Many would say “thinking outside the box” is an overused cliché, but the developers with the SkyOS project would be the first to challenge such an assumption. Spearheaded by Robert Szeleney, the group of part-time coders is furiously hacking away at producing an operating system with one of the most intuitive graphical user interfaces ever. Gone are misconceptions about conformance. SkyOS serves as a reminder to GUI developers that the current status quo will only suffice for so long.

About SkyOS

SkyOS started life in 1996 as a small operating system project written from scratch for the x86 architecture. As underground support grew, the project rapidly evolved into a full-fledge, freeware platform. Sure, it certainly is not Linux or Windows, but those with an insatiable appetite for tweaking and bleeding-edge development will probably come to love SkyOS over the upcoming months.

While a wide variety of hardware support still remains minimal, SkyOS does deliver features commonly found with commercial operating systems: 32-bit processing, symmetric multiprocessing, virtual memory, memory protection, multitasking, multithreading, hardware 2D acceleration, TCP/IP networking, PPP support, and much more. Given the small size and part-time nature of the core development staff, SkyOS has came a rather long way in a short amount of time.

The real centerpiece of the project is the graphical user interface. With the bulk of low-level coding already established, the SkyOS team has recently transitioned to developing a high-performance GUI capable of delivering a unique desktop experience. Just as with the OS layer, the GUI includes many impressive features: 32-bit color depth, hardware acceleration (as applicable), a message passing subsystem, and even preliminary OpenGL support.

Sure, I could write volumes about the technical aspects of the SkyOS core, but it seems the development team is already well ahead of us journalists. A thoroughly documented SkyOS manual and SDK are already available, packed full with detailed information. What would an operating system project be without an adjoining documentation project as well?

SkyOS 5.0 Beta Release

Following a few emails with Kelly Rush concerning ATI driver support, I found myself in a position to receive a preview copy of the SkyOS 5.0 Beta release. Never being one to turn down free software, I quickly snapped at the opportunity, plus secured TechIMO an exclusive first look at the operating system. Following several days of testing, SkyOS 5.0 represents a true evolutionary step from the current version 4.x installation.

While I will refer to this release as a beta build, the version I received was more typically aligned with a pre-beta development build. Since initial receipt of the code, the development team has opened up a SkyOS beta program for those interested in testing the operating system during the next few months. A one-time purchase of $30 includes a SkyOS 5.0 disc and technical support via a beta forum. Once finalized, SkyOS 5.0 will be free as with previous releases, but the developers needed to cover expenses for supporting the beta test program, thus the small fee. Only 100 spots were allotted, and those are being filled fast!

Installation

Installing SkyOS seems painless enough, assuming you already have experience with Linux or another Unix-type platform. While several options exist, my installation was successfully completed using a hard drive with two partitions (SkyOS install files and SkyOS install drive) and a simple boot floppy running a preconfigured version of the popular GRUB bootloader. I also installed SkyOS under VMware 3.2.1 with little trouble, though a few minor changes were required within a text configuration file to successfully detect the VMware graphics subsystem.

Once booted, the installation routines look fairly generic. Most options are clearly documented, and the actual install process took only a few scarce minutes. Once completed, I used to same GRUB boot floppy process to access the working SkyOS installation as it proved to be the most simplistic route available at the time.

Desktop Interface

Once booted, I was welcomed to a familiar looking desktop, then again, most every OS project ever envisioned in the past ten years seems to copy the desktop feature. Just as with commercial offerings, SkyOS offers a standardized application bar and desktop icon/shortcut support. Otherwise, I could have been looking at modified Windows or X environment had the knowledge of SkyOS not been present. Not much to say here, everything worked as expected.

Configuration

Once accustomed to the interface, I went in search of the setup routine. Surprisingly, SkyOS 5.0 offers a menu driven setup akin to other leading alternatives. The System Manager lists all detected hardware, plus will flag any devices that failed auto detection; just like Windows device manager. Considering all drivers are auto loaded at this point, there are no interactive features allowing for driver installation or updating.

The graphics section will be of significant interest to most users. SkyOS offers standard support for a wide variety of VESA 2.0 compliant graphics accelerators. Hardware support is also extended to most current nVidia and ATI chipsets, though the ATI driver is still relatively new and undergoing validation with a variety of video card models. A VMware-specific driver is also provided, though it failed to properly initialize my older VMware 3.2.1 configuration. VMware 4.x was not tested due to editorial time constraints.

All screenshots were taken under VMware, so I opted for the widely compatible VESA driver with write combining (accelerate framebuffer) and hardware acceleration enabled. OpenGL was enabled, though further testing will be required to test this 3D feature as support increases. As to 2D graphics, the system worked flawlessly considering this is an early beta release. I only noted a few occasional graphics glitches and flaws during many hours of testing, though most were only present while operating with VMware.

In additional to 2D acceleration, SkyOS 5.0 also offers support for GUI themes. The default WindUI will no doubt be the most popular choice given its rapid development path. The additional SkyOS themes resemble variants of WindUI. For those seeking something a little more traditional, a BeOS theme is provided; and yes, the window manager looks and feels just like BeOS 5 Personal Edition. Font anti-aliasing is also available, though I could tell little difference with the feature disabled.

Bundled Applications

Included with the SkyOS 5.0 installation is more than enough base system utilities for a typical desktop user. Due to the preview nature of the tested release, not all additional applications were bundled with the installation. I reserve comment on those software packages until additional testing can be completed.

Considering the development nature of SkyOS, plenty of system monitoring tools are available. TaskManger lists running processes, System Information lists subsystem data, and Disk Manager displays the available drive space. Disk Manager also provides a foundation for building an interactive partition management utility.

Interestingly, a command-line environment is provided as well. The shell seems to accept a variety of MS-DOS and Bash-style UNIX commands. The command-line interface proves useful for working with applications like the Bochs virtual machine and Apache web server. Otherwise, a graphical user interface dubbed “Viewer” resembles Windows Explorer in both shape and form.

As to available application upon final release, SkyOS 5.0 will sport similar software packages as its previous siblings, such as the SkyKruzer web browser, Developer Studio, multimedia player, Quake, Apache, Bochs, and ZSNES. A complete list of current applications is available here. Most Linux/Unix applications can be easily ported to SkyOS due to a low-level Linux emulation layer, plus the development team intends to soon start working on a feature to allow Linux binaries to be directly loaded without recompilation.

Hardware Support

Understandably, SkyOS lacks a wealth of hardware support, as evidenced here.  Nearly all VMware options are supported, plus it should prove easily enough to obtain hardware presented on the compatibility list. The vast majority of supported devices are generic off-the-shelve items, thus building a system to support SkyOS is not exactly a predominate concern for most users.

As to future hardware support, a full-fledged Driver Development Kit will soon be issued to core OS developers and experienced beta testers. Upon public release, the complete DDK will be available to anyone interested in supporting the SkyOS platform.

Licensing Model

After a quick skim of comments posted to sites like Slashdot, there appears to be much confusion regarding the actual license being used to develop SkyOS. As it stands, SkyOS is essentially a freeware operating system. It does not specifically conform to the GPL or any other typical open source license. 

The core team may release the operating system source code under such a license once they feel comfortable interacting with outside developers, though such a scenario would likely not occur until well after SkyOS reaches a widespread audience. As to the bundled software applications, the required rights have been secured from projects with code being deployed with the SkyOS installation. Upon public release, the SkyOS 5.0 CD-ROM will include the source code for all third-party open source applications.

Final Thoughts

This preview barely scratches the surface of SkyOS, especially when referencing the latest beta release. The real question comes down to whether SkyOS will eventually gain enough momentum to propel it past the status of being a hobby OS. The foundation is already in place, and the graphical user interface is rapidly evolving with each new release. 

From my perspective, the most important factors will be driver and software support. Driver support will be slow during the interim term, though the public release of SkyOS 5.0 should spur more than enough interest to entice several open source developers to begin a serious driver development project. As to software support, SkyOS is actually further along than most would tend to believe. A working file manager and web browser are already available, and rumors point towards a few coders attempting to port an office suit, most likely OpenOffice.org.

SkyOS definitely leads the alternative scene right now. Will the project witness popularity in 2004? Probably not, as much work is still needed. However, the reliable SkyOS team has proven highly dedicated to the 5.0 effort for many month now. Assuming they continue at the current pace, I can certainly see SkyOS leaping forward as a competitive, though still alternative, desktop solution by early 2005. Expect many more SkyOS 5.0 articles as we track the development of this operating system project over the next few months.

TechIMO would like to thank Kelly Rush for making this preview possible.