Wiki: FAQ

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'''What filing system does Syllable use?'''		'''What filesystem does Syllable use?'''

Syllable uses the AFS filing system (AtheOS Filing System). This was also created by Kurt Skauen, as a part of the AtheOS system. It is somewhat similar to the BeOS Filing System.		Syllable uses the AFS filesystem (AtheOS FileSystem). This was also created by Kurt Skauen, as a part of the AtheOS system. It is somewhat similar to the BeOS filesystem.

Add frequently asked questions below.

Where did Syllable come from?

Syllable was a fork of Kurt Skauen's AtheOS? operating system.

What happened to Kurt?

After many years of hacking on AtheOS, Kurt eventually got interested in flying planes, and ended up abandoning work AtheOS for a lengthy period of time. After months passed with no updates to AtheOS and little sign of future development, a core community of AtheOS devotees forked AtheOS (thanks to AtheOS' GPL license) and started the Syllable project.

Why not port Syllable to another kernel?

The short answer: It's difficult, and really doesn't give us anything.
The long answer: Unlike Linux or traditional Unix systems, Syllable is not a kernel with a GUI on the top, it is an entire system. The GUI relies on the kernel to provide a lot of functionality which it abstracts to the user. Porting the GUI to another kernel would break that abstraction and a lot of the functionality as it is designed. It would also leave us largely at the whim of a third party, and we would need to duplicate a lot of functionality which is already present and working in the Syllable kernel. There is a lot of smart design in Syllable and we would be "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" if we abandoned that design for the small gain of a slightly more mature kernel.

Why not use X-Windows and X's GUI toolkits?

The short answer: Because we don't want to ;)
The long answer: The X Windowing system has various technical problems which Syllable seeks to avoid (you probably know what these are). Using X toolkits would be undesirable, as Syllable seeks to be a single, unified system, with its own toolkit.

What filesystem does Syllable use?

Syllable uses the AFS filesystem (AtheOS FileSystem). This was also created by Kurt Skauen, as a part of the AtheOS system. It is somewhat similar to the BeOS filesystem.

What licence is Syllable available under?

AtheOS was released un the GPL, and so too is Syllable. Some bits and pieces may be under other free-software licences though.

How far advanced is Syllable's development?

It's resonably mature. It boots, and the kernel is largely complete.

What are Syllable's system requirements?

Syllable requires a processor that supports i586 (Pentium) instructions; this is a leftover from AtheOS; Kurt wrote some lines of i586 instructions in assembler. An installation uses up several hundred megabytes of hard disc. About 20 to 24mb of ram is needed to boot. So, a Pentium 60 with 24mb of ram and a small hard disc should be the minimum currently able to 'run' Syllable. A Pentium 166MMX with 64mb of ram and a 1gb hard drive can run Syllable quite comfortably.
PPP is not supported yet, so you can only connect to the internet via a local network at the present time.

What architectures does Syllable run on?

As said above, Syllable is currently hardcoded to require an i586 x86 processor or compatible (it will [to quote Kurt] "crash and burn on a 486"). The current developers are not working on porting Syllable to other platforms or making it a high objective. However, the Syllable code-base is fairly portable as so far as operating systems come. If you wish to develop/maintain a port of Syllable to another system archecture such as PPC or ARM, feel free to do so.

Why does Syllable need its own version of Grub??

How can I become involved in development / are newcomers allowed to join the effort?

Sure, just join the Syllable developer mailing list.