Yay! Another F*cking linux distro to learn about! Linux distros may not be as common as JS frameworks, but they're almost there.
Just install Arch and have done with it, people. It's like having your own distro, but without all the annoying bits.
SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
21–30 of 47 posts
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#22Yay! Another F*cking linux distro to learn about! Linux distros may not be as common as JS frameworks, but they're almost there. Just install Arch and have done with it, people. It's like having your own distro, but without all the annoying bits.
Quote from Wikipedia page about the OS
"At first, Symphony OS was based on Knoppix. Since its May 2006 release it is no longer based on Knoppix, but rather on Debian unstable, and features a functional hard drive installer."
Debian Sid is viable as the basis for desktop use, but there can be issues now and again and they can persist for a week or two. Just wondering at the target market for this one.
Always fun to do a dist-upgrade on anything Debian derived to see what happens...
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#23tl;dr: it's a Debian derivative. (I could be wrong. The wikipedia page is very mangled, and the website is entirely content free.) It looks like it mainly exists as a platform for Mezzo, a desktop environment. I skimmed the design document; it's painfully opinionated, and keeps repeating the tired old cliché that users can't handle configuration options and we should make their lives easier but not letting them chang…
The design document is 11 years old. Symphony has been a solo side project for the last 6-7 years with a release once or twice a year. There are a few more recent updates on the project's facebook page including screenshots of the new build in progress. https://www.facebook.com/SymphonyOS/
Are there any videos of the new Mezzo in action?
It occurs to me that my post was unduly dismissive. I totally believe that most modern UIs are horribly broken, and I completely sympathise with the 'burn it all down!' approach. But forcing everybody to change their workflow because reasons is, I believe, not it. (Though I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise.)
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#24If it's as friendly as the website, there is still plenty to do there.
Unfortunately SymphonyOS is a one-person project right now and has been for a long time. My focus has been on the codebase and the website which I will admit is crap was put together in one evening. Currently I am in the middle of a complete rewrite of the desktop environment with a new release coming in January. Personally, I would not have submitted it to HN with the website in it's current state but was surprised this morning when a co-worker told me it was on the front page
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#25I work with the maintainer of Symphony and it is still "alive".
Perhaps you could find a volunteer with a little time to just add a list of packages and functions available from the live image to the Web site?
That would help the distro collectors to decide if this is interesting or not.
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#26Yay! Another F*cking linux distro to learn about! Linux distros may not be as common as JS frameworks, but they're almost there. Just install Arch and have done with it, people. It's like having your own distro, but without all the annoying bits.
Quote from Wikipedia page about the OS "At first, Symphony OS was based on Knoppix. Since its May 2006 release it is no longer based on Knoppix, but rather on Debian unstable, and features a functional hard drive installer." Debian Sid is viable as the basis for desktop use, but there can be issues now and again and they can persist for a week or two. Just wondering at the target market for this one. Always fun to do…
The current release available on the website is based on Debian Wheezy and was released in January. A new release, with a completely re-written desktop, based on Ubuntu will be coming out next month.
The wikipedia page is out of date in many places
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
The design document is 11 years old. Symphony has been a solo side project for the last 6-7 years with a release once or twice a year. There are a few more recent updates on the project's facebook page including screenshots of the new build in progress. https://www.facebook.com/SymphonyOS/
Are there any videos of the new Mezzo in action? It occurs to me that my post was unduly dismissive. I totally believe that most modern UIs are horribly broken, and I completely sympathise with the 'burn it all down!' approach. But forcing everybody to change their workflow because reasons is, I believe, not it. (Though I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise.)
Many of the concepts we built into Symphony have since become common in major desktop and mobile environments such as fullscreen menus and hot corners. The project started in 2004 when I as a web developer wanted to start playing in the Desktop space and decided to give it a shot with the tools I knew. These days it's a personal side project that I wish I had more time for. I do not have any videos of the new build in action, just the screenshots on the project's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SymphonyOS/ I'll see what I can do about that this weekend when I am back into it. The new build is coming together but I am not trying to convince anyone that this is what they should use. It's a fun personal hobby at least until more developers get involved.
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#28I work with the maintainer of Symphony and it is still "alive".
Perhaps you could find a volunteer with a little time to just add a list of packages and functions available from the live image to the Web site? That would help the distro collectors to decide if this is interesting or not.
Distrowatch has a partial list here: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=symphony
Symphony showing up on the front page of HN was a total surprise to me today. As a sole developer my focus right now is on the new build and next month's release. I agree that the site is way to sparse and could be much better (it was thrown together in one evening) but focusing on the site would only take away from the limited time I have available to work on the distro itself. If after the January release I am able to get a few more developers involved I would love to improve the site, documentation and community around the project.
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#29It's a little light on details. Is this related to the symphony framework in any way, or is it just a naming coincidence?
It is a coincidence. SymphonyOS pre-dates the Symfony framework by almost a year. There are several projects out there in different spaces that are named Symphony
Re: SymphonyOS – Light, Friendly, and Useful
#30Yay! Another F*cking linux distro to learn about! Linux distros may not be as common as JS frameworks, but they're almost there. Just install Arch and have done with it, people. It's like having your own distro, but without all the annoying bits.
What's your opinion of Arch vs Ubuntu? I've done Ubuntu for servers but haven't spent much time with Linux as a personal OS