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Official release only one year after the first alpha for a relatively small community project? I don't know what the "general consensus" was back then, but I do know that I sure as hell never expected that. I had far more reasonable and down-to-earth expectations at the time, no bizarre pipe-dreams. Maybe 2-3 years if we were lucky.. and amusingly, that really doesn't seem to have been too far off. So, no surprise here, and as someone who has waited since probably around 1996 for Duke Nukem Forever, only to be eternally disappointed by the end result to the point of not even considering it a worthy successor to Duke Nukem 3D, I completely fail to see how the comparisons with Haiku make any sense whatsoever.

That said, I was quite amazed at the stability and functionality of the OS even in its early alpha days... but that didn't cloud my expectations. The speed that the guys have been getting stuff done has also been quite impressive over the last few years. They're getting there.

Edited 2012-12-06 20:59 UTC

I know for a fact that if that money went to Haiku, we'd have more to show now than some over-hyped mediocre game.

I think you missed the point; it's not about the release date but about the openness of the release process.

I feel that comparing the two projects is a bit illogical anyway; one is a well documented, wide open hobby OS based on a niche OS that was way ahead of its time. The other was a great game in its original incarnation, but the half-assed attempt to make a proper sequel was a mysterious 15 year torture session for the fans.

I'd consider buying a modern computer custom-tailored to Haiku, especially if it had some interesting or unique feature like a row of blinking lights.

Haiku already boots at least partway on the RasPi, so that's not out of the question.

I'm thinking more like Mac mini-type HaikuBox. Something like Zotac Zbox with compatible hardware and full-on multimedia capabilities.

We'd need Blinken lights, so up the cost $2 for all the green LEDs, and Orange HD activity light. Can't NOT have them. It's a requirement.

Needs something Geekport-esque as well.

RasPi has that connector for the digital pins that looks like an IDE/Floppy connector though - so that could be "GeekPorted(tm)" out, surely?

Indeed, we could call it GeekPort I/O, or GPIO for short.

Wait...

lol,I forgot about that.

/me isn't a huge hardware guy.

Personally I'd dropped GCC2 and legacy software compatibility layer, and focused on polishing Qt and Java ports integration. Older native software with available sources can be recompiled.

The problem is that most software was commercial...

There's not a whole lot of point if you're just running Qt & Java applications. Linux already does that pretty well. Speed, simplicity, and integration are some of Haiku's main features, all of which are lost when using non-native software. (It's a necessary evil for now.)

IOW, Haiku will never be better at running Linux software than Linux, and becoming something akin to just another distribution isn't the goal.

Well really the reason for QT and Java apps is to fill the few gaping holes... and to run Minecraft at some point in time once kallisti5 gets mesa hardware acceleration working

The nice other features are bonuses in many ways I already like some applications for haiku better than any other. Caya for instance is just great... it still needs work but its just plain awesome combined with Stack & Tile windoing

Most FreeBSD drivers can be re-compiled for Haiku with minimal change.

Haiku has pretty awesome hardware support for a niche OS - and it is getting better continually.

The NewOS kernel was chosen because it required the least amount of work to gain BeOS binary compatibility because it was created by a Be engineer...

Yeah plus they said it before, "we don't want to be another Linux distro", not using Linux although not practical is good for keeping BeOS-Haiku identity.

From my perspective I think having another free kernel around is a breathe of fresh air...man I'm tired of hearing about Linux, I wish GNU finally get HURD out of is alpha stage too.

The Linux kernel is a monolithic kernel and doesn't fit well into the BeOS micro-kernel mold.

NewOS was a near-perfect fit.

Audio, networking, even screen-drawing are user-mode activities. The kernel just gets a basic environment setup and handles the earliest stages of identification.

The Linux kernel would have had to be heavily butchered and altered to the point of no longer being Linux for this to work.

That takes time and man-power, the NewOS kernel was almost already compatible as it was and there was no need for the kernel ABI to be wholly compatible with BeOS since Haiku was re-writing all of the servers and drivers as well.

I think Haiku made the right choice with NewOS!

--The loon

Actually they have had a few advances.

I don't agree with bashing of Hurd, their main problem was and is, that Linux gets all the funding.

Even Minix is now getting EU funding.

Personally I look forward for the day there are more mainstream micro-kernel based OS besides QNX available.

QNX is actually performant though... HURD is not for really obvious reasons. People should read the maintainer blogs and comments of the people that acutally have to work on GNU software. I read about all of Rob Landley's posts (except when he waxes political >:D ) and from there jump of to many others on LWN etc... GNU software is barely maintainable and in most cases outright broken buy design and the politics dragged in by the FSF. More power to them but they should at least design good stuff.

Rob is working essentially on BSD/Linux which could be re-licensed as GPL if anyone cared and at the same time foster real commercial development input.

HURD is a kernel, not an OS.

Not really, it is a low level OS, running on top of a microkernel.

What gets me about the DNF thing is that 3D Realms expected their core demographic, teens and early 20s, to have even heard of the original game. It's not like the Super Mario series from Nintendo, where every console release had multiple Mario-themed games, so each generation had their start with that series. Today's teens are introduced to gaming via Call of Duty and Fallout, not a DOS based game from 1996, so where is their frame of reference?

The Duke Nukem fanbase is in their 30s now, and most of us have moved on. Some of us still play games; my brother in law is an Xbox fanatic, and I still enjoy some casual gaming (mostly Minecraft). But really, we've all grown up and have family and work commitments, and obsessing over a game release just seems silly.

Some would say "but it's the same thing with BeOS/Haiku", but really it's not. Haiku is an operating system that will potentially help me get work done in a much more efficient and practical manner, and it might even be the catalyst to get me back into programming (not that I was ever very good at it). There is the nostalgic aspect too of course, but there is practicality behind it.

Oh boy, DNF...

Was that a slogan? I don't really remember where the notion came from. I think it was more a throw away comment at some point that snowballed. Did Be Inc really ever promote BeOS or the BeBox as the "new Amiga"?