buggy as heck.

SkyOS

SkyOS

I am a subscriber

...

Re: SkyOS