[olug] Re: BeOS in public domain & meetings

[Cale Lewis]

> I've got a copy of BeOS 4.x Pro and 5.x Pro that are free to good 
homes.... 
> lemme know if anyone wants one.  Given the state of non-existance of Be, 
> and given how many years Be has been gone, the software might actually be 
> in the public domain by now (ie: copy the disc as much as you want).  Oh, 
> and might have a copy of the BeOS Bible that came with 4.x.
> 
> Both systems scream and I thoroughly enjoyed using both.  Worlds ahead of 
> Linux (perhaps even still), but still not quite up to MacOS or Win32 in 
> reguards to UI usability.
> 
> When you power down the system, add a new pci card, and bring the system 
> back up... and it doesn't even tell you about it but instead just 'makes 
it 
> work'... Oh. Yes. hehe.
> 
> -Will

Personally, I sugest someone take him up on the offer. Of all the systems 
I've seen, this has been the one I truly "enjoyed" using. While Be Inc, and 
the IP itself was bought by Palm, BeOS in effect is NOT dead. It is still 
availible in a commercial (slightly controvesial) diotribution called Zeta
http://www.yellowtab.com/ 

It's also very much alive in the efforts of the OpenBeOS Project, recently 
renamed Haiku OS   http://www.haiku-os.org/   It aims to be, and is so far 
succeeding, in being source, and almost completely binary compatible with 
BeOS r5. 

Since BeOS was a very modular design, the 'kits' or servers and the rest of 
the proprietary code are being replaced with Opensource code under a BSD 
style license. The kernel is being replaced with a fork of the NeeOS kernel 
  http://newos.sourceforge.net/intro.php   which was developed by a former 
Be Inc. engineer along the lines of BeOS, with a few improvements along the 
way. It also runs on x86 and PPC, which will allow 'active' BeOS(Haiku) use 
and development on both platforms again (Be had started to let the PPC side 
lanquish), plus the Hitachi SH-4 used in the Sega Dreamcast. There are also 
plans for 
# ARM dev board - TI OMAP based dev board
# Sun Blade 100 - UltraSPARC IIe in 64-bit mode
# NeXT B&W slab - Motorola 68040 based
# SGI Indy - MIPS R5000 based Indy in 32- and 64-bit mode
# DEC Multia - Alpha 21064 

Now to interest the Linux faithful, you might want to check out the efforts 
to use the Linux kernel as a base for the BeOS API
BeFree   http://befree.berlios.de/
BlueEyedOS   http://www.blueeyedos.com/
Cosmoe   http://www.cosmoe.com/   Cosmoe is a sort of cross-breed of BeOS 
and AtheOS API's I believe, and mention has been made of possible 
Carbon(MacOS) support. 

> Can you give some examples as to how Be and Linux interact?  Maybe a demo
> at an upcoming meeting.
> 
> Jon L.

I would love to, but as your meetings are on Tuesdays, and I work a 2-10:30 
pm rotating schedule with never a tuesday off, I will have to forego the 
pleasure of meeting any of you until a better oppourtunity comes along. 
Please try the BeOS out though, I can provide versions based on the free 
(as in beer) Personal Edition that Be Inc. released shortly before their 
demise. You might be suprised at what M$ managed to roll under it's 
wheels.......

for now!