Most of the big BeOS news sites are down (mostly server hardware failures), so OSNews is taking the initiative to publish an all-around BeOS news article. First of all, a whole lot of nice software has been released on BeBits recently. Sequitur 2.0 is here, Palm Reflections, i.Scribe and even a new version of OpenTracker. Ubix.org is reporting that Apacabar is selling out its BeOS-related software, offering among others, BeOS 5 Pro and even T-Racks ($299 original price) for 99 French Franks (about $13 USD) each. I sent to Palm’s CEO, Mr. Carl Yankowski, 5 questions for a mini-interview (questions that most BeOS users have in their mind these days), but instead, Marlene Somsak, Senior Director at Palm, replied:
“Thank you for your inquiry. We have heard from many, many Be fans.
We’re not able to answer many of the questions you asked at this time. I’ll keep this in my active file and as we are able, we’ll provide updates. Our first priority is to the Palm OS, but we understand your request.
Marlene Somsak
Sr. Director, Corp Comm”
In the meantime, a team of BeOS developers had come together under the umbrella of the Open-BeOS initiative which has the goal to create a new Operating System that would be both binary and source compatible with BeOS 5. They have chosen to use the NewOS kernel as their basis, a kernel written by Travis Geiselbrecht, an ex-Be engineer, in his free time.
Our Take: I am sorry if I sound negative, but after discussing details about the Open BeOS project with several ex and Be engineers the last few days, they all came to (an easy for them) conclusion that this project is going nowhere. Exactly because there are shortcomings in the BeOS design, and because not all bugs or features of BeOS are known from outsiders, it will be impossible to replicate the technology without having the original BeOS source code. But what the team CAN do, is to aim for source compatibility, not binary. While the threading, bugs(!), locking and other details will behave differently between the BeOS and OpenBeOS, it is already times easier to port BeOS applications to OpenBeOS than trying to run them unmodified. This way, if the team become really dedicated, we may see some good progress in less than a year, othewise it will take years to come even into an alpha state.
It seems Palm has no time for BeOS. Of course this is just what I read out of it. Draw your own conclusions. Hopefully they’ll let someone take it over.
Still sad,
mechman
Eugenia, thanks for keeping us informed while those sites are down. I think Palm will surprise us very soon, but of course i am holding on to the last of my optimism!
I like the layout of your site: precise and concise. The icons make it easy to see what the story is at a glance. Keep up the good work!
cheers
peter
Thank you too Peter!
I couldn’t find that prices on neither Apacabar’s nor Softline’s web pages. I wrote an email to softline asking for the prices, but I got no respnse so far.
I wonder if the discounted versions of BeOS and T-Racks are in French. It would be cool to pick up a pro mastering program for pocket change, but to use it in French.
Then again, it would force me to learn the language, which would be a good thing.
You didn’t mention Blue OS.
Skiver
I still think it’s way too early to say what’s going to happen. As things stand, the deal has yet to be completed, so there’ll certainly be no announcements until that happens, plus there’s obviously going to be a lot of work needed to get the necessary re-structuring underway before they can even think about future strategy vis-a-vis the BeOS. As usual we just have to be patient.
I mentioned BlueOS a week ago, in my previous BeOS-related article.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010827/10/business-tech-palm-dc
Palm’s hardware and software groups will be splitting “one focused on platform software and licensing, the other on hardware and software handheld solutions”
Well they already own the best consumer, desktop OS around. In order to spread their potential market, it could be in thier best interests to feel out where Be Tech could take them. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t lust after an Aura system like what was demonstrated so many months ago…
BeOS 5 Pro and even T-Racks ($299 original price) for 99 French Franks (about $13 USD) each ?
where is the link ?
on the website I still see other prices
Even though the Be engineers say that there is a lot of work to be done on BeOS, and a lot of bugs to fix, it still is more stable that windoze. That fact alone is what keeps me with the BeOS!
-arougthopher
That’s a killer discount. I still keep BeOS around and the full version of <a href=”http://www.apacabar.fr/cat/produit.asp?code=TRK“>T-Racks</a&… would be fun to have, especially at such a low price.
<p>If anyone’s interested, Apacabar has also discounted GrooveMaker for $54 instead of $96.
Just how important is binary compatibility? When one speaks of binary compatibility with R5, are they talking about system stuff? If it is about user applications, all it would take is the author to compile and post somewhere.
What am I missing?
I think you’re missing some quite large software products.
Not all software that was written for BeOS is/was Open Sourced.
Having binary compatibility will give developpers some control over their
IP. Take for example, Gobe Productive. Or some high quality game.
I doubt that Gobe will go Open Source or will spend time and efforts to recompile their product for another niche OS.
Bottom line – there are good apps written for BeOS and having compatibilty layer will help NewOS to get off the ground faster.
Here is my take on the whole situation… maybe it is not sensible, but possible?! Anyways I have been dwelling on this whole thing and thinking of what BeFAQs will be presenting to Palm in the proposal. The way I see it Palm is not going to want to spend lots of money on development for BeOS itself and/or even the man hours beign that PalmOS is the priority. I have been looking into the OpenBeOS and trying to come to terms if it will be viable or not and here is my conclusion. I think one of the best open source movements other than Linux is Mozilla/Netscape… alot of BeOS users are concerned that if BeOS was to get open sourced it would fall apart due to anarchy in the community being not so controlled development environment. Now has this kind of concept hurt the Linux foundation?… NO, but it also hasn’t helped it either. At least with the Mozilla and Netscape relationship the Mozilla side being open sourced and Netscape being the final product you get best of both worlds. If the OpenBeOS team was to get OpenBeOS as close to be savvy as possible then all the open source people could enhance and further develop BeOS using OpenBeOS as the foundation or test dummy and the enhances and development that are approved could be pushed over to Palm to implement to BeOS after careful inspection. At least the open source wouldn’t get out of hand and Palm wouldn’t have to spend money and man hours developing and enhancing BeOS on its own.
Also I imagine Palm probably does not want to sell BeOS from their own marketing point of view so why not let Gobe keep the usual distribution license and everybody is happy… well as long as Gobe wants to keep marketing and selling BeOS that is. I wanted to send these thoughts to BeFAQs, but the site has been down awhile so hopefully somebody might pick it up here… any takers?
Well I hope all this made sense and maybe somebody out there could add to the idea and go from there. Good luck!!
As we don’t really know how the future will be, we had just decided to propose you amazing prices. This offer is exclusively available from the retailers called SoffLine in France for everybody interested in the world. As our webmaster is on holidays, the web site (http://www.softline.fr/) has not been updated with new prices. Meanwhile, we suggest you to order quickly by email, by contacting M. Sylvain Todeschini who’s in charge of International Sales [email protected]
Please not that :
1/ Here’s the new list price in euros available only until the 31th of october 2001 and in the limit of available stock.
(VAT excluded)
2/ American Express are not accepted.
3/ These offers are available in french version too if you like.
———————————————————————- ———-
SPECIAL PRICES
PS : if you want to know how much Euros represent in your own money, enter the prices here :
http://www.xe.net/ucc/
– BeOS 5 Pro Edition US version* : 12,62 euros instead of 34.41 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 15.24 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 24.39 Euros (FEDEX) / ZONE 3* : 22.87 Euros
– BeOS 5 Pro Edition US update from 4.5* : 12,62 euros instead of 31.87 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 15.24 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 24.39 Euros (FEDEX) / ZONE 3* : 22.87 Euros
– BeOS 5 Pro Edition US OEM version* : 12,62 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 15.24 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 24.39 Euros (FEDEX) / ZONE 3* : 22.87 Euros
– Gobe Productive 2.0. US version* : 25.37 euros instead of 89.94 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 15.24 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 24.39 Euros (FEDEX) / ZONE 3* : 22.87 Euros
– GrooveMaker DJ Box US version* : 49.71 euros instead of 129,95 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 15.24 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 24.39 Euros (FEDEX) / ZONE 3* : 22.87 Euros
– T-RackS 1.1 BeOS Version US version* : 12,62 instead of 272.88 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 15.24 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 24.39 Euros (FEDEX) / ZONE 3* : 22.87 Euros
– Bible BeOS US* : 12,62 euros instead of 31.23 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 15.24 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 24.39 Euros (FEDEX) / ZONE 3* : 33.54 Euros
If you want to know more about this products, please have a look here :
http://www.derniere-version.com/orderbeos/
———————————————————————- ———-
PROMOTIONAL PACKS
– BeOS PACK PLATINIUM*
(BeOS 5 Pro Edition US + Gobe Productive 2 US + T-RackS 1.1 US + Bible US + BeShow US)
= 62,45 euros instead of 428.46 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 23.63 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 45.73 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 3* : 35.06 Euros
– BeOS PACK GOLD*
(Gobe Productive US + T-RackS 1.1 US + Bible US + BeShow US)
= 49.71 euros instead of 394.05 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 23.63 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2*: 45.73 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 3* : 35.06 Euros
– BeOS PACK GROOVE*
(BeOS 5 Pro Edition US + T-RackS 1.1 US + Bible US + BeShowUS)
= 49.71 euros instead of 338.52 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 23.63 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 45.73 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 3* : 35.06 Euros
– BeOS PACK ESSENTIAL*
(BeOS 5 Pro Edition US + Gobe Productive US + Bible US + BeShow US)
= 31.73 euros instead 155.58 euros
Shipping Cost : ZONE 1* : 23.63 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 2* : 45.73 Euros (TNT) / ZONE 3* : 35.06 Euros
*ZONE 1 : ECC & Europe
*ZONE 2 : Other countries
*ZONE 3 : Switherland
If your company is based in the European Union, please send us your INTRA EC.
If not, we must include french taxes (VAT 19.6%).
In the same way, we must include this taxe if you are a European personal user.
———————————————————————- ———-
HOW TO ORDER ?
Please contact M. Sylvain Todeschini only by email [email protected]
1/ Make your choice (product and your zone : ECC ? Others countries ?)
2/ Indicate your credit card number + expiration date
(If you do not want to give your card number by email, call Mr. Todeschini + 33 1 56 54 80 47)
3/ Your complete address + phone number + email + country.
Best regards, enjoy, and have a good time with BeOS,
Feel free to contact me for any question.
Sébastien MONNERET.
————————————————-
Apacabar S.A
Sébastien MONNERET
[email protected]
Chef de Groupe Marketing
Marketing Team Manager
Phone : + 33 1 56 54 80 00
Fax : + 33 1 56 54 80 01
Web : http://www.apacabar.fr/
————————————————-
Sylvain TODESCHINI
[email protected]
Attaché commercial
Commercial Fastener
Clients finaux/administrations
SOFTLINE
10, rue Vercingétorix
75680 Paris Cedex 14 – FRANCE
http://www.softline.fr/
Tel/Phone : + 33 1 56 54 80 47 – Fax + 33 1 56 54 80 46
SOFTLINE à Apple Expo du 26 au 30 septembre 2001- Paris FRANCE
SOFTLINE at Apple Expo Show from 26 to 30 of september 2001 – Paris
—————————————————
does http://www.softline.fr/
have any pages in english. Has anyone ordered from them, how hard is it to get stuff bought with US funds and shipped to the US?
why are they so focused on embedded devices?
they would fair greatly in the desktop market. they have the Mac OS that runs on x86, other than Darwin.
it’s great for multimedia, they just need more multimedia apps. then media houses will really take notice.
just my 2 rusty cents.