ByzantineOS 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.
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.
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 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.
The applications included are a SNES emulator, GAIM, XMMS, some card games, a calculator, and a few others.
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...
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DanielLawson