Planets Align: Rare Hobbit BeBox Offered and Sold
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 28th Jan 2009 21:44 UTC
BeOS & Derivatives Before the BeOS ever made it to x86, it had already spent some time on PowerPC, but the die-hard fans will know that BeOS was actually written and designed for a very different, short-lived processor: the AT&T Hobbit. While a PowerPC BeBox is already quite rare, the Hobbit BeBox was never sold, and only existed in the form of a number of prototypes. Imagine our surprise when we found out that Cameron Mac Millan, former Be employee, sold one of his two Hobbit BeBoxen on eBay a few days ago.
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eBay is the wrong place for these artifacts
by Eugenia on Thu 29th Jan 2009 00:02 UTC
Eugenia
Member since:
2005-06-28

He should have offered it to the Computer History Museum instead. I did with some of my (rare) stuff. I am glad I did actually.

I hope that who ever bought it donates it to the CHM.

Edited 2009-01-29 00:02 UTC

Reply Score: 3

pablo_marx Member since:
2006-02-03

My plan (having the $1000 bid) was to

a) finally see a hobbit in action

b) dump the ROMs for more preservation (thankfully the hard drive images are already preserved -- see http://www.bebox.nu/tech.php?s=tech/hobbit/diskImages and http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=148070 for some rudimentary tools to extract the files from the disk images)

c) donate it to the computer history museum as they didn't have any Hobbits listed in their collection.

But, outbid as always... ;)

Hopefully whomever purchased it will do the same.

(*Edit for link to the extraction tools)

Edited 2009-01-29 01:24 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 4

jjburke Member since:
2006-02-19

I agree. I think the eBay sale should have been a "long term loan" with eventual donation to the proper museum. But we are on the horns of a dilemma here.

1. Company longevity and interest in their good is dubious these days. See below.
2. Museums of the odd are woefully underfunded and underappreciated.

Keuffel and Esser slide rules went to a museum somewhere but as objects. Not the data visualization that a slide rule evokes in one's mind

So companies that come and go do not care anymore about their histories.

Thanks,
Jim

Reply Parent Score: 1

memson Member since:
2006-01-01

He should have offered it to the Computer History Museum instead.


Do they pay well? Because, I assume, he sold it because the current econominc climate is in freefall. I expect the $1000 paid for his mortgage/car payment/kids schooling/utility bills for a month. I know that if I had owned it, I would have sold it. I sold my BeBox and it raised enough capital to replace my aging laptop with a MacBook (which I would *never* had afforded otherwise.) Something I'm sure I will burn in hell for, but well, I'm pretty glad I did all the same.

Sometimes, the picture is not as simple as first it seems.

Reply Parent Score: 5

zombie process Member since:
2005-07-08

++

I'm also somewhat surprised that all it brought in was a kilobuck - I guess the ravenous Be fanbase is broke as well...

Reply Parent Score: 3