Guest post by Andrew Hudson, whose recent article on BFS over at ARSTechnica intrigued us, shares with us some thoughts on the state of apps on Haiku. It turns out there are several repositories with a vast array of applications ready-to-go for your new Haiku install.
Where Are the Haiku Applications?
As more Haiku new-comers install the Alpha 1 or Alpha 2 versions we hear the same complaint, “I just installed Haiku, but there are no applications and there’s nothing to do†Many Haiku users have the mistaken impression that few applications run on Haiku and then go away after having a bad out-of-box
experience. Haiku has literally thousands of BeOS applications to run, but we haven’t organized them in a way that makes them easily accessible. The Superior Haiku Applications Group sets out to change this.
A Better Experience With SHAG
Our #1 Goal is to increase the Haiku user experience. And so we created a list of the first and best apps you should download after installing Haiku. In the process we also looked at apps that we really wanted to run but couldn’t, and apps that don’t exist in Haiku yet but really should.
Promiscuous Testing Criteria
We looked far and wide for BeOS apps. We put out a call for people to list
their favorite BeOS apps. We also went through old BeOS literature, read old reviews, and emailed old developers. We were and still are looking for cool, fun, and useful BeOS applications. This list is still evolving. We know we missed some apps so please keep your recommendations coming. Or better yet, join our testing on Haikuware.
We searched through application download sites: bebits.com, haikufire.com, beemulated.net, darkwyrm downloads, zeta-games.com, haikuware.com, and did a lot of googling. Haikuware was chosen as the central repository because it has 2640+ applications to download. It also has a rating system, user forums, a built in email system, and a way to leave comments for each app.
We used promiscuous testing criteria: Install it on Alpha 2. Open it. Try a few operations. Report the results. We try as hard as we can to “rule in†any app, and find work-arounds for simple problems. If it kind of or mostly runs, we added it to our list.
Different Levels of Haiku Compatibility
In the process of testing we found that BeOS applications fall into the following categories:
- Runs on Haiku with little or no modification
- Requires some work-around (e.g. needs BeOS compatibility
optional package) - Requires hybrid
GCC4libs - Requires an updated HaikuPorts lib
- Requires development
work (e.g. doesn’t run yet)
How to Install an Application on Haiku
If you see an application you really want to run, how do you install it?
- Open your WebPositive web browser
from the Applications menu - Go to Haikuware.com
- Download the application you want by clicking on Download
- Launch the Expander by clicking on the Open button after
download completes - Change the install path from /boot/home/Desktop to
/boot/apps - Click Expand
- To run your new application – right click on your file
system icon (upper left corner), then select the apps folder, then your
application’s folder. Some applications have an additional setup script or
setup instructions. Look for a README file.
If the application is downloaded as a .pkg file, open Terminal from the Applications menu and run PackageInstaller from the command line. Use the PackageInstaller to
complete the installation.
Some applications or libraries can be installed using the installoptionalpackage utility. Open Terminal and type installoptionalpackage –l to list packages or libraries
that are available to install or update
Applications That Run on Haiku Alpha 2 With No Extra Libraries
| Category | Name | Description |
| Multimedia |
VLC 0.86 |
Highly acclaimed multimedia player, audio & video playback |
| CL-Amp |
A WinAmp audio player clone, with many, many features (See Haikuware note to get midi working). |
|
| BeAE | Amazing, full-featured audio editor with a very rich GUI | |
|
Cold Cut |
A basic audio editor | |
| BeScreenCapture |
An application to capture the content of your screen in motion and save it as a video file |
|
| Sequitur |
An amazing MIDI sequencer program. It is included here as an example of how amazing a native BeOS/Haiku applications can really be. |
|
| Graphics | Xaos |
A real-time interactive fractal viewer. Lots of different fractals |
| ArtPaint 2 | A painting and image processing program | |
|
3D StarChart |
A pretty amazing 3D chart of the universe with star lookup | |
|
Lunar Sanctorum |
Displays the phases of the moon | |
| Lyapunovia | A simple but nice fractal viewer | |
| Utilities | NetPenguin | A feature packed FTP client |
| QuickRes |
A tool for viewing and editing application resources. Very powerful, like Mac’s ResEdit |
|
| BeFortunate | Tells your fortune | |
| Sum-It | A very basic spreadsheet | |
|
Mr. Peeps! |
A nice personal contact manager | |
| BeFinancial | A personal finance manager that reads Quicken files | |
| Games | ColorBalls |
A simple but addictive game. A cross between Tetris and Mines |
| Bshisen | A simple board game like mahjong | |
| Blines | An interesting logic / puzzle game | |
| BeTris | Classic Tetris | |
| BeLife |
Conways’ classic game of life implemented as cellular automata. Lots of nice features and source code |
|
| BeMines | The classic mines game | |
| BeVexed | A tricky puzzle game like 2 dimensional dominoes | |
| Screen Savers |
Random Saver |
Picks a new screen saver each time your computer sleeps! |
| BePyro | Classic fireworks | |
| Kablooie | Classic fireworks with more options | |
|
Spider Saver |
Gives an abstract moving picture with lines. Like an impressionistic spider web |
|
| Matrix | That infamous green text from the Matrix movies | |
| Boids | Funky Boids flocking algorithm |
Games That Require SDL
GCC4 Libraries
| Name | Description |
|
Mega Mario |
A Mario Brothers clone! You play Mario and your task is to free his brother Luigi, who was captured by evil Bowser |
| netPanzer | An Online Multiplayer Tactical Warfare Game |
|
Tower Toppler |
A cool jump and run game involving turning towers |
|
Zelda Solarus |
A demo for a clone of the Legend Of Zelda |
|
Free Heroes of Might and Magic II |
A popular role playing game with AI |
|
Red Alert |
The Westwood real time strategy game |
|
Dune II Legacy |
A Dune inspired 2D game |
| Widelands | A real-time strategy game based on The Settlers |
| Bos Wars |
A futuristic real time strategy game involving power plants, buildings and economies |
| Wesnoth | A tactical strategy game with a high fantasy theme |
|
Heroes of Wesnoth |
Control a hero in a fantasy world |
| Flobopuyo | A clone of the famous PuyoPuy |
| Starfighter | A remake of the classic Amiga game |
Awesome Applications That Don’t Run Yet
| Category | Name | Description | Issue |
| 3D Modeling | Blender |
High functionality 3D modeling and viewing. Needs an update in OpenGL |
Haiku bug |
| 3D Demos |
OpenGL demos |
Very cool 3D OpenGL demos. Needs a bug fixed in single buffer display |
Haiku bug, Haiku bug |
| Media player | VLC 1.0.5 |
A big update of VLC .86b, a full featured audio/video viewer and streamer |
Needs SIGINFO implemented |
| MIDI |
Maybe it needs sound fonts? |
||
| 3D Modeling | POV-RAY | Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer |
Renders but needs a Haiku native displayer |
| Office Suite | KOffice | Word processor, Spreadsheet, etc |
Might run with GCC4 libs but requires expert knowledge and patience to install |
| Screen Saver | BeSwarm | Very hypnotic graphics | Needs coding to be driver independent |
|
Haiku |
A nice Twitter client | Still in development | |
| IRC | Caya | A Google/AOL IRC client | Still in development |
| Calculator | BeCalc | A full-featured calculator | Still in development |
Awesome Applications That Really Need to Be Ported to
Haiku
Enough can’t be said about GOBE Productive. It’s so good
that some people still run V2.02 on Haiku. GOBE Software is still in business and will consider working with the Haiku team to port V3 to Haiku. As far as I am concerned, GOBE Productive is the closest thing we have to a killer app for
Haiku.
| Category | Name | Description | Issue |
| Amazing Office Suite | GOBE Productive | The most amazing BeOS office suite EVER | Needs a Senior developer for a Haiku port |
| USB scanner package | Sanity | USB package for scanners |
Needs libusb port for Haiku and newer version of SANE lib |
| Word processor | AbiWord | Popular word processor |
Needs a new build |
Applications That Come With Haiku Alpha 2
Don’t forget that Haiku Alpha 2 comes with more than two dozen applications pre-installed. Here are some of the cool apps to check out:
| Name | Description |
| BePDF | Views PDF files |
| CDPlayer | Plays audio CDs |
| DeskCalc | A basic calculator |
| DiskUsage | Shows your disk usage graphically |
| installoptionalpackage | Use –l to list packages you can install |
| A POP/IMAP mail client | |
| PackageInstaller |
Installs .pkg files (runs from Terminal) |
| People | A personal contact manager |
| Poor Man | A simple web server |
| MidiPlayer | Plays MIDI files (doesn’t currently work) |
| Pe | The favorite code editor of Haiku developers |
| Screenshot | A screen capture utility |
| SoundRecorder | Records audio |
| StyledEdit | A basic word processor |
| Terminal | A command line window with BASH |
| TV | Interface to TV viewing cards |
| Vision | IRC client |
| WebPositive | Our awesome web browser |
| WonderBrush | A powerful image editor |
This List Is Just A Start!
The list of applications that are tested on Haiku is just a start. We only tested about 65 applications. That leaves about 2475 applications that still need to be tested on Haikuware! Please take a little time and install an application or two and leave some feedback. Or pick an application that doesn’t work and help port it.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Karl Van Dorff who has hosted haikuware.com for years and who personally retrieved and saved thousands
of classic BeOS applications for posterity. Also thanks to Pistooli, Streakx, MaxOS, DarkWyrm, and Michael V Oliveira for testing and porting.
About the Author
Andrew Hudson is a freelance technical project manager living in
Florida, USA. In his abundant spare time he analyzes technology
trends, listens to punk rock music, and watches Chinese kung fu
movies.
I see what you did there
ROTFLMAO…they did, didn’t they? That’s just hysterical!
For those who don’t get the joke the name of the group is: The Superior Haiku Applications Group!
–bornagainpenguin
After this article was submitted we got MIDI working.
From Terminal:
cd /boot/system/data/synth
wget http://ocmnet.com/saxguru/TimGM6mb.sf2
ln -s TimGM6mb.sf2 big_synth.sy
This means CL-Amp plays MIDI, Sequitur now works, and internal app MidiPlayer works!
This is an exciting time to be working on Haiku. There is so much happening.
Edited 2010-06-14 15:37 UTC
Just what I was interested in. I’m planning an ambitious project, a high-quality music notation editor inspired both by the likes of Sibelius and by the 90s trackers (Scream, Fast, Impulse,…). I intend to do it either in Java or in C++.
But I was wondering MIDI and audio output on Haiku. What’s the current stance of Haiku regarding Java? Will a JVM be ported or is it just not on the to-do list? Maybe even the want-to-do list…
Starting a GUI Java apps now don’t seem a good idea to me. Not that Awt+Swig is that bad, but the future is not really bright for it. Oracle don’t care that much about native GUI apps. Even if they have some, JSP and JavaFX is higher on their priority list. If I had to start a project now, I would pick Qt and C++. The ecosystem is alive and improving, and with MeeGo, Symbian, WinMo and possibly more soon, it is the toolkit of choice to develop smartphone apps, so it is not going to die soon.
I’ll make the update.
pacman (the arch package manager) should be ported to Haiku.
edit:
I hope Blender (the 3D graphics app) will get Haiku support back. They supported BeOS it in the past but discontinued it.
Edited 2010-06-14 15:54 UTC
I’m not so sure about pacman, I’d rather have a graphical package manager directly written for haiku. As for Blender, indeed I’d love to see that. Personally, with Blender and Inkscape ported I would be able to do alot more productively in Haiku. Until we get 3d hardware acceleration in Haiku Blender will likely not be very useful other than for rendering, but Inkscape should perform well.
This might interest you:
http://joomla.iscomputeron.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=vi…
aljen made a more recent port than that but it was integrated into the haiku build system I don’t know if the patch is still around…. it might be worth asking
Pacman itself wouldn’t be ideal… but it is just a frontend
what would be neat is to the pacman libraries with a native haiku frontend… some small and simple applications can be installed via the packagefs system which is in development. However, large complex programs will probably always need a more normal package manager for which libpacman fits the bill quite nicely since there are already multiple projects using it it will probably be well supported in the future as well.
libpacman + BeGui could also be complemented by combining it with haikuports so that similar to arch some packages could be rolling release for instance Web+ updates or the latest and greatest blender… which probably wouldn’t mean a complete rebuild of the system.
Pacman is a good place to start with, but I think the package manager should have the source code/package management abilities of yaourt to be begin with.
Packages are nice, but the ability to easily compile applications from source with specific options enabled is really nice. Source compiles from ports is one of the reasons I love FreeBSD, and I would like to see Haiku make a serious effort to put binary packages and source code tarballs on equal terms.
Caya is not a IRC client. Caya is a multi-protocol IM client which supports MSN/AOL/Jabber/Facebook atm. Also, HaikuTwitter and Caya shouldn’t be on the applications that don’t run since they do actually run.
And the BeCalc link is bad.
I wonder if you can quote where did Gobe say they would be interested in porting V3 since everything I’ve heard on that subject pointed otherwise…
Xeon, HaikuTwitter is an awesome app but I could not get it running on Alpha 2 after several tries. There are actually 2 versions of HaikuTwitter. Some people will want to try the Beta version which runs with extra libs.
Caya is in rapid development but is listed as pre-Alpha release. But please download and try them both out with the understanding that there may be issues.
Also, BeCalc has no executable yet. It was just released as open source last week.
Re: GOBEProductive – Do I have a quote? No. Have I spoken with GOBE Software and a Sr. Haiku developer? Yes. GP is not open sourced but there is a possibility of a Haiku port. I’m hoping this will inspire some positive discussion and a new efforts here.
Thanks for your patience!
Edited 2010-06-14 16:18 UTC
In May 2008, when I was still heavily involved with the Haiku project, I had discussions with Bruce Hammond of Gobe Software that lead to a concrete offer from him to give Haiku developers the opportunity to work on a Haiku port of Gobe Productive 3; in exchange for the development work, Bruce committed to make the resulting Haiku binaries available for free.
In response to Bruce’s generous offer, several Haiku developers of stature volunteered to work on the port, and they were given access to the code, but for some reason the project never went anywhere. It is kind of disappointing that nothing has materialized after more than two years, but maybe there is still hope.
Do you not know who these developers were? IMO a gobe port would be as important as a native browser. Meaning haiku inc funding would come into play assuming an interested developer who can handle the job is avaiable.
Another unknown is the state of the code… would it be hard to get the port working again? I have to say though Gobe v3 looks very Beish even on windows…
Use a non-profit’s donated funds to work on proprietary software for a commercial company? Even if you could sell that idea to the community, it doesn’t really seem worth the effort for a one-off binary release.
We have bounty money that comes from Karl at Haikuware. So it doesn’t have to be from Haiku LLC.
I would say that this doesn’t have to be a one-off relationship. And I would also say that if you don’t think it’s worth the value, then you probably don’t understand the full functionality of GOBE Productive. Please read this before commenting further:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/02q2/gobe/gobe-1.html
This application will fulfill most people’s Office needs. When I say it is a kill app, I don’t use that term lightly.
While normally I would agree the Haiku devs would have source acess (formal rights to access/distribute would be needed if they payed anything for access)
They might even be able to buy the code… I doubt Gobe is very profitable as a product at them moment even on windows.
Yes, I know who the developers were (four, if my memory does not fail), but it’s up to them whether they want to come forward or not. You could always ask on one of the Haiku mailing lists.
BTW, there was no money involved whatsoever; the agreement was that the devs would do the work for free and Gobe would release the GP3 binary for Haiku gratis.
I have no idea on the state of the code; that would be another question for the devs, which they may not be able to answer as they were unders NDAs.
Just to clarify, bounty would hypothetically be for development, not for licensing.
Understood. But it would still be funding a closed source solution, something that may not be well seen by some in the community, particularly those who advocate open source.
I couldn’t help wishing, while i was reading through the application list, that for some reason my application would be listed, but no, as you would know if you check your horoscope in google reader regularly, there is no alignment of any planets at the moment.
😀
what is that app of yours?
why not submit it to haikufire.com ?
Haikuware isn’t the only Haiku app site in town
Don’t get mad, get even. Upload your Haiku/BeOS application to Haikuware, and link to it here.
I get excited every time I read another Haiku story. Things like Haiku are the reason why I started reading OSnews in the first place.
Some people are working with the Synthetic Package Manager:
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/development/app-install…
That’s great news! I was thinking throughout the entire article: “why not go for an Ubuntu-like package manager?” It would make that out-of-the-box experience for new users much easier, especially if in later versions there is a preview screenshot with every app (like in the Zeta installer).
What about Abuse! This game is super fun and runs on Haiku: http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/2d/abuse-frabs-21
I was about to try out alpha2 again on qemu this time after converting the alpha2 hdd image somehow was broken and being lazy to re install, and am going to make a small add-on which at the end would only be helpful for a really small portion of users though. Anyway I was excited to read another news on Haiku
…as most of my Haiku testing so far has been a process of mounting BeOS partition and going through the apps folder to see what works.
One pressing question, though: no SoundPlay?!?!?
A few others I would add to the list:
– HandBrake – similar situation as VLC, I believe – it runs, but only an older version is available).
– ftp_fs – NetPenguin is nice (speaking as an old-time “Fetch” fan), but it’s showing its age.
– im_kit – probably the most interesting approach to a multi-protocol IM client on any OS.
– Dockbert – I’m sure there are many people clamoring to see it on Haiku… okay, probably just me.
There’s an old version of SoundPlay (4.7.2) that works (and can be found on BeShare).
imkit is dead and is being resurrected as Caya (which is as interesting as any other multi-protocol client on any OS but not working as good).
Also, I haven’t ever heard of someone even referring to ftp_fs. NetPenguin works perfectly for me.
Thanks. I hadn’t heard the name “Caya” before, didn’t realize it was the continuation of the im_kit.
IMO, the interesting thing about about im_kit/Caya isn’t the fact that it’s a multi-protocol IM client (yes, those are a dime-a-dozen) – but the way it’s implemented. Specifically, the way that makes full use of Haiku’s unique/interesting features.
It was fairly well-known within the Haiku/BeOS community when it was still in active development (admittedly that hasn’t been the case since 2006 or thereabouts).
Don’t get me wrong, NetPenguin is probably my sentimental favourite FTP client. But the lack of a queue can be a problem when transferring a large number of files – E.g. if you’re uploading a complex web-based application. If one file fails to transfer, then you have to start the whole transfer over again (as opposed to just re-queuing the files that failed to transfer).
Well, AFAICT from a user perspective caya is a pretty “normal” multi-protocol IM client. While it seems to reuse some of the IMkit’s code, it is not resurrecting the IM kit approach – which I find really sad. Don’t get me wrong! It’s great that a modern IM client is developed at all, and as non-developing, non-paying user I really shouldn’t complain. But for me the IM kit was the prime example of Be-ness.
IM Kit was really a mess… Everything could be replaced with another component that did the same thing, even the deskbar icon. That was horrible IMHO kind of Linux stuff
Caya offers just one chat client that works.
Eventually, Caya will export contacts to People file to make IM Kit users happy or maybe a People Kit that apps can use to find or create People file for contacts and add information to them!
I liked much more of Caya approach
That’s a neat idea.
Ah. I hadn’t use it before and assumed, incorrectly, that it was just im_kit under a new name.
Definitely agreed.
Completely agreed.
The im_kit was responsible for the last example I can think of where something *positive* happened as a result of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
(warning: anecdote-ahoy)
I had been setting up MSN/passport accounts for a local business, and I’d been testing them with GAIM (cum Pidgin) in Windows. When I got home and hopped onto my BeOS machine, which ran im_kit at the time, I had to write an EMail one of the people I had setup IM accounts for.
I had a bit of a “WTF” moment when BeMail auto-completed the address, even though I’d never corresponded with that person before. Then it dawned on me: im_kit had automatically download the new contacts that GAIM had saved to the server, saved them as Person files – and because I’d used their EMail addresses for the passport usernames, they were all in my address book automatically.
It basically gave me (to use current buzzwords) integration with cloud storage for contact info, with automatic offline synchronization. And a few years before the terms “cloud storage/computing” were coined.
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/multimedia/audio/midi-p…
Sequitur is working fine by now!
**AMAZING APP*
Thanks!
Haiku now have MIDI support by default
SVN r37153