BeOS
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| A screenshot of BeOS R4.5 | |
| Company/developer: | Be Inc. |
| OS family: | BeOS |
| Source model: | Closed source |
| Stable release: | BeOS R5.0.3 [+/-] |
| Preview release: | none (none) [+/-] |
| Kernel type: | Modular Hybrid kernel |
| License: | Proprietary |
| Working state: | Stopped |
| Website: | Be, Inc. |
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. Unlike some other operating systems of the time, BeOS was written to take advantage of modern hardware. Optimized for digital media work, BeOS made full use of multiprocessor systems by utilizing modular I/O bandwidth, pervasive multithreading, preemptive multitasking and a custom 64-bit journaled file system known as BFS. The BeOS GUI was developed on the principles of clarity and a clean, uncluttered design. The API was written in C++ for ease of programming. It has POSIX compatibility and access to a command line interface through the bash shell, although internally it is not a Unix-derived operating system.
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[edit] History
Initially designed to run on AT&T Hobbit-based hardware, BeOS was later modified to run on PowerPC-based processors: first Be's own systems, later Apple's PReP and CHRP platforms, with the hope that Apple Computer would purchase or license BeOS as a replacement for its then aging Mac OS.[1] However, Apple's board of directors decided NeXTSTEP was a better choice and purchased NeXT in 1996, bringing back Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. To further complicate matters for Be, Apple refused to disclose architectural information about its G3 line of computers—information critical to making BeOS work on the latest hardware from Apple.
In 1997, Power Computing began bundling BeOS (on a CD for optional installation) with its line of PowerPC-based Macintosh clones. These systems could dual boot either the Mac OS or BeOS, with a startup screen offering the choice.
Due to Apple's moves and the mounting debt of Be Inc., BeOS was soon ported to the Intel x86 platform with its R3 release in March 1998. Through the late 1990s, BeOS managed to create a niche of followers, but the company failed to become solvent. As a last-ditch effort to increase interest in the failing operating system, Be Inc. released a stripped-down, but free, copy of BeOS R5 known as BeOS Personal Edition (BeOS PE). BeOS PE could be started from within Microsoft Windows or Linux, and was intended to nurture consumer interest in its product and give developers something with which they could tinker.
Be Inc. also released a stripped-down version of BeOS for Internet Appliances (BeIA), which soon became the company's business focus in place of BeOS. Unfortunately, BeOS PE and BeIA proved to be too little too late, and in 2001 Be's intellectual property was sold to Palm, Inc. BeOS R5 is considered the last official version, but BeOS R5.1 "Dano", which was under development before Be's sale to Palm and included the BONE networking stack, was leaked to the public shortly after the company's demise.
[edit] Continuation
Despite the end of Be Inc, BeOS remains popular among devoted followers. The BeOS community still develops free software and has even released patches, drivers and various updates to BeOS. The main source of BeOS-related software can be found at BeBits.[2]
The BeOS user interface was notable at the time for being almost completely unthemeable, even with third party hacks. The BeOS theme of yellow, changing length tabs on the top of windows, and relatively plain grey interface widgets was enforced. This UI remained relatively unchanged from 1995, but had been completely overhauled by the time of the leaked Dano release. An Easter egg in the OS allowed changing the title bar look-and-feel to a few others (Mac OS 8, Amiga, and Windows 98 appearances) and in Dano, this had been extended to be a feature allowing changing of the title bar and scroll bars. No other interface widgets could be changed. There is a pre-Dano third party program WindowShade that allows the colors of the title bar and window frame to be changed, but the appearance remained the same.
The plain BeOS R5 GUI is commonly cloned, either as the main UI, such as in TriangleOS, or as a theme, such as for GNOME.
[edit] Version History
| Release | Date | Hardware |
|---|---|---|
| DR1 - DR5 | October 1995 | AT&T Hobbit |
| DR6 (developer release) | January 1996 | PowerPC |
| DR7 | April 1996 | |
| DR8 | September 1996 | |
| Advanced Access Preview Release | May 1997 | |
| PR1 (preview release) | June 1997 | |
| PR2 | October 1997 | |
| R3 | March 1998 | PowerPC and Intel x86 |
| R3.1 | June 1998 | |
| R3.2 | July 1998 | |
| R4 | November 4, 1998 | |
| R4.5 ("Genki") | June 1999 | |
| R5 PE/Pro ("Maui") | March 2000 | |
| R5.1 ("Dano") | November 2001 | Intel x86 |
[edit] Projects to recreate BeOS
BeOS was well respected by a small but loyal user base, which was disappointed when Be Inc. failed commercially and no further enhancement of the operating system would be possible. In the years that followed, a handful of projects formed to recreate BeOS or key elements of the OS, with the eventual goal of then continuing where Be Inc. left off. To ensure that the OS could not be "taken away" from the Be community again, and to attract the efforts of volunteer programmers, these projects were all free/open-source software. The modular nature of the original BeOS facilitated recreating the operating system a piece at a time, inserting the newly coded modules into a working BeOS system to test compatibility. Eventually all of the "servers" (interworking modules of code) were to be replaced with original, freely licensed code.
Within a few years, some of them lost momentum and were discontinued, however. The domain name for Blue Eyed OS has lapsed and been taken up by another party, and the most recent release available on the Cosmoe web site is from 2004. As of 2007, active work continues on Haiku, a complete reimplementation of the BeOS operating system, and on E/OS, an operating system based on the Linux kernel that is attempting to reimplement only the APIs for BeOS and several other operating systems.
[edit] Projects to continue BeOS
ZETA is a commercially available operating system based on the BeOS R5.1 codebase. Originally developed by YellowTAB, the operating system is now distributed by magnussoft. During the development by YellowTAB, the company received some criticism from the BeOS community for refusing to discuss their legal position with regard to the BeOS code-base (perhaps for contractual reasons).
[edit] Products using BeOS
BeOS (and now Zeta) continue to be used in media appliances such as the Edirol DV-7 video editors from Roland corporation which run on top of a modified BeOS[3] and the TuneTracker radio automation software that runs on BeOS and Zeta, but is also sold as a "Station-in-a-Box" with the Zeta operating system included.[4]
iZ Technology sells the RADAR 24, a hard disc-based, 24-track professional audio recorder based on BeOS 5. [5]
Signage and broadcast display machines from Magicbox also use BeOS to power their Aavelin product line[6].
The Casablanca-TRON from MacroSystem[1] runs a modified version of BeOS 5. A dedicated computer built to edit video and audio, using a built in hard disk, CD-R(W)/DVD-R(W), and SD capabilities included to store media for later use and/or presentation. Made primarily for Schools and Universities.
[edit] References
- ^ Tom (2004-11-24). BeOS @ MaCreate. Retrieved on November 16, 2006.
- ^ BeBits - The Best Source of BeOS Software. Retrieved on November 16, 2006.
- ^ EDIROL by Roland DV-7DL Series Digital Video Workstations. Retrieved on November 16, 2006.
- ^ TuneTracker Radio Automation Software. Retrieved on December 9, 2006.
- ^ iZ RADAR 24. Retrieved on December 27, 2006.
- ^ Jay Ankeney (May 1, 2006). Technology Showcase: Digital Signage Hardware. Digital Content Producer. Retrieved on December 9, 2006.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- BeOSNews.com All things BeOS-related.
- IsComputerOn (Named after a function in BeOS that determines whether or not the machine is on) One of the best news sites for BeOS developments.
- BeBits is a comprehensive file repository for BeOS applications.
- BeOS on laptops and notebooks
- BeOS CD project A CD project with BeOS related articles
- TBRP - The BeOS Renaissance Project
- BeOS Celebrating Ten Years
- BeGroovy A blog dedicated to all things BeOS
- BeOS: The Mac OS X might-have-been, reghardware.co.uk
- Youtube videos A brief overview of the BeOS features
- The BeOS Tip Server
- Mirror of the old www.be.com site at www.beatjapan.org
- BeClan community site - aggregation of several active blogs and more
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| Companies: | Be Inc. • Gobe Software • yellowTAB • Magnussoft |
| Computers: | BeBox • Sony eVilla |
| Operating systems: | BeOS • BeIA • Haiku • magnussoft ZETA |
