# PeOS 0.10.0 Technical Alpha

The first PeOS meant to be tried by someone who did not build it: boot the
ISO in a virtual machine and you are on the desktop. It is an alpha: the
point is to show what PeOS looks like and how fast it feels, and to let
developers write simple apps for it.

## What is in it

- **Starlight**, the desktop (0.13.0, the "Soft UI"): pearl grey surfaces and
  night/neon cards, a dock on the left and an app manager, a top bar with the
  network, volume and clock, widgets on the desktop (clock, calendar,
  volume, CPU, network), notifications, a day and a night theme with four
  accents, resizable windows.
- **Apps**: Calendar (events and reminders), Monitor (CPU, memory, disk,
  network, processes), Settings, Curiosity (files), Voyager (text editor),
  Calculator, Orbit (terminal), the installer and two developer demos.
- **Languages**: English (the default) and Italian, for the system and its
  apps, chosen in Settings > General > Language and applied at once.
- **Live session**: the ISO boots with BIOS and UEFI; everything runs from
  RAM and can be written to while it runs.
- **Network**: DHCP, DNS, TCP and UDP in a userland service (netd), on
  virtio-net, Intel e1000/e1000e and Realtek RTL8169 cards.
- **Pointer**: USB mice and absolute tablets (the pointer follows the host's
  without capture), PS/2 mice, virtio tablets.
- **For developers**: the [Starlight App Kit](../starlight-app-kit) 0.8.1 builds
  apps on macOS, Linux or WSL, and `make serve` + `appget` installs them in a
  running VM, no rebuild of PeOS needed. The API reference is in
  [starlight-app-kit/docs/api-reference.md](../starlight-app-kit/docs/api-reference.md).

## Known limits

- **Tested in QEMU** (macOS, UEFI and BIOS). In UTM (x86_64 emulated on Apple
  Silicon) it boots, with keyboard, network and audio; the mouse was fixed in
  this release and wants a second check. VirtualBox and VMware are not tested
  yet: please report what you find.
- **x86-64 only**, with a CPU that has XSAVE (any Intel Core or AMD Ryzen).
  512 MB of RAM is the minimum, 1 GB is comfortable.
- **The live session is in RAM**: what you change (settings, calendar
  events, files, installed apps) is lost when the VM is switched off. The
  About panel says "live session".
- **No web browser** and no TLS: the network is for plain TCP/UDP and HTTP.
- **Network cards**: virtio-net, e1000 (82540EM), e1000e (82574), RTL8169.
  VMware's vmxnet3 is not supported (choose "e1000" or "e1000e"). Wi-Fi only
  on the RTL8723BE of real hardware.
- **Disks**: AHCI (SATA) and ATA. No NVMe and no virtio-blk: the installer
  cannot install on them (VMware's new VMs use NVMe: add a SATA disk).
- **USB**: xHCI (USB 3) for keyboards, mice and tablets; USB 2 (EHCI) only for
  storage, no USB 1 controllers. In a VM choose a USB 3.0 controller, or a
  PS/2 mouse.
- **Video**: the firmware's framebuffer, at the resolution the firmware
  chooses; under QEMU, virtio-gpu can change it. No 3D acceleration.
- **Audio**: Intel HD Audio only.
- **Keyboard layouts**: US and Italian.
- **Slow under emulation**: UTM on Apple Silicon emulates the whole x86 CPU;
  PeOS works but frames are slow there.
- **Recovery**: if netd stops, init starts it again and the network comes
  back (tested); Starlight is started again the same way, but the apps that
  were open do not come back on screen.
- **Installing**: the installer runs from the live ISO and erases the whole
  target disk, which must be SATA/AHCI (in UTM: interface "IDE"; in VMware:
  SATA, not NVMe). The installed disk boots with **UEFI only**. On real
  hardware it is possible but not guaranteed.
- Messages of the kernel (in the boot log) and of the terminal are in
  English only.

## Files

| File | |
|---|---|
| `peos-0.10.0.iso` | The live ISO: boot it as a CD in any VM (BIOS or UEFI). |
| `peos-0.10.0-hdd.img.xz` | A disk image with PeOS installed, for QEMU (UEFI, AHCI). |
| `SHA256SUMS` | The checksums. |

## Versions

PeOS 0.10.0, Starlight 0.13.0, Starlight App Kit 0.8.1 (SDK 1.7.1, SLUI SDK
1.0.6). Built from the commit the About panel shows.