SkyOS
| File:SkyOS logo.png | |
| SkyOS SkyOS desktop screenshot. | |
| Developer | Robert Szeleney |
|---|---|
| OS family | POSIX-compliant |
| Working state | Beta |
| Source model | Closed source |
| Latest release | Build 5550 / March 26, 2006 |
| Kernel type | Extendable Kernel |
| Default user interface | SkyGI |
| License | Proprietary |
| Official website | SkyOS |
SkyOS is a proprietary operating system developed by Robert Szeleney. It has existed since 1996, but what was once going to be released as version 5.0 has instead become a rewrite of the entire operating system from the ground up and this rewrite is now in development and testing. It was open source in its early stages, but is now proprietary.
SkyOS features SMP support, an integrated media subsystem and a 64-bit filesystem. Its filesystem was originally based on a modified version of OpenBFS but now has evolved into its own distinctive filesystem, SkyFS.
SkyOS is mostly POSIX compliant, and comes with the majority of the GNU tools, including GCC. Due to its POSIX compliance and port of the GTK+ widget toolkit, many Linux or other UNIX applications have been ported, including AbiWord and Gaim, as well as a number of games, such as Quake.
As of 2006, SkyOS has drivers for a wide enough range of hardware to run on most PCs. Some types of devices are not supported, such as printers and FireWire devices. Although SkyOS has good support for most graphics cards in 2D accelerated or VESA modes, it lacks the ability to take advantage of the 3D hardware found on modern graphics cards like nVidia's GeForce and ATI's Radeon range. This is typical of small operating systems which have not generated enough vendor interest in drivers.
SkyOS has applications for many common desktop computing tasks; Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Nvu and the Mono development platform have been ported, to name a few of the more prominent applications available. Additionally, a handful of 3rd-party developers have created a number of native applications and games for SkyOS, including the first commercial application, the Pixel image editor.
External links
- SkyOS Home Page - SkyOS' main site;
- SkyOS Tour - Take a tour of SkyOS;
- News about SkyOS @OSNews.com
- Interview - Interview with Robert Szeleney (2001);
- Interview #2 - A more recent interview with Robert Szeleney (2004);
- SkyOS Wiki - SkyOS Wiki
- Template:OSDir