Opinions? BeOS

[Joshua Boyd]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 01:08:19PM -0600, Martin Scott Goldberg wrote:

> As for the open source version, there's actually a bunch of them:
> Open BeOS - http://open-beos.sourceforge.net/news.php

I believe they moved (and changed their name) to http://haiku-os.org/
Of the open source systems you mention, I think this is the only one
that's very BeOS like and alive.
 
> FreeOS (Now Called Mockup, a BeOS/Linux mixture) - 
> http://www.mockup.org/faqs/whats/
> 
> Athos - http://www.atheos.cx/  Athos is peculiar in that everyone except
> the author calls it a BeOS clone. ;)

I think that one is long dead.
 
> There's also a new commercial version called Zeta developed by YellowTab
> (former European distributor of BeOS), based on directly on BeOS.
> According to one site it's based Dano/EXP's codeline (which was supposed
> to be BeOS 6 but was never finished as Be sold its IP to Palm).
> http://yellowtab.com/products/
> 
> Here's a review of an early beta from 3 years ago - 
> http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3692

They don't seem to have actually done anything important in the time
since then.  Although, 1.0 is soon to be released, and maybe it will
finally get things rolling again.

Sigh.  This topic always opens the gaping maw of depression.

I really, really, really loved BeOS.  I ran it full time as my main
desktop OS for awhile.  

> I have to agree, but then that efficiency could be because BeOS isn't
> running a kludge verson of FreeBSD/Mac GUI in a MACH environment.  ;)

On the flip side, I think Objective C is far nicer than C++.  I know
many people disagree, but in retrospect, I'm glad OS X is what it is
rather than an updated BeOS.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd
jdboyd at jdboyd.net
http://www.jdboyd.net/
http://www.joshuaboyd.org/