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Initial checkin. Definitely a work in progress. Content comes first and then formatting later. :^)

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The Offical Haiku User Manual
Chapter 1: Welcome to Haiku
What is Haiku?
Why Haiku?
History of BeOS and Haiku
Chapter 2: Getting to Know Haiku
The Desktop: Tracker and the Deskbar
Working with Files
Opening & Saving
Archives
Different Kinds of Files
Drag and Drop
Chapter 3: Getting Things Done
E-Mail
The World Wide Web
Working with Pictures
Gotta Have My Music
Video
Keeping an Address Book
Keep Your System Running Smoothly
Customizing Haiku: Preferences and Tweaks
Chapter 4: Beyond Your Four Walls -- Haiku Out There
The Haiku Community
Other Programs
Games
Instant Messaging
E-Mail
Music
Audio
Graphics
Internet Chat
Personal Finance
Accessories
Video
Office
System Tools
Chapter 5: Advanced Haiku
Attributes
Replicants
Queries
Workspaces
Tracker Add-ons
Chapter 6: Installation
Before You Install
Partitions: What are They and Why are They Important?
Step By Step
Chapter 7: Developers Only: Keep Out!
GCC
Icon-O-Matic
Resources
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Haiku
What is Haiku?
Haiku is a free operating system designed to get the most out of your computer without requiring you to have a degree in Computer Science. The inner workings of Haiku are designed for ease of use and for speed. If you go back to working with Windows or Linux after using Haiku for quite a while, it will probably feel much slower than it did before. Working with audio and video are easier than elsewhere
Why Haiku?
You may have heard of a kind of software called an operating system. Operating systems are a piece of software that handles all the technical ugliness that goes with working with the computer's hardware components. It also determines the way that programmers will write programs and provides certain services for them. Here are some reasons why Haiku is better:
Fast - Every program is written so that more things are done at the same time. In this day of processors with more than one core, Haiku uses all of them in a way to add even more speed to programs than in other operating systems. Each program even handles more than one task at the same time. It makes programming a little more complicated, but the results are worth it - a much smoother experience and it even *feels* faster.
Usable - Marketing departments put "easy to use" or "intuitive" on packaging when their software really isn't. Haiku may not always be perfect, but it does carry remarkable ease-of-use for everyone.
Free - Haiku truly is a gift for each one of us who are sick and tired of paying too much money for software that makes our lives harder instead of easier. Programmers can even take the files used to make Haiku for any purpose they want as long as they mention that they started with Haiku code.
History of BeOS and Haiku
In 1990, ex-Apple employees Jean-Louis Gassée and Steve Sakoman created a company: Be Incorporated. Be, Inc. was founded with a purpose in mind: to create a powerful, elegant, media-oriented, friendly computer that addressed the user's needs. They manufactured a product to tackle these goals head-on: a personal computer called the BeBox. This computer and its operating system, the BeOS, were first presented at Agenda 95 in October, 1995. The audience was elated.
The BeBox and BeOS were outfitted with features that were never seen before in the world of personal computing. The BeBox contained two processors and three additional chips dedicated to sound processing to provide a fast platform for video and audio. In the back of the BeBox was a feature of particular interest to computer enthusiasts and developers -- the GeekPort, which was a multi-purpose port for experimentation.
The operating system, BeOS, was equally packed with features. Its design was attractive to many, and its yellow tabbed windows distinguished it from the Macintosh and regular PCs. For many people, it was an operating system that was easy to fall in love with.
Unfortunately, Be, Inc. abandoned its stake in the hardware market because of low sales and hardware supply problems. The BeOS was then modified to work on Apple Macintosh systems in 1997 and again to regular PCs in 1998. Although it had many enthusiastic users and developers, it never gained a significant market share for a variety of reasons which included a lack of third party programs, hardware support, and Microsoft's business tactics. In 2000, BeOS saw its fifth release in two versions: a Pro Edition and a Personal Edition. The Personal Edition didn't have quite as much software included as the Pro Edition, but it was free for anyone to download. This undermined the sales of the Pro Edition, increasing Be's financial difficulties.
The company shifted its focus to attempt to use BeOS in Internet appliances. Some claim that this decision eroded the credibility of BeOS as a viable alternative to Windows or Linux. Be, Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and soon after sold its intellectual property to Palm, Inc.
Be Inc. left behind a legacy: a community of dedicated and loyal users who continued to use BeOS despite the demise of its parent company. Some people added support for newer hardware and others wrote software to keep it current.
Others wanted to recreate the entire operating system. Michael Phipps was one of them and in August 2001, he founded the only one of several projects started with the intention of reviving BeOS. The project was called OpenBeOS. Not only was OpenBeOS going to rewrite the operating system, but it also had the ambitious goal of programs written for BeOS run unmodified on the new software. In June of the following year, OpenBeOS held a convention in Columbus, Ohio where talks were given and a new name for the project was announced: Haiku.
Chapter 2: Getting to Know Haiku
The Desktop: Tracker and the Deskbar
Tracker and Deskbar are two programs that tend to fade into the background even though they are used all the time because they are used for starting programs and moving files around. Tracker shows all the icons on the desktop and shows the different windows with files and folders in them. Deskbar is the big gray box which shows the time and programs running and also is home to the Applications and Preferences menus. It is a close cousin to the Start Menu and task bar in Windows operating systems. In this chapter, we will be examining these two programs in order to effectively and comfortably work with the system in day-to-day tasks.
The Deskbar
What and Why is It?
The Deskbar is a program that helps you start programs, shows you what programs are running, displays the time and date, and gives you an area, called the system tray, which can hold small icons to show information like if you've got mail or how hard the computer is working. If you've used Windows before, this should be relatively familiar, even if you've never done much with it there.
There are three main parts to the Deskbar: the Haiku menu, the system tray, and the list of running programs. Of course, where these parts are on the screen depends on where the Deskbar itself is located. It is possible to have it in any of the four corners of the screen or along the top or bottom edges of the screen. It can also be in an expanded or compacted mode when in one of the screen corners.
Each of the modes are fairly simple to understand. In Compact mode, the only things that are visible are the leaf for the Leaf Menu, a man standing at a blackboard, and the system tray (where the time is shown). Clicking on the blackboard guy shows the list of running programs in a menu. The expanded corner mode is a little bigger -- the little blackboard guy has disappeared and, the Leaf Menu is centered in the window, and no clicking is needed to see the list of running programs. The Edge mode works just like the Windows Start menu -- the Leaf Menu on the left side, the system tray on the right, and list of running programs in the middle.
The Leaf Menu
"Just click on the leaf." "What??" Yep. A little quirk of Haiku that I'm sure you'll come to appreciate. Linux has the icon du jour. Windows has the Start button. Mac OS X has... the Apple menu. Sort of. Anyway, clicking on the leaf will pop up a menu chock full of useful little items. Let's just go through them one by one.
About Haiku... - This will show the About window for Haiku. The About window shows some nice-to-know information, such as how much RAM your machine has, what kind of processor it has, what version of Haiku you're running, and the people who helped make Haiku possible.
Find... - This brings up Tracker's Find window, which allows you to search for any files on a BeOS, Haiku, or Zeta disk by using a query. We'll hear more about queries later in Chapter 5.
Show/Hide Replicants - Clicking on this particular menu item shows or hides the little handle used to work with replicants, which are a really neat technology which is covered in-depth in Chapter 5. If you don't care about replicants or what they are, you can just ignore this item and nothing bad will happen.
Deskbar Settings - Items in this submenu are some small ways that you can change how the Deskbar works. We will cover these particulars below.
Restart / Shutdown - These will restart or shut down your computer. Unlike in BeOS, Haiku will ask you if you're really sure you'd like to restart or shut down your system just in case you accidentally clicked either of these menu items.
Recent Documents - This submenu will contain a list of the most recent documents which you have opened in various programs. If you were working with a particular file not that long ago and suddenly need it again, this is an excellent way to bring it back up without starting the app and hunting for it.
Recent Applications - Here you can start recently used programs. It saves hunting in the Applications folder in the Leaf menu.
Recent Folders - If you were just a moment ago looking in a particular folder, you can quickly get back to it with a minimum of effort, regardless of how many levels deep it might be.
The Deskbar Settings Menu
Within the Deskbar is a menu which gives you a few options in its behavior.
Configure Be Menu - Add or remove folders from the top level of the Be Menu to share space with the Applications and Preferences menus.
Always on Top - The Deskbar cannot be covered by other windows
Sort Running Applications - Puts the list of running programs that the Deskbar shows in alphabetical order.
Tracker Always First - Always put Tracker first in the list of running programs
24 Hour Clock - Show time in 24-hour time instead of AM / PM.
Show Seconds - Have the time display also show the seconds
European Date - Clicking on the time shows the date. This makes the date display with the day first instead of the month.
Full Date - Show the date with full names instead of just numbers.
Show Application Expander - This feature only works when the Deskbar is placed in a corner (as opposed to somewhere else) and shows the program list without clicking on anything. Enabling this option allows you to show or hide what windows are open in each program just by clicking on a little triangle button.
Expand New Applications - This works only when Application Expanders are shown. When a new program is started, the open windows are visible by default.
The Running Programs List
If you run more than one program at a time, which is quite likely, you will at some point find a need what it provides. By selecting an item in the list in Compact mode or by clicking on an item in the list in Expanded or Edge mode, you can see a list of all the windows belonging to that program. You can also hide, close, or show all of that program's windows. Visible windows will have a little white window with a yellow tab. Hidden program windows will be light gray with a dark gray tab.
A hidden -- but very useful -- feature of the program list is being able to force a misbehaving program to quit. On a standard PC keyboard, it's easy: hold down the left Shift, Control, Alt, and Option (Windows) keys and click on the program you wish to force quit. If you don't have this choice available to you, you can still force quit an program by holding Control and Alt and hitting the Delete key and then using the Team Monitor window to quit a program.
The System Tray
Working with Files
Opening & Saving
Archives
Different Kinds of Files
Drag and Drop
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BeOS Bible:
The MediaOS:
The Fed-Up, the Disenfranchised, and the Futurists
The Buzzword-Enabled Operating System
The History of Be, Inc.
Meet the System:
UI Conventions
Tour of BeOS
The Bundled Apps
The Demo Apps
Optional Media
Installation
Pre-Install Considerations
Basic Install
Working with Partitions
Other Multi-Boot Options
Installing on PPC Hardware
Basic PPC Install
Get Online Fast:
BeOS Advantage
Configuring Internet Services
E-Mail
Bundled Internet Apps
Files and the Tracker
A Closer Look
Attributes
The Filetyping Problem
Changing Filetypes -- Think Globally...
Act Locally
Dealing with Archives
BFS: The Be Filesystem
Working with Other Filesystems
The Directory Structure
The Terminal
Critical bash for BeOS
...
Working with Queries
Data Mining Your Hard Drive
Constructing Queries
Using Saved Queries
Case Study: Queries and BeMail
Sample Queries
Query by Formula
Networking
Networking Concepts -- Beyond PPP
Building a Network
Moving Files via FTP
Other File-Sharing and Transfer Methods
The Five-Minute Web Server
Remote Control
Advanced Connectivity
Serial/Terminal Communications
Security
Preferences and Customization
...
System Tools and Utilities
Network Applications
Productivity Applications
Graphics Applications
Media Applications
Other Goodies
Troubleshooting and Maintenance
Appendices
Glossary
Index