The Next Generation Of O.s Is Coming To Be Here

My english is not perfect, then... look at this: the next Linux distribution. (this is a photoshoped image, just a design)

MerlinUX will be developed in my little enterprise, with all the help that i receive.

The GUI is based in Aqua, but with some great WindowsXP and Longhorn features. Dock will be replaced 'cause, my team and i think it is no very functional sometimes. And, the best thing: it will be easier than any OS around the wolrd (yes, ANY OS ¿did u read this, dear Mac user? heh :6 )

I hope u understand my english :oops:

Hope u like it, and all suggestions are welcome.

PS: Visit www.maguscomputers.com from next weekend.

#200755

I think ill wait to see it to belive it.....

#200759

That pretty much summed it up

#200760

Right.

#200762

Optimism is a good thing though guys.

#200768

Originally posted by Ludge@Aug 10 2004, 07:48 AM

Optimism is a good thing though guys.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thnk u guy

I have to say: we are working very hard... very very hard in this project, so i would like to read some sugestion, some idea, some good thing, not only "oh i dont think so" or something like that.

I know how hard is programming a new Linux distribution with a complete new GUI, but it would be easier if we read ideas, suggestions. The OS will be free to download, and i bealive it will be perfect alternative to Mac OS X. A nice and easy GUI, on an UNIX based system.

And i repeat: we're working, not "painting" in photoshop some stupid things to tell u "look what im doing".

#200773

However, no-one (myself included) will believe you until we see some evidence of work in progress other than a photoshop screenshot. We have enough 12 year olds here saying "I've build a MacOS emulator using special hardware" and "I'm going to build an entire OS from scratch" to be more than a little jaded.

#200798

Ok, I'm going to humour you for now and give you a bit of advice, even though Im not quite sure that this project is ever going to happen...

Even if I were to fully trust in the claims made here... My first suggestion would be to take on some people who really know what they are doing when it comes to user interface design. The photoshopped image that you have posted here looks like a standard linux distro with some bolt-ons and a bit of skinning. It doesn't have the really polished look that OSX has, I'm afraid it looks a bit disjointed - Element styles, even in that one screenshot, don't match with each other.

There is a reason the mac OSX dock is so popular, and is emulated so much on windows... It works. You and your "team" may not like it... But shouldn't you give the public the choice of what to have on their own desktop?

Making claims like "this will be easier to use than ANY other OS in the world" isn't going to help your credibility with other people here. Like Ludge said, we have had enough 12 year olds making empty promises that people become cynical... Especially when wild claims like this are made without anything to back them up. For someone like me who knows that Linux is not, nor is it mean to be, as easy to use as Windows on the whole, I would love to know how you intend to change things to make it an "out of the box" solution... The various large distro companies have been trying this for a while (especialy SUSE & Mandrake), and haven't quite got there themselves yet... These are companies with hundreds of people working for them... I just have to wonder how you are going to achieve at your first attempt what they have been trying for years?

Coming somewhere with only a photoshopped image to back up your claims isn't a good idea. It shows that you can only be very early on in your development cycle... So what is the point of coming on a set of forums and talking about it? If you're looking for suggestions, you're better off talking to a small number of respected individuals in private, rather than a community as a whole. If you really are going to go through the entire development process to release on this, opening this kind of thing up to the whole community will only cause you grief from willions of "when will it be released" type posts.

Sorry if this seems like a negative response, but I hope some of what I have said will make sense and be useful to you. If indeed this is ever to come to completion, then good luck to you. For now, I'll reserve my judgement.

Cheers,

#200810

Hmm, that's very interesting. The dockbar has a weather docklet and it's showing a City in Chile. "Curico"

Regardless, looks nice

#200854

Deej:

Than k u for your explanation. If every people here does the same, i can understand what r u thinking about it. OK, i'll try to explain the thing with my little english.

My objective showing the photoshoped image, is because the first step in our development is the GUI. Then, we are showing this pre-design (all another desgins are secrets ) and reading people's opinion, to make the best GUI that i can. And, yes, when i say "easier that any another OS" is a publicitary phrase, of course. Mac, Windows, Linux, and all "home" OS's in the world say the same.

And about the dock: I know the dock is so beatiful and all the good things abut that. But, i think it can to be better, and personally, i think sidebar is better in some aspects. Anyway, i readed that about tho dock so many times in some tech magazines, and believe me: dock is not perfect. I understand u love it, yes, i love dock too, but, i repeat, it can to be better. Now, that bar in MerlinUX is like a dock but with side bar funcionalities, that's all.

I know how many people works in Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, etc. That's the reason 'cause this distro is based on Mandrake :6

We cant to make a completly new distro, of course i never saw that. I have so many things to say, but i cant to explain in english... If i can to explain it in spanish, would be cool.

PS: Source codes will be ever available from the 1st. compilation (i mean 0.0.0.0001) in the web site www.maguscomputers.com/en/products/software/merlinux/development/sourcecodes.html (page available from September 1st)

Greetings.

PS: All people interesting in help to development MerlinUX are welcome :moon:

edit: (SORRY ABOUT THE EMOTICON, WE PRESSED "Stop" and just see the smile xD)

#200881

Originally posted by OSX@Aug 10 2004, 08:57 AM

Deej:

Than k u for your explanation. If every people here does the same, i can understand what r u thinking about it. OK, i'll try to explain the thing with my little english.

My objective showing the photoshoped image, is because the first step in our development is the GUI. Then, we are showing this pre-design (all another desgins are secrets ) and reading people's opinion, to make the best GUI that i can. And, yes, when i say "easier that any another OS" is a publicitary phrase, of course. Mac, Windows, Linux, and all "home" OS's in the world say the same.

And about the dock: I know the dock is so beatiful and all the good things abut that. But, i think it can to be better, and personally, i think sidebar is better in some aspects. Anyway, i readed that about tho dock so many times in some tech magazines, and believe me: dock is not perfect. I understand u love it, yes, i love dock too, but, i repeat, it can to be better. Now, that bar in MerlinUX is like a dock but with side bar funcionalities, that's all.

I know how many people works in Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, etc. That's the reason 'cause this distro is based on Mandrake :6

We cant to make a completly new distro, of course i never saw that. I have so many things to say, but i cant to explain in english... If i can to explain it in spanish, would be cool.

PS: Source codes will be ever available from the 1st. compilation (i mean 0.0.0.0001) in the web site www.maguscomputers.com/en/products/software/merlinux/development/sourcecodes.html (page available from September 1st)

Greetings.

PS: All people interesting in help to development MerlinUX are welcome  :moon:

edit: (SORRY ABOUT THE EMOTICON, WE PRESSED "Stop" and just see the smile xD)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So... Are you just going to mod KDE or really program your whole GUI from scratch?

Why is your site down? Its been down seince yesterday when i read this..

#200885

I will to make the GUI based on KDE.

And the site is down becasue i have some f****g problem with .com :rant:

See it:http://205.209.140.230/~merlinux/index.html

Im a PC ensamblator, that's my new brand. Towers are from AOpen (i dont want people saying "that's not your computers" )

#200886

why not just make a theme for KDE then? KDre is already complete (for me anyway) This would be a nice skin but not if we couldnt change the skin.. Id just make the skin.

#200892

because we want some new GUI features that i want to introduce to make it easier (if i can, of course).

#200895

I would be careful with your OS's name.

eg. "Merlinux, a LUG site of students of the Javeriana University in Bogota - Colombia, got nuked.

Merlinux is a support group for spanish people needing help with GNU/Linux."

Just do a google search and I am sure you will find plenty more Merlinux sites.

Also, to introduce some GUI features into Linux involves rewriting X Windows or creating your own GUI. Others can just be an add-on or modification to desktop enviroments like good old KDE.

#201082

A warning to everyone: Be very careful with flaming. These kinds of topics incite anger for some reason.

Discussing a GUI design (even just photoshopped) is an interesting topic and there's nothing wrong with it. Someone doesn't have to code a whole OS/GUI just to have an opinion about it. Yes, people should keep their promises reasonable, but that's it.

So try to get on the topic of the GUI. Give advantages/disadvantages, etc, if you want to participate.....I guess...

#201091

My respectful opinion--features you've planned aside, I'm not a big fan of that design. It looks like you tried to mimic Aqua with a tutorial but couldn't quite get it. But I know that the design is a deliberate one, so maybe you have some vision that I'm just not getting yet. But I don't think that's going to excite anyone.

#201099

I think you should be careful also with using the star as your logo. Mandrake Soft. may not be happy with another Linux project using a similar logo.

As for the interface, try not to mimick brushed metal with a gradient. It doesn't look that good.

Also, it would be nice to see what buttons for different windows/websites you are going to be using.

And make sure that if you have a bubble-type tool tip, give it small rounded corners.

#201102

A mod of KDE?

Hmmm, to be very honest, and this isn't a flame, it doesn't really seem that you understand linux all that well...

For example. Let's say you want to make the GUI hardware accelerated, like Quartz Extreme, or Evas for Linux already is. You'd need to design something on the API level. The problem is, programs need to be coded in that API to take advantage of it. So if you say, made an API for KDE that interfaces with the GPU, you'd need to rewrite...well...everything (like the E17 project is doing)

If you want something like say..true alpha blending, well, you'd need to mod X, not KDE. And X is getting a composite manager very soon (probably a few weeks) so alpha blending will be available in the major X distro (x.org) In fact, alpha blending is already available in Kdrive Xserver.

So there's really no reason to "mod" KDE to add "GUI features". Unless I'm just not understanding you, what exactly do you want to add to KDE.

Also, as for simplicity. If it were easy to make Linux easy, it would be done already.

Linux isn't easy. period. There's nothing you or I can do about it to make it easier (sans help the hackers working on it). Reasons include the fact that most programs are only distributed in source code. The lack of binary compatibility in drivers across kernel versions, among other things. Things you have no control over. Also, you'd have to have, to make it easy, either compatibility with a current package system, or your own. If you are 100% compatible with say..RedHat or Mandrake's packaging system, then you are effectively RedHat or Mandrake, with a different GUI. And you aren't any easier.

#201109

Topic Moved.

This belongs in Aqua related discussion, methinks.

-----------------------

Stevie BM

#201189

Thank u for talk about the topic i writed.

Well, i have to travel now. I'll reply soon.

Greetings

#201358

Perhaps the thread should be renamed? This is about skinning a GUI, not creating an OS.

#201369