News: Home Desktop Edition

Although the Home Desktop Edition is completed we will be adding new package updates and widgets to the system. Soon we will be setting up a NiHao repository download server so your package manager can get new updates and widgets.

News: NiHao SDM English & Zhong Wen Servers

Beta Testing Announced for early 2010.
40 spots available.
Visit the NiHao Beta page to apply for your spot.

News: NiHao SDM Multi-Language Servers

Beta Testing Announced for early 2010.
40 spots available.
Visit the NiHao Beta page to apply for your spot.

News: eOS2 Gamer Release Date

October 17th 2009: NiHao Gamer Release.

NiHao Gamer is ready for release and will be put out for distribution November 2009.

Check in at the Downloads site.

News: eOS2 Gamer Distro

Oct. 6th 2009: The eOS2 Gamer distribution is ready for release.

What is eOS2 Gamer? Its a NiHao OS trimmed to its bare minimum base. It has all a gaming machine needs to run and nothing more. It is different than Linux OS'es and Apple in that with an included small program you can install all of your favourite Windows[TM] games within and with ease.

Because it is lite, it runs fast, because of the Desktop's pre-built 3d system 3d games makes less work for your machine, and because its NiHao Linux; its damned safe :)

News: VLC Player Added to Latest Distro

Version 1.2.1 of the Home Desktop edition had one small problem of missing sound and DVD Zone drivers. These files weren't actually missed but rather could not be added due to the mass distribution of the Home Desktop and the 3rd party licenses that these drivers belong to.

Remedy was to install the VLC player as this contained within all the aforesaid drivers. The latest Home Desktop distro v.1.5.2 has the VLC Player built in :)

News: Home Desktop Version 2.3.1 Released

After much mucking around with solutions regarding sound codecs and DVD Zones I have decided to do a final rebuild of the Home Desktop edition taking this release to version 1.5.2. The only differences between version 1.2.1 and 1.5.2 is the addition of the VLC Player and PacMan (Package Manager supplement). Version 1.2.1 has been scrapped and is no longer available for download. If you have version 1.2.1 you can achieve v1.5.2 by simply installing VLC and Pacman from your YAST2 Install Manager in your present system.

News: Rebuild Called For

Version 1.1.1 of the Home Desktop Edition has boot loader bugs that cause the system to get stuck in X Windows mode before it has reached the graphical KDE Desktop.

Because of this a rebuild has been called for that will resolve this issue by checking the system's X Windows configuration.

News: Version 1.1.0 Scrapped

Version 1.1.0 has been scrapped. Allot of the install packages that were added to make the Home Desktop system what we would like it to be run in direct conflict with the Gnome Windows Manager. Hence version 1.1.0 and all its predecessors have been scrapped and the Gnome Desktop Manager will be replaced with the KDE Desktop appliance. This change will bring about the Home Desktop revision numbers 1.1.1 - KDE Desktop inclusive.

News: NiHao SDM ML 64 bit

Language packs were installed to the NiHao SDM ML v.1.0.1 system. Boot cofiguration for location strings were added. System although will install in chosen language reverts back to English upon entering Desktop / Window GUI.

This issue will be re-addressed in September '09 and thereafter until resolved.

News: NiHao SDM 64 bit

Nearly all of the available Linux server systems have been added. For some unknown reason there is a package conflict when the postfix-dev package is added. This package is not integral to the system but there are many a server admin that would have liked it included. Presently working on a solution for this by looking for crossovers in package installs. It is thought that there may be another package providing different tools to perform a similar task that conflict with the postfix-dev package.

News: NiHao Desktop Rebranding

After having installed the Gnome Desktop Manager to version 1.0.1 of the NiHao Home Desktop Edition we have spent many hours taking the system through a rebranding phase. Determining which branding elements should be changed over to NiHao and which should remain intact. We have chosen to leave some of Open-Suse's titles intact as with Firefox and KDE. However many were changed. The unchanged remain so as a reference for end users should they need to report problems.

News: Home Desktop version 1.0.0 Success

Version 1.0.0 of the Home Desktop system installed today without a hitch. We were very pleased to see the desktop running in a real-time environment away from the developer's table. We gave it a minor test and talked about what could be done to this base system to give it a form that tops other operating systems. Some minor bugs were found and will be fixed in the next version.

News: Developer Syndrome

Hours, Days, and Months pass by in a blink of the eyes. Building NiHao Operating Systems has been a very demanding task that could be likened to building one's own universe. For that is almost what it is. However when we started testing the Home Desktop in virtual disk mode searching for major bugs, the realism of the task achieved smiled back at us.

Nothing beats the feeling of success from work done well :)

News: Planning NiHao OS'es

Major decisions were made here in choosing Suse over Ubuntu as a base system. Finally Suse was chosen for Suse had developed integration of 3d acceleration at desktop level using OpenGL to a standard that suits the NiHao 3d software system almost to perfection. Choosing Suse will allow a simpler transition of the NiHao 3d World platform into the NiHao operating systems. So Suse won the NiHao day, and now the NiHao Studios team have the momentous task of knitting the NiHao dream into a software application reality.