Pinoy Linux flavor stirs ripple in OS community

The latest version of a locally developed operating system made the country proud early this month when the Linux-based software made a good impression among enthusiasts of the open source community.

The KahelOS GUI with the mascot 'Mulat'

The Linux-based operating system, dubbed “KahelOS”, entered the top ten of Distrowatch.com, an online site that charts and monitors Linux distributions (often shortened to “distros”) worldwide, upon its release .

The free software, which can be installed on desktops and laptops, was developed by Pasig City-based open source firm 8layer Technologies as part of its contribution to the open source movement.

Deng Silorio, one of the top executives of 8layer Technologies, said they developed the first version of KahelOS with no funding two years ago.

“[It was out for] sheer passion of innovation and love of sharing,” said Silorio, narrating the motivations that drove a small team of Pinoy developers to put up the software for everyone’s use.

The 8layer team behind the project was spearheaded by Meric Mara and Jasper Tomas, while artworks were rendered by Lariz Santos.

She noted that the first installer was released in 2009 at the Software Freedom Day 2009 Celebration. It was met with enthusiasm by Linux and open source practitioners worldwide, who immediately branded it as a “fledgling OS”.

The latest version, the KahelOS 111111 Installer, which made its debut in early December, is both a LiveDVD and an easy-to-use GUI-based Installer.

Unlike most Linux distros that are difficult to use, KahelOS boasts of a user-friendly interface that allows for “easy, quick, and friendly” installation, according to Silorio.

To promote the software, its developers have also introduced KahelOS’s mascot named “Mulat”, patterned after Bohol’s endangered tarsier, to signify openness and awareness.

Although the software was developed primarily by 8layer Technologies, Silorio said the software could not have been possible without the contributions of other members of the open source community.

“KahelOS is more than grateful to these innovators and contributors who shared in the inspiration of the team to do more and share more and expected nothing in return,” she said.

The developers, she added, are particularly grateful to The Gnome Project, Arch Linux, and Larch Project from which KahelOS was derived.

Now that the global community has already taken notice of KahelOS, Silorio said she hopes the country “would not put this noble, passionate and useful innovation to waste.”

“We are sure that there are thousands, if not millions, of benefits and savings [we can derive] in using this free operating system in our schools and government offices,” she said.

Below are some of the features of KahelOS:

• Based on Arch Linux
• Mabuhay Welcome Center
• LiveCD with GUI Installer
• Gnome 3.2.1
• Kernel 3.1.2
• Chromium 15.0.874.121
• Firefox 8.0.1
• LibreOffice 3.4.4
• xorg-server 1.11.2
• OpenJDK6
• Apache+mySQL+PHP
• Evolution Groupware
• GIMP 2.6.11
• GnuCash 2.4.8
• TweetDeck 0.37.5
• Miro 4.0.3
• Thunderbird 8.0
• Bluefish 2.2.0

— Newsbytes.ph

Father Of C And UNIX, Dennis Ritchie, Passes Away At Age 70

After a long illness, Dennis Ritchie, father of Unix and an esteemed computer scientist, died last weekend at the age of 70.

Ritchie, also known as “dmr”, is best know for creating the C programming language as well as being instrumental in the development of UNIX along with Ken Thompson. Ritchie spent most of his career at Bell Labs, which at the time of his joining in 1967, was one of the largest phone providers in the U.S. and had one of the most well-known research labs in operation.

Working alongside Thompson (who had written B) at Bell in the late sixties, the two men set out to develop a more efficient operating system for the up-and-coming minicomputer, resulting in the release of Unix (running on a DEC PDP-1) in 1971.

Though Unix was cheap and compatible with just about any machine, allowing users to install a variety of software systems, the OS was written in machine (or assembly) language, meaning that it had a small vocabulary and suffered in relation to memory.

By 1973, Ritchie and Thompson had rewritten Unix in C, developing its syntax, functionality, and beyond to give the language the ability to program an operating system. The kernel was published in the same year.

Today, C remains the second most popular programming language in the world (or at least the language in which the second most lines of code have been written), and ushered in C++ and Java; while the pair’s work on Unix led to, among other things, Linus Torvalds’ Linux. The work has without a doubt made Ritchie one of the most important, if not under-recognized, engineers of the modern era.

His work, specifically in relation to UNIX, led to him becoming a joint recipient of the Turing Award with Ken Thompson in 1983, as well as a recipient of the National Medal of Technology in 1998 from then-president Bill Clinton.