SkyOS & BranchFS

[DasFox]

Could we be looking towards a new future?

They say a FreeLive CD is on the way soon.

SkyOS:

http://www.skyos.org/

 

[Nothinman]

BranchFS just looks like a combination of unionfs and a form of file versioning like OpenVMS has been doing forever only grouping them into branches like a SCM. I don't really see it as a huge breakthrough but it could have some nice uses.

And you can already do that with VMWare with any OS. Of course VMWare's snapshotting is the entire state of the VM and not just the filesystem, but it's close.

 

[sourceninja]

I'll never buy another OS again. I don't think the future is yet another closed source OS for the x86.

 

[nweaver]

sorry, but buying into a beta program is a bad thing...

 

[DarkThinker]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I'll never buy another OS again. I don't think the future is yet another closed source OS for the x86.

Amen to that brethren Linuxer

 

[DarkThinker]

Originally posted by: nweaver
sorry, but buying into a beta program is a bad thing...

As of right now, there is no version available for sale. SkyOS v5.0 is in beta phase, and joining the beta-testing team costs $30 USD

:disgust: They think they are doing everyone a big favor by allowing people to behold the magnificence of their Operating System which is nothing more than a closed core base with a plethora of open source applications spread all over. What a crock of crap.

So let me see, the operating system is closed source, it mainly uses open source and free to use applications / GPL`ed and LGPL`ed,they will charge $30 just to allow people to do beta testing of their own OS that is still under development and barely has any reputation, final release which will be just in a millenia from now and will cost more than a windows Vista copy most probably, it will be spun by their marketing as the best thing since curly braces and no one will buy it, why? Because Linux is free open source, developed at a much faster rate, reliable, supported, much better well known in the corporate and business world and is widespread, by the time they are out of Beta, Linux distros would have already made major advancements compared to them in the market and then they will realize that they have wasted their time and then end up like many other closed source lost causes.
So in conclusion I'll pass thank you.

 

[Nothinman]

I'll never buy another OS again.

I don't know if I'd go quite that far, if the price was reasonable and there was some worthwhile reason for the software then I'd buy it. But making people pay just to beta test their crap is pretty retarded. Even MS gives their beta testers the software for free because they're smart enough to realize that it builds loyalty.

 

[sourceninja]

After I made that post I realized I lied. I plan to buy a mac this fall when 10.5 is released. For two reasons.

1) I like the hardware and I want to replace my hardware with something slick.
2) OSX looks like it might be nice and if I hate it I can put linux back on it.

But I just can't seem to get it though my head that buy an apple is buying an OS.

 

[nweaver]

OSX is nice...and I don't have a mac that I use (normally)

 

[DasFox]

Has anyone used SkyOS?

 

[Nothinman]

Has anyone used SkyOS?

Since you have to pay ?30 just to get into their beta program that seems unlikely.

 

[DasFox]

Well just asking...

Sure wouldn't mind checking out the LiveCD when it comes out, that will be free.

 

[Markbnj]

This well and truly sounds like a scam. Charging for membership on a beta testing team? That's not far off from asking someone to pay fees to get a wad of cash from Nigeria as far as I am concerned. Instant pass. One-way transfer to bozo bin.

 

[DasFox]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
This well and truly sounds like a scam. Charging for membership on a beta testing team? That's not far off from asking someone to pay fees to get a wad of cash from Nigeria as far as I am concerned. Instant pass. One-way transfer to bozo bin.

Well they seem to think it's fair.

Please keep this going so others can comment...

ALOHA

 

[Nothinman]

Well they seem to think it's fair.

Most closed development places pay their QA people not vice versa.

 

[DasFox]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Well they seem to think it's fair.

Most closed development places pay their QA people not vice versa.

You might want to tell that to them, hehe.

 

[Brazen]

It does kinda sound like they through together some fancy screenshots and are hoping to get a bunch of takers to the beta program and then run!

 

[nerp]

This seems like a real waste of time and energy on the part of the developers. As other posters have said, a development team that isn't working on a salary are going to be crippled as they try to build a closed source system. Who in their right mind will want this OS? Even the needs of a dumb terminal or basic workstation can be met with decent alternatives. These people should spend their time working on something productive or with greater appeal for the masses.

 

[zizban]

I was just surfing by when I read this thread. I am astonished by the venom and ignorance on display here. Let me set some things straight.

I have been using SkyOS since version 3 when it was free as in beer. Versions 1 and 2 were open source, BSD license as I recall, but weren't good for much of anything.

There aren't any "developers" of SkyOS; just one developer, Robert, who does this as a side project. It's his hobby.

None of you took the time or effort to really ask questions on the forums or IRC (#skyos on FreeNode) or you wouldn't have had these questions or thrown your baseless accusations around. SkyOS is not a scam; it's an actual OS you can download and use. Us testers paid the $30 willingly because we wanted to test it. Beta testers get all the betas plus the final commercial release and at least one update after that. So, you are actually paying for the final OS and get to test the betas as a bonus.

We're not doing anyone a favor by "letting" them test the OS. Quite the opposite, beta testers are doing SkyOS a huge favor by providing valuable feedback.

And this "will cost more than Vista"...are you pulling this out of your ass? No one knows how muchg the final will cost, certainly not the money MS charges.

SkyOS uses no open source code in the kernel or SkyGI (The GUI). Open source apps such as bash, gcc and perl are optional; you can run SkyOS just fine without them. GCC is needed if you want to develop for SkyOS. The only open source app that matters that SkyOS uses is the filesystem. Skyfs is a heavily modified OpenBFS, which uses the MIT license.

We beta testers pay because we want to. No one is making you pay. All the money Robert gets from the beta goes right back into buying hardware to test and running the build servers. He isn't getting rich off this.

SkyOS has been in beta for a while but this nothing compared to how long OSes such as GNU HURD and Syllable have been in beta (decades) and they are open source!

BranchFS is pretty amazing but the cost to this is that running the live CD eats RAM (it needs ~300 MB). Most people probably meet that. You can also run SkyOS in VMWare.

Is there room for another commercial OS? Sure. Is SkyOS the OS to fill that niche? Who knows.

I'll be happy to answer any reasonably civil questions but please, do a little research next time before you start shooting off your mouth.

Thank you.

 

[Nothinman]

There aren't any "developers" of SkyOS; just one developer, Robert, who does this as a side project. It's his hobby. ... Us testers paid the $30 willingly because we wanted to test it. Beta testers get all the betas plus the final commercial release and at least one update after that. So, you are actually paying for the final OS and get to test the betas as a bonus.

Which makes it seem even more dubious. Why would anyone spend $30 on such a huge project when they know that it's relying on one man's free time? What happens if he decides that it's not worth it any more and gives up or flips back around and releases it under a Free license so anyone can use it? I really doubt he'll refund your money.

We're not doing anyone a favor by "letting" them test the OS. Quite the opposite, beta testers are doing SkyOS a huge favor by providing valuable feedback.

Exactly which is why he should be paying you instead of vice-versa. That's how QA works, do you really think all of MS' QA team are paying MS to work there?

And this "will cost more than Vista"...are you pulling this out of your ass? No one knows how muchg the final will cost, certainly not the money MS charges.

And with only one man at the helm it'll also probably be a lot less functional than Vista so if it does cost anywhere near as much as Vista you're being raped yet again.

SkyOS has been in beta for a while but this nothing compared to how long OSes such as GNU HURD and Syllable have been in beta (decades) and they are open source!

Pointing to HURD and saying "Look! They suck too!" isn't exactly a good advertisment. =)

AtheOS (what Syllable was forked from) had the same problem as SkyOS: 1 main developer. Once he got interested in another hobby (in this case flying) development practically stopped until the project was forked. But in the case of SkyOS if Robert picks up another hobby the source code won't be available for forking.

Is there room for another commercial OS? Sure. Is SkyOS the OS to fill that niche? Who knows.

For desktops? I'm not so sure, Windows and OS X have that "niche" pretty well filled with Linux picking up most of the fallout from them and that won't change for quite some time.

 

[fierydemise]

Lets see,
Dubious offer: Check
Impassioned Defense: Check
Black Guy Avatar: Check
Yep its a scam

 

[zizban]

Which makes it seem even more dubious. Why would anyone spend $30 on such a huge project when they know that it's relying on one man's free time? What happens if he decides that it's not worth it any more and gives up or flips back around and releases it under a Free license so anyone can use it? I really doubt he'll refund your money.

The same logic could apply to any company. If Apple goes under, will they refund your Apple Care? Will Dell refund your extended support contract?

Exactly which is why he should be paying you instead of vice-versa. That's how QA works, do you really think all of MS' QA team are paying MS to work there?

You pay for an subscription to MSDN or Apple Developer Program and you can test betas.

And with only one man at the helm it'll also probably be a lot less functional than Vista so if it does cost anywhere near as much as Vista you're being raped yet again.

Again you are pulling this out of your ass. You have no idea how fucntional SkyOS will or will not be. "Probably" is simply an unfounded guess.

Pointing to HURD and saying "Look! They suck too!" isn't exactly a good advertisment. =)

I didn't say that. Read what I wrote again. I was comparing the long gestation times. And who knows if the HURD will turn out to be good or not.

AtheOS (what Syllable was forked from) had the same problem as SkyOS: 1 main developer. Once he got interested in another hobby (in this case flying) development practically stopped until the project was forked. But in the case of SkyOS if Robert picks up another hobby the source code won't be available for forking.

You don't know this. No one knows. Ask Robert. Its his code, he could open source it. He has before.

or desktops? I'm not so sure, Windows and OS X have that "niche" pretty well filled with Linux picking up most of the fallout from them and that won't change for quite some time.

Never say never. Who knows what some student in Finland is capable of?

 

[Nothinman]

The same logic could apply to any company. If Apple goes under, will they refund your Apple Care? Will Dell refund your extended support contract?

But Apple and Dell are well established, publicly traded companies that are unlikely to go under. More likely they'll get get bought by someone else who will continue to honor whatever contracts you had with Apple or Dell.

You pay for an subscription to MSDN or Apple Developer Program and you can test betas.

I can't speak about Apple but MS at least released RC2 of Vista for free to anyone who wanted it.

Again you are pulling this out of your ass. You have no idea how fucntional SkyOS will or will not be. "Probably" is simply an unfounded guess.

Probably is an educated guess coming from experience, not my ass. There's no way one man can compete with the army of developers that MS and Apple have. Even Linux which now has thousands of developers took like 10 years before anyone but unix admins even considered it for desktop use.

I didn't say that. Read what I wrote again. I was comparing the long gestation times. And who knows if the HURD will turn out to be good or not.

Sure you did, you used HURD and Syllable as examples of OSes that suck but are bigger projects that have more developers and opened source and essentially said "Look, they've been working on that for almost 20 years and it still sucks so it's not a big deal if SkyOS sucks too since it's younger and has less developers."

You don't know this. No one knows. Ask Robert. Its his code, he could open source it. He has before.

You don't know either and that's my point. All it takes is for Robert to lose interest and poof the project is gone and any time and money that you've invested.

Never say never. Who knows what some student in Finland is capable of?

Some student and thousands of other people helping him. Linux still hasn't made any significant inroads into the desktop and neither has OS X. As great a programmer as I think Linus is Linux wouldn't have gone anywhere if Linux wasn't GPL'd and BSD didn't have those legal issues at the time. But the timing just happened to work that Linux filled a niche because BSD was a gray area and all other forms of unix cost money. Now we've got an abundance of freely available OSes under varying licenses and 2 main commercial desktop OSes and you think a 3rd commercial OS will go anywhere? Most people already avoid Linux and OS X because of Windows software/game support so why would SkyOS be any different?

 

[Fox5]

Wait, so what advantages does skyos offer? It seems like the effort being put into it would be better spent on creating a linux distro, unless it's purely a hobby effort. An OS is nothing without software support.

 

[Fox5]

I have been using SkyOS since version 3 when it was free as in beer. Versions 1 and 2 were open source, BSD license as I recall, but weren't good for much of anything.

BSD, eh? I'm not too familiar with BSD but...
1. I don't believe the license has barely any of the clauses in it that the GPL does. Putting something under a BSD license pretty much leaves it as free as the creator wanted it to be.
2. I don't think the BSD license can be revoked, so versions 1 and 2 should still be available in whatever form they were previously, assuming they're free as in generally what we think of free, freely redistributable and all.