14 DAY TRIAL // SymphonyOS 14.1, a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS that has been resurrected after a few years of hiatus, has been released.
The first edition of SymphonyOS was launched back in 2004, long before anything like Chrome OS was even designed. In fact, this was a distribution that implemented a lot of interesting new features, like items rendered on the desktop with the help of HTML and JavaScript and even the famous hot corners.
Some of the concepts used back then are present now in many other distros, like Chrome OS, for example. Other features like hot corners are actually available in most of the major Linux OSes. It did a lot of new things, but it never caught on, for some unknown reason.
Now, the SymphonyOS project has been resurrected and the developer is trying to bring something new in this crowded community. It's going to be very hard to find anything new to invent, but the devs might still surprise us.
“The Symphony OS Project began in 2004 as an experiment in web technologies in the desktop space and usability. Now, the project is reborn and we are again pushing the boundaries of web-desktop integration and usability. We are happy to announce the release of SymphonyOS 14.1, the second release in the Phoenix series. This release includes several bug fixes over the 14.0 developer preview from earlier this year including,” notes the developer on the official website.
According to the changelog, the distribution has been updated to the Ubuntu 14.04 base system, the handling of menu generation and proper updating of the menu system when system changes occur has been improved, a number of improvements have been implemented for the logout functionality, Slim DM has been replaced with LightDM, a few security updates have been added to the local httpd, and the installation from DVD is now working properly.
More details about this release can be found on the official website. You can download SymphonyOS 14.1 right now from Softpedia. Keep in mind that only the 32-bit version is available.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only. It's advisable to use a virtual environment for SymphonyOS 14.1, like VirtualBox, for example.
Despite the version number, which might seem stable, the distribution is still under construction and it will remain so for quite a while.
