Symphony OS

Infobox_OS
name = Symphony OS


caption = Symphony OS in Mezzo
developer = Symphony OS Project
family = Linux
source_model = Open source
working_state = Current
latest_release_version = 2008.01
latest_release_date = release date and age|2008|04|01
kernel_type = Monolithic kernel
ui = Mezzo Desktop Environment
license = Various
website = [http://www.symphonyos.com/ www.symphonyos.com]

Symphony OS, SymphonyOne or Symphony Linux, is a Live CD operating system, developed by Ryan Quinn, Jason Spisak, and Alexander Drummond. It is under active development. When it started, 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. Symphony OS 2007 Preview, was based on Ubuntu 7.04. [ [http://symphonyos.com/cms/?p=15 Symphony OS 2007 Preview] ] . SymphonyOne was released April 2008. The release of Version 2008.01 is based on Ubuntu 7.10.

The primary difference between Symphony OS and other distributions is the addition of the Mezzo desktop environment. This environment, like other aspects of Symphony, was designed with an eye towards extreme simplicity and usability. Symphony also includes its own Mozilla-driven application environment, called Orchestra.

Symphony OS uses a custom packaging system utilizing the *.sym package format; through a simple GUI interface a user may install any application in the Symphony library without dealing with "dependency hell". Because Symphony is Debian-based, it also supports the Debian package format.

Orchestra

Orchestra is an incomplete rapid application development environment which is being written for Symphony OS. It allows programs composed of HTML and CGI-style Perl to run as local GUI applications.

Orchestra is made up of two main parts: a lightweight localhost-only HTTP server written in Perl, and a slimmed down Mozilla renderer. Because Mozilla is used as the base for rendering Orchestra, applications can utilize the following technologies:
*Plain HTML
*JavaScript
*Perl and CGI
*Java applets (using a plugin)
*Macromedia Flash applications (using a plugin)
*Embedded media players (using a plugin)
*XUL interfaces

Mezzo

Mezzo is the desktop environment created 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.

References

External links

* [http://www.symphonyos.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.linux.com/feature/133017 Linux.com Reviews Symphony OS 2008]
* [http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/6982 Symphony OS 2006-05 Beta Review]