Finally, those of you who gather in our community forum may have noticed a design change. While the design may or may not be permanent, the entire Cairo website will be overhauled in the next few months to be more consistent with our ideals and our personality. We are growing a bit tired of the current design and want to create a more welcoming, professional atmosphere. We hope you share in our excitement. This is looking to truly be a great year for Cairo.

Stay tuned for development updates on Milestone 2 and the upcoming changes to our website. And as always, thank you for your support.

-The Cairo Team

With over 200 bug reports logged, many of the serious ones already taken care of, Cairo is well on its way to becoming one of the most stable, functional, and beautiful desktop environments available. Alpha testers should check their email in the coming weeks for an updated build that will address most of the serious issues. And while a few bad apples out there might claim otherwise, each day brings us closer to our first public beta, and Cairo’s first release. Our undertaking has not been an easy one, but has proven a wonderful experience.

We would like to take the opportunity now to thank our loyal community, alpha testers included, for all of their hard work and patience. Our M1 was only 7 months of work and we couldn’t be prouder to look to the future with the highest of hopes.

Best wishes to all,
-The Cairo Team

-The Cairo Team

We thank you all in advance for your diligence and cooperation.

-The Cairo Team

We will be distributing download links via email. The alpha will last for about a month before we stop accepting bug reports.

Alpha testers will be expected to use the Cairo Reporting System during this time. Any and all bug reports are greatly appreciated and we encourage all of our testers to remain vigilant. We further request that for the benefit of the entire Cairo community, the following guidelines are respected:

1. Do not leak the alpha to those not participating. This can hurt Cairo’s development and credibility. This alpha is private for a reason.
2. Be thorough. Report any bug you find no matter how small. Every ticket will be examined.
3. Screenshots and video are not directly supported by the Cairo Team, however we know there is no way to identify leakers. We ask that testers please respect our wishes at this time.
4. Make the most of your time and have fun! Talk with other testers is encouraged.

Finally, for those of you who are not part of the alpha, don’t worry. There will be a public beta, but no date has been set yet for obvious reasons.

As of today, we have currently implemented the menubar, stacks alternative, system tray, clock/calendar, search, programs menu, and taskbar. While not feature complete, Cairo development is steady. Over the coming months, we hope to work towards a representational build of Cairo, one that contains all the features we want in our first release. These include feature complete alpha components plus the dynamic desktop system and multi-desktop system. While it may seem like we have a lot left to cover, much of the Milestone 1 build was completed in only the last month, so we are confident that progress will occur as planned.

We’d like to thank our dedicated supporters for sticking with us through the ups and downs and to welcome all the newcomers just entering the Cairo community. We appreciate having such an enthusiastic bunch and can’t wait to deliver an excited desktop replacement in the future.

Best wishes,
The Cairo Team

Discuss in our forum »

The cut-off day for alpha access is January 5, 2009.

Thank you for your generosity and support.

-The Cairo Team

We are currently coding the final pieces of the menubar, which as you can see from the image above, is looking more and more like our concept (pictured far left). Next we will attempt to complete the taskbar and dynamic desktop system for the private alpha.

Ultimately we would like our Milestone 1 release to be December, so that is what we are shooting for - but remember - this date is provided as a method of giving our community an approximate alpha release, and is in no way set in stone.

Other than that, we can’t divulge much else. We are excited as the Milestone 1 release draws closer to becoming a reality and look forward to continuing our efforts to bring you all the most revolutionary shell available.

Thank you and best wishes,
-The Cairo Team

Discuss in our forum >>

This update comes more than a month since our last post, so we figured we would lay down the skinny for those of you wondering how development is going. Unfortunately we have been very quiet, but like the old saying goes: no news is good news.

In the next few weeks we will be finishing a near feature complete Cairo menubar. This includes our collection algorithm that monitors program installation information for our programs menu, drag and drop quick links (like Stacks for OS X), and a minimal implementation of our built-in search, as well as the usual date and time controls, system tray, and Cairo menu.

From there we will move on to finishing the Cairo taskbar and the basis of our dynamic desktop system, which allows for browsing files and directories from your desktop. At this point there will still be much to do, including the Multi-Desktop system, Plugin system, and building up the features of already developed systems. Nevertheless, Cairo will have a solid foundation on which to continue building our platform.

Depending on how long these items take to develop will greatly determine the date of Milestone 1. We would like to squeeze as many features as possible into our first private release so that our testers feel comfortable using Cairo without frustration trying to perform simple tasks like opening and switching between applications. At a minimum we hope to include a taskbar, menubar, and desktop for their consideration. Until such time comes when all three of these items are relatively complete, there will be no alpha date announcement and donations will remain closed.

Turning now to an entirely new issue, there have been some rumblings on our forum about the lack of discolosure from the team. The problem with announcing Cairo so early and then having the two large setbacks we had is that hype becomes a problem. Just like Apple, Microsoft, or any other large corporation, Cairo too is susceptible to pent up expectations. As a consequence, we have people all over the globe calling us vaporware, that our work thus far is “bullshit,” and that Cairo will “never see the light of day.” I can assure you all personally that these statements couldn’t be further from the truth, but have worked to our advantage: these kinds of comments have subsided and worn themselves short. In the meantime, the relative lack of updates has brought us peace and quiet and allowed us to focus on development. The last thing we want to do is go releasing videos and images of Cairo now (still very much incomplete) only to drive up hysteria again, just for it to come crashing down in a fiery ball of angst.

We have said this before but we will say it again: we appreciate the support of our community and thank you all for your encouragement and praise. We are working hard to deliver the best desktop environment available and want to make sure it meets our uncompromising commitment to quality before we release our baby into the world.

Your patience will be rewarded.

Best,

The Cairo Team

Forum Discussion »

To The Cairo Community,
The Cairo Desktop Environment aims to deliver unprecedented usability and productivity enhancements for the Microsoft Windows operating system.  With revolutionary features, including our dynamic desktop and file browser, Cairo will truly bring users a more productive user experience, coupled with a beautiful user-interface.

In April 2008 the Cairo Team announced the beginning of a code reset following the unfortunate loss of over 8 months of work; a true lesson learned. With a new development life-cycle, subversion software, and determined team, Cairo is ready to revolutionize the traditional desktop.

Therefore it is with great displeasure that we announce the delay of our first private alpha, tentatively scheduled for June 29, 2008. Unfortunately we were too ambitious in our goals and too conservative in our estimates and must push back the Milestone 1 release. We cannot declare a new date at this time, but that does not mean the delay is for more than a month or two. While we understand the frustration this news may bring, it is with the utmost frustration and understanding that we publicize this delay.

In an effort to disprove rumors of mal-intent, we have discontinued accepting donations until a new alpha date is set. We recognize the doubt this casts upon our endeavor, but despite our best efforts this could not be avoided. It is important to recognize that Cairo is, at its heart, a part-time hobby and not a full-time career. While the Cairo Team is determined to conduct itself professionally and openly, we are still merely a committed group of individuals striving to achieve lofty goals, ones that will take time and dedication to achieve. The desire to blend our livelihoods, hobbies, and passions has caused us to err in the past, but we maintain our goal always: Cairo will be released as a fully functional and revolutionary desktop environment.

We regret the setbacks we have endured, but not the challenges we have faced to get there.

It is our hope that however detrimental these circumstances may appears that we remember the environment in which Cairo has sprung: a community of technology enthusiasts, bloggers, students, and friends.  We know there are many individuals who have been with us for ten months or more, and for that we thank you. For others who are just joining our community, we welcome you whole-heartily. Let our community be a model for others and conduct itself with patience and understanding as we look towards what the future may hold and continue our efforts to deliver a promising desktop solution.

Cairo screenshot taken today: the taskbar is purposely not pictured.

Thank you and best wishes,
Michael Ciarlo
Dustin Hanson
Sam Johnson

Discuss in our forum »

First: Download

This wallpaper will be the official Milestone 1 wallpaper. Igiietc will also receive access to the private forum and a custom forum title.

Second: Download

MikeRyan will receive access to the private forum and a custom forum title.

Third: Download

Ani will receive a custom forum title.

Honorable Mention (in no particular order):

Download

Download

Download

Thank you to all those who participated—this was truly a great experience. It was hard to narrow the field down, but we hope you enjoy the winning entries.

On another note, the Cairo Milestone 1 is still relatively on track. We are still pushing for a June 29 release. Nevertheless, with the recent news surrounding Windows 7, the team (as well as our community) have been asking about Cairo and Windows 7. Will we include multi-touch support in our 1.0 release? Cairo will not be developed with multi-touch in mind as our primary platform is Windows Vista. However, should the necessity and opportunity present itself, we will work to make Cairo 2.0 multi-touch compatible. While we can’t say for certain what our plans are for Windows 7, there is always a time and a place for planning.

Until next time…

-The Cairo Team

Discuss in our forum >>