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BeOS
BeOS R5
DeveloperBe Inc.
Written inC++
Working stateDiscontinued
Source modelProprietary
Initial releaseOctober 3, 1995;28 years ago(1995-10-03)
Latest releaseR5 / March 28, 2000;24 years ago(2000-03-28)
Available inEnglish, Japanese
PlatformsIA-32
PowerPC
KerneltypeMonolithic kernel[1]
LicenseProprietary
Official websitebeincorporated.com

BeOSis a discontinuedoperating systemforpersonal computersthat was developed byBe Inc.[2]It was conceived for the company'sBeBoxpersonal computer which was released in 1995. BeOS was designed formultitasking,multithreading,and agraphical user interface.The OS was later sold toOEMs,retail, and directly to users; its last version was released asfreeware.

Early BeOS releases are forPowerPC.It was ported toMacintoshand thenx86.Be was ultimately unable to achieve a significant market share and ended development with dwindling finances, soPalmacquired the BeOS assets in 2001. Enthusiasts have since created derivate operating systems includingHaiku,which will retain BeOS 5 compatibility as of Release R1.

Development[edit]

BeOS is the product of formerApple Computer'sJean-Louis Gassée,with the underlying philosophy of building a "media OS" capable of up-and-coming digital media[3]and multi-processors. Development began in the early 1990s, initially designed to run onAT&T Hobbit-based hardware before being modified to run onPowerPC-based processors: first Be's ownBeBoxsystem, and later Apple Computer'sPowerPC Reference PlatformandCommon Hardware Reference Platform,with the hope that Apple would purchase or license BeOS as a replacement for its agingMac OS.[4]

The first version of BeOS shipped with the BeBox to a limited number of developers in October 1995. It supported analog and digital audio andMIDIstreams, multiple video sources, and 3D computation.[5]Developer Release 6 (DR6) was the first officially available version.

The BeOS Developer Release 7 (DR7) was released in April 1996. This includes full 32-bit color graphics, "workspaces" (virtual desktops), anFTPfile server, and aweb server.[6]

DR8 was released in September 1996 with a new browser withMPEGandQuickTimevideo formats. It supportsOpenGL,remote access,[7]andPower Macintosh.[8]

In 1996, Apple Computer CEOGil Ameliostarted negotiations to buy Be Inc., but stalled when Be CEOJean-Louis Gasséewanted $300 million[9]and Apple offered $125 million. Apple's board of directors preferredNeXTSTEPand purchasedSteve Jobs'sNeXTinstead.[10]

The final developer's release introduced a 64-bitfile system.BeOS Preview Release (PR1), the first for the general public, was released in mid 1997. It supportsAppleTalk,PostScriptprinting, andUnicode.[11]The price for the Full Pack was $49.95. Later that year, Preview Release 2 shipped with support for Macintosh'sHierarchical File System (HFS),support for 512MB RAM, and improvements to the user interface.[12]

Release 3 (R3) shipped in March 1998 (initially $69.95, later $99.95), as the first to be ported to theIntelx86platform in addition to PowerPC, and the first commercially available version of BeOS.[13]The adoption of x86 was partly due to Apple's moves, with Steve Jobs stopping the Macintosh clone market,[14]and Be's mounting debt.[15]

BeOS Release 4 has a claimed performance improvement of up to 30 percent. Keyboard shortcuts were changed to mimic those of Windows[16]However it still lacksNovell NetWaresupport.[17]It also brought additional drivers and support for the most commonSCSIcontrollers on the x86 platform - from Adaptec and Symbios Logic. The bootloader switched fromLILOto Be's own bootman.

In 2000, BeOS Release 5 (R5) was released. This is split between a Pro Edition, and a free version known as Personal Edition (BeOS PE) which was released for free online and by CD-ROM.[18]BeOS PE can be booted from within Windows orLinux,and was intended as a consumer and developer preview.[19][20]Also with R5, Beopen sourcedelements of the user interface.[21]Be CEO Gassée said in 2001 that he was open to the idea of releasing the entire operating system's source code,[22]but this never materialized.

Release 5 raised BeOS's popularity[18]but it remained commercially unsuccessful, and BeOS eventually halted following the introduction of a stripped-down version forInternet appliances,BeIA,which became the company's business focus in place of BeOS.[23]R5 is the final official release of BeOS as Be Inc. became defunct in 2001 following its sale toPalm Inc.A BeOS R5.1 "Dano", which was under development before Be's sale to Palm and includes the BeOS Networking Environment (BONE) networking stack,[24]was leaked to the public shortly after the company's close.[25]

Version history table[edit]

Release Date Hardware
Developer Release 4 Prototype AT&T Hobbit
Developer Release 5 October 1995 PowerPC
Developer Release 6 January 1996
Developer Release 7 April 1996
Developer Release 8 September 1996
Developer Release 9

(Advanced Access Preview Release)

May 1997
Preview Release 1 June 1997
Preview Release 2 October 1997
Release 3 March 1998 PowerPCandIntel x86
R3.1 June 1998
R3.2 July 1998
Release 4 November 4, 1998
R4.5 ( "Genki" ) June 1999
Release 5( "Maui" )

Personal Edition/Pro Edition

March 2000
R5.1 ( "Dano" ) Leaked Intel x86

Hardware support and licensees[edit]

After the discontinuation of the BeBox in January 1997,Power Computingbegan bundling BeOS (on a CD-ROM for optional installation) with its line of PowerPC-basedMacintosh clones.These systems candual booteitherMac OSor BeOS, with a start-up screen offering the choice.[26]Motorolaalso announced in February 1997 that it would bundle BeOS with their Macintosh clones, theMotorola StarMax,along with MacOS.[27]DayStar Digitalwas another licensee.[28]

BeOS is compatible with many Macintosh models exceptPowerBook.[29]

With BeOS Release 3 on the x86 platform, the operating system is compatible with most computers that run Windows.Hitachiis the first major x86 OEM to ship BeOS, selling theHitachi Flora Priusline in Japan, andFujitsureleased the Silverline computers in Germany and theNordiccountries.[30]Be was unable to attract further manufacturers due to theirMicrosoftcontracts. Be closed in 2002, and sued Microsoft, claiming that Hitachi had been dissuaded from selling PCs loaded with BeOS. The case was eventually settled out of court for $23.25 million with no admission of liability on Microsoft's part.[31]

Architecture[edit]

The BeOS architecture

BeOS was developed as an original product, with a proprietarykernel,symmetric multiprocessing,preemptive multitasking,and pervasivemultithreading.[32]It runs inprotected memorymode, with aC++application framework based on shared libraries and modular code.[8]Be initially offeredCodeWarriorfor application development,[32]and laterEGCS.

ItsAPIisobject oriented.The user interface was largely multithreaded: each window ran in its own thread, relying heavily on sending messages to communicate between threads; and these concepts are reflected into the API.[33]

BeOS uses modern hardware facilities such as modular I/O bandwidth, a multithreaded graphics engine (with theOpenGLlibrary), and a64-bitjournaling file systemnamedBFSsupporting files up to oneterabyteeach.[17]BeOS has partialPOSIXcompatibility and acommand-line interfacethroughBash,although internally it is not aUnix-derived operating system. Many Unix applications were ported to the BeOS command-line interface.[34]

BeOS usesUnicodeas the default GUI encoding, and support for input methods such asbidirectional textinput was never realized.

Applications[edit]

BeOS is bundled with a uniqueweb browsernamed NetPositive,[35]the BeMailemail client,[36]and the PoorManweb server[37].Be operated the marketplace site BeDepot for the purchase and downloading of software including third party, and a website named BeWare listing apps for the platform. Some third party BeOS apps include theGobe Productiveoffice suite,[17]theMozillaproject,[38][39]and multimedia apps likeCinema 4D.[40]QuakeandQuake IIwere officially ported, andSimCity 3000was in development.[41]

Reception[edit]

Be did not disclose the number of BeOS users, but it was estimated to be running on between 50,000 and 100,000 computers in 1999,[30]and Release 5 reportedly had over one million downloads.[18]For a time it was viewed as a viable competitor toMac OSandWindows,but its status as the "alternative operating system" was quickly surpassed byLinuxby 1998.[42]

Reception of the operating system was largely positive citing its true and "reliable" multitasking and support for multiple processors.[43]Though its market penetration was low, it gained a nichemultimediauserbase[30]and acceptance by the audio community. Consequently it was styled as a "media OS"[44]due to its well-regarded ability to handle audio and video.[45]BeOS received significant interest in Japan,[11]and was also appealing toAmigadevelopers and users, who were looking for a newer platform.[46]

BeOS and its successors have been used in media appliances, such as the Edirol DV-7 video editors fromRoland Corporation,which run on a modified BeOS[47]and the Tunetracker Radio Automation software that used to run it on BeOS[48][49][50]andZeta,and it was also sold as a "Station-in-a-Box" with the Zeta operating system included.[51]In 2015, Tunetracker released aHaikudistribution bundled with its broadcasting software.[52]

Legacy[edit]

The Tascam SX-1 digital audio recorder runs a heavily modified version of BeOS that will only launch the recording interface software.[53]TheRADAR 24, RADAR V and RADAR 6,hard disk-based, 24-track professional audio recorders from iZ Technology Corporation were based on BeOS 5.[54]Magicbox, a manufacturer of signage and broadcast display machines, uses BeOS to power their Aavelin product line.[55]Final Scratch,a 12-inch vinyl timecode record-driven DJ software and hardware system, was first developed on BeOS. The "ProFS" version was sold to a few dozen DJs prior to the 1.0 release, which ran on a Linux virtual partition.[56]

Spiritual successors[edit]

Family tree of BeOS and related operating systems

After BeOS came to an end, Palm createdPalmSourcewhich used parts of BeOS's multimedia framework for its failedPalm OS Cobaltproduct[57](with the takeover of PalmSource, the BeOS rights were assigned toAccess Co.[58]). However, Palm refused the request of BeOS users to license the operating system.[59]As a result, a few projects formed to recreate BeOS or its key elements with the eventual goal of then continuing where Be Inc. quit.

BeUnited, a BeOS oriented community, converted itself into anonprofit organizationin August 2001[60]to "define and promote open specifications for the delivery of the Open Standards BeOS-compatible Operating System (OSBOS) platform".[61]

ZETA[edit]

Immediately after Palm's purchase of Be, a German company namedyellowTABstarted developingZetabased on the BeOS R5.1 codebase and released it commercially. It was later distributed bymagnussoft.[62]During development by yellowTAB, the company received criticism from the BeOS community for refusing to discuss its legal position with regard to the BeOS codebase.Access Co.(which boughtPalmSource,until then the holder of the intellectual property associated with BeOS) declared that yellowTAB had no right to distribute a modified version of BeOS, and magnussoft was forced to cease distribution of the operating system in 2007.[63]

Haiku (OpenBeOS)[edit]

Haikuis a completeopen sourcereimplementation of BeOS. It was originally named OpenBeOS and its first release in 2002 was a community update.[62]Unlike Cosmoe and BlueEyedOS, it is directly compatible with BeOS applications. It is open source software. As of 2022, it was the only BeOS clone still under development, with the fourth beta in December 2022 still keeping BeOS 5 compatibility in its x86 32-bit images, with an increased number of ported modern drivers andGTKapps.[64]

Others[edit]

Screenshot of an early version of Cosmoe

BlueEyedOS tried to create a system underLGPLbased on theLinuxkernel and anX serverthat is compatible with BeOS. Work began under the name BlueOS in 2001 and a demo CD was released in 2003.[65]The project was discontinued in February 2005.

Cosmoe, with an interface like BeOS, was designed by Bill Hayden as an open source operating system based on the source code ofAtheOS,but using theLinux kernel.[66][67][68]ZevenOS was designed to continue where Cosmoe left off.[69]

BeFree started in 2003, initially developed underFreeBSD[70]and laterLinux.[71][72]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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