Syllable is a free and open source operating system for Pentium and compatible processors.

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.

Features according to the official website include:

    * Native 64-bit journaled file system, the AtheOS File System (usually called AFS, which is not the same as the Andrew File System)
    * C++ oriented API
    * Object-oriented graphical desktop environment on a native GUI architecture
    * Mostly POSIX compliant
    * Software ports, including Emacs, Vim, Perl, Python, Apache, others.
    * GNU toolchain (GCC, Glibc, Binutils, Make)
    * Preemptive multitasking with multithreading
    * Symmetric multiprocessing (multiple processor) support
    * Device drivers for most common hardware (video, sound, network chips)
    * File system drivers for FAT (read/write), NTFS (read) and ext2 (read)
    * REBOL as system scripting language

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. Read our full introduction and go to the Syllable Desktop and Syllable Server sites for more information, news and software downloads.

[Syllable Desktop]

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 optimised 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.

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 optimised 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.

Updates (via Distrowatch):

Kaj de Vos has announced the release of Syllable Server 0.4, a small (but extensible) server distribution built on top of a recent Linux kernel and the Linux From Scratch (LFS) base system: "We are pleased to announce that we have released the new Syllable Server 0.4. This release focuses on maturing existing functionality, improving security, ongoing system restructuring, and making the system a suitable base for third-party package managers. About half the packages in the system were upgraded, including key components such as the Linux kernel, udev, the LFS init scripts, DirectFB, SDL, Bash, Packager, OpenSSH, REBOL/Core, the Cheyenne web server and cdrtools. Other important packages such as Ruby, Midnight Commander, Links and Transmission were also updated. XZ-Utils was added, providing the same LZMA compression as in 7-Zip."