
To understand what the BeOS and
Haiku operating systems are, we first must remember that BeOS was developed with the multimedia user in mind. BeOS wanted to be what OS X has become today: an easy to use, attractive operating system. However, BeOS was a niche OS, destined for the media-hungry user. The percentage of
audio and video applications available for Haiku is greater than the one in Linux, OS X or Windows, and the inner workings of the operating system were created in such a way, that the same multimedia passionate would find it easy to work with the user interface and files. Each application can interfere with other applications of its kind. A WAVE file selection can be dragged from a sound editor and onto the desktop, to create an audio file. Audio applications can interfere with each other via the Haiku Media Kit -- the corespondent of a Linux sound server. Applications like
Cortex are a perfect example of how BeOS and Haiku deal with multimedia files: you can have more than one soundcard and use each one of those soundcards independently or separately. You can link one soundcard to the Audio Mixer, start a drum machine application and link that software to the Audio Mixer. If you want to output whatever you create with the audio application, all you have to do is drag the microphone and link it to the application's icon in Cortex.
Member since:
2006-07-26
X) No multi-user
X) It has no server functionality
X) Its limited to the Desktop only currently
All of that is by design. Multi-user will probably be implemented eventually, but probably not how you're thinking. Haiku will never be a better Linux than Linux, nor a better Windows than Windows. IMHO, that's the only way to make something truly great since it's impossible to surpass that which you are fixated upon.
X) No real existing application base
It runs BeOS software fine. There's also posix compatibility and QT. OTOH, if you're an application centered user (e.g. photoshop or games), run the OS that has them.
X) The OS is barely used on the desktop, let alone the fact that there this thing is not running on any mobile platform in any capacity
It runs great on my laptop and I've heard netbooks as well. There's also an ARM port in progress. But you won't find it for every architecture in existence, like Linux, since it's not designed to be an embedded or server platform.