Slashdot Mirror

Slashback this evening with another round of clarifications and additional links regarding recent Slashdot stories. Steve Job's Grammy acceptance speech, details on the proposed higher levy on CD-Rs in Canada, more on the claimed clash between satellite radio and 802.11 devices, and more.

After the bowling ball, the mouse. jonny writes: "Most people here know the story of the Mac and the growth of the GUI. Most of you probably don't know the whole story though, namely you probably don't know the story of the mouse, important as it is... Interesting too."

Additional reading material for the math-inclined. Bruce Schneier dropped a note with some good reading material for anyone interested in the recent Slashdot posts on factoring and SNMP. "I've written essays on the Bernstein factoring paper and SNMP SNMP vulnerability."

Americans shouldn't be too smug about this stuff. An Anonymous Coward writes, in response to the proposed increase in levies on various recordable media in Canada: "An excellent FAQ including information on how manufacturers, importers, and consumers can avoid the levies on CDRs and CDRWs"

It's not all sweetness and light. Lord Omlette writes: "Ok, I know ya'll ran the story on Apple winning a grammy. But! The acceptance speech got cut for time reasons & stuff, so Dr. Dobb's Journal put a transcript of the speech online for posterity & stuff. I didn't see it in the previous Slashdot story or the Apple press release, so I thought you might be interested."

Uncle, uncle, make him give me his toy! Sabalon writes "NetStumbler is running an article about Intersil and Motorola's response to Sirius and XM's appeal to the FCC to restrict the 2.4Ghz band. Intersil points out some interesting points, such as why the frequencies directly surrounding those that Sirius uses is not an issue, and Motorola believes the source of the interference is not 2.4Ghz, but probably engine and ignition noise."

How to save some very expensive seconds. In case a 23-second kernel compile is too long to bear, perhaps you just need to upgrade a bit. An Anonymous Coward writes: "Linux Weekly News reports that a kernel was compiled in 7.5 seconds on a Power4 with 6 GB of RAM."

Finally, it has come to this. Another reader points out: "Be, Inc., the company that developed and marketed the loved Be operating system, has announced sale of the be.com domain.

This would be a great time for someone to sweep it up. ;) *cough*OpenBeOS*cough*"

darrad writes: "ZDNet is reporting that 'Be, the failed maker of a computer operating system once considered a rival to Microsoft's Windows, said Monday it would dissolve itself on March 15 and delist from the Nasdaq stock market.'" The Be front page says the same, and explains that this is the natural conclusion of the company's sale of most of its property to Palm.

Anonymous Squonk writes: "Be's homepage has a message stating some of the details of their impending dissolution. One little item of note mentioned was 'Public Liquidation Auction January 16 (details to follow)' Who knows what kind of geek goodies might be available at rock bottom prices? Perhaps this could be our last chance to get our hands on a BeBox!" How about some of those nice LED CPU meters?

JRAC writes "Be Inc. has replaced their web site's entire contents with information on the sale of Be to Palm. Stock holders can find all relevant info on the Stock Information page. BeOS 5 Personal Edition is no longer available from the site. Looks like it's time to hit the mirrors. Try ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/beos for files. " The official sale was approved just over a month ago.

JRAC writes "Be Inc. has replaced their web site's entire contents with information on the sale of Be to Palm. Stock holders can find all relevant info on the Stock Information page. BeOS 5 Personal Edition is no longer available from the site. Looks like it's time to hit the mirrors. Try ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/beos for files. " The official sale was approved just over a month ago.

OSBlue writes "A few days ago, news emerged regarding the OpenBeOS project, while now there is more information regarding the other effort to 'save' BeOS, BlueOS. BlueOS uses the Linux kernel 2.4.12 and Xfree as as the base of their OS. For now, they are building a BeOS look-alike Interface Kit and BeOS app_server on top of XFree, so it is not just a simple window manager, but a whole new API and environment. In future versions, the BlueOS team will completely bypass XFree and have a stand alone BeOS compatible app_server which will only use some of the XFree's system calls to be able to use its 2D/3D drivers. Guillaume Mailard, team leader in the BlueOS project gives more information in an interview to OSNews."

OSBlue writes: "After Palm announced the buyout of Be, Inc.'s intellectual property & Technology and after some consequent indications from several key people that Palm has no interest at Be's products and especially in BeOS, a number of the BeOS believers tried to find a new home. Some found comfort in AtheOS, others joined BeUnited's effort to license the BeOS source code, while some developers formed efforts like BlueOS and OpenBeOS. OpenBeOS consists from a number of BeOS developers who are trying to recreate the BeOS Kits in a form of a new, complete and open source Operating System that has source and if possible binary compatibility with BeOS 5. One of the most important people in this effort, Michael Phipps, is interviewed by OSNews.

OSBlue writes: "After Palm announced the buyout of Be, Inc.'s intellectual property & Technology and after some consequent indications from several key people that Palm has no interest at Be's products and especially in BeOS, a number of the BeOS believers tried to find a new home. Some found comfort in AtheOS, others joined BeUnited's effort to license the BeOS source code, while some developers formed efforts like BlueOS and OpenBeOS. OpenBeOS consists from a number of BeOS developers who are trying to recreate the BeOS Kits in a form of a new, complete and open source Operating System that has source and if possible binary compatibility with BeOS 5. One of the most important people in this effort, Michael Phipps, is interviewed by OSNews.

Xaroth writes "The Register is reporting that Be, Inc. has found a buyer. For those that haven't followed Be's progress lately, they also eliminated about a third of their workforce on Tuesday (28 positions), consisting mainly of their sales and marketing departments, but that number also includes some of their development staff. The Register claims that these layoffs are part of the buyout agreement. While an official statement hasn't been made by Be, Inc., the suspected "Mystery Buyer" is either Sony or Palm. Be's stock was up as much as 40% today at the news. I hope whoever buys them (if this holds true) continues development for the desktop--'twould be a shame to let such wonderful technology go to waste."

psyklohps writes: "Excite News has this story about Be Inc. and how it is quickly going down the toilet. It's a shame when a company creates a really good product and then lets it die by lack of advertising and not making any commercial applications to run on their own OS. Who knows? Maybe it will be released as open source? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean?)"

Glytch writes: "QNX is now offering the QNX Realtime Platform operating system for free for non-commercial use for x86 machines. Available installation methods include a Windows 9x executable, an ISO image, and a QNX4 installation archive. Pretty much like Be, Inc. did with BeOS 5." And like Sun has with Solaris, to boot. Would it be that surprising to find Windows soon available "for non-commericial use"?

Glytch writes: "QNX is now offering the QNX Realtime Platform operating system for free for non-commercial use for x86 machines. Available installation methods include a Windows 9x executable, an ISO image, and a QNX4 installation archive. Pretty much like Be, Inc. did with BeOS 5." And like Sun has with Solaris, to boot. Would it be that surprising to find Windows soon available "for non-commericial use"?

shyster writes "Be has created a prototype mp3 player that puts all other hack jobs to shame. Using an Intel 810E chipset with a Celeron-400MHz processor, and relying on BeOS's wonderful file system (where attributes are stored with the files) for database search capabilities, this thing really makes BeOS look good, as well as emphasizes it's audio/video capabilities. They don't plan on making this thing themselves, but rather customizing and branding the OS for OEM partners to place in their own hardware solutions. This kind of approach should allow for some differences between devices, such as having a CD-RW, DVD drive, touchscreen LCD display, etc. The other great thing about this is that it's networked. Check out the full story here."

A huge number of people have submitted over the last few days/weeks that BeOS5.0 will be free. You can grab it from free.be.com - although I hope you've got a fast connection.Update: 03/28 01:22 by H :It doesn't appear to be ready yet - and we have an anonymous source at Be, who claims that there were some show-stopping bugs in the code, even up until last night. Could be hoax though, as it appears to be rolling now. They also announced that they are open sourcing (No license that I can see) the User Interface components Tracker and Deskbar, which have their own web sites. I've heard word that the free.be.com isn't working - check out http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/ for a more secure connection.

A huge number of people have submitted over the last few days/weeks that BeOS5.0 will be free. You can grab it from free.be.com - although I hope you've got a fast connection.Update: 03/28 01:22 by H :It doesn't appear to be ready yet - and we have an anonymous source at Be, who claims that there were some show-stopping bugs in the code, even up until last night. Could be hoax though, as it appears to be rolling now. They also announced that they are open sourcing (No license that I can see) the User Interface components Tracker and Deskbar, which have their own web sites. I've heard word that the free.be.com isn't working - check out http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/ for a more secure connection.

A huge number of people have submitted over the last few days/weeks that BeOS5.0 will be free. You can grab it from free.be.com - although I hope you've got a fast connection.Update: 03/28 01:22 by H :It doesn't appear to be ready yet - and we have an anonymous source at Be, who claims that there were some show-stopping bugs in the code, even up until last night. Could be hoax though, as it appears to be rolling now. They also announced that they are open sourcing (No license that I can see) the User Interface components Tracker and Deskbar, which have their own web sites. I've heard word that the free.be.com isn't working - check out http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/ for a more secure connection.

askwar writes "Heise reports in this article that Be Inc. is to debut their BeIA dubbed operating system for Internet Appliances today at the DEMO 2000 in California. According to Heise, BeIA will support Real's G2 and Macromedia's Flash. Another nice thing is the file system of BeIA, which will be database like, and allows the users to create their own file types with special attributes. This, and the ability to search for specifically search for these attributes, the system will be suited very well for technical/scientifical applications, says Heise. The article on Heise is in German, so you either have to learn it :-], or go to the Babelfish. "

askwar writes "Heise reports in this article that Be Inc. is to debut their BeIA dubbed operating system for Internet Appliances today at the DEMO 2000 in California. According to Heise, BeIA will support Real's G2 and Macromedia's Flash. Another nice thing is the file system of BeIA, which will be database like, and allows the users to create their own file types with special attributes. This, and the ability to search for specifically search for these attributes, the system will be suited very well for technical/scientifical applications, says Heise. The article on Heise is in German, so you either have to learn it :-], or go to the Babelfish. "

Big Al writes "Be announced today that starting with the next release of the OS (R5) it will be free for private and non-commercial use - downloadable from the internet. There will still be an 'enhanced version' but the free version is the same as the enhanced without some additional tools and utilities. " Further proof that Open Source has made the Operating System Free (as in beer) but what about speech?

breadmold was the first to send us the press release from Be. Compaq has licensed Stinger, Be's software platform for Internet appliances, which Be describes as "Be's software solution designed for the creation of appliances that deliver information and entertainment over the web. Based on BeOS, Stinger is fully customizable, offers a complete browser and supports popular streaming audio and video standards." Note that the license says Compaq *can* pre-install and distribute it. It doesn't say what Compaq is actually planning on, but does hint that the two companies are planning work together.

breadmold was the first to send us the press release from Be. Compaq has licensed Stinger, Be's software platform for Internet appliances, which Be describes as "Be's software solution designed for the creation of appliances that deliver information and entertainment over the web. Based on BeOS, Stinger is fully customizable, offers a complete browser and supports popular streaming audio and video standards." Note that the license says Compaq *can* pre-install and distribute it. It doesn't say what Compaq is actually planning on, but does hint that the two companies are planning work together.

About fifty people have already submitted the story running on News.com concerning rumours that Red Hat would acquire Be. Sheesh - hot on the heels of the Corel story, I'm just waiting to see "Red Hat to acquire Abominable Snowman & Department of Defense in Massive Stock Swap."

adraken writes "Jean-Louis Gassée of Be Inc. talks about the recent release of IBM's PPC motherboard specs, the G4, and what BeOS will do about it in Be Inc.'s latest newsletter."

adraken writes "Jean-Louis Gassée of Be Inc. talks about the recent release of IBM's PPC motherboard specs, the G4, and what BeOS will do about it in Be Inc.'s latest newsletter."

adraken writes "Jean-Louis Gassée of Be Inc. talks about the recent release of IBM's PPC motherboard specs, the G4, and what BeOS will do about it in Be Inc.'s latest newsletter."

PhiberOptik asks: "I recently got a BP6 board, with onboard ULTRA66 controllers and ran into a problem with my Red Hat 6.0 installation. It seems that Red Hat Linux will not support the controllers, which my main hard disks are hooked up to. So far as I know, no Linux distros exist with ULTRA66 support, and BeOS or Solaris 7 won't recognize them either. Are there any updates or distros which support this new technology?"

PhiberOptik asks: "Considering that BeOS is so adept at handling high I/O and network bandwidth, whould it make a good OS for a Beowulf cluster? I know that since BeOS is not open-source it would be harder to have applications made, but they would be easier to maintain; as BeOS has a standard set. Any ideas?" Could this be done? What OS characteristics are necessary for a Beowulf cluster?

In a frenzy of porting, Be.com has unveiled that both the GIMP and Civilization:Call to Power will be ported to BeOS. With the news of a new low cost Be system, I'm gonna have to look closely at getting one. Update: 06/22 11:14 by J : flaggz writes "We've posted a screenshot of the GIMP toolbox for BeOS. "

In a frenzy of porting, Be.com has unveiled that both the GIMP and Civilization:Call to Power will be ported to BeOS. With the news of a new low cost Be system, I'm gonna have to look closely at getting one. Update: 06/22 11:14 by J : flaggz writes "We've posted a screenshot of the GIMP toolbox for BeOS. "

In a frenzy of porting, Be.com has unveiled that both the GIMP and Civilization:Call to Power will be ported to BeOS. With the news of a new low cost Be system, I'm gonna have to look closely at getting one. Update: 06/22 11:14 by J : flaggz writes "We've posted a screenshot of the GIMP toolbox for BeOS. "

Thorbjorn Jemander wrote in (as an update on a previous story) to tell us that Jean-Louis Gassée, CEO of Be Inc is offering BeOS at zero-cost to any OEM that will install BeOS completely on its PCs: BeOS must be a boot option or launchable from the other OS, something that Microsoft apparently prohibits. He does not expect OEMs will take up the offer because they will not want to lose Microsoft's Windows Rebate. His argument also applies to Linux: Despite the slew of announcements that Tier-1 manufacturers were going to sell computers pre-installed with Linux, it's revealing to see that the computers discussed were either servers, or in the case of IBM, PCs on which Linux is installed by the reseller (not IBM). News.com also reported on this Thomas wonders if this offer will provide the DOJ with unrefutable proof of Microsoft's monopoly.

OS News is reporting that Be Inc. is targeting music/audio professionals. This makes good sense since musicians are not averse to other platforms: in the 1980s they swarmed towards the Atari ST (in-build midi ports) which had a disproportionate number of professional music programs from Steinberg and co. Interestingly 4Front the makers of the OSS sound drivers in the kernel and the OSS API will be supporting BeOS.

Linux Today has a translated transcription of a Danish Radio Interview with Bill Gates. How many of you think that Bill's "Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." shows he caught himself before saying "No"? In the meantime Jean-Louis Gassee is dismissing Microsoft's new bedtime story that BeOS integrates the Browser into the OS. Here's a little more detail from Patrick Hajek. Finally, in related news, Bill had the opportunity to visit a German School which accepted a local company's offer to install Linux its PCs for the occasion

Sara Killingsworth wrote in with a press release from Be saying that they have selected Cygnus's GNUPro to be the compiler on their OS. I've attached the full press release below if you're curious. It mentions that Cygnus's compiler solution perfored 20% faster.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Becky Wood DiSorbo (408) 542-9667 bwood@cygnus.com Sara Killingsworth

(602) 961-1515 saralk@home.com

CYGNUS GNUPRO TOOLS POWER BE OPERATING SYSTEM

Cygnus Solutions Delivers Software Development Tools that Increase Stability and Performance of Be, Inc.'s Media Operating Systems

SUNNYVALE, Calif., January 19, 1999 - Cygnus( Solutions today announced that Be(, Inc. selected Cygnus GNUPro software development tools for the recently shipped Release 4 of the Be Operating System (BeOS*). GNUPro(, the leading compiler and debugger toolchain for native and embedded development, provides BeOS developers with the software development power to work at maximum efficiency, and an open-source code base for greatest flexibility during the design cycle. According to recent tests conducted by Be, GNUPro tools performed 20 percent faster than other software development tools. More detailed information can be found at link "An operating system is nothing without good development tools. Giving our developers the best possible tools to work with helps them to create the fastest, most groundbreaking applications," said Scott Paterson, director of Marketing at Be. "As a leader in open-source software development technologies, Cygnus GNUPro enables Be developers to benefit from improved performance and a broader tool chain, which results in rapid innovation and high quality software." GNUPro provides a single-source toolchain for easy portability and maximum code reuse, and supports more than 125 host-target cross-development environments, covering the vast majority of the most popular host-target platforms. "Providing Be with Cygnus' GNUPro tools is further evidence of the increasing platform success of GNUPro and of open source technologies," said Scott Petry, vice president of marketing at Cygnus. "Cygnus ensures that open standard software development technologies, including GNUPro, are the most powerful resources available for commercial development."

About GNUPro
GNUPro includes ANSI-conforming C/C++ compilers, a macro-assembler, the Cygnus Insight( visual debugger, binary utilities, libraries, and broad support for Windows NT/95 and UNIX hosted toolkits. Users benefit from Cygnus' premier software engineering, availability of tools for a wide range of processors, stringent testing (more than five million controlled and documented tests against each host-target combination) and custom enhancements. Cygnus delivers GNUPro through an innovative subscription model that includes regular software upgrades, featuring the latest innovations in GNU technology, as well as mission-critical support services for rapid response and resolution of technical questions or problems. Pricing for a five-user team starts at $7,495 and includes a one-year subscription. For more information on GNUPro pricing and the more than 125 host-target cross-development environments supported by Cygnus GNUPro, contact Cygnus corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. at 1-408-542-9600, 1-800-CYGNUS-1, info@cygnus.com, or visit the Web site at link

About Be
Be, Inc., founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gassée, is a software company focusing on building new foundations for the next generation of digital content and media design tools. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States and Europe, the company is dedicated to removing the limitations of existing computer architectures and delivering a new level of price performance. In December 1998, Be published Release 4 of the Be Operating System (BeOS), the core product of this strategy. Additional information on Be and the BeOS is available online at link Be, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

About Cygnus Solutions
The market leader in software development technologies for computing applications, Cygnus( Solutions offers build-time and run-time solutions based on an open-source model. From GNUPro( Toolkit to eCos(, the Embedded Cygnus Operating System, Cygnus' open-source and royalty-free software benefits system developers in a wide variety of market segments, including consumer electronics, Internet, telecommunications, office automation, networking, aerospace and automotive. Cygnus' products, custom engineering services, and world-class support services enable developers to bring products to market faster at reduced system development costs. Founded in 1989, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, Cygnus has sales and engineering offices throughout North America, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Cygnus GNUPro Powers BeOS Page 2

*Cygnus and GNUPro are registered trademarks, and Sourceware and eCos are trademarks of Cygnus Solutions. Open Source is a Certification Mark of the Open Source Initiative. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. "

Sara Killingsworth wrote in with a press release from Be saying that they have selected Cygnus's GNUPro to be the compiler on their OS. I've attached the full press release below if you're curious. It mentions that Cygnus's compiler solution perfored 20% faster.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Becky Wood DiSorbo (408) 542-9667 bwood@cygnus.com Sara Killingsworth

(602) 961-1515 saralk@home.com

CYGNUS GNUPRO TOOLS POWER BE OPERATING SYSTEM

Cygnus Solutions Delivers Software Development Tools that Increase Stability and Performance of Be, Inc.'s Media Operating Systems

SUNNYVALE, Calif., January 19, 1999 - Cygnus( Solutions today announced that Be(, Inc. selected Cygnus GNUPro software development tools for the recently shipped Release 4 of the Be Operating System (BeOS*). GNUPro(, the leading compiler and debugger toolchain for native and embedded development, provides BeOS developers with the software development power to work at maximum efficiency, and an open-source code base for greatest flexibility during the design cycle. According to recent tests conducted by Be, GNUPro tools performed 20 percent faster than other software development tools. More detailed information can be found at link "An operating system is nothing without good development tools. Giving our developers the best possible tools to work with helps them to create the fastest, most groundbreaking applications," said Scott Paterson, director of Marketing at Be. "As a leader in open-source software development technologies, Cygnus GNUPro enables Be developers to benefit from improved performance and a broader tool chain, which results in rapid innovation and high quality software." GNUPro provides a single-source toolchain for easy portability and maximum code reuse, and supports more than 125 host-target cross-development environments, covering the vast majority of the most popular host-target platforms. "Providing Be with Cygnus' GNUPro tools is further evidence of the increasing platform success of GNUPro and of open source technologies," said Scott Petry, vice president of marketing at Cygnus. "Cygnus ensures that open standard software development technologies, including GNUPro, are the most powerful resources available for commercial development."

About GNUPro
GNUPro includes ANSI-conforming C/C++ compilers, a macro-assembler, the Cygnus Insight( visual debugger, binary utilities, libraries, and broad support for Windows NT/95 and UNIX hosted toolkits. Users benefit from Cygnus' premier software engineering, availability of tools for a wide range of processors, stringent testing (more than five million controlled and documented tests against each host-target combination) and custom enhancements. Cygnus delivers GNUPro through an innovative subscription model that includes regular software upgrades, featuring the latest innovations in GNU technology, as well as mission-critical support services for rapid response and resolution of technical questions or problems. Pricing for a five-user team starts at $7,495 and includes a one-year subscription. For more information on GNUPro pricing and the more than 125 host-target cross-development environments supported by Cygnus GNUPro, contact Cygnus corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. at 1-408-542-9600, 1-800-CYGNUS-1, info@cygnus.com, or visit the Web site at link

About Be
Be, Inc., founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gassée, is a software company focusing on building new foundations for the next generation of digital content and media design tools. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States and Europe, the company is dedicated to removing the limitations of existing computer architectures and delivering a new level of price performance. In December 1998, Be published Release 4 of the Be Operating System (BeOS), the core product of this strategy. Additional information on Be and the BeOS is available online at link Be, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

About Cygnus Solutions
The market leader in software development technologies for computing applications, Cygnus( Solutions offers build-time and run-time solutions based on an open-source model. From GNUPro( Toolkit to eCos(, the Embedded Cygnus Operating System, Cygnus' open-source and royalty-free software benefits system developers in a wide variety of market segments, including consumer electronics, Internet, telecommunications, office automation, networking, aerospace and automotive. Cygnus' products, custom engineering services, and world-class support services enable developers to bring products to market faster at reduced system development costs. Founded in 1989, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, Cygnus has sales and engineering offices throughout North America, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Cygnus GNUPro Powers BeOS Page 2

*Cygnus and GNUPro are registered trademarks, and Sourceware and eCos are trademarks of Cygnus Solutions. Open Source is a Certification Mark of the Open Source Initiative. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. "

Be has announced it has received $25 million from various sources including Intel. This and its recent design with Hitachi bode well for Be. Interestingly Be is pushing Windows compatibility in the guise of file system compatibility and shared keyboard shortcuts. Say GNOME and KDE become more theme-able: what would you think of the idea of providing multiple themes that train a Windows user starting from what (s)he knows and building up to using Linux more natively? Rather like children's books start with a few words on which they build.

This week's chronicle from Silicon Valley by Jean-Louis Gassée (CEO of Be Inc, and a Linux user) is rather interesting. He points out that Apple's testimony is unexpectedly strong evidence in favour of the DOJ, even though it relates to events occuring back in the 1980s (see below). Jean-Louis points out that the foundations of Microsoft's domination of PCs and Macs had been layed even before the Mac came out in 1984. Apparently the DOJ is so sure it will win it has started probing Silicon Valley experts as to what remedies would be effective. Dividing Microsoft up into pieces has apparently been discounted since Microsoft could effectively continue building apps into its OS by hiring more people to the OS division. The favorite contender is to force Microsoft to licence the Windows source code to three of its competitors. To me, this is ineffective: Microsoft could convincingly claim that its three competitors did not write the code and do not understand it as well (so you should rely on Microsoft for support) and make sure this is true by sending the final builds to the competition as late as possible. My sysadmin and I had a discussion which resulted in an alternative remedy: Win32 and the Windows kernels should be GPL'd with Microsoft losing all its rights as original copyright holder. This would prevent Microsoft from integrating other stuff into the kernel because they'd lose any unfair competitive advantage (think proprietary APIs) by doing so. If you'd like to support this idea, write to Joel Klein! As usual, Babelfish is your friend. Explanation of the GPL idea: If it's GPL'd Microsoft won't integrate apps into the OS since this would require them to release source-code (and thus an advantage). It would prevent Microsoft from having broken/extended protocols which prevent Windows from being used with other OS's (eg the Sun TCP/IP stack allegations). It would also not allow Microsoft to break other people's apps (eg: Quicktime and Realaudio's allegations.) Finally, it would create real competition in the OS market since others could duplicate the Windows API, warts and all. I added this paragraph since many comments reveal I should have explained the consequences of the idea better.

Since Jean-Louis worked at Apple, he can detail from personal experience what Microsoft's relation with Apple was. In the early 1980s, Steve Jobs feared a lack of apps for the Mac before it was even released. Bill Gates made a deal: he would make the apps, and Steve would license the GUI to Microsoft. The license would last until 1985 or 86 and Microsoft would ensure apps came out on the Mac first. The Mac came out late, while Microsoft demoed its first versions of Windows. In 1985, Gates threatened to suspend Mac App development unless his license was renewed: Jean-Louis knows because he was there. John Sculley (Steve had left) consulted his staff who, unanimously, begged him to send Bill back to rainy Seattle. Sculley dined with Gates and Bill Neukom (vice-president of Microsoft's legal wing), gave in and signed a lame contract that the 1988 court-case could not anull. The article goes on with other interesting revelations (why MacBasic was cancelled, why Apple did not make its own Postscript interpreter, etc.)

Dan Wineman (not to mention about 20 other people!) writes "According to the latest Be Developer Letter, BeOS Release 4 for Intel will switch from the PE binary format and Metrowerks tools to ELF and egcs, unfortunately breaking binary compatibility. No continued support for the old format is planned, but at least we get a symbolic debugger... " Looks like they are going with the GNU libraries, as well. I, for one, am certainly glad to hear it. Sounds like an example of a corporate adoption of free software gone well, since it should make for faster, more efficent programs, while reducing Be's business costs.

Jim writes "A piece by Jean-Louis Gassee came out today. I think it would be good for some Linux users that are tending to forget their roots. Just because something is new, buggy, and it is hard for one to understand its use, does not mean it is stupid. Linux is a case in point. It was not so long ago that what Linux users say now about BeOS was being said about Linux. It is a shame many people forget their roots."

Alfred Landrum writes "Hmm. Space probes are being affected by a force we cant account for. For real." Or maybe the onboard systems are dumping core. Or maybe it's yoda playing practical jokes.

FRaNKy writes "For those that just want to try out BeOS and to check if it runs properly on their machine, Be has released a Demo CD from wich you can testdrive the BeOS." The demo is an x86 bootable CD, has no tech support, and (get this) can only write to floppys.

Be has made BeOS R3.1 available to developers and enthusiasts. It can be downloaded at BeDepot, and developers should expect CD-ROMs in the mail soon. Updates to this version include: MS-DOS and FAT32 filesystem support, some SCSI support, and numerous other drivers and networking improvements. I think BeOS is shaping up to be something very cool. Now, if only it were open source....

Be has made BeOS R3.1 available to developers and enthusiasts. It can be downloaded at BeDepot, and developers should expect CD-ROMs in the mail soon. Updates to this version include: MS-DOS and FAT32 filesystem support, some SCSI support, and numerous other drivers and networking improvements. I think BeOS is shaping up to be something very cool. Now, if only it were open source....

Gregory Seidman writes "So this guy, Dominic Giampaolo, who now works at Be but used to work for SGI has a page of the amusingly destructive antics he and some other (former?) SGI employees perpetrated while working in the SGI AGD. " I think when Dave reads this, he'll have a new hero. This guy burns things, blows things up and launches things with tubing. Very amusing.

Gregory Seidman writes "So this guy, Dominic Giampaolo, who now works at Be but used to work for SGI has a page of the amusingly destructive antics he and some other (former?) SGI employees perpetrated while working in the SGI AGD. " I think when Dave reads this, he'll have a new hero. This guy burns things, blows things up and launches things with tubing. Very amusing.

Gregory Seidman writes "So this guy, Dominic Giampaolo, who now works at Be but used to work for SGI has a page of the amusingly destructive antics he and some other (former?) SGI employees perpetrated while working in the SGI AGD. " I think when Dave reads this, he'll have a new hero. This guy burns things, blows things up and launches things with tubing. Very amusing.

Liam J. Furniss wrote in with this link over to Be. For those of you who haven't heard about this, there has been rumblings that BeOS x86 contains some of the LILO code, and might be violating a copyright somewhere. The link above has a statement from Jean-Louis Gassee (Be CEO) and he mentions this in an article about Netscape.

"On a closely related issue, eagle-eyed developers have questioned our adherence to the Open Software pact in relevant parts of our recent release such as the bootloader. Specifically, if we use or modify public domain code, are we putting that source code back into the public domain as we are obligated to do? We're investigating this as I write this and will take whatever corrective action is necessary."

I've heard arguements from a dozen folks about this, but I'm glad to see a firm statement that things will be set straight.

Hey guys, it's spring break for me, so rather then spend the next hour entering articles, here's a list of quickies: Danny O'Brien sent in a link to NTK Live show, the RealAudio version of Need to Know, the very cool weekly geek 'zine. Vladimir Vuksan wrote in to tell us that Netscape is having a party to celebrate Open Source. Funny stuff on that page. Next Dave Finton sent in this link about how employers use the net to find info on potential employees. Finally we have BeOS Releasing another beta sent in by Hans Veneman. Now to find my beer, a copy of Fantasia, and stick in some Floyd.

It's finally here! Be has finally released R3 for Intel, a version of the BeOS for x86-based computers. Registered developers have a copy in the mail already (C++ *does* come in handy!), and others may buy it for US$99.95. Interesting is a quote from Jean-Louis Gasse- "Just as Linux is the specialty OS for the Internet...". For what it's worth, Be has been using LILO/BeLO to load their operating system. The release includes a copy of Partiion Magic, albeit with a restricted license.

Be, Inc. has licensed technology from PowerQuest, publishers of PartitionMagic. The technology allows for users to create a primary partition for the BeOS in one simple, scripted, step. Alas, the license only allows for this to be done once...