SkyOS, the popular hobby OS, now supports OpenGL for its normal 2D operations and also freeform windows are supported. SkyGI windows can have a per pixel window shape now.
SkyOS Goes OpenGL for its Display Driver
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Way to go Robert!
Can’t wait ’till the first 5.x version (which will contain one of the new GUIs) is released!
For the fringe hobby OSes, SkyOS is by far the most impressive.
Don’t forget to check out the new messageboard about the GUI Contest. You can access is at:
http://www.nathanpalmer.com/skyos
Click on “ENTER Forums”.
the features and the (obvious as it’s a one man project) consistency are awesome. though i’d love to see some sort of plugin system in order to allow others to enhance the system itself through plugin-functions and thus adding to this cool project even more. that could be something like adding to the linux-loader (which is a damn cool idea and would totally rock if it finally works)
I think you guys are going to be really impressed with v5.0. New GUI with OpenGL implementation, new software installer (hopefully), new OS installer (hopefully)….it should be really cool.
Robert, Do you ever sleep? I was wondering what percentage of source code you “borrow” from other projects and how much is written from scratch?
AFAIK, he writes almost all of it. There are just a few things he doesn’t (media player maybe?), and he makes sure to note that it is not his own.
But what do I know, I handle the GUI stuff.
DAMN! I’m impressed!
Hope nvidia will write some drivers to speed things up ;D
Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I have a GF2 MX400 and SkyOS runs fine on my computer. The graphics might not be OPTIMIZED, but it runs. =P
… I'd vote for the Jadu GUI. By far, it's the best and most professional looking in there, even if it resembles slightly the Luna theme, which I utterly dislike. It uses nice shades of a single color and I think that shouldn't be hard to get different and good looking desktops just changing the color scheme.
I'd would like to see another mockup of the author showing some widgets (buttons, list combos, drop-down combos, gauges, checkboxes, radio buttons, etc.) following that style.
Also, I think that would improve the user perception if there was some sort of a neutral color scheme (think shades of gray :-)) that would be used by all windows open at the desktop except the one with the focus. Not only the windows decorations, but everything including icons colors, background colors, text, etc.
—
DeadFish Man
That is a good comment. You should go post it in the forums:
http://www.nathanpalmer.com/skyos/phpBB2/index.php
So that the author of the GUI Design can see what you have to say.
Hi, the 90’s, they want their taskbar back.
That was a dumb troll thing for me to say. Actually, SkyOS looks nice with some of those themes.
That is a good comment. You should go post it in the forums:
http://www.nathanpalmer.com/skyos/phpBB2/index.php
So that the author of the GUI Design can see what you have to say.
Done…
Cheers,
DeadFish Man
Nice work. =)
I encourage ANYONE with ANYTHING constructive to say to the GUI authors to go tell them in the forums – that’s why they’re there! =)
yes, everyone: we want FEEEEEEEDBAAAAAAACK *please*
also, hexydes, I emailed you a PNG mockup to add to the Persephone folder (i guess as a subfolder)… it’s kind of a 2.0 design I guess, though not really behaviorally.
Well, whatever it is, its posted. =)
I’ll do a write-up in my phpBB area
> AFAIK, he writes almost all of it. There are just a few
> things he doesn’t (media player maybe?), and he makes sure
> to note that it is not his own.
I think the mediaplayer is a port of videolan client: http://www.videolan.org
My hat’s off to you Robert. This is very cool, and indeed impressive.
If my understanding is correct, this does NOT mean hardware accelerated; it only means the openGL API has been implemented. (This doesn’t detract from the coolness in any way). With this in mind, how is the speed? And similarly, how is CPU usage?
Keep up the AWESOME work Robert! SkyOS is certainly turning out to be quite the desktop os (especially for a predominately one-man-show).
Yes, you are right. Currently there is a driver supporting OpenGL 1.4.
This driver interfaces between the SkyGI and a SubDriver. A SubDriver can be a hardware accelerated OpenGL driver or a slow framebuffer only driver.
E.g.
Slowest possible way:
GUI –> SkyGI –> GIDriver_OpenGl -> GIDriver_Vesa -> FrameBuffer.
Accelerated:
GUI –> SkyGI –> GIDriver_OpenGL -> GIDriver_OpenGL_Nvidia
or
GUI –> SkyGI –> GIDriver_Nvidia (without opengl support)
Would it then be possible, if a driver was made, for it to go:
GUI –> SkyGI –> GIDriver_OpenGL_Nvidia
For OpenGL support with as few layers as possible?
I’m yet not sure if I will implement this. Because doing
GUI –> SkyGI –> GIDriver_OpenGL_Nvidia
means integrating OpenGL very deep into SkyGI.
With the current way, it’s possible to disable the entire OpenGL Subsystem with just one click. (For low end systems).
Depending on how good OpenGL will perform in the next version, I will decided if OpenGL will be intergrated into SkyGI.
But it is still possible, that the GIDriver_OpenGL_Nvidia converts the SkyGI 2D/3D/Texture operations into OpenGL operations. But a complete OpenGL implementation is only supported when using the GIDriver_OpenGl.
It’s pretty impressive how SkyOS have developed. SkyOS developers!!! keep up the good work
cheers
mads
Developer”S”?
Yeah, I think its pretty much Robert. Amazing.
heh thought there where more than one
hmm which makes me more impressed
Does anyone know if the project or Robert have any plans of trying to get others to help the project grow faster. Not that it is slow, but I am sure at some point it would be great to get people to write drivers, optimize code, a JRE etc, etc.
I can see this OS becoming viable for every day use in a couple of years. I am amazed like others at Robert’s work.
I am sure Yellowtab or OpenBeos would love to have Robert on their team.
<sarcasm>
Does YellowTab even have programmers, or do they wait for code to self assemble.
</sarcasm>
But the GUI reminds me too much of MS/KDE/etc.
I did appreciate the ability to eject the cdrom at any time though.
Can you just explain to me what all you OS guy’s facination with the colour (or non colour) gey is? Or is it just that guys at large have no sensse of style? Gey has to be the most dull boring colour in the Universe. It is possitively depressing. It is the colour that lives outside my window for 8 month of the year where I live in Northern Scotland. Dress it up a little is what I say. Give us something prewtty and interesting to look at for a change – and please get over this nearly 25 year facination with the utter tedium that is grey.
Q
DAMN! Why does he puts at /BOOT/ADDON a movie called “fatal motorcycle jump.mpg” ?! I don’t think it suites everybody!
I’m glad the screenshot hid this…
hehe I know you meant grey there. Anyway, gray is a neutral color, and it’s actually a color that doesn’t interfere with other, more critical colors on a system. You will often find graphic designers make their background color exactly grey so that colors wont bleed into the work, so that that colors stay as true as possible.
If you have bright blue or pink widgets all over, this influences the display somewhat, and makes the colors you’re working with less true. Also, bright colors are a very per-person taste sort of thing, which is why I guess Windows lets you change colors – although this is usually done badly. Using colors for highlights, using gradients, etc make an interface more appealing to the eye, without getting on the obnoxious side.
Likewise, too-dark colors, while sometimes looking l33t, can seem *too* dark and gloomy to most users.
My Persephone 2.0 design uses a (#666666 to #CCCCCC) gradient in menus and windows, but flat color (#CCCCCC) in widgets.
Jadu is great! It’s like a cross between Red Hat’s Bluecurve and Windows XP’s Suicide Blue. It would be nice to see some of these themes adapted to at least KDE if they don’t make it into SkyOS.
Yes, as I said in my previous posts, Jadu is a very professional design. I like it, especially with the mock ups, thinner title bar
http://www.nathanpalmer.com/skyos/album09/Jadu_AltWindow
Good work
I really dig the object blue theme. IMHO it’s the most innvoative of the bunch!
And by the way – KUDOS to you Robert!!
…There was a osnews article with some GUI-mockups some time ago.. I think those ruled. =)
Hello to everyone, my first post here. To the creator Robert, i say Kudos to you and a big high five! This OS looks like a real winner.
I come from a Windows backgound and will always use it if it is around, but during the years i have looked at alternatives because not good to rely on one company alone. MacOS i want to try, i have used BeOs which is great and someday i would like to try Sky. I do have some questions for you. First i want your thoughts about why you came up with the name SkyOS? I have been coming to this site for a few months now and it is great to learn about all these OS.
There is something about the name that intrigued me right away and i had to check it out. I just have a feeling about it, a good one. The name alone to me, means positivity, users will have positive experience and results with the OS and i feel it is also spiritual in name. Im sure i may get flamed for that, oh well ;D
Second, i run Intel based systems, sometimes AMD. WHat hardware does Sky support? Could i download it now and use it? My goal is to have my production machine, along side a secondary system where i can try out new programs and OS and someday use Windows for my main stuff and also the secondary for many chores also, and also to play with.
Finally some comments, im partial to the Wind UI and KComplex UI, i would consider KComplex as the main GUI for the system, i just like the way it looks and how it would work. Wind Ui is not bad, the Jadu i dont like much. Borrows to much from others i feel, the two above are original. SkyOS needs to be different and original. Now, the SkyOS Logo just rocks, i want to congratulate you on that. Dont ever change it because it rocks! If you were to touch it up i would just emboss the elements of the design. give it some type of raised 3D look.
Eugenia, you have an awesome website, thank you so much for creating it and i am glad i found it. I come here now several times a week and i enjoy it. The colors you used also make me feel welcome here and at peace. The forums are great i have learned a lot. Never have seen another site focused on OS and dont plan and looking for any. Thank you again is all i can say, keep up the great work and dont let people ever get you down! You DA Man!!
Have a great holiday weekend, all of you
I would so jump on anything that uses OGL for main interface but the only think that is leaving me behind is that the project is not open source, nor has the author said that this os will always be free. Does this concern anyone else?
“”I would so jump on anything that uses OGL for main interface but the only think that is leaving me behind is that the project is not open source, nor has the author said that this os will always be free. Does this concern anyone else?””
AFAIK from reading the website the author is willing to provide the sources, just not put them up for public download.
As for the free argument. Personally I’ve got zero complaints against someone wanting to charge for their software so they can give up the job at the local Starbucks and hack on it fulltime. If it’s good enough they will earn enough, if not it’s back to the cappucinos :>.
(Note: I seriously doubt the SkyOS author actually works at Starbuck, but the example works.)
if u visit the SkyOs forum, @ http://skyos.org/boardlist.php u can find all the discussions we hav had about opensourcing the jist of it is, if Robert (creater / programmer of SkyOs) opensources SkyOs, tht means he will in effect no longer hav control over its development it becomes in a sense, linux, i.e. no standard, not 100% compatibility between distros, 100’s of distros may appear, with some software OpenS’ing maybe a good idea but for an Os, i think its pretty bad idea, also if robert wants to charge for SkyOs its his, so y not, id b willing to pay for it once some 3rd party apps appeared, and the Development Suite & SDK get sorted out.
>>>For the fringe hobby OSes, SkyOS is by far the most impressive.
So impressive that I’d like to hope that once the new GUI rolls out OSAlert.com will stop calling it a ‘fringe’ OS in its forums…
y do u always post like u’re typing w/ ur thumb?
hi not bein english doesnt help, Fuktes (by the way no association with english F*ck) Mae, Vá noér ka lussenaj Anglaen, wow njorde Freise, so typin in english is like tryin to teach any normal person that puttin hand in fire is okay you wont get burnt, and english grammar well sucks ass, also american english makes less sense than british english, american spell Jail, english spell Gaol, english spellin make far more sense for Germans, Freisens, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegens, Dannish, Icelandic, because we all pronounce letter “j” as “y” so we end up with “Yail” not “Jail” and “g” in all those languages is pronounced “J” or “G” so what point of American english?
i no not on topic but insult to my english, well wud help if i was english “Vae Ker Tuh Needúrlends”
also typin with thumb is better than typing with ur ass, 2nd languages are tought to us in a way that we speak the language correctly not using slang language, so we use proper grammatically words, and proper sentence structure think u shud learn ur own language properly b4 critising some1 elses english skills
ps guess u dont no Njorde Freise so here u go in deutsch
u r a “Dum kopf, ein schissen kopf und guten tag”
Hey, just wanted to say, the fact that you can pretty fluently speak / type two languages (or more?) is cool to me. I know English + a bit of Spanish. =D
Also, to whoever said they won’t use SkyOS if it isn’t free (or something like that)….you can’t always get things for free in life. Robert has put years of hard work and time into this OS. I think I would criticize him if he DIDN’T decide to try to make some sort of business out of it, especially if it becomes a viable alternative to everyday computer use. I think his hard work and the new GUI our design team is working on will make that a distinct possibility. Perhaps we can even get our own SkyOS forum on OSAlert. =)
Serbian,Croatian,Bosnian,Montenegro (they are all the same,but hey,atleast I can say I speak 4 languages+English) and English
yea in needúrlends (or holland 4 none Njorde Freisens) you tend to learn english from about 5yrs old, also i’ve lived in england for 10yrs now so iv gotten used to it, also in holland not every one speaks the language some speak dutch, some speak Freisen, some speak flemish, some speak deutsch, some speak french, and there are some who refuse to give up speakin spanish yet the buggered off over 200yrs ago, so everyone speaks in there own langauge and english
considering it’s not your primary language, I think you’re doing great
As for skyOS, I can’t tell if it’s Open or Closed, but either way it’s extremely impressive…I wish the author all the luck! Time to go check out the gui contest…