Be Inc.
| Be Incorporated logo | |
| Founded | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California  United States |
Key people | Jean-Louis Gassée, Steve Sakoman (founders) |
| Products | BeOS, BeBox |
Be Incorporated was an American computer company founded in 1990, best known for the Be Operating System (BeOS) and BeBox personal computer. Be was founded by former Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée with capital from Seymour Cray.
Be's corporate offices were located in Menlo Park, California; as well as regional sales offices in France and Japan. The company later relocated to Mountain View in California for the duration of its dissolution.
The main intent of Be was to develop a new operating system using the C++ programming language on a proprietary hardware platform. The BeOS ran on the BeBox, but was later ported to Apple's Power Macs despite resistance from Apple, due to the hardware specifications assistance of Power Computing. In 1998, the system was ported to the Intel x86 architecture, and PowerPC support was reduced, finally being dropped after BeOS R5.
History
Be was founded by former Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassée in 1990 with Steve Sakoman after being ousted by Apple CEO John Sculley. Be aimed to create a modern computer operating system written in C++ on a proprietary hardware platform. In 1995, the BeBox personal computer was released by Be, with its distinctive strips of lights up the front that indicated the load of each CPU, and the combined analogue/digital, 37-pin GeekPort has made it a highly desirable item for collectors. In addition to BeOS and BeBox, Be also produced BeIA, an ill-fated OS for internet appliances. It was however used commercially by Sony (with the eVilla) and DT Research, amongst others, during its short lifespan.
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 (although Apple ultimately ended up scrapping many components of NeXTSTEP and rewriting them from scratch, including —ironically— the entire printing subsystem.)
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 entered dissolution. The company then initiated litigation against Microsoft for anti-competitive business practices, specifically the prohibition of OEM's 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.
Company name
According to several sources including Macworld UK, the company name "Be" had its origin in a conversation between Gassée and Be co-founder Steve Sakoman. Gassée originally thought the company should be called "United Technoids Inc.", but Sakoman disagreed and said he would start looking through the dictionary for a better name. A few days later, when Gassée asked if he had made any progress, Sakoman replied that he had gotten tired and stopped at "B." Gassée said, "Be is nice. End of story."
External links
- Dissolution information
- Be Site (Archived)
- Be Newsletters (Archived)
- The BeBox Zone - History
- [1] BeBits-current development
