I’m Why, a computer science student in San Francisco, and I’m building SanpOS, a customized distribution based on AROS (x86_64, ABIv11).

I'm looking forward to reading more about it

A quick update about the SanpOS Bar which is based on BoingIconBar

added alot of fluid animations for the first launch at startup and for launching programs.

update on the Internet connection configurator

Hi, good job. Where can I download this distro?

Welcome aboard 😄

No downloads shared currently.
Still under development.

In love with the way SanpOS looks..

I posted some news about sanpOS on the Amiga forum, and a question came up regarding a term used in the headline — education-focused - could you elaborate on it?

Thanks for sharing it! Could you post the link to the Amiga forum thread? I’d like to answer the “education-focused” question there directly.

https://www.ppa.pl/forum/aros/49483/sanpos#m876452

This is a Polish-language forum, but you can easily reply in English. Unfortunately, the forum requires registration.
If you don't want to register, you can write your answer here and I'll paste it there.
Actually, I'm also curious what use case you have in your plan for SanpOS

SanpOS is being designed for hardware used mainly for research and education. The idea is that a student or researcher can turn it on and have everything they need without hunting for software.

Bundled applications
I’m writing a set of native apps for SanpOS, built in C with AROS’s Zune GUI toolkit, so they’re fast, light and match the rest of the desktop. These include:

A word processor and an Excel-like spreadsheet that can open and save Microsoft Word and Excel files, so documents can be shared with Windows and Mac users
Scientific tools, starting with calculators for real coursework: a scientific/graphing calculator, a molar mass calculator (type a formula like H2SO4 and get the mass with a breakdown by element), unit conversion and more to come

The goal is small, focused tools that each do one job well, the way classic Amiga software did, rather than one huge suite.

Local AI
I’m working on porting llama.cpp so AI models can run directly on the machine, with no cloud account and no data leaving the computer. The plan is to connect it to the bundled apps. For example, it could explain the steps behind a chemistry calculation, help summarize or proofread a document, or answer questions about a spreadsheet.

From very powerful to very weak hardware
SanpOS should be useful on both ends:

On low-end or old machines, AROS already boots fast and uses very little RAM, and the apps are kept lightweight. AI features would use small models or simply be optional, so the rest of the system still runs well
On powerful machines, it can make use of more cores and memory to run larger AI models and heavier workloads

That way a school can reuse old computers, while a lab with newer hardware gets more out of the same OS.

It’s still a work in progress, so I’d love to hear what other tools people think a research or education machine should have.

Very nice! Will the SanpOS Bar binary and sources be posted on AROS Archives or GitHub? I like the work done so far.

I especially like how the Bar background can be made opaque with rounded corners. Very nice!

@SanpOS
Thank you very much for your interesting and comprehensive reply. I posted it on the Polish forum I wrote about. I'm very impressed with your ambitious plans and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them. It's great that you decided AROS would be suitable for your purposes. There are so many different Linux systems out there that another one would be lost in the crowd, and our lightweight system with Amiga roots has a chance to surprise and bring a breath of fresh air to the San Francisco IT scene ;-)
Good luck! I think you'll find many supporters of your project here.

Exactly.

All the modifications I made to AROS for SanpOS will be released on github when version 1.1 stable finishes development.

Made the Top Bar have the Same visual language as the SanpOS Icon Bar here is the result:

Besides the GUI, do you plan to improve, expand, or add invisible, internal parts of the system, such as a printing system, scanner support, or multi-monitor support (the so-called extended desktop)? I think these are very crucial features for a system intended for learning and education.

[quote name=r-tea post=15412]@r-tea - Besides the GUI, do you plan to improve, expand, or add invisible, internal parts of the system, such as a printing system, scanner support, or multi-monitor support (the so-called extended desktop)? I think these are very crucial features for a system intended for learning and education.[/quote]

Thank you for the question. I agree that printing, scanning and multi-monitor support are important for a system intended for education. I would like to be transparent about their current status and about what I consider achievable.

SanpOS is currently developed by a single person, and the work so far has concentrated on the user-facing parts of the system. The following reflects my understanding of the underlying AROS components, based on available documentation. Parts of it may be out of date.

Printing. AROS provides printer.device with a PostScript Level 2 driver and file output. Only the PostScript and skeleton drivers are distributed, and output to USB, parallel and serial ports is documented as untested. My first goal would therefore be printing to a PostScript or PDF file, so that students can submit their work. Network printing to PostScript-capable printers could follow.

Scanning. The AROS USB stack supports HID, mass storage and PTP/MTP (camera) device classes. I found no scanner class and no SANE-style framework. Scanner support would require a new USB class driver or a port of such a framework, which is a substantial undertaking. Importing images from a phone or camera through the existing PTP and mass-storage support is a practical interim option.

Multi-monitor support. I found no evidence of extended-desktop support. It would require changes to the graphics drivers and to the screen model of Intuition. This is therefore a question for AROS itself rather than something a distribution can add on its own. I would welcome information from developers familiar with its current state.

I cannot yet commit to a timeline for any of these items. I would welcome contributions, particularly in printer drivers, USB class drivers and graphics. I would also appreciate hearing which of these matters most to you. My own priority order for an educational system would be printing, then multi-monitor support, then scanning.

There is now a SanpOS menu since I dont like to have more than one launcher on the workbench.