SkyOS

In order to "workaround" the driver issue reported earlier I'm in the middle of doing a few proof of concepts:

1) Using the Linux Kernel
2) Using a NetBSD Kernel

1) Linux Kernel
A Linux (2.6.27.4) from scratch (LFS) is used as base containing only a the absolute necessary userland tools in order to operate a linux kernel. On top of this kernel the SkyOS API (SkyGI, etc...) is ported. In order to get the graphical user interface running the SkyGI Kernel part (which resists in the SkyOS kernel itself) is ported to userland and converted to something similar like the appserver. Only the linux kernel will be used. No textmode. From a user point of view no difference should be visible between the current SkyOS kernel on this proof of concept linux kernel.

2) NetBSD
Similar to 1) but with a NetBSD Kernel.

Based on the results of these proof of concepts (e.g. performance, user experience, etc.) further decisions regarding the SkyOS future can be made.

Thanks for your patience

Update:
Follow the current progress of this experiment.

The speed at which new hardware and technology gets developed has increased dramatically in the last few years. Trying to catch up with development of frameworks, drivers, applications, test, etc. got way more complicated than years ago. At that time, you developed a standard IDE driver and SkyOS would boot on 99% of all computers. There was only one way interrupts got routed, devices could be accessed, etc. More important, there was just a single CPU, no hyperthreading, mulitcores, multi cpus, etc. (at least not for computers the usual home user owned). A GUI was easy, in contrast to today, where you must have a 3D accelerated GUI. If you don’t have one your OS is said to be old, out of date. You must have WIFI, USB, Bluetooth, etc.

Catching up with the development for all this is just not possible anymore, at least, not for one person or at least, not for me.
Currently, SkyOS development is on halt, and I’m trying to find a way to get out of this unpromising situation. At this moment I only see four resorts:

- Open source SkyOS
- Make SkyOS available for free
- Specialize on a yet to define niche
- Stop SkyOS development

Eventually, I have to admit that I underestimated the speed at which new technolgy develops and establishes. And, a while ago I was able to spend hours a day developing for SkyOS, for years. Recently, as my first baby was born this of course changed which made the entire developing situation even worse. Again I underestimated a few, personal, real life factors and their impact on developing.
I’m sorry if I dissapointed you, but I guess you favor me being honest about the current situation.

Anyway, I will do my best to find the best possible solution for SkyOS and its future.

News update (6th, apr 2009):
For the last weeks and as it looks like quite a few more weeks I'm in contact with a lot of people talking about their
ideas to continue SkyOS development. Unfortunately many people completely underestimate the amount of work required to manage a development team for SkyOS, either an open or closed source version, or completely lack vision and or motivation and or seriousness. Anyway, I'm still reading through my inbox hoping to get in contact with people with real motives and knowledge being able to bring SkyOS to the next level.

Currently we are investigating a little new feature, code named, crossbar.

If you have ever used a PS3 you will be very familiar with the crossbar interface and its functionality. SkyOS tries to bring this feature right into a desktop OS.

Basically, crossbar is always running and even ready before the desktop has been loaded. With a shortcut or mouse gesture you can quickly get crossbar into the foreground. Inside crossbar you have the option to quickly navigate through your images, music and videos using SkyFS queries. (the background index feeder service will automatically index your images, songs and videos and tries to extract meta data like ID3 tags from it).

So whenever you want to quickly listen to music you don't have to open a dedicated music player. Simply enter crossbar, select your song and return to the desktop. Crossbar has been designed to make this as fast and as straight forward as possible.

Such an interface also doesn't clutter up the panel, desktop or systray and offers a nice place to display additional information you fequently check but don't want to waste space for like rss feeds, weather data, free disk space, network configuration, etc..

The look, feel, integration and feature coverage is still up for discussion. Feel free to join the discussion about it in the forum.

This version now includes the brand new Mail Client as well as the new IDE used to develop applications for SkyOS. The SkyOS API has been extended with a lot of new classes and various reported bugs have been fixed.

For screenshots see the post below, to download this build just visit the beta center.

We are proud to announce that the next version of SkyOS will ship with a new Mail client.

In contrast to the already available Mozilla Thunderbird Mail Client the new Mail application completely integrates with SkyOS. For instance, all mails are stored as separate files with various attributes attach to it. So you can easily and quickly find every mail using the SkyOS Viewer and its query system.

Furthermore, by using the Desktop Communication Interface you can easily hook your applications to events sent by SkyOS Mail when an email arrives (a Panel plugin notifies you with a little icon whenever mails arrive).
Other applications can also use SkyOS Mail Services like sending mails from foreign applications, etc.

IDE has been updated too, showing a SkyOS Mail Layout in this screenshot:

Screenshot of SkyOS viewer showing a directory of the mailbox storage: