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BeOS

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BeOS
BeOS R4.5
DeveloperBe Inc.
OS familyBeOS
Working stateDefunct
Source modelClosed source
Kernel typeModular Hybrid kernel
LicenseProprietary
Official websitewww.beincorporated.com

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 journaling 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.

BeOS was positioned as a platform which could be used by a substantial population of desktop users and a competitor to Microsoft Windows and Linux. However, it was ultimately unable to achieve a significant market share and proved commercially unviable for Be Inc. The company was acquired by Palm Inc. and today BeOS is mainly used and developed by a small population of enthusiasts.

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] Apple CEO Gil Amelio started negotiations to buy Be Inc., but negotiations stalled when Be CEO Jean-Louis Gassée wanted $400 million; Apple was unwilling to offer any more than $125 million. Apple’s board of directors decided NeXTSTEP was a better choice and purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million, 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 Be deemed critical to making BeOS work on the latest hardware from Apple, though Terra Soft Solutions was able to port Linux to these machines without Apple’s assistance.

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. 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.

After the split from Palm, PalmSource used parts of BeOS' multimedia framework for their failed Palm OS Cobalt product[2]. With the takeover of PalmSource, the BeOS rights now belong to Access Co.

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.[3]

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 Workbench, 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.

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

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.

But within a few years, some of them lost momentum and were discontinued. 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. BeOS Workstation is about the last “distro” offering Be, but with open software, to replace licenced software, most of the OS has been replaced or re-created as such.

Projects to continue BeOS

ZETA was a commercially available operating system based on the BeOS R5.1 codebase. Originally developed by YellowTAB, the operating system was then distributed by magnussoft. During the development by YellowTAB, the company received criticism from the BeOS community for refusing to discuss their legal position with regard to the BeOS code-base (perhaps for contractual reasons). Access Co. (which bought the PalmSource, until then, the holders of the intellectual property associated the BeOS) has since declared that YellowTAB had no right to distribute a modified version of BeOS, and Magnussoft has ceased distribution of the operating system.

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[4] 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.[5]

The Tascam SX-1 digital audio recorder runs a heavily modified version of BeOS that will only launch the recording interface software.

iZ Technology sells the RADAR 24, a hard disc-based, 24-track professional audio recorder based on BeOS 5.[6]

Magicbox, manufacturer of signage and broadcast display machines, use BeOS to power their Aavelin product line.[7]

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.

Final Scratch – the 12” vinyl timecode record-driven DJ software/hardware system was first developed on BeOS. The ‘ProFS’ version was sold to a few dozen world-class DJs prior to the 1.0 release, which ran on a Linux virtual partition.

See also

References

  1. ^ Tom (2004-11-24). "BeOS @ MaCreate". Retrieved 2006-11-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ PalmSource Introduces Palm OS Cobalt, PalmSource press release, Feb 10, 2004
  3. ^ "BeBits – The Best Source of BeOS Software". Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  4. ^ "EDIROL by Roland DV-7DL Series Digital Video Workstations". Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  5. ^ "TuneTracker Radio Automation Software". Retrieved 2006-12-09.
  6. ^ "iZ RADAR 24". Retrieved 2006-12-27.
  7. ^ Jay Ankeney (May 1, 2006). "Technology Showcase: Digital Signage Hardware". Digital Content Producer. Retrieved 2006-12-09.
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