Technoids Issue 5 Released
The PDF online magazine Technoids issued v5 with a number of articles including an interview with BeOS MAX 3.1 people, 20 years of Macintosh and a review of the latest Zeta (all in German).
Haiku Archive
Confessions of a Latter-Day BeOS Convert
"My shift in focus was further solidified by my first user experiences with BeOS following my installation of R5 PE on a Windows box. What I had read was true! I was captivated, completely enamored. But I was also suddenly deeply remorseful." What kind of person falls in love with BeOS for the first time in these "late" BeOS days? Read the editorial at BeOSJournal.
BlueEyedOS Status
"According to a recent update on their website (February 14th), the reason why the source code of BlueEyedOS (which is under the LGPL licence) hasn't been made available yet is because they can't find a public host." More is available here. Also interesting to check out the sourceforge status.
OpenBeOS Newsletter; Issue 51 is Out
A new OBOS-Newsletter is out: In this Issue you can read about an "OBOS App_Server Overview", "How to Write a BeOS R5 Printer Driver" and "Against Directories".
Login Carries BeOS Max 3.0 on Cover Disk; 3.1 a Victim of Bandwidth
BeOS Max 3 is a collection of third party updates, drivers and new applications on top of BeOS 5 Personal Edition (e.g. enabling AthlonXP and P4 machines to work, install on its own partition etc). Because of the non-standard nature of burning a BFS ISO (discussed here and here) and also because the .cue file (needed to burn the BFS ISO) has a undocumented typo in it, many tried to burn it unsuccessfully (you need to edit the MaxV3.cue file with a text editor and enter the correct .iso filename in it). Now, the French print magazine Login carries the BeOS Max 3.0 in its cover disk. OSNews heard that BeOS Max 3.1 is ready for weeks now but its developer doesn't have the bandwidth to upload it yet.
IM With File System Support: Putting the BFS Attributes in Good Use
The IM Kit is a modular framework developed to make it easy to access various IM networks (ICQ, AIM, etc) and is designed in a way it is fully integrated with BeOS's attributed journaled 64-bit file system. It makes use of BFS' attributes, indexes and "live queries" to make it as flexible as possible. With the IM Kit you can, for instance, search for all members of your family that are online and that by using the standard "Find" utility that you use to search files on your disk. You can also manage all the contacts using Tracker (the BeOS file manager and desktop). You can also see in the screenshot that the IM Kit even changes the icon color according to the user status and that change is, as expected, live.
OpenBeOS Progress: Translation, Network Kit
The OpenBeOS Translation Kit BETA 3 is now available. Many bugs have been fixed, including one in the Translation Kit which caused some applications to crash and prevented others from loading bitmap resources. Elsewhere, Waldemar Kornewald from the Networking Kit recently changed a file in the OpenBeOS CVS and posted a comment which is pretty self-explanatory.
First BeFree Screenshot
After several months the BeFree project shows its first progress with a screenshot. The next version is planned before the end of the year or in the first days of the next year.
BlueEyedOS Switches to LGPL
BlueEyedOS, an effort to ressurect the BeOS APIs and experience under Linux and X11, switches to the LGPL license from closed source in order to attract more developers.
New OpenTracker File Manager Feature: What’s Your Opinion?
IsComputerOn reports that Axel Dörfler, OpenTracker's maintainer, would like everyone's opinion on a new feature he is working on: If, let's say, you have folder A and folder B, both showing (their contents) in Tracker windows. You want to create a link (or move, or copy) folder A to folder B, you right-click and drag the little icon (screenshot) into folder B, no need to go to the parent folder of A and then drag it.
New OpenBeOS Newsletter
The OpenBeOS folks published a new newsletter and includes some interesting readings like the "The "virtualdrive" driver" and the "System Logging". For more BeOS reading, read the Technoids magazine, issue 4 (german only).
Beyond Magazine Issue 2 Out
The PDF-based Beyond Magazine issue 2 is out, an interesting weekend reading. It includes articles about the *BSD, Rebol, Amiga, Games and old platforms, multimedia, an interview with Scot Hacker (author of "BeOS Bible", today an OSX user), Linux, OpenBeOS, a review of BeOS Max Edition 3.0 and more. Additionally, the German Technoids issue #3 is out too.
BeOS Max Edition v3.0 Released
Vasper released today BeOS Max Edition v3.0. The compressed file weighs about 280 MB and includes third party software in addition to the tweaked core of BeOS 5.0.3 PE. BeOS Max is patched and supports AthlonXPs/Pentium 4s and installs on its own partition. Burning the ISO is not as simple though, as it has to be burned as BFS ISO format. More info on how to properly burn it here and here.
Interviews with V. Perantzakis of BeOS Max & G. Maillard of B.E.O.S.
The BeOSJournal caught up with Vassilis Perantzakis recently in BeShare, who spoke about his work on BeOS Max Edition, his outlook on Be Inc.'s decision to "focus shift", and what he thinks is in store for future distributions of OpenBeOS, including YellowTab's Zeta. Additionally, the new french news site BeOptimistic.net features an interview of Guillaume Maillard, leader of the BlueEyedOS project. This interview is in french, but an english translation is also available. Other new BeOS-related news sites involve ZetaNews and IsComputerOn.
Interview With Michael Phipps, of OpenBeOS
The BeOSJournal spent some time with Michael Phipps, who is the Project Leader of OpenBeOS, and orchestrates the entire direction of the project. On other OpenBeOS news, their latest newsletter is out.
Be-Microsoft Settlement Puts The Thumb Back On PC OEMs
"Should Be Inc. settle with Microsoft or should it hold out and wait for Massachusetts attorney general Tom Reilly to press for a fair settlement or penalty for the software giant? Assuming Massachusetts is sucessful, Be's task of being reinbursed for losses would be much easier. If Be settles, Microsoft would not have to admit wrongdoing." This means that Microsoft would be given a proverbial license to pressure PC OEMs to not install alternatives to Windows, the editorial states.
Microsoft Corp. and Be, Inc. Reach Agreement to Settle Lawsuit
Be Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced that the parties have reached a mutually acceptable mediated settlement of an antitrust lawsuit filed by Be Inc. in February 2002. Be claimed that Microsoft maintained its monopoly by having exclusive dealing arrangements with PC OEMs prohibiting the sale of PCs with multiple preinstalled OSes. Be will receive a payment from Microsoft, after attorney's fees, in the amount of $23,250,000 USD to end further litigation, and Microsoft... admits no wrongdoing. UPDATE: BeOSJournal.org has an interview with ex-Be employees Dan Sandler, Baron Arnold, and Dave Brown. Interesting is also Frank Boosman's blog on the issue:
German BeOS Usergroup Alive Again
Despite trolls' claims to the contrary, BeOS is still alive and well, and no one shows it more than active BeOS usergroups . The German BeOS User Group, DeBUG, has reformed and reorganized and the next BeGeistert is planned for mid-October. More details within.
Interview With Axel Dörfler of OpenBeOS
This interview was originally conducted by Matthias Breiter for Technoids, a German-language publication. It has been translated by Mark Patterson and this English version is being published exclusively by OSNews. Learn a little more about the OpenBeOS project from one of its primary contributors.
Technoids Interviews Axel Dörfler, OpenBFS Creator
The online German magazine Technoids features a long and interesting interview with Axel Dörfler, OpenBFS developer of the OpenBeOS project. The magazine can be downloaded in PDF format and it is in German language as of now (some translations are planned, hopefully english too). Update: In another interview, at BeOSJournal, Nathan discusses his personal life, loves and hates, and getting in shape so as not to end up like some programmers.