Haiku Archive

Cosmoe is back. "Well, I couldn't stay away. My lengthy hiatus away from working on Cosmoe is now over, and I am back in full force! For those of you not familiar with Cosmoe, it is a BeOS API (or Haiku API, if you will) environment running on Linux." There's even a screenshot.

"As World+Dog gets its head around Windows Vista, lets look back at an operating system that might have been a contender, very nearly becoming Apple's next-generation OS and, but for Linux, almost certainly the key alternative to Windows on x86. Ladies and gentlemen, who remembers BeOS?"

Vasper has breathed life into his BeOS Max project. "Well, as you might have seen on BeOS News sites, I have posted info on the haikumax.org site on an upcoming version of BeOS Max. It will be Version 4 to be exact. So to answer the major question. Why? Although Zeta is being developed, Magnussoft is not doing its best to keep it alive. I find it quite annoying that I have to return the product I purchased from Yellowtab, to get an upgrade. This for me is a show stopper. I don't want to wait in line at a post office, to send a package back to a company whose products I order from the Internet."

As announced on the Haiku website and reported by IsComputerOn.com, Eric Petit has announced the development of a VMWare graphics driver for Haiku. Based on Be's driver sample code and code inspired by the X.org driver, Eric's driver so far implements RECT_BLIT and cursor functions (the latter are disabled as they are still buggy). The driver is already working as can be confirmed from this screenshot. On his initial post to the Haiku mailing list, Eric is asking for feedback, and has made the sources available in this tarball for those brave souls who would like to test the drivers.

The Haiku network stack currently under heavy development is reportedly working with the Vision IRC client. Haiku developer Axel Dörfler reports that the network stack can now successfully run the Vision IRC client (screenshot on the Haiku website). At this stage, the network still needs to be configured manually, but this can be easily done by editing a couple of files as explained here. Haiku can use BeOS network drivers, so if your NIC is not supported, you can try finding a driver on BeBits.com.

No, it's not Bill Gates, but rather the developer of the OSBOS Cosmoe. For those who do not know what Cosmoe is, the following introduction is for you. Cosmoe was one of the first OSBOS announced at beunited and was also the first OSBOS to successfully run the OpenTracker. It is, to this day, developed by a man called Bill Hayden. The big difference between Haiku and Cosmoe is that it runs on the Linux kernel and that it's using GPL as its license. Read on for the interview.

The Haiku Project recently introduced a new and more efficient scalable vector-based icon format, the Haiku Vector Icon Format, or HVIF for short. HVIF uses a special vector storage format specifically designed to store icons that is so efficient, that icons in Haiku take a meager 500 - 700 bytes on average. Following the introduction of this new icon format, the Haiku developer behind this new icon format, Stephan Assmus (Stippi), has published two articles, one introducing some interesting facts about HVIF, and another giving some details of why Haiku vector icons are so small.

Lots of Haiku and Zeta news this weekend. Firstly, the latest Haiku image is now making use of the new, improved Deskbar and Tracker with support for scalable vector graphics. Also Stephan Assmus' award winning icon set, Stippi, has been included. Secondly, better support for Japanese is now available on Zeta. Thirdly, there is now a driver for Intel Extreme chipsets for both Zeta and Haiku. Lastly, BeOSNews.com has a guide on using Aspell on BeOS.

"The Haiku Project had its annual conference in Orlando this past weekend, and though I have little experience with BeOS or Haiku, I decided to attend and write about the conference because it's 20 minutes from my home. It's called WalterCon because 'Walter' was one of the proposed names for what was to become a free replacement for BeOS. Be, Inc. may be dead and gone, and the BeOS source code may have been sold and warehoused, but the spirit of Be lives on in Haiku and WalterCon. If only it had a little more developer support, you'd be hearing about the Haiku operating system a lot more often. Heck, you might even be using it."

Michael Lotz, of Tracker.NewFS, SVG, Haiku USB, Qemu, and countless other cool-things-to-have fame has checked in Haiku's first wireless network driver, for the Intel Pro Wireless 2100. This chipset, which inhabits nearly all early Centrino-badged devices, is amongst the more common wireless hardware found in recent computers. It works on r5 as well.

While some BeOS users have enjoyed USB Mass Storage support on compatible (read: Dano USB stack-equipped) systems since the release of the USB Storage Module back in 2004, it today became possible to use this driver with an entirely legal USB stack on BeOS R5. In addition, USB 2.0 now works on R5, whereas Be's stacks have only ever supported USB 1.1. Michael Lotz's commit allows the driver to operate on R5, and on the SVN mailing list, he has stated that in testing, he has written to and read data from his Playstation Portable at USB2 speeds using this combination.

"Marcus OVerhagen is now working on another Haiku project. This time, he's trying to getting PXE boot to work. What is PXE you ask? PXE means Preboot Execution Environment, and though an old technology, it's still quite used, especially to boot computers from a network (in my previous job we used it to reinstall a Windows image for exameple)."

The HaikuPodcast.com team has made a video entitled "The Introduction to Haiku", in high quality divx or low-quality m4v, to honour Haiku's 5th birthday. Of course you could always install and experience it first hand, but if that's not an option, this video may come in handy.

Time is up for the Haiku Icon Contest submissions, and it is now everybody's chance to make their voice heard. Please vote for the theme that is more usable, clean, recognizable and less tiring.