2. Syllable- The Little OS with a Big Future Tired of endless Windows security problems? Intrigued by Linux's power but discouraged by its complexity? Tempted by Mac OS but not thrilled with the hardware cost? If so, you might want to investigate the growing bunch of hobbyist OSes -- Syllable, SkyOS, Haiku, MenuetOS, Visopsys, ReactOS and others. Syllable is perhaps the most promising of them all; it's a maturing open source desktop OS with an evolving kernel & device driver range, and is targeted at the home/small-office user.
3. Introduction Syllable is a volunteer project that creates a family of easy to use, free software operating systems. You can use them separately, or you can use them together to form network platforms. The goal of the Syllable project is to create a family of easy-to-use free software operating systems. It is the continuation of the BeOS-like AtheOS.
4. Syllable Desktop (operating system) Syllable is a free and open source operating system for Pentium and compatible processors. Its purpose is to create an easy-to-use desktop operating system for the home and small office user. It was forked from the stagnant AtheOS in July 2002. It has a native web browser (Webster which is WebKit-based), email client (Whisper), media player, IDE, and many more applications
8. So what exactly is Syllable and what can it do for you? We are producing two operating systems: Syllable Desktop and Syllable Server. They are meant for different roles, but they share the goals of being as easy to use as possible while still being very powerful. Syllable Desktop is meant to run on personal computers. It is fully graphical, so it is easy to operate for people who don't care about diving into technical details. At the same time, it also offers a traditional command prompt environment that is well-known to technical-minded people as an extra, so nobody loses out. Syllable Server is meant to run on server computers - the ones that quietly do their work in backrooms and that you can connect to over the network with your personal computer. Thus, Syllable Server and Syllable Desktop are made to work together. You can happily use them on their own and with many different systems, but used together they will provide extra advantages. For example, if you want to set up a network of machines, it is easier if both desktop and server computers are alike, at least in their software. There will be less you will need to learn and remember to accomplish your tasks.
9. An important thing to know about Syllable is that Syllable Server is based on the well-known Linux kernel, but Syllable Desktop is not. Thus, Syllable Server is a Linux distribution, but Syllable Desktop is not. We started Syllable Desktop in 2002 and based it on the AtheOS operating system. Its author ceased its development around that time, so we effectively took it over. In 2007, we created Syllable Server with the same tools that we developed for Syllable Desktop, but basing it on Linux. The Linux kernel is not a complete operating system, but only the core for one, so we molded it into a complete system by adapting the parts that we already had. This way, we have made the two systems quite similar. When you can work with one, you can work with the other. However, Syllable Server does not have a full graphical environment yet. We are putting the one from Syllable Desktop on it, so it will become a very easy to use server system, but until we are done, Syllable Server can only be operated from a text mode command prompt. After that, the choice between the two environments will be up to the user. Unlike Syllable Desktop, it will always be possible to run Syllable Server without the graphical environment where and when this is more suitable.
10. Syllable Desktop Is an original, modern operating system design, in the tradition of the Amiga and BeOS, but built using many parts from the GNU project and Linux. It is designed and optimized for your desktop PC, making it exceptionally fast and responsive and easy to use. It is under development, so it is interesting and even exciting to try out, but you have to decide for yourself whether it fits your needs already. Syllable Desktop runs on industry-standard Personal Computers with a minimum of a Pentium compatible processor and 32 MB of memory. It can make a new computer extremely fast and an old computer usable again.
18. Syllable Server Is a small and efficient Linux operating system. It uses the Linux kernel and is compatible with Linux software, but is otherwise built to be as similar as possible to Syllable Desktop, using mostly the same parts. It is optimized for server computers, yet inherits a lot of efficiency and speed from the Syllable Desktop design. The current version only has a text mode console interface suitable for server use and elementary support for running some graphical programs (it is shown here running on Syllable Desktop under emulation). Nonetheless, the clean Syllable design and straightforward documentation make it easy to use. The graphical user interface from Syllable Desktop will be added in later versions to enhance ease of use further. Due to its Linux base, Syllable Server is a stable and usable system. It runs on industry-standard Personal Computers with a minimum of a 486 processor and 16 MB of memory. It can make a new computer very fast and efficient and an old computer usable again.
