Symphony OS
Sweet Music, with a new twist
Symphony
OS is a new twist on the desktop and what it should be like.
It is a live cd based on Knoppix, which is a solid and very
high
quality debian live cd. The desktop is called Mezzo which is
built over FVWM,
and is described as such:
"Mezzo is the revolutionary desktop system built for Symphony. Based on the concept by Jason Spisak this system simplifies
and organizes the desktop environment in such a way that practically anyone can feel comfortable using it.
Mezzo disposes of standard concepts like "The desktop is a folder" and nasty nested menu systems that are hard to navigate
and harder to manage 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."
This all comes together in a very easy to use easy to navigate desktop which is based on Jason Spisak's laws of Interface Design.
This is the first release of an Alpha version, and is openly admitted to be "buggy" but the long term goals are already well under way:
"Mezzo is the revolutionary desktop system built for Symphony. Based on the concept by Jason Spisak this system simplifies
and organizes the desktop environment in such a way that practically anyone can feel comfortable using it.
Mezzo disposes of standard concepts like "The desktop is a folder" and nasty nested menu systems that are hard to navigate
and harder to manage 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."
This all comes together in a very easy to use easy to navigate desktop which is based on Jason Spisak's laws of Interface Design.
This is the first release of an Alpha version, and is openly admitted to be "buggy" but the long term goals are already well under way:
"Goals for Release 1
- Provide a simple way of installing applications with or without an Internet connection avoiding "Dependency Hell".
- Provide a single graphical tool for installing deb packages, source packages, and Symphony binary packages.
- Develop and easy to use rapid application development environment (Orchestra) for creating simple GUI apps that are highly portable and easy to install.
- Provide users with an easy to use Desktop environment without using KDE or Gnome but rather with a lightweight window manager (icewm).
- Provide an easy to use installer in the form of a minimal live cd which loads an installer in a full GUI environment.
- Provide a repository of Symphony binary packages for end users.
Goals for Future Releases
- Integrate Wine more closely with the desktop environment adding support for selected Windows programs to the same GUI Installer system used by native applications.
- Expand capabilities of the Orchestra environment to allow for more feature rich widgets (i.e. beyond standard html elements)."
Installation:
As this is a live cd, which is far and away my preferred method to get a distro by, installation occurs after you have booted up and have had the chance to move around and decide if the distro is something you want to try further. In this case, the installer is the original Knoppix installer which is invoked by opening a command line, switching to root, and typing knoppix-install. You are than presented with the opportunity to create and select partitions and than install. Over all it moves quite quickly through the installation process and installs Grub in the position of your choice. It is neither overwhelming, nor hand holding, it just does it's job.
First Boot:
Once installed, or running from the CD for that manner, you are greeted by a fun "Hello, My name is" type tag and than boot up directly into the Mezzo desktop (screenshots here). The actual loading is not themed at this time, but I would expect that it will be as so much of the rest of the distro is, again this is very Alpha level work. The Mezzo desktop is as described above, no pull down menus, or scrolling needed, you click on a corner target and the entire screen is than filled with the next menu level. So easy you could teach your grandma.
What it has:
Symphony is a debian/Knoppix based live cd which is based on the 2.6.7 kernel, it has Firefox 1.0, Thunderbird 1.0RC, XFree86 4.5.0, gaim, and Orchestra all on the beautiful Mezzo desktop.
What it has not:
At this point, there is a lot that it is missing, but again it is an Alpha distro. Full functionality has yet to be created, there are a few additional apps available on the web site, but not many, and I have not been able to encourage them to install. I am not going to focus on these issues however, as this is a work in progress.
Usage:
So, how does it work? Very nicely indeed. Jason's laws are carried out in a very comfortable and simple manner. The ease of clicking a corner, than selecting the program or function you need right from the menu/desktop is wonderful, without leaving the desktop feeling littered with icons and links. The feel is quick, light and oh so easy. The one aspect of the build that I do not care for is the file manager. According to Jason's laws "Scrolling Sucks", while I agree, the implementation in the file manager seems too aggressive. When you open a file the entire file manager adjusts itself and the size of the icons to fit everything in the file inside the window. This is cool when you are looking at huge filled files, however when you are looking at a file with few objects the entire file manager shrinks itself down to just fit the objects. This can take you from a screen filled small icon'd file to a 3 by 2 inch window with one object in it. It happens quickly and quite nicely, but in all honesty, I don't care for it. It can be turned off, but I would rather be able to adjust it's level of action in re-sizing itself rather than an on/off option.
Conclusions:
As this is a live cd, which is far and away my preferred method to get a distro by, installation occurs after you have booted up and have had the chance to move around and decide if the distro is something you want to try further. In this case, the installer is the original Knoppix installer which is invoked by opening a command line, switching to root, and typing knoppix-install. You are than presented with the opportunity to create and select partitions and than install. Over all it moves quite quickly through the installation process and installs Grub in the position of your choice. It is neither overwhelming, nor hand holding, it just does it's job.
First Boot:
Once installed, or running from the CD for that manner, you are greeted by a fun "Hello, My name is" type tag and than boot up directly into the Mezzo desktop (screenshots here). The actual loading is not themed at this time, but I would expect that it will be as so much of the rest of the distro is, again this is very Alpha level work. The Mezzo desktop is as described above, no pull down menus, or scrolling needed, you click on a corner target and the entire screen is than filled with the next menu level. So easy you could teach your grandma.
What it has:
Symphony is a debian/Knoppix based live cd which is based on the 2.6.7 kernel, it has Firefox 1.0, Thunderbird 1.0RC, XFree86 4.5.0, gaim, and Orchestra all on the beautiful Mezzo desktop.
What it has not:
At this point, there is a lot that it is missing, but again it is an Alpha distro. Full functionality has yet to be created, there are a few additional apps available on the web site, but not many, and I have not been able to encourage them to install. I am not going to focus on these issues however, as this is a work in progress.
Usage:
So, how does it work? Very nicely indeed. Jason's laws are carried out in a very comfortable and simple manner. The ease of clicking a corner, than selecting the program or function you need right from the menu/desktop is wonderful, without leaving the desktop feeling littered with icons and links. The feel is quick, light and oh so easy. The one aspect of the build that I do not care for is the file manager. According to Jason's laws "Scrolling Sucks", while I agree, the implementation in the file manager seems too aggressive. When you open a file the entire file manager adjusts itself and the size of the icons to fit everything in the file inside the window. This is cool when you are looking at huge filled files, however when you are looking at a file with few objects the entire file manager shrinks itself down to just fit the objects. This can take you from a screen filled small icon'd file to a 3 by 2 inch window with one object in it. It happens quickly and quite nicely, but in all honesty, I don't care for it. It can be turned off, but I would rather be able to adjust it's level of action in re-sizing itself rather than an on/off option.
Conclusions:
In the end I am very excited about
where this is going. The look and feel are fabulous, the
stability is surprising and the direction looks to only improve on
it. There is much that is not working yet making this not ready
to be your main desktop, but it is also the first release, so it should
not be. If Symphony can carry out it's goals and build on the
already impressive Mezzo desktop this will be a distro to watch.
Contact me at:
webmaster@capnkirby.com
