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why the hell is everybody so intent on making some sort of BE/Linux hybrid?

Not to "save" the BeOS legacy/religion/apps obiously, but to save the linux kernel with all its drivers/features/fans/developers/sponsors/bouty from becoming a platform used for running nothing but posix webservers on headless pc hardware while it can be better (in design) then OSX for (even old) pc hardware.

This BefrankensteinAtOS is just a step toward what is my dreamworld:

- a cheap Nforce like mainbord with onboard graphics(nvidia, nuff said),audio(dolby 5.1 encoder),network(100mbit is 100mbit) and firewire (usb is now a "legacy connector" ;-))

- A dvb-c card

- two or four Clawhammer cpu`s

- Cooling that makes sense, not noise

- a linux-based kernel that loads directly from eeprom instead of an ugly old bios that doesn`t even understand todays harddrives. but still load ms-dos 3.00

- no more X, just every bit of experiance nvidia has with performace drivers

- A really fast gui, just try going back from Be`s Beos to windows

- a simple gui and cli shell that doesn`t eat more reasorces then it offers functinality but has a noice look and feel

- configurable translators

A filesystem that is fast, doen`t need complex journaling couse the oswrites metadata in a recoverable order and the hardware is fast enough to offer reasonable fast recovery anyway and has optional metadata (like the BeFS mime filetype)

I think this is really close to what others on slashdot want, note the lack of "evil" technology (except for perhaps nvidia).
After reading it back I found it also lacks girls and a social life but then again you can`t have it all ;-)
I guess for now I will have to do with the dano leak....

Before you automatically hate me, I am not necessarily bashing KDE + GNOME. However, I am a former BEos user and I would love to see a window manager/system/full-on GUI that maintains an ideal balance between beauty, features, simplicity and small size. For those of you who never used BEos, its GUI was so incredibly fast an efficient it made even the most hardcore Windows/Mac/UNIX user drool uncontrollably. That, and it was really nice to look at, and packed with desktop features that even KDE in its advanced state has yet to implement entirely to my liking (e.g., 'drag and drop to the extreme'). GNOME looks nice and is definitely useable, but it's sluggish on my 400MHZ PII, and I've seen the Beos Tracker fly on 166MHZ pentiums. KDE is too much like Windows, and has also gotten much slower since v 2.0. On the sparse side of things, Blackbox is quick and nice looking but low on features, and pretty much everything else I've seen is outdated and ugly looking. Has anyone ever considered a project using the resources of OpenTracker?

If any of you leet hax0rs can get Linux to work with OpenTracker, and make the underlying bits a bit more cool, like BeOS is, the two togther would own the computing desktop forever. But most of you only bitch about it not being Open Source, when you can't actually hack at the kernel level...

Be, Inc. Readies BeOS XP

Sooo much nicer than KDE or Gnome...

Anyone can get anonymous, read-only access to OpenTracker for free and you can P4 sync, edit, diff and resolve all you want. Patches still have to be manually emailed, however. The only only users who can commit changes thru P4 are people who already have P4 seats because they work at Be, plus also Scott and Thorbjorn who don't work at Be but they're still l33t anyhow ;-)

Anyone can get anonymous, read-only access to OpenTracker for free and you can P4 sync, edit, diff and resolve all you want. Patches still have to be manually emailed, however. The only only users who can commit changes thru P4 are people who already have P4 seats because they work at Be, plus also Scott and Thorbjorn who don't work at Be but they're still l33t anyhow ;-)

I'll put in two cents worth for Perforce. The open source version of the BeOS Tracker uses P4 and it works pretty well, although it's not free.
CVS, on the other hand IS free and it also works wonderfully. Good luck with that troll infestation at your office.

By shakey, I think he meant 'crappy', not 'unstable'. The installations I've toyed with were very unpleasant from an end-user perspective. The response time could be measured in seconds. StarOffice should get an icon or a menu entry somewhere, after installation. Devices are incredibly difficult to set up. To me, Linux is the proverbial dog riding the bicycle, interesting because it exists, not that it's particularly good (ON THE DESKTOP). BeOS, on the other hand, is rather like the Heart of Gold, still idling in the garage.

There are a number of folxen at Be, Inc. that support the Free Software movement. Indeed, OpenTracker and another site provide the source for the main portions of BeOS, the Tracker and Deskbar.
While improvements have made it back to the source tree at Be, it has amounted to at most a few weeks of work. It's not like BeOS is bug-ridden. It's probably been rewritten 6 times by now. The coming BeOS upgrade is not hyped, not even real in the minds of some people, but it will be a complete desktop solution, with greatly improved connectivity and stunning OpenGL performance.

On the other hand, the true promise of BeOS is becoming apparent in the form of apps like Inferno (image editor that allows for any of the painting tools to be replaced), PersonalStudio from Adamation (DV Editing for $49), and even a Japanese DV app that no one in the U.S. knows how to use, yet.

Be, Inc. is really starting to kick ass in new markets in all sorts of places. Rather than fostering animosity between Gnu/Linux/BSD etc users and the very Amiga-scene-like BeOS crowd, I'd like to see more multi-platform releases. Neverwinter Nights (?) is going to be the first multi-platform game, if it's delivered, making up somewhat for the disappointing yanking of Black and White out of our clutches.

Anyway, I'm going to pricewatch for an external modem. BeOS full-time, here I come.

Hahaha! WHile you bastards were rushing to bash and defend BeOS, you all neglected to get FP, so I do posthumously declare First Post.
However, since I am in no hurry to compose this particular first post...

Desktop Linux is UNRESPONSIVE. It's great on the server end, because it neglects the end user. BeOS caters and pampers the end user.
"Power users" tend to eventually sift into two camps: those who desire convenience, and those who desire power. BeOS is the ideal nexus of UNIX command line and silky Mac GUI, but with thread handling that puts everything else to shame.

I think Linux d00ds don't like BeOS because they can't run seven different incompatible desktops on it. Most of the people who bleat about Open Source (tm) don't seem to actually write code themselves. Or are there really that many kernal hackers around here? If you think *you* can debug BeOS, give them a call. JLG will put you on in a heartbeat. I don't really see any mention given to how much more difficult it is to program for Linux than it is for BeOS.

There are a few very interesting projects underway right now, including an effort to acquire the rights to do a Black and White port, which seems to have fallen through with the former coders.

Six months from now, Linux is going to look really weak next to BeOS...
It already does, to some of us.

BeOS - Free, Open, Better
OpenTracker

Except that the BeOS GUI has been open sourced.
The BeOS 'window manager' hasn't however, but a major amount has.
You can get it here: http://www.opentracker.org

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Frankly, I'd like to ask the Slashdotters why they feel Linux is intrinsically better than BeOS, or even why Open Source is always a good idea. Granted, I haven't used the latest and greatest installs, but Mandrake was painfully sluggish as a desktop OS. Literally lagging behind any version of Windows...
When you consider the POSIX core and easy to program GUI of BeOS, you have to wonder what these fellows know that we don't. I use BeOS because it is enjoyable to use. When I installed Star Office under Linux, there was no indication of where the executable was located. Crikey.

Download the free version of BeOS. Launch about 5 mpeg movies. Then an mp3 or 3. And an Office suite. Then whatever else you want. (That 3D mixer sure is neat.) You don't encounter an hourglass because there is no such concept in the OS. It's always responsive, all the time. As someone who was a long time Amiga user, I can really appreciate this. Even QNX seems to have a leg up on Linux, in regards to responsiveness of the GUI.

The important parts of BeOS are open sourced, anyway... OpenTracker
Just try not to be a Linux snob, because you never know...
Other than that, any discussion of BeOS on Slashdot is to be welcomed, and funny hats off to Hemos for posting a story that is entirely needed and relevant. Anyone want to do a Linux vs. BeOS comparison for an article?

It's a ripoff of BeOS's Tracker

I also remember an old FAQ response from the Be website, shortly before the Be Book came out in print from O'Reilly:

Q. What animal will be on the cover of the O'Reilly book? Is it a bee?

A. No, it's not a bee. You'd kill us for that! There is no animal on the cover.

-G

Linux is only Free if your time is worth Nothing

By the way, some companies' open-source-project pages are intimidating - they don't seem to welcome me into the development. Perhaps all companies that start a project should get a sourceforge server to host the development - it's much more friendly!

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In a new press release (also on Yahoo!), Be has announced that they will be releasing the source code to the Tracker and the Deskbar - available at http://www.opentracker.org and http://www.opendeskbar.org respectively, and covered by "an extremely open and lenient" modified BSD license. Be is encouraging developers to further develop the two fundemental parts of the BeOS user interface in "new, exciting and unforeseen ways."

Cool!