Haiku OS

[Stephen Coates]

Haiku OS (a modern clone of BeOS) finally entered Beta stage after many years of development.

I installed it on both my main PC and my laptop and I'm pleased to say it works very well. Its a bit buggy, but apart from that it seems reliable enough, and is very pleasant to use.

As with any uncommon OS, it has a bit of a shortage of software, but it does at least have a reasonably up to date web browser.

Its well worth a try if you haven't used it before.

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[Harrison]

I've been looking forward to trying this out since it was announced. Will have to try to find the time over Christmas to have a play.

Other than the browser what other software is available? Does BeOS software run?

[Stephen Coates]

It comes with some basic software included. There's also the 'Haiku Depot' which contains additional software which can be downloaded.

There are separate 32 bit and 64 bit versions. I haven't fully tested it myself, but I think the 64 bit version has compatibility issues with older 32 bit BeOS software.

[J T]

What are the advantages to this over, say, some of the other more widespread OSs?

[Stephen Coates]

Nothing really. I'd say its more of a hobbyist OS rather than a Linux/Windows replacement.

I'd kind of liken it to AmigaOS in that it "works" and has some software. It probably has potential but a lot of people wouldn't want to develop for a niche OS when they can develop for something more well known like Linux.

[J T]

Fair enough, perhaps I didn't really ask the question I was intending to.

What attracted you to this OS, and why not one of the other hobbyist level OS choices?

[Stephen Coates]

I like to try out lots of niche OSs. I played with BeOS years ago and really liked it. I've known about Haiku for a long time but haven't really bothered trying it out until recently.

[Harrison]

Like Steve I've also been interested in this OS because of it being based on BeOS. The OS was a commercial failure because it didn't have the financial backing or momentum to push it into the mainstream at the time. It was a very nice OS and system. Originally RISC based hardware, so fast at the time, it took a lot of its ideas from both the Amiga and Mac in terms of both hardware and OS design, as well as some UI ideas from OS/2. They tried to market the original as a design OS running on its own BeBox hardware in an attempt to target the same creative market as the Apple Mac at the time. I played around with it a lot at the time at all the design trade expos.

I seem to remember it had a port of 3D Cinema but I didn't find it when I had a quick look.