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[Syllable] The free desktop and server operating system family

Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1510x3]
The third release of Syllable Server has been published. This is 
an important release, because it is the first one that focused on 
making the system actually usable as a server. A number of popular 
servers were added and configured, and also several innovative REBOL 
software stacks. Out of the imaginary box, Syllable Server is now 
ready for such things as accepting remote SSH log-ins over the network, 
running a web server on the Cheyenne REBOL server, running an FTP 
server and several more. Special attention has been paid to programmability, 
with support for developing Model-View-Controller web applications 
in QuarterMaster and networking applications with the REBOL/Services 
Service Oriented Architecture. The Genode Nitpicker windowing system 
is also included. Read the rest in the full changelog. An extensive 
manual was also written, which is easy to follow. As usual, both 
a BitTorrent download (preferred) and a regular download are available 
(80 MB 7-Zip archive). Please use the torrent if you can.
This represents nine months of work, so a lot happened. I'll post 
the change log here:
This release focuses on making the system usable for running a number 
of standard servers, and several innovative REBOL servers.


The development files of the system, program headers, static libraries 
and development documentation, were moved to a separate area in /system/development/ 
and are now shipped in a separate package. If you want to compile 
software on Syllable Server, you need to install and register this 
package. The development files need to match the system: you can't 
use a package of any other Syllable version. (You will also need 
to install the Developer's Delight package collection and possibly 
other packages.)


User directories were moved from /home/ to /users/. Resource packages 
are in the process of moving from /usr/ to /resources/. /resources/ 
is currently a symbolic link to /usr/ so that resource packages will 
work from both places during the migration.


Many fixes were made, including more fixes for the CUPS print server 
and GhostScript. Creation of extra user accounts is possible now.


Many packages were updated, including the Linux kernel, IPTables, 
the GCC libraries, OpenSSH, SDL and QEmu. DirectFB was not upgraded 
due to incompatibility with Links2.


CDRTools were included for burning CDs, and the NetCat networking 
tool and the Transmission BitTorrent client were added.


In addition to the Syllable-specific early initialisation scripts 
(in the early-init subdirectory of packages), the late initialisation 
scripts (in the init subdirectory of packages) are now also executed. 
Several more initialisation scripts from Linux From Scratch were 
also added. Some servers can be started with the LFS scripts, others 
with the Syllable scripts (this will be unified in later releases).


The OpenSSH server was configured and now runs by default. At the 
first system start, security keys are generated that identify the 
server.


A collection of well-known root certificates from Certification Authorities 
was added to allow OpenSSL-based programs (such as OpenSSH) to establish 
the identity of destination points for network connections.


A MIME-types database was added in /etc/mime.types that is used by 
many programs, such as web servers, to identify the MIME types of 
files based on their file name extensions.

Several REBOL software stacks were added:

- The REBOL/Services Service Oriented Architecture.

- The UniServe network server framework.
- The Cheyenne Apache-class web server.
- A CAPTCHA library.
- A MySQL network protocol.

- The QuarterMaster web programming framework, based on a Model-View-Controller 
architecture. By default, it's configured to run on Cheyenne.


- The TINY library for parsing text, abstracting data access and 
building templates of generic text formats (including HTML). This 
library is an original creation and targets both ORCA and REBOL.


Configurations, including initialisation scripts, were added for 
the OpenSSH remote access server, the CUPS print server, the BIND 
domain name server, the Apache web server, the RSync file synchronisation 
server, the SaMBa Windows-compatible file server, the INetUtils FTP 
server and the VSFTP FTP server. Several of these are not included 
in the system, but need to be installed separately (the system is 
prepared for them). The sshd, cupsd and initd servers are started 
by default.


S3Cmd/S3Sync was included, a tool for accessing the Amazon Simple 
Storage Service (S3) and synchronising files with it.


As a demo, the Genode operating system framework, its Nitpicker windowing 
server (built on SDL) and its demonstration programs were included.
Graham
12-Sep-2008
[1513x2]
Lot of work ....
You don't believe in release frequently??
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1515]
We do, but we don't always manage
Graham
12-Sep-2008
[1516]
got an imap server included?
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1517x4]
0.1 was the first working version, 0.2 was a restructuring an bug 
fixing. I decided it was no use making another release until it was 
usable for practical purposes. This is what it took
There were development releases, though
Further, a lot of nonsense happened and I had to spend a lot of time 
on other things, such as creating alternatives for disappearing websites
On the other hand, I'm well underway with my REBOL CMS now :-)
Graham
12-Sep-2008
[1521]
is Cheyenne running on startup?
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1522x2]
No, but it takes changing one character
No IMAP server, but it would be straightforward to compile one, such 
as Cyrus
Graham
12-Sep-2008
[1524]
dovecot
shadwolf
12-Sep-2008
[1525]
nice work kaj keep going on
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1526]
Thanks
Graham
12-Sep-2008
[1527x2]
then one could run the Rebol IMAP bbs straight out of the box
That's used by Rebol France for their discussions
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1529x2]
Yeah, one of the next things is building middleware stacks
You get good pure REBOL ones included, though :-)
Graham
12-Sep-2008
[1531]
I'm running a vm of fedora just to run this bbs script!
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1532]
Ah. A Syllable Server VM would be much more lightweight. That's one 
of the things I designed it for
shadwolf
12-Sep-2008
[1533x2]
your internet server in 256K ^^
lol
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1535]
Well, not really; it's still Linux
shadwolf
12-Sep-2008
[1536x2]
you don't have money you don't have an internet serveur you have 
a digital watch  -> lets go  !!!
your internet server on your digital watch yeaaaaaaah
Graham
12-Sep-2008
[1538]
http://www.digicamsoft.com/cgi-bin/rebelBB.cgiis the script
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1539x2]
The documentation points to a disappeared site
I seem not to be the only one with that problem
Gabriele
12-Sep-2008
[1541]
Kaj, are you aware of gobolinux.org ?
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1542x3]
I ran it for a few years to try it
They took their ideas from AtheOS six years ago, our predecessor
I have an article in mind to put them straight :-)
Gabriele
12-Sep-2008
[1545]
I think they have an article about the coming or not coming from 
AtheOS :)
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1546]
It wasn't very usable at the time, though. It has fundamental and 
practical problems
Gabriele
12-Sep-2008
[1547]
anyway, they may have solved some of the problems you have too, that's 
why i was pointing it out.
Kaj
12-Sep-2008
[1548x3]
They have an article about how much they are Unix. I don't remember 
much about AtheOS
I've thoroughly evaluated them. I have been solving problems they 
created for themselves
Graham, does RebelBB need only REBOL and Dovecot?
Alan
14-Sep-2008
[1551]
.
Kaj
14-Sep-2008
[1552]
Dotting your i's?
Graham
14-Sep-2008
[1553x2]
Kaj, there never was any documentation except the source code which 
is linked at the bottom.  and all you need is Rebol and an imap server.
the missing link you refer to is the rebol documentaion project .. 
and yes, that has disappeared.
Kaj
15-Sep-2008
[1555x3]
Oh, OK
But is Dovecot all it needs?
Or can it use any IMAP server?
Graham
15-Sep-2008
[1558x2]
Any imap server
I just thought dovecot was the easiest to setup.