Haiku Archive

A Funeral for Be Inc, a Rebirth for PalmOS

Haiku 24 Comments
From TheRegister article regarding the Be liquidation auction that took place yesterday: "Afternoon engagements called us, and we never got the chance to bid for the 29 Be mugs, the lot of a hundred Be T-shirts (we'd dearly one of either - will swap), or the iMac we'd promised shacker. Let alone the BeBoxes. Or, gasp! the Hobbit prototypes which preceded the PPC BeBox." In the second photo you can also see sitting Marco Nellisen (SoundPlay author, Palm engineer now) and behind him, Arve Hjonnevag (ex-Be kernel engineer, at Palm now too). In the meantime, BeUnited, after was rejected a license from Palm, they now state that they will focus on supporting Open BeOS, while Palm, Inc. revealed some information about PalmOS 5: "Three significant improvements include the ability to use multitasking and multithreading in applications, improved performance using OS 5 with the faster processor, and compatibility with current applications." However, not all Palm developers are happy because: "Some of the old programs will run faster, some will run slower, and some won't run at all."
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Palm Strongly Declines BeOS Licensing to BeUnited

Haiku 123 Comments
There have been many BeOS items in the news lately, not all so good for the BeOS community, though. BeUnited, the organization which tried to license BeOS from Palm, has received today a final answer from Palm: "...we have made a firm decision NOT to license any part of this technology other than that which we incorporate into the Palm OS". It is already known that the new 32-bit PalmOS will feature some elements of the Be technology, but that OS is built for PDAs, not for the desktop. OSNews learnt that BeUnited will now focus into fully support the Open BeOS and maybe even the BlueOS efforts. YellowTAB, the company that is preparing a BeOS 5 updated version, has no ties to BeUnited, but it is safe to assume that Palm won't license anything additional (things like BONE or GL, let alone "BeOS 6") to them either, and we are not sure, judging from Palm's standpoint today, if they will even be allowed to distribute BeOS NG (their deal is not set in stone yet, Be stopped negotiating with YellowTAB when the time was near to sell their IP to Palm). Read More for David Nagel's (CEO of the Palm subsidiary, PalmSource, which controls Be's IP) full email reply.
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Were These Screenshots Taken from BeOS 6?

Haiku 60 Comments
Four screenshots that supposed to come from an unreleased internal version of BeOS have emerged on the net. The BeOS info panel in one of the screenshots says that the kernel was built on November 15th 2001, and it has the codename 5.1d0. The BeOS community is arguing that the shots are either fake or original. It is already known (through the BeOS source code leak that happened a few months ago) that Be had a version of an updated Interface Kit and App_Server that would support themes, full double buffering etc, but no more details became known, as Be's legal department took immediate action back then. Our Take: Speaking as a web designer, if these screenshots are actually fake, the artist has done a pretty good job. Update: At least the WindowBlinds skiners are working hard. Just today, one day after OSNews helped spread the news about the existance of the screenshots in question, JT Folden has created a 'BeOS 6' skin for the WindowBlinds theme engine that runs under Microsoft Windows. UPDATE 2: A former Be engineer, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirmed to OSNews that the specific screenshots are likely real. The version of BeOS shown in the pictures is the BeOS desktop-version that was in use internally at Be for development of BeIA (otherwise known as the "BeIA Development Platform").
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Why BeOS Was So Different

  Submitted by Jeff Flowers Haiku 26 Comments
"The biggest difference between all the varieties of Windows and all the variations on Unix is unimportant -- both families or operating systems are hopelessly rooted in the deep dark past. BeOS was very impressive. I remember running the Mac port when it was first released. It had a distinctive look, definitely felt faster than the Mac OS, and seemed very promising. It was the perfect candidate to become the next great personal computer operating system." Read the rest of the editorial at LowEndMac.
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The End of a Chapter for Be & BeOS

  Submitted by Emanuele Haiku 52 Comments
The Be website has been updated and now mostly contains stock info and other legalese. Also hints at a liquidation auction to be held on January 16th are to be found in the new pages. The http://free.be.com (BeOS) sub-domain does not work anymore, and all the developer info, BeBook, Developer's newsletters, sample code etc, are all gone from that server. However, you can still access the old web site from archives.org and their old ftp site from PlanetMirror. In the meantime, Palm's David Nagel (the person who leads the subsidiary that Be engineers are working under, and he also has control over Be's IP) has said that parts of the Be technology will be used in a new, 32-bit, PalmOS, but sources say that he has firmly declined any further desktop versions of BeOS, as the desktop is not Palm's focus.
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Travis Geiselbrecht on NewOS and the Future of BeOS

  Submitted by Emanuele Haiku 23 Comments
Emanuele from the Mantova Unix User Group in Italy had a chance to speak to Travis Geiselbrecht, the NewOS creator. Travis has worked at Be's kernel team and he is now employed by Danger Research, while in his free time he is helping the Open BeOS developers to integrate his NewOS kernel into the OpenBeOS one. Travis is talking about his the future of NewOS, Posix and he is giving his opinion about BeOS and its future. Descriptive quote: "It's pretty obvious to me that Palm is buying the engineering team of Be and I see absolutely no point in Palm releasing R6."
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Be Shareholders Approve Asset Sale to Palm

  Submitted by David Huff Haiku 19 Comments
Be, Inc. announced that the stockholders of Be have approved the sale of substantially all of its intellectual property and other technology assets to a subsidiary of Palm, Inc., pursuant to the terms of a previously announced asset purchase agreement between Be and Palm. The stockholders of Be have also approved the proposed dissolution of Be pursuant to the terms of a plan of dissolution. It is anticipated that the transaction with Palm will close within the next two business days. We hope that the sale of Be's IP to Palm will have a positive outcome regarding the BeOS and the BeUnited effort to license the BeOS source code.
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Making the Case for BeOS’s Pervasive Multithreading

Haiku 49 Comments
Forcing a developer to use multithreading, which is pretty complex for most programmers to code for, it is the wrong way to go for an OS. There was some controversy about this, but at the end, the experienced programmers agreed. And Maarten Hekkelman, of the Pepper fame (Maarten is also the same person who wrote the BeOS debugger when he was hired by Be to do so), seems to agree too: There won't be a Pepper for BeOS, just because the BeOS design does not make it easy to code such a big and complex app. Before you start replying in this story, make sure you read all the comments here. Our Take: I love BeOS, but BeOS is not perfect. In fact, what Be's marketing was trying to sell as the best feature of BeOS, pervasive multithreading, it is also its most weak spot. Now you know why big apps crashing too much under BeOS, and why there are not many big apps available anyway. Too hard to code big apps for such an environment, for most developers. Take Scooby for example. This person's multithreading code, is far below par, and mind you, Mr Takamatsu is an experienced developer. Scooby still crashes too much though and locks up the app_server at times, in a spaghetti multithreading confusion... Same goes for Gim-ICQ and lots of other apps.Update: Maarten Hekkelman responded to our comment section explaining his decision and Pepper's design.
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BeOS 6 Source Code Leaked?

Haiku 29 Comments
BeGroovy is running an article claiming that the BeOS source code was distributed via the BeOS-only chatting and file exchange application, BeShare, resulting in the shut down of the main BeShare server. Several people (and BeShare users) have replied to the article stating that there was indeed a leak some weeks ago, but there are two important makefiles missing in order to build successfully the whole system. They also claim that new features like an updated Media Kit and new versions of Interface Kit and App_server can be found there as well as many new drivers. Our Take: If all these new features are true, it is such a shame that Be was sold out to Palm before they could make a new BeOS release out of it. Leaks are never good of course, but the OpenBeOS guys may kill for pieces of that code!
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Sony Drops eVilla, ZDNews Reports that BeIA is Dead too

  Submitted by JLG-wanna-Be Haiku 11 Comments
ZDNews is reporting the end of the (short-lived) SONY eVilla by September 13th. Sony executives blamed the demise on "stability and usability" problems with the $499 desktop IA, but did not offer specifics. "The product did not meet our expectations," Sony spokesman John Dolak said. "It did not operate as planned." There were a lot of user reports that the appliance was slow and not stable. Also, in the ZDNews article is clearly stated that Palm has no plans to continue development of the BeIA, endorsing even more David Nagel yesterday's answer that Palm bought Be for the engineering team and not for the technology. Our Take: eVilla was slow because of two things: because of the very slow CPU (266 Mhz Cyrix which has the power of Intel Pentium 166) and because the graphics chip (incorporated in the CPU) could not handle the high resolution of 800x1024 with enough speed, especially because the monitor is a normal SONY 15", but rotated (make sure you read this thread to understand why the rotation is an overkill). As for the stability issues (which they were indeed, I can personally verify that), it just seemed that there were some technical issues with BeIA, which we may not know about.
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Be Speaks Out on Microsoft Bootloader Practices

  Submitted by Scot Hacker Haiku 22 Comments
In his latest (and final) BeView column for Byte.com, Scot Hacker takes a harsh look at the way Microsoft's Windows Licensing Agreement has affected Be's business with Hitachi and other PC vendors, as well the entire OEM hardware landscape. While the Hitachi relationship was no secret, this is the first time Be has divulged way in which Microsoft's sinister bootloader license kept BeOS from shipping on dual-boot machines from Hitachi, Dell, Compaq, and Micron. Be, Inc. nearly had deals with other major OEMs, and this is the first time JLG has told the complete story of Be's involvement with the DOJ case against Microsoft. Hacker adds: "I had a final column farewell attached to the end of the piece, but Byte removed it for some reason. So, quickly: It's been a great ride with Byte, and I'd like to thank all of the readers who have supported the column over the past 2.5 years. There is still life beyond Windows!"
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The Latest News from the BeOS Front

Haiku 18 Comments
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:
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