644fa5a938
Written by DarkWyrm, this user guide has been long since superseded by the new HTML-based User Guide, which has everything this did and then some, with the exception of the "History" section. That section does seem like it could be useful somewhere, so I've moved it to its own file in the "docs/misc" directory.
51 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
51 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
In 1990, ex-Apple employees Jean-Louis Gassée and Steve Sakoman created a
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company: Be Incorporated. It was founded with a purpose in mind: to create
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a powerful, elegant, media-oriented, friendly computer that addressed the
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user's needs. They manufactured a product to tackle these goals head-on: a
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personal computer called the BeBox. This computer and its operating system,
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the BeOS, were first presented at Agenda 95 in October, 1995. The audience
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was elated.
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The BeBox and BeOS had features that were never before seen in the world of
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personal computing. The BeBox contained two processors and three additional
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chips dedicated to sound processing to provide a fast platform for video
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and audio. In the back of the BeBox was a feature of particular interest
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to computer enthusiasts and developers -- the GeekPort, which was a multi-
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purpose port intended for experimentation.
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The operating system, BeOS, was equally packed with features. Its design
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was attractive to many and its yellow tabbed windows distinguished it from
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the Macintosh and regular PCs. For many people, it was an operating system
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that was easy to fall in love with.
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Unfortunately, Be, Inc. abandoned its stake in the hardware market because
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of low sales and hardware supply problems. The BeOS was then modified to work
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on Apple Macintosh systems in 1997 and again to regular PCs in 1998. Although
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it had many enthusiastic users and developers, it never gained a significant
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market share for a variety of reasons which included a lack of third party
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programs, hardware support, and Microsoft's business tactics. In 2000,
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BeOS saw its fifth release in two versions: a Pro Edition and a Personal
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Edition. The Personal Edition didn't have quite as much software included
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as the Pro Edition, but it was free for anyone to download. This undermined
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the sales of the Pro Edition, increasing Be's financial difficulties.
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The company shifted its focus to attempt to use BeOS in Internet appliances.
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Some claim that this decision eroded the credibility of BeOS as a viable
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alternative to Windows or Linux. Be, Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2001
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and soon after sold its intellectual property to Palm, Inc.
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Be, Inc. left behind a legacy: a community of dedicated and loyal users
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who continued to use BeOS despite the demise of its parent company. Some
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people added support for newer hardware and others wrote software to keep it
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current.
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Others wanted to recreate the entire operating system. Michael Phipps was
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one of them and in August 2001, he founded one of several projects started
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with the intention of reviving BeOS. The project was called OpenBeOS. Not
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only was OpenBeOS going to rewrite the operating system, but it also had the
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ambitious goal of writing it so that programs written for BeOS would run
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unmodified on the new software. In June of the following year, OpenBeOS held
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a convention in Columbus, Ohio where talks were given and a new name for the
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project was announced: Haiku. The rest, as is often said, is history.
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