Haiku R1 alpha 4 released
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 12th Nov 2012 15:56 UTC
BeOS & Derivatives Can you believe they've come this far by now? Once known as OpenBeOS, Haiku today announced the release of the fourth alpha for Haiku R1. It seems like only yesterday when BeOS died and OpenBeOS rose form its ashes, generating a new hope among the legions of avid BeOS fans. Now, almost twelve years later, we've hit the fourth alpha.
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RE[2]: Comment by rain
by rain on Tue 13th Nov 2012 21:25 UTC in reply to "RE: Comment by rain"
rain
Member since:
2005-07-09

Luckily, for quite a few people their PC is now mostly a WWW terminal, plus the basics of ~office suite, media player, IM, BT. Haiku should cover such needs relatively easily, eventually.


I think we will see a majority of the "basic users" moving to tablets in the next few years.

But I doubt it has much chance at mobile. First, it's a very desktop-focused OS. Second, that battle is probably already won, or nearly so (it's an open question if there's really a place for a third mobile ecosystem - and if yes, that will be probably MS...)


Yes, there are two leaders in the mobile world at the moment. But I don't think that it's impossible to gain market share there. People are not looking at phones and tablets the same way they look at desktops. In fact, they seem to be switching between ecosystems without much thought about it as long as the basic apps are there. And getting the basic apps on a mobile device at this stage is much easier than on the desktop given the simple nature of them.

I don't really see how haiku is any more desktop oriented than Windows 8 is. Sure, you'd need to remake the app server and add the hardware support. But apart from that it should make a fine base for a mobile os I think.

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[3]: Comment by rain
by zima on Tue 13th Nov 2012 21:33 in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by rain"
zima Member since:
2005-07-06

It's desktop oriented in the sense that its very small dev team targets ~desktops almost exclusively (and it always targeted them, also as BeOS - its web appliances didn't go far, and were almost desktops anyway).

And in the sense that it's otherwise relatively unremarkable - what it would offer for mobile, that would make a tangible difference? (IIRC somebody once said "media handling" ...but present mobile OS do that good enough already)

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[4]: Comment by rain
by rain on Tue 13th Nov 2012 21:58 in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by rain"
rain Member since:
2005-07-09

It's desktop oriented in the sense that its very small dev team targets ~desktops almost exclusively (and it always targeted them, also as BeOS - its web appliances didn't go far, and were almost desktops anyway).


As I implied earlier, it would have to be done by a dedicated team. I actually think that Be was on the right path with the focus shift, although they were much too early.

And in the sense that it's otherwise relatively unremarkable - what it would offer for mobile, that would make a tangible difference?


Not much really. Except for the fact that it's already a clean and lean little OS that is well suited for the task. Much more so than Linux in my opinion.
But other than that the question would really be "how can we make this different?". I think that there's plenty of room for innovation in that market if you are up to it.

That said, I'm not arguing that it's something that must be done. Just saying if anyone had the desire to make it big, that would pretty much be the only and last chance.

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