Gassee: Thank God Apple Didn't Buy Be

[XDelusion]

It's no secret OSNews has a bit of a thing for the BeOS. I can only speak for myself, obviously, but relatively speaking, BeOS was the best operating system ever made. The man who started all this was Jean-Louis Gassee, former executive at Apple, who founded Be, Inc. in 1991. In the second half of the '90s, Apple was looking for a replacement for its heavily outdated Mac OS, after several failed attempts at developing its own - it came down to Steve Jobs NeXT, or BeOS. Be didn't make it, and Gassee is happier for it.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/11/11/gassee-thank-god-apple-chose-steve-jobss-next-over-my-beos/

Original Article: http://www.osnews.com/comments/25329

[nicholas]

I can't wait for the 68k port of Haiku to be in a usable state.  It would make a great alternative OS for the NatAmi/FPGA Replay machines.

[tone007]

To BeOS or not to BeOS, what was the question?

[commodorejohn]

I can't wait for the 68k port of Haiku to be in a usable state.  It would make a great alternative OS for the NatAmi/FPGA Replay machines.

I'd love for the PPC port to be under active development again, but asking around on the forums it seems like nobody cares about it anymore... :/

[nicholas]

I'd love for the PPC port to be under active development again, but asking around on the forums it seems like nobody cares about it anymore... :/

Ditto, it would breathe some life back into some of the old Apple hardware I have cluttering up the house.

[XDelusion]

It's a shame BeOS never had support for G3 CPU's. I have three iMacs just sitting around collecting dust.

[Duce]

Thank God or what?  If they had, he would have had 125 million in the coffers rather than the pocket change from Palm.

The deal was screwed from the start just with the history between he and Jobs, IMHO.  I really loved BeOS, but all I read in that post is Gassee being cranky about not cashing in.  His relationship with Jobs, he figured he could push the issue and win in regards to flogging the OS.  Was a pissing match that didn't prove to be the big payoff for Gassee, and there would have been no working things out between Jobs and him.

Labor of love or not, he turned down 125 million from Apple, demanding 200 million.  Be got 11 mill in 2001 for the works from Palm, which has also gone the way of the dodo.

There's 100 long gone OS's that were a far superior product in some regards even in comparison to todays mainstream OS's, sadly.

[Tension]

Thank God or what?  If they had, he would have had 125 million in the coffers rather than the pocket change from Palm.

The deal was screwed from the start just with the history between he and Jobs, IMHO.  I really loved BeOS, but all I read in that post is Gassee being cranky about not cashing in.  His relationship with Jobs, he figured he could push the issue and win in regards to flogging the OS.  Was a pissing match that didn't prove to be the big payoff for Gassee, and there would have been no working things out between Jobs and him.

Labor of love or not, he turned down 125 million from Apple, demanding 200 million.  Be got 11 mill in 2001 for the works from Palm, which has also gone the way of the dodo.

There's 100 long gone OS's that were a far superior product in some regards even in comparison to todays mainstream OS's, sadly.

+1

[XDelusion]

He did say he got new wheels for his chair though!

Thank God or what?  If they had, he would have had 125 million in the coffers rather than the pocket change from Palm.

The deal was screwed from the start just with the history between he and Jobs, IMHO.  I really loved BeOS, but all I read in that post is Gassee being cranky about not cashing in.  His relationship with Jobs, he figured he could push the issue and win in regards to flogging the OS.  Was a pissing match that didn't prove to be the big payoff for Gassee, and there would have been no working things out between Jobs and him.

Labor of love or not, he turned down 125 million from Apple, demanding 200 million.  Be got 11 mill in 2001 for the works from Palm, which has also gone the way of the dodo.

There's 100 long gone OS's that were a far superior product in some regards even in comparison to todays mainstream OS's, sadly.

[nyteschayde]

I have been playing with Haiku recently and I am simply surprised how little code it actually takes to create a UI window and work with it. It's really an excellent model as to how an OS should work. I am fairly impressed by it. I wasn't aware there was a 68k version of it being built.

[commodorejohn]

The more I learn about Haiku, the more I think I'm falling in love with it. Minimalist that I am, I was a bit derisively skeptical of things like metadata in the filesystem, but it looks like they actually have ideas for using it instead of just having it in there because it sounded cool, and in general concept it just seems like everything I thought Linux would be but isn't. I'm gonna give it a go alongside XP on my newest acquisition, and see if it's as nice to use as it is to read about...

Certainly sounds better than NeXTStep/OSX, at least.

[nicholas]

I have been playing with Haiku recently and I am simply surprised how little code it actually takes to create a UI window and work with it. It's really an excellent model as to how an OS should work. I am fairly impressed by it. I wasn't aware there was a 68k version of it being built.

Beautiful API isn't it?

Francois Revol is the guy working on getting it to compile and boot on the Aranym VM.






http://haiku-files.org/unsupported-builds/m68k/

[XDelusion]

Beware, it's still in Alpha.

Unlike caertain other alt OS'. The Haiku team does not suggest this to replace your main OS with yet. At this point, it's mainly only good for developers and the curious.

Use a virtual machine too. It's highly unlikely that you'll have the perfect hardware combo for this to work with. I had a computer that RC1 ran fine on, but RC2 and 3 won't even fully boot on.

On the otherhand, I bet version 1.0 is really going to Be something when it gets here.


68k Haiku....  WHAT?!!

The more I learn about Haiku, the more I think I'm falling in love with it. Minimalist that I am, I was a bit derisively skeptical of things like metadata in the filesystem, but it looks like they actually have ideas for using it instead of just having it in there because it sounded cool, and in general concept it just seems like everything I thought Linux would be but isn't. I'm gonna give it a go alongside XP on my newest acquisition, and see if it's as nice to use as it is to read about...

Certainly sounds better than NeXTStep/OSX, at least.

[commodorejohn]

Unlike caertain other alt OS'. The Haiku team does not suggest this to replace your main OS with yet. At this point, it's mainly only good for developers and the curious.

Right, but I figure I'll give it a shot at least to see what it's like, even if it's not something I'd be ready to move over to yet.

Use a virtual machine too. It's highly unlikely that you'll have the perfect hardware combo for this to work with. I had a computer that RC1 ran fine on, but RC2 and 3 won't even fully boot on.

Hmm, I tried it on a Core 2 Duo box I nabbed from the recycle center, with an i945 board...the installer seemed happy enough with it, but I haven't tried anything with video acceleration, sound, or networking yet.

[nicholas]

I advise installing Alpha 3 and then immediately installing a nightly build over the top.  That way you get all the apps that come with the Alpha and all the recent bug fixes and improvements from the nightly.