Author Topic: What was BeOS?  (Read 7824 times)

_kill__bill

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What was BeOS?
« on: 14 February 2006, 21:33 »
I got intrested in what the :beos: smiley is about, and wikipediaed BeOS.
 
My question is, what was so great about it?
Simple GUI: wm2, twm, mwm or even fvwm, really
Runs on PPC/i386: Any major free OS
BFS: ???
New API: yeah, we really need better GUI APIs, but not in a new OS
 
Is it even worth checking out?
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worker201

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #1 on: 14 February 2006, 22:26 »
twm's footprint is tiny - I mean like usbstick-Linux tiny.  Sounds like a good OS for junk hardware.

I've never used it, but I have heard that some people think it is pretty fucking cool.  With any luck, they can tell you more.

WMD

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #2 on: 14 February 2006, 23:27 »
Quote from: _kill__bill
My question is, what was so great about it?

It was easy.  It was fast and small.  And it did those things without having a GUI so featureless (like those you mentioned) that you needed the command line.  It was probably the only decent threat to Windows 98, and it's still better than Linux in some ways.  Microsoft killed off the company by 2001 or so, maybe earlier.
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ReggieMicheals

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #3 on: 14 February 2006, 23:29 »
Its a damn good OS similar to linux. I say its worth checking out the personal edition which lives in a HD image and getting the full thing at beosonline.com if you like it(note: the full version has more drivers and has a better chance of working with your system). Or try Haiku, what ReactOS is to BeOS. It's in its alpha stages with a beta hopefully coming soon.

Preview: http://toastytech.com/guis/b5pe.html
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noob

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #4 on: 15 February 2006, 00:15 »
I'ma try BeOS, may aswell. Is there any source code available? It could come in usefull for a project I am working on.
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piratePenguin

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #5 on: 15 February 2006, 00:34 »
Quote from: noob
I'ma try BeOS, may aswell. Is there any source code available? It could come in usefull for a project I am working on.
Nope, no source. I think it's Palm that owns it now and they're not doing a damn thing with it IIRC.
There is the source for haiku, though. I take it it's the "open source console" you're interested in it for?

@Reggie: have you ever gotten haiku to run yourself, or has it not reached that stage yet?
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hm_murdock

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #6 on: 16 February 2006, 02:26 »
BeOS is for the most part, roughly equal to Mac OS 8.5 - 9.2 in UI and experience. Unlike Mac OS 8/9, however, it does have full preemptive multitasking, and all the goodies that come with that. It's horribly fast... has a very light footprint. It's cool. It's neat. It roxors your boxers.
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Lead Head

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #7 on: 16 February 2006, 03:05 »
Put it this way speed wise, Its boots faster on a 266Mhz K-6 then my A64 3000 with windows XP...

How ever, BeOS r5 PE doesnt work "well" with Athlon 64s unless you patched it. I had to run it on safe mode with my A64 and it was slow.
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ReggieMicheals

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #8 on: 18 February 2006, 16:44 »
Haiku doesn't have its kernel ready, so it shells on BeOS for now. It also only uses Intel Processors - not AMDs. However BeOS Developer Edition(free) has AMD support.
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Lead Head

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #9 on: 18 February 2006, 17:14 »
r5 does have AMD support, but only Athlons or lower unless you get it patched so you can use AXP and A64s
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Aloone_Jonez

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #10 on: 18 February 2006, 19:00 »
How about security?

Does it have a security model with permissions or is it root for all like Windows 9x?
This is not a Windows help forum, however please do feel free to sign up and agree or disagree with our views on Microsoft.

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Lead Head

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #11 on: 18 February 2006, 19:13 »
Its doesn't really have usernames and stuff like that. There is only one account and thats root/admin. But you don't really need to worry about security on BeOS. I mean if OSX just got its first worm.. How many do you think BeOS has?
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Aloone_Jonez

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #12 on: 18 February 2006, 19:24 »
You have a fair point but while it isn't a problem at the moment it'd become a big problem if BeOS gains a considerable userbase. I think it's probably a good thing that BeOS hasn't become the dominant OS, even Windows is more secure because it has the potential to lock down the system by having limited user accounts. Although most people don't use this feature now, maybe in the future MS might see sense and make limited accounts the norm.
This is not a Windows help forum, however please do feel free to sign up and agree or disagree with our views on Microsoft.

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hm_murdock

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #13 on: 18 February 2006, 22:56 »
Not sure that the security issue was that important when Be was made. Remember, it's a product of the early-mid 1990s when this crap wasn't constantly bombarding every computer on the Earth.
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Aloone_Jonez

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Re: What was BeOS?
« Reply #14 on: 18 February 2006, 22:59 »
The same is true for Windows.
This is not a Windows help forum, however please do feel free to sign up and agree or disagree with our views on Microsoft.

Oh and FUCKMicrosoft! :fu: