Symphony OS,
SymphonyOne or
Symphony Linux, is a
Live CDA live CD or live DVD is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
-based
operating systemAn operating system is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating...
, developed by Ryan Quinn,
Jason SpisakJason Spisak is an American voice actor in animation and video games.Jason is also the co-leader of the Symphony OS Project. He is the designer of Symphony's unique Mezzo desktop environment and wrote the Laws of Interface Design, for which the project tries to adhere to in its designs...
, and Alexander Drummond. The distribution is currently dormant.
When it started, Symphony OS was based on
KnoppixKnoppix, or KNOPPIX , is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD, one of the first of its kind for any operating system. Knoppix was developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program it is loaded from the optical disc and decompressed into...
. Since its May 2006 release it is no longer based on Knoppix, but rather on
DebianDebian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software especially under the GNU General Public License and other open source licenses. The primary form, Debian GNU/Linux, which uses the Linux kernel and GNU OS tools, is a popular and...
unstable, and features a functional hard drive installer. Symphony OS 2007 Preview, was based on
UbuntuUbuntu , is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution. It is named after the South African ethical ideology Ubuntu and is distributed as free and open source software. Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on...
7.04.SymphonyOne was released on April 1, 2008.
Symphony OS,
SymphonyOne or
Symphony Linux, is a
Live CDA live CD or live DVD is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
-based
operating systemAn operating system is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating...
, developed by Ryan Quinn,
Jason SpisakJason Spisak is an American voice actor in animation and video games.Jason is also the co-leader of the Symphony OS Project. He is the designer of Symphony's unique Mezzo desktop environment and wrote the Laws of Interface Design, for which the project tries to adhere to in its designs...
, and Alexander Drummond. The distribution is currently dormant.
When it started, Symphony OS was based on
KnoppixKnoppix, or KNOPPIX , is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD, one of the first of its kind for any operating system. Knoppix was developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program it is loaded from the optical disc and decompressed into...
. Since its May 2006 release it is no longer based on Knoppix, but rather on
DebianDebian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software especially under the GNU General Public License and other open source licenses. The primary form, Debian GNU/Linux, which uses the Linux kernel and GNU OS tools, is a popular and...
unstable, and features a functional hard drive installer. Symphony OS 2007 Preview, was based on
UbuntuUbuntu , is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution. It is named after the South African ethical ideology Ubuntu and is distributed as free and open source software. Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on...
7.04.SymphonyOne was released on April 1, 2008. The release of version 2008.1 is based on Ubuntu 7.10.
The primary difference between Symphony OS and other distributions is the addition of the
MezzoMezzo is the desktop environment created by Ryan Quinn. Added to Symphony OS, it follows Jason Spisak's Laws of Interface Design and poses a new way of presenting data to the user...
desktop environmentIn graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface that is based on the desktop metaphor which can be seen on most modern personal computers today...
. This environment, like other aspects of Symphony, was designed with an eye towards extreme simplicity and usability. An example is that
WLANWLAN can refer to:* Wireless LAN wireless network connect* WLAN , a radio station licensed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States* WLAN-FM, a radio station licensed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States...
-Networks can work automatically with no user action. Symphony also includes its own
MozillaThe Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...
-driven application environment, called Orchestra.
Symphony OS uses a custom packaging system utilizing the
*.sym package format; through a simple GUI a user may install any application in the Symphony library without dealing with
"dependency hell"Dependency hell is a colloquial term for the frustration of some software users who have installed software packages which have dependencies on specific versions of other software packages.- Overview :...
. Because Symphony is
DebianDebian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software especially under the GNU General Public License and other open source licenses. The primary form, Debian GNU/Linux, which uses the Linux kernel and GNU OS tools, is a popular and...
-based, it also supports the
Debian package formatdeb is the extension of the Debian software package format and the most often used name for such binary packages. Like the "Deb" part of the term Debian, it originates from the name of Debra, then girlfriend and now ex-wife of Debian's founder Ian Murdock.Debian packages are also used in...
.
Orchestra
Orchestra is an incomplete
rapid application developmentRapid Application Development refers to a type of software development methodology which uses minimal planning in favor of rapid prototyping. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself...
environment which is being written for Symphony OS. It allows programs composed of
HTMLHTML, which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. It provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists etc as well as for links, quotes, and other items. It allows images...
and
CGIThe Common Gateway Interface is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, commonly a web server....
-style
PerlPerl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall, a linguist working as a systems administrator for NASA, in 1987, as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone...
to run as local
GUIGui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
applications.
Orchestra is made up of two main parts: a lightweight
localhostIn computer networking, localhost is the standard hostname given to the address of the loopback network interface. The name is also a reserved domain name In computer networking, localhost (meaning "this computer") is the standard hostname given to the address of the loopback network interface....
-only HTTP server written in
PerlPerl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall, a linguist working as a systems administrator for NASA, in 1987, as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone...
, and a slimmed down
MozillaMozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the now-defunct Netscape Communications Corporation and its related application software, including the Mozilla.org group and its successor the Mozilla Foundation....
rendererA layout engine, or rendering engine, is software that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
. Because Mozilla is used as the base for rendering Orchestra, applications can utilize the following technologies:
- Plain HTML
- JavaScript
JavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language used to enable programmatic access to objects within both the client application and other applications. It is primarily used in the form of client-side JavaScript, implemented as an integrated component of the web browser, allowing the...
- Perl and CGI
- Java applet
A Java applet is an applet delivered to the users in the form of Java bytecode. Java applets can run in a Web browser using a Java Virtual Machine , or in Sun's AppletViewer, a stand-alone tool for testing applets. Java applets were introduced in the first version of the Java language in 1995...
s (using a pluginIn computing, a plug-in consists of a computer program that interacts with a host application to provide a certain, usually very specific, function "on demand"...
)
- Macromedia Flash applications (using a plugin)
- Embedded media players (using a plugin)
- XUL
In computer programming, XUL , the XML User Interface Language, is an XML user interface markup language which operates in Mozilla cross-platform applications such as Firefox and Flock...
interfaces
Mezzo
Mezzo is the
desktop environmentIn graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface that is based on the desktop metaphor which can be seen on most modern personal computers today...
created by Ryan Quinn based on designs by Jason Spisak. Added to Symphony OS, it aims to pose a new way of presenting data to the user. Mezzo disposes of standard concepts like
"The desktop is a folder" and nested menu systems and instead presents all needed information directly to the user via the main desktop and four desk targets for tasks and files related to System, Programs, Files, and Trash. The developers claim that this makes the desktop easier to use.
External links