ryanq_do

This is true to a degree at DO though these changes to language and positioning aren't quite so large to require everything you listed. We rolled out the copy change a few minutes ago to change "Notifications" to "Email Subscriptions" as suggested.

This is great. Our teams here at DO took a look at the changes you implemented in the extension and while there is a process to things and we're looking at the other changes you implemented, the idea to change "Notifications" to "Email Subscriptions" in settings was an easy one to implement, so we did. This change went live a few minutes ago. Thanks for your great work on this and I hope that our change hasn't done anything to break your extension.

Absolutely. Right now I am heads down to get the new rewrite released in January. Then the focus will be back on building the community, bringing on some more volunteer developers and putting together good documentation.

It's absolutely possible but just a matter of available time/resources to support additional architectures. Prior to the latest release it was x86 only. The components of the desktop environment are fully portable since a lot of it is interpreted rather than compiled and the Mezzo desktop does run well on the rPI.

It is a coincidence. SymphonyOS pre-dates the Symfony framework by almost a year. There are several projects out there in different spaces that are named Symphony

Distrowatch has a partial list here: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=symphony

Symphony showing up on the front page of HN was a total surprise to me today. As a sole developer my focus right now is on the new build and next month's release. I agree that the site is way to sparse and could be much better (it was thrown together in one evening) but focusing on the site would only take away from the limited time I have available to work on the distro itself. If after the January release I am able to get a few more developers involved I would love to improve the site, documentation and community around the project.

Many of the concepts we built into Symphony have since become common in major desktop and mobile environments such as fullscreen menus and hot corners. The project started in 2004 when I as a web developer wanted to start playing in the Desktop space and decided to give it a shot with the tools I knew. These days it's a personal side project that I wish I had more time for. I do not have any videos of the new build in action, just the screenshots on the project's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SymphonyOS/ I'll see what I can do about that this weekend when I am back into it. The new build is coming together but I am not trying to convince anyone that this is what they should use. It's a fun personal hobby at least until more developers get involved.

The current release available on the website is based on Debian Wheezy and was released in January. A new release, with a completely re-written desktop, based on Ubuntu will be coming out next month.

The wikipedia page is out of date in many places

Unfortunately SymphonyOS is a one-person project right now and has been for a long time. My focus has been on the codebase and the website which I will admit is crap was put together in one evening. Currently I am in the middle of a complete rewrite of the desktop environment with a new release coming in January. Personally, I would not have submitted it to HN with the website in it's current state but was surprised this morning when a co-worker told me it was on the front page

The currently available release is Debian based utilizing FVWM along with tint2 and a custom launcher written using HTML5 and WebKit. It's worth trying out in a VM or as a LiveDVD. I am currently in the process of doing a complete rewrite of most of the Desktop environment, replacing some very old Perl pieces with shiny new Ruby ones.

The design document is 11 years old. Symphony has been a solo side project for the last 6-7 years with a release once or twice a year. There are a few more recent updates on the project's facebook page including screenshots of the new build in progress. https://www.facebook.com/SymphonyOS/

I am the sole developer/maintainer of SymphonyOS these days and it showing up on HN today is a bit of a suprise since it's been several months since a public release.

Development is progressing albeit slowly since my day job takes up most of my time. I am currently in the middle of a rewrite of the desktop environment making changes like moving from FVWM to openbox and rewriting some Perl code that has been around in one form or another since 2004 in Ruby. I am hoping to have a new release out in January :)

What's tacky about that. DO referral codes do not even pay out cash. The program only provides credit allowing them to continue running their services. A DO referral credit is not a way to make money, just a way to offset costs.

While US Law and I am guessing the laws in many other countries may prevent you from working for a company not owned by immediate family if you really want to get some experience in I would recommend looking into contributing to an open source project. OSS contributions look great on a resume, get you real world experience and contributions are judged based on the quality of the code, not the age of the coder.

This might provide some insight on this trend: http://theleanstartup.com/

This is one of many concepts that supports working from a MVP (minimum viable product) and doing one thing (or a few things) really well and to build based on real user metrics. This makes the whole thing a learning process with fast iteration rather than a strict plan to market that is followed from beginning to end.