“The biggest difference between all the varieties of Windows and all the variations on Unix is unimportant — both families or operating systems are hopelessly rooted in the deep dark past. […] BeOS was very impressive. I remember running the Mac port when it was first released. It had a distinctive look, definitely felt faster than the Mac OS, and seemed very promising. It was the perfect candidate to become the next great personal computer operating system.” Read the rest of the editorial at LowEndMac.
Why BeOS Was So Different
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I myself am a supporter of many operating systems. I have no problem using windows, linux, BSD, MacOS, or BeOS. I actually just got done re-installing BeOS on my computer. My x86 seems to be the perfect setup for Be. Aureal Soundcard, nVidia based graphics, Ne2000 compatable ethernet and it’s a pII 450.
BeOS and especially <A HREF=”http://www.bebits.com/“>BeBits are helping to keep the Be user base alive. Be has everything I need out of a daily use OS. It’s easy to make software for the BeOS, all kinds of apps are available, IM’s, webbrowsers, media players and so on. And if you are courageous with the OS … you can serve up a mess of dameons.
I See alot of promise of BeIA with Palm … QNX with QT also seems like a big app … I think CE really isn’t going to be the main contender in the near future and I see embedded devices as the future anyways. Hopefully Palm will release BeOS back to the user base that loves it.
Hi all BeOS users.
My first experince with BeOS was in a Swedish computer magazine were there was an articel about the Be Operating System. There were some screenshot’s on the next page and I knew that this was my next OS. I started to search the internet for BeOS and I found the be website. Looked around, read some articel and finally downloaded BeOS 5 PE. From that moment on my favorit OS was BeOS. It was like nothing I had experinced before. And my god it was fast! After running Win 98 on my, at the time, P90, the BeOS felt like I had upgraded my hardware with the install of BeOS. Well months wen’t by and now 1 year later i got BeOS 5 Pro running with Linux and Windows and if i have to choose a favorit, it’s BeOS!
Booting takes about 14 seconds(P200) and everything just feels fast. I can watch a movie and at the same time surf the web without any delays in the movie. That’s what I call Multi tasking.
Then came the day when BeOS died. Palm bought everything and now it doesn’t look to bright for BeOS. Why? How is it possible that such a good OS like BeOS just dies? Ok it’s not really dead as long as people use it but you know what I mean.
Back to the header. I have a dream and it is simply that BeOS must comback! If someone that has anything to do with Palm’s decision about BeOS reads this then please make Palm develope BeOS!
Even if there isn’t any more developing on BeOS I will continue to use it. Why? Becouse it just RULES!
//David.B
YEAH! BeOS RULES!
))
It’s still the best desktop OS.
if it comes back (not holding my breath), it sure as hell better come back with a full-featured, stable browser.
I tried BeOS from the moment it was available on Intel hardware and although I liked it It was far from as perfect as everyone is making it out to have been.
A few of the problems I had were as follows.
1 – No support for imap in the mail client(s).
2 – Poor driver support. I had a matrox G200, Soundblaster Live and a 3Com net card. All fairly standard stuff. It took forever before it would work with Be.
3 – Random reboots. I would be in the middle of doing something and bam, my computer would reboot.
4 – No Java support.
5 – Web browsing very limited.
6 – No word processor with spellchecking and grammar checking available.
I tried BeOS every time a new version came out for Intel hardware and each time within 3 days I was back using Windows.
Clearly not all of those things were Be’s fault but if you can’t do what you want to do then what good is a OS?
Chris ([email protected])
Yeah… let’s just hope that the OpenBeOS guys starts a “Browser kit” to make sure it becomes an internal part of OBeOS from the beginning.
Kurt Skaven (http://www.atheos.cx“>AtheOS Konqueror” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.konqueror.org”>Konqueror to AtheOS in a matter of weeks.
Clearly not all of those things were Be’s fault but if you can’t do what you want to do then what good is a OS?
I bet most people here would get all their work done in Windows. No lack of apps, compatiblity etc for most people who don’t work in the software industry.
The reason there is so many different OS’es out there for your home computer is probably due to hobbyistic interest more than to real need.
And about your critics, none seem to be really related to the OS itself. (random reboots seem like a driver issue to me)
Though I am a BeOS-fan, I did not like the linked article. By putting NeXT on the same level as other Unix systems and not really distinguishing between the NT and MSDOS based versions of Windows – that’s just too easy.
BeOS was GREAT!!!
But the strategy of the company Be was strange.
Now they paid a price for this.
It is a strange thing…for the PC/Mac is some great software on the market,but just stuipid companies who destroy their own ideas.
Go back to the Atari….or go back to the new ATARI!!!!
at http://www.Xtos.de
I’m gonna continue using BeOS for a good whle definitely, because I can use it for pretty much everything I want to. I’m looking forward to running it on an IBM Thinkpad 600 I’m just bought off Ebay too. My need regarding computers are, I guess, withering, as I become less of a nerd and more interested in simply getting work done. I don’t think there’s much I can’t do with Gobe 2.01, Opera 3.62, Soundplay etc so BeOS suits me.
That’s not to say I don’t love it enough to spend lots of money on new versions of BeOS, and BeOS software, ‘cos quite frankly it’s so much better than everything else it’s just a joke that it’s – supposedly – defunked.
Tried Mac OSX the other day. It’s not bad. But it didn’t seem that good either. If only Apple had gone with BeOS.
My 2 Euros.
Mike
Aaah, yes, BeOS was wonderful, BeOS was nice… very impressive, back when it was released in 1995.
There’s a reason BeOS is dead, people. Things don’t happen for no reason.
re: There’s a reason BeOS is dead, people. Things don’t happen for no reason.
Yeah, Be Inc dropped the ball (BeIA), and MS/the way computing is screwed ’em.
Since Microsoft still has the deadly strangle hold on the desktop OS Market, I would like to see Palm release BeOS as an optional if not the prefered desktop development platform for the ARM based Palm OS. In time when the remedies against MSFT go into effect, they can release a destop version to OEMs and the general public.
Long Live BeOS.
ciao
yc
Go to the PalmSource conference and expo on February 5-8, 2002. San Jose Convention Center.
http://www.palmsource.com/devconf.html
ARM handheld or x86 desktop, you will definitely see BeOS in action.
ciao
yc
>Yeah, Be Inc dropped the ball (BeIA), and MS/the way computing is screwed ’em.
Don’t blame it on MS. People just didn’t like replacing Windows for BeOS.
I liked BeOS but it was unpolished, unstable, unsupported and lacking apps. Fun but pointless.
Apart from OpenBeOS the real BeOS is doomed like the Amiga..
SAD BUT TRUE
“Fun but pointless.”
Some of the truest words I’ve ever heard spoken about the system. It was great in many ways, sure, but almost no one has ever come up with evidence that it made them more productive. Lots of potential and “nearly there” features but little real-world benefits to show for it. =(
There were a number of serious apps being written for BeOS just about the time Be dropped desktop development. Most of these were in professional audio but there were also some graphics apps coming. Be was just too impatient to build a desktop/workstation OS incrementally. They wanted a big win fast and kept shifting focus in search of one. BeOS was on the verge of becoming a productive tool, but Be screwed the pooch.
1 – No support for imap in the mail client(s).
there’s a couple of email apps with imap support on BeBits.
2 – Poor driver support. I had a matrox G200, Soundblaster Live and a 3Com net card. All fairly standard stuff. It took forever before it would work with
Be.
G200 driver BeBits again, Soundblaster Live supported natively in R5 and R4 and possibly R3 supported 3Com network cards. Depends which model.
3 – Random reboots. I would be in the middle of doing something and bam, my computer would reboot.
Naaaa that could be a lot of things. Cant blame BeOS for that – usually poor 3rd party drivers cause ALL OS’s to behave weirdly.
4 – No Java support.
Kaffe anyone?
5 – Web browsing very limited.
Opera improves the experience, but i’ll give you that one…..although i’m quite happy not having Javascript pop ups everywhere when i use Net+…horses for courses i guess.
6 – No word processor with spellchecking and grammar checking available.
GoBe Productive. It even has MS Word and Excel filters……
All you had to do was ask the BeOS community. We’re a very friendly bunch.
Check the forums over at http://www.begroovy.com/
cheers
peter
Hey, I started looking at BeOS at the time the BeBox was the top of the line – and even then I had the feeling that BeOS was just a poor clone of OPENSTEP, written in C++ (you do not believe me? Then have a look at the API, even the names are very close to those if the AppKit and FoundationKit). Of course it had some goodies and of course it was better than Mac OS 8/9 or Window, but it never reached the perfection and coolness of NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP!
Why cant we make an OS better than BeOS?
Its possible?
Hi Eugenia,
You may check this site and ask the author for a PPC version of BeOS.
http://www.bearchives.com/os_updates.html
Kamel
“Don’t blame it on MS. People just didn’t like replacing Windows for BeOS. ”
MS is squarely to blame. The fact is that the market at large was *never given the choice* to choose BeOS in an optimal dual-boot feature (ie Windows for mundane tasks, BeOS for higher-end multimedia tasks) directly due to the illegal contracts they maintained with OEMs over dual booting. As you may recall, BeOS was ready to be loaded in dual-boot fashion on the systems of several mainstream PC makers until MS put their sticky fingers in the deals. If you hold a monopoly on the X86 desktop market as MS does, then antitrust laws forbid you from forming deals that only serve to kill off new competition.
I can’t believe nobody addressed my comment that BeOS was only impressive back when it was release in 1995. Did nobody get the significance of that?
j said “I can’t believe nobody addressed my comment that BeOS was only impressive back when it was release in 1995. Did nobody get the significance of that?”
Maybe people thought you were just stating the obvious. It’s true that when BeOS was introduced it was relatively more impressive because MacOS and Windows in 1995 weren’t what they are today. But it did have a big lead on them at the time in many ways. If Be had continued to develop BeOS, chances are it would have continued to maintain that lead. Given that it was a fresh start and unencumbered by trying to maintain backward compatibility, etc., there’s no reason to think it would have been passed up by the legacy OSs, if Be had maintained the same pace of development. Naturally BeOS isn’t as impressive compared to MacOS X and Windows XP in 2002, considering that it has essentially stood still for several years. By some measures, of course, it is still superior.
No, really. While there are projects to reimplement an open BeOS clone, they
probably can’t well clone the internals, i.e. those aspects that made the BeOS
rule, like great responsiveness/threading.
I myself went to Linux/GNU quickly, as I saw, Be didn’t support my notebook’s
trident graphics…
Let’s hope Palm will make Be a cool, PDA-OS that doesn’t need 200MHz and 64MB
like that PocketPC stuff…
My 2 EUR-Cent…