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| Newer page: | version 2 | Last edited on Thursday, September 23, 2004 6:14:09 pm | by DanielLawson | Revert |
| Older page: | version 1 | Last edited on Thursday, September 23, 2004 4:57:19 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
@@ -1,28 +1,26 @@
!! Intro
-[ByzantineOS | http://byzgl.sourceforge.net/] is a small LinuxDistribution focussing on Internet Appliances. While in alpha
stage, it is clean, fast, and fits on a 28MB
[ISO] by virtue of choices like using BusyBox and running [X11] in a FrameBuffer. It concentrates on the web software selection an Internet Appliance typically offers, ie a WebBrowser.
+[ByzantineOS | http://byzgl.sourceforge.net/] is a small LinuxDistribution focussing on Internet Appliances. While in beta
stage, it is clean, fast, and fits on a 48MB
[ISO] by virtue of choices like using BusyBox and running [X11] in a FrameBuffer. It concentrates on the web software selection an Internet Appliance typically offers, ie a WebBrowser.
!! Booting
-Pop the [CD] in, reboot, make sure you are booting off the [CDROM] drive, and sit back. A BootLoader screen (probably [GRUB]) asks for
a choice of normal or hi-res (1024x768
, although
it doesn't say that there) FrameBuffer~s
. Booting shows the usual sorts of
output, although the noisy [Kernel] messages are hidden behind messages like ''configuring network card''
and the like
. Unfortunately it fails to properly configure the interface
and instead assigns a completely bogus [IP] address for some reason.
-
-!! Logging in
-
-After booting
, it leaves a prompt saying ''press enter to enable this console''. Switching VTs shows this on at least a few other consoles. Once you log in you are presented with a shell...
and no indication of what
to do. [RTFM] reveals that you need to run startx(1). You should run dhcpd(8) first though, so you have a [DHCP]-assigned [IP] address, or at least manually set it via ifconfig(8)
.
+Pop the [CD] in, reboot, make sure you are booting off the [CDROM] drive, and sit back. The boot process has been streamlined quite
a bit
, and
it all progresses automatically
. Kernel
output and service output have been tidied up
. It autodetected
and configured my graphics card and network card
, and proceeded
to load up X
.
!! Using it
-You'll find the usual window decorations (such as title bars and close buttons) are absent
, even though there is is a <tt>.sawfish</tt> menu in
your home directory
. It looks like no WindowManager is run
, which makes sense for an OS targetted towards Internet Appliances
.
+ByzantineOS automatically loads X
, but it doesn't use
your traditional Window Manager
. It loads Mozilla instead
, albeit a very customised Mozilla. The current build (as of September 2004) uses Mozilla 1.6
.
-The system is equipped with
an older [Mozilla] WebBrowser (whose age is of little true concern here). The browser
is fairly customized in terms of menubar placement
and available options
.
+The ByzantineOS developers have chosen to use Mozilla as
an application platform, and it
is used to run applications, browse the web,
and even configure your network card
.
-So what to do now? Browse the web! That's about all you can do really.
The system is run from
a <tt>cramfs</tt> image (compressed [RAM] FileSystem)
, and any changes (like installed plugins and settings changes) are lost on reboot
.
+The applications included are
a SNES emulator, GAIM, XMMS, some card games, a calculator
, and a few others
.
!! Conclusion
-It's a cool idea. On a small machine with a nice display it could be a nifty WebBrowser OS. It seems like
a good
first start for web kiosk type software
, though you'll probably want to change many
of the default options
, and saving changes
to disk or network storage would be really useful
. All that limits its usefulness for the living room is the awful display quality of TVs. ''(At
least until [HDTV]... --JaredWigmore)''
+It's a cool idea. On a small machine with a nice display it could be a nifty WebBrowser OS. It has come
a long way since I
first reviewed it
, and feels very polished. The inclusion of other applications makes it quite a neat little distribution. The layout
of the mozilla interface is
, IMO, less than optimal, but that's partly because it's totally different
to the 'normal' layout
.
+
+
All that limits its usefulness for the living room is the awful display quality of TVs - at
least until [HDTV]...
--DanielLawson
-----
CategoryReview
