OSNews

Before I begin my overview of beta8, I want to brush on some of the new features and goals of this beta, and the new components that came with it.Beta8, in the SkyOS community, is known as the “Networking Beta.” With this release, networking has been re-enabled once again and is ready for testing along with the Links Browser (While SkyKruzer is being worked on). Some notable additions for this release are the new developer tools (GCC 3.4, Binutils, Python), Integrated Streaming System (with added video support and some new features), and the numerous bug fixes and other small features.

I began my adventure by downloading the newly released 212mb Beta8 CD from the SkyOS website and burning it onto a CD.I decided I was going to install it not only onto VirtualPC (for the convenience and ability to capture screenshots), but also attempt to install it on my IBM Laptop, HP Desktop and ancient Sony Desktop. Here are the basic specs for the computers:

• 800 MHz Celeron
• 128 MB Ram
• 11g HD

• 1.1 GHz Celeron
• 246 MB Ram
• 20g HD

• 238 MHz PIII
• 64Mb Ram
• 3.8g HD

On the two desktop machines I was not able to complete the installation successfully.With the HP, the installer froze before it even started, right after I selected SkyOS from the GRUB menu.After some tinkering with it I gave up and moved onto the Sony machine. With the Sony, the installation would work perfectly until the copying of the files to the HD.Right as it began to copy it would bring up an error telling me that base.pkg couldn’t be copied because the Installation Information was not there.  I found this weird because my install on my laptop went fine, and I was using the same CD for both. I submitted the bug to the bug tracker, and am awaiting the response. When installing on the laptop though, I was able to get everything to run smoothly.

I inserted my freshly burned CD and successfully booted into the SkyOS installer via GRUB.After moving easily through the first few setup screens I was prompted to partition the HD.The graphical partition program included is simple and effective, and within seconds I had deleted my windows NTFS partition and created a new SkyFS one. My only complaint was that I couldn’t get it to expand to the full 11 GB, it insisted that I could use only 3.3 maximum. This may have just been my error, and if not I’m sure Robert will be swift in creating a patch for this. I was forced to reboot after this, and continued with my installation.  At the next step I was allowed to choose which applications to include. I left it with all the apps selected, and it began to install the packages.All the files were copied successfully, albeit a bit slowly, and I was ready to begin.

The SkyOS boot is smooth and easy, and the only “ugly” underlying code you have to look at is the GRUB boot loader.  I was greeted by a simple and professional login screen with two automatically created accounts, Test and Admin.  The install hadn’t given me an option to create my own username and password, so I just clicked Admin and then login (no password was required).From there, the default desktop loaded instantly, and I was ready to go.

On the first boot, a notification window slid up and told me my USB port was recognized, but the USB functionality has been disabled until beta9 so Robert can focus on the networking issues.

My sound card is not supported, so I was not allowed to use the MP3 player or Media player in this version. Just for kicks I inserted a Dashboard Confessionals CD I owned and attempted to mount it, but was given a message about an “IO error." Lesson: no matter how nice the new ISS is, a good portion of users aren’t going to be able to use it if there aren’t more sound card drivers included by the final.

I was glad to see that my ATI Rage graphic card was supported in SkyOS, so soon after booting into it I opened the Display configuration center and tried to switch from the VESA 2.0 driver to the ATI one.Unfortunately, when I tried this I would either have the screen flicker for a few seconds and return to the VESA driver, or have the whole OS freeze as I clicked apply settings. So to my dismay I was forced to use the VESA driver, and wait until my submitted bug was fixed.

My pointing stick on my IBM laptop worked nicely, along with the two basic PS2 mice that I plugged in (no configuration needed either).  Later, I plugged in my wireless Logitech mouse, which to my great surprise, also worked nicely after a quick reboot.

1. "SkyOS Beta 8, Page 1/2"
2. "SkyOS Beta 8, Page 2/2"