Submitted by “The Symphony OS Project is pleased to announce the release of Symphony OS 2007.06. This is our first release based fully on Ubuntu and even though many improvements have not yet made it into this release, we hope to speed up the release schedule over the next couple months to help us settle into our new Ubuntu base system.”
I’ll try this out this weekend. If its stable enough I might install it on my main system.
I would count the Mezzo desktop as one of the most creative (if not innovative) desktop projects around now, up there with E17, the OLPC XO project, and KDE 4
…well, maybe not KDE 4. That’s less innovative and seems more like ‘desktop done better’
E17 … what is so innovative about that (also i thought Enlightenment is a Window Manager … not a Desktop?)
Enlightenment is more than just a Window Manager; it’s got its own set of libraries and a bunch of related applications meant specially for it.
It can do amazing things with eyecandy, have moving backgrounds, and all at pretty good speed on a very slow computer. I know, because I’ve tried it on a very slow computer.
I suppose you’re right, though. It’s not so much innovative as a very nice piece of implimentation and code.
I’m currently posting from SymphonyOS 2007.06 and… I’m not terribly impressed.
o All programs are basically running the default GTK+ 2 theme; which is to say, rectangular.
+ The CD did properly detect and configure my ethernet card.
o The desktop manager did detect my 1920×1200 widescreen and adjust accordingly, but did not scale the wallpaper. I also couldn’t change the wallpaper, even when I navigated to /usr/share/backgrounds and chose some of the Ubuntu wallpaper still apparently sitting there. Then again, it looks like the Desktop Manager app is still rather unfinished.
+ Notwithstanding the wallpaper, the layout of the desktop items and their transparency is very nice.
– The default Google toolbar thing does nothing.
– I can’t click on any locations (or rather, clicking makes my computer churn for a while but go nowhere. I suspect there’s no file manager in this release?
– Firefox is set by default to open a page that doesn’t exist.
– About My Computer claims I’m running SymphonyOS 2006-05
+ The button next to the clock at the top center of the screen functions as a show-desktop button, which is very useful when all desktop controls and options are on this desktop and can be hidden underneath things
– The time and date are not visible on the Computer menu (accessible top left), the file menu (accessible top right) or the program menu (bottom left), or the trash (accessible bottom left)
+ You can switch between menus without closing them
– Since all the corner options stay the same, the ‘close menu’ button ISN’T in a corner.
– I plugged in my USB drive in an attempt to save this screenshot I just took somewhere, but it doesn’t seem to have auto-mounted it… and if it’s waiting for me to MANUALLY mount it, I have no idea where.
– There’s a preloaded list of ‘favorite programs’ (web browser, email client, instant messenger, terminal, desktop manager…), but I haven’t figured out where to go to find applications NOT in that menu
+ Installing software to the liveCD works with some sort of layering FS.
+ I find it interesting that, given Fitt’s Law, the close and minimize/maximize buttons are NOT on the corners. Then again, I do kinda like that, because it makes it easier to resize and drag from the upper corners of the window. (Alt+drag doesn’t seem to do anything). Also, sticking minimize and maximize on the other side of the title bar makes it a lot harder to accidentally close a window.
Other than the
*cough stupid broken liveCD thrashing and taking 40 minutes to load OSAlert to see if you really did click the right button cough*
…updated wallpaper and applications, it doesn’t really seem like they’ve done much visible work since the Alpha version I tried out in… 2005?
Anyway, some parts of what I’ve said may be inaccurate, since it became quite apparent to me that my liveCD is corrupted… I never got to save that screenshot; I woke up this morning and discovered at some undefinable hour of morning it came up as ‘drive not writeable’. Oh well, bail.
I’d also like to point out that Fitt’s Law is probably irrelevant to the discussion of the actual windows, since they’re neither full screen nor have any sort of edge resistance- you still have to know where to stop with the mouse. In that regard, I’d say their placement of the close button is a GOOD idea.
If their hardware requirements (especially RAM) are as low as they have stated, it’s a major achievement.