BeOS - The OS designed by ex-Apple Executive, which DISAPPEARED
Post by: zix
BeOS is(was) a powerful OS designed primarily for Multimedia desktop use. Originally BeOS was designed for a custom computer system known as the BeBox that had special multimedia input/output features, and was later ported to the Macintosh, and finally ported to the PC.
This version of BeOS is the Personal Edition, which can be downloaded freely from the Internet and installed under Windows. Under Windows 95 and Windows 98 you can just double click an icon to exit Windows and start this version of BeOS. On ME or NT 4 or later you can use a boot floppy to start the installed BeOS.
Unfortunately Be ran in to problems competing with Microsoft, such as Microsoft's license agreements with OEMs that forbid them from selling computers that booted more than one OS. In 2001 after changing their focus to "internet appliances", Be went out of business.
It was first written to run onBeBoxhardware. BeOS was built for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such assymmetric multiprocessingby utilizing modular I/O bandwidth, pervasive multithreading,preemptive multitaskingand a64-bitjournaling file systemknown asBFS. The BeOS GUI was developed on the principles of clarity and a clean, uncluttered design.
BeOS was positioned as a multimedia platform which could be used by a substantial population of desktop users and a competitor toMac OSandMicrosoft Windows. However, it was ultimately unable to achieve a significant market share and proved commercially unviable for Be Inc. The company was acquired byPalm Inc.and today BeOS is mainly used and developed by a small population of enthusiasts.
The open-source OS Haiku, a complete reimplementation of BeOS, is designed to start up where BeOS left off. Alpha 4 of Haiku was released in November 2012.[1]
Be Incorporated - was founded by former Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée with capital from Seymour Cray. The fate of the company was however dissolved.
Brief history on what happened to Be Inc.
In 1996, Apple was searching for a new operating system to replace the Mac OS, the two final options were BeOS and NeXTSTEP. The deal swung towards NeXT due to the persuasive influence of Steve Jobs and the incomplete state of the BeOS product, criticized at the time for lacking such features as printing capability.
Ultimately the assets of the corporation were bought by Palm, Inc., where Gassée served on the board of directors, for US$11 million in 2001, at which point the company entereddissolution. The company then initiated litigation against Microsoft for anti-competitive business practices, specifically the prohibition of OEMs to allow dual-boot systems containing both Microsoft and non-Microsoft operating systems. The suit was settled in September 2003 with a US$23.25 million payout to Be, Inc. Palm subsequently spun off a wholly owned subsidiary PalmSource to develop its PalmOS and related software, with the Be assets being transferred to PalmSource which was subsequently acquired by Japanese basedACCESS.
