“Haiku co-developers Bruno and his associate Axel talk about the new OS that has been in development for several years. Haiku is an open source operating system currently in development designed from the ground up for desktop computing. Inspired in the BeOS, Haiku aims to provide users of all levels with a personal computing experience that is simple yet powerful, and void of any unnecessary complexities.”
Ok, so I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet – mostly because the background noise is KILLING my ears…
Would have been nice if they ran it through a noise filter or something first.
On the other hand, I had NO clue that Axel and Bruno did an interview at the SCaLE conference – so this is neat!
The interviewer didn’t have much of a repertoire by the way of questioning.
The guy is asking Axel to explain what a kernel is? HELLO!? If somebody even knows what BeOS is, trust me, they know what a kernel is.
To be fair, there are a lot of people out there who do not understand that Linux is “just a kernel.” Furthermore, you would be splitting hairs if you wanted to argue what makes up an operating system: is it just a kernel or the kernel + userland software that provides functionality to the user?
I just looked at the Haiku General FAQ and it says that Haiku is not another Linux distro and it doesn’t rely on X windows. So Haiku runs on its own legs and it’s important for people to know that. Haiku is a kernel, Haiku is an operating system. It’s not even a BeOS “distro.”
Using one of the images, the OS seems incredibly well put together. Even when you compare it with OS X, Windows, or a modern Linux distro, it just feels exceedingly well put together. It is very nice to use and I can’t wait until R1.
SCcchhh, don’t tell anyone. If everyone knows how sweet Haiku is gonna be. That’s gonna stir up some trouble with the servers when it’s time for my download so it’ll take 3 days instead of 1 hour.
You know that’s a huge difference. because once the file is down, Haiku installs in an instant =).
That’s gonna stir up some trouble with the servers when it’s time for my download
Ha! I’ll build my own!
and the torrents will be flowing freely I’m sure!
<off-topic>
I know this isn’t the right place for this, but please Haicube – email me – I’ve been trying to contact you!
</off-topic>
Oh, come now. Even if the servers are flooded, how long could it take to download something that’s under 100MB? This isn’t a several GB linux distro here
. Even at a paltry 15KB/sec, you would have your Haiku in less than 2 hours.
Heck, if they zip it like they currently do, the filesize is under 25MB. At that size, a 15KB/sec connection would download Haiku in less than half an hour.
It really puts “modern” operating systems into perspective.
++
It seems like the Haiku development really started to pick up steam once Tracker and Deskbar could run on it.
As someone who still uses R5, I can’t wait for the day when I can just “upgrade” my existing install to Haiku.
Yeah, now consider that BeOS is over 10 years old. I’m my opinion, THAT is how an REAL alternative OS should be like. A viable solution: maybe not for everyday use for everyone, but more than certainly easy enough for everyone to use.
Yeap, over 10 years old and still way ahead in usability stakes as an OS compared to its modern counterparts.
Yes, I’m talking OS here not apps that sit on the OS which make up the main benefit at the moment of running such crap like Windows XP or OS-X (and yes, both are crap).
Now go, uhm, 9 (?) years back and: Voila, that same system was in full bloom (well, almost “full” …) under the name “BeOS”. It was exciting, it was new, it was radically different, it was blazingl fast. Too good to be true. It beat the hell out of Windows 98, Mac OS 9.x, and Linux.
But this is another century. The times they are a changing.
What seems to be happening right now in this century in Windows Vista, OSX and now Linux+Beryl & so on is the mad rush to BLING BLING land and a dumbing down of the user interface by interface gurus. Personally I still love the polish and look of the old MacOS 7,8 plus the powerful intuitive power of BeOS but not the unreliability of both and the many odd quirks of BeOS.
As long as Haiku and the glass elevator work on replacement and fixing the quirks and ignore the Bling Bling of translucent windows and jumpy that, it will do fine for those that like vanilla looks but awesome control.
Focused, dedicated, affable. Clearly, Haiku and its core team set a high and impressive bar. This level of credibility and customer relations is a solid and dependable base for attracting finance, hardware and software vendors, and customers. Haiku remains front and centre in my mind. It’s number one.
I still hope Haiku will position itself as an ARB with the published source being a reference implementation. This will preserve the Haiku brand, allow value added resellers to develop the market without fragmentation, and keep the quality high. It’s got all the benefits of control while maximising opportunity.
I just get a blank page so I can’t hear the interview, but I doubt it’s as good as the Google Tech Talk on Haiku: http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=236331448076587879
Maybe it’s me, but if OS X has any “bling” I think it’s tastefully done. OK, so the 3D user flip thing is a little much, but it’s not in your face at every moment. This compared to Vista’s “gussied-up, two dollar whore” interface, that is. Vista is like the stereotypical 80’s chick with huge hair that’s wearing a sequined blouse, painted on jeans, red stiletto heels, and 10 pounds of rainbow colored makeup on her face. Trailer-trash, basically.
Again, I’ll say that I look forward to the day HaikuR1 is released.
Sure OS X is heading down Bling road too, but done better as always by Apple than most. I was a MacOS guy and developer till 8.6 and never stayed to see the big switchover. I still look it over in the stores but the eye candy and vast areas of polished metal windows kind of grates on me. I like windows to be just so right and just big enough to contain the delivered content and even BeOS info dialogs are a little wasteful.
Anyway if we never see Haiku we still got one good fall back as well as continuing on alone with R5. Other OSes can serve other uses too that R5 can’t.
I’ve never tried BeOS, but probably all the other OS’es out there. I’m really keen on getting something to boot up on the PC back home. If i can browse in a decent browser, write mails and chat and do my pythonwork, Im satisfied. Beos are said to be lightning fast, Im eager for sure.