Be Throws in the Towel

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Monday March 4, 2002 @09:55AM from the past-tense-of-be dept.

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.

12 of 292 comments (clear)

Lawsuit? by VP · 2002-03-04 10:00 · Score: 5, Interesting

Is the lawsuit vs. MSFT still on? The PR is still on the front page, but can the suit be continued after Be is dissolved?
1. Re:Lawsuit? by filtrs · 2002-03-04 10:03 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  From the statement:
  
  Pursuant to Delaware law, Be will continue to exist for three years after the dissolution becomes effective or for such longer period as the Delaware Court of Chancery shall direct, solely for the purposes of prosecuting and defending lawsuits (including but not limited to pursuing its antitrust case against Microsoft), settling and closing its business in an orderly manner, disposing of any remaining property, discharging its liabilities and distributing to its stockholders any remaining assets, but not for the purpose of continuing any business. In accordance with the plan of dissolution, after payment in full of all claims finally determined to be due, Be will make distributions of any remaining assets (including assets acquired after the record date), if any, only to stockholders of record as of the record date.
  
  (Also, see my post above :) )
  
  --
  My mother always used to tell me: If you can't find anything nice to say, say something bad about Windows.
You can still get it ... by NWT · 2002-03-04 10:03 · Score: 5, Informative

Here's a link for those who still want to try it ;)

http://ftp.pcworld.com/pub/system/other/beospe.exe

--
Life sucks.
The lawsuit is still on by Wesley+Felter · 2002-03-04 10:03 · Score: 5, Informative

From the latest press release:

"Be will continue to exist for three years after the dissolution becomes effective ... solely for the purposes of prosecuting and defending lawsuits (including but not limited to pursuing its antitrust case against Microsoft)..."
Be a rival to Microsoft's Windows? by maggard · 2002-03-04 10:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

Be, the failed maker of a computer operating system once considered a rival to Microsoft's Windows
In what parrallel universe? Sure it went for the gold ring but c'mon, who ever really considered them a serious contender? Name me one large business that "went Be"?
Nice technology, clever stuff, but c'mon, that's like saying.. oh, wait, this is /., never mind.

--
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
1. Re:Be a rival to Microsoft's Windows? by Rude+Turnip · 2002-03-04 10:20 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Intel was one of the first investors in Be. I believe one of Intel's execs was quoted as saying (paraphrased) "our hardware can do that?!?!" when he heard about BeOS running on X86 hardware.
  
  --
  Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
2. Re:Be a rival to Microsoft's Windows? by Our+Man+In+Redmond · 2002-03-04 10:26 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  As far as I can tell, they were a rival to Microsoft Windows in much the same way that I am a rival for the affections of Natalie Portman.
  
  --
  Someone you trust is one of us.
Maybe those with hope in YellowTab will wake up... by Xafloc · 2002-03-04 10:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

I am a BeOS supporter, as I love the OS. However, I have not run the OS on a primary machine for over 2 years. BeOS users need to recognize that the only hope for Be is a Free Be, and that is not going to happen. YellowTab, as far as I know, does not have the source to the licensed code. So therefore, any changes they make are going to be cosmetic and not core changes.

The way I see it, if you really like the BeOS, head over to the Open-Source Be like projects like openbeos and pledge your support with money or code.

--
-= Xafloc =-
alinuxbox.com
N
Yeah, but... by bill_mcgonigle · 2002-03-04 10:29 · Score: 5, Funny

the towel is really a database and you can set user-defined attributes on the towel. The towel is also built from the ground-up to support SMP, has very low latency, and a well thought-through user interface.

(the sound of Be's second CPU being unchecked)

--
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Farewell, Be by Greyfox · 2002-03-04 10:55 · Score: 5, Funny

From now on, we'll only hear about you in "They're making a come-back" stories like the Amiga and OS/2 ones that make their rounds about every six months to a year.
To that end, I'd like to start the rumor now that Be, Amiga and IBM are teaming up to make AmBeOS/2, which will feature a telepathic user interface, 128 bit memory access, and an AI module that actually does your thinking for you.

--
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
So much inertia... by GCP · 2002-03-04 11:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

The inertia in things like operating systems and programming languages continues to frustrate me. If you aren't a mere extension to the dominant technology, you may as well not bother. If you're something significantly different, but only a few hundred percent better, you may as well not bother. The inertia is just too great for really good ideas to be adopted quickly.

Be will be a lesson to those who hadn't already learned from NeXT, Amiga, etc. When Be first started, I remember commenting to a friend that "there's a group that just doesn't get it." I've hoped ever since that I would turn out to be wrong. I wasn't talking about their technology, which I always admired. It was the insurmountable market barriers that they would face.

If you're not 10x better, the only approach that seems to work is to find a whole new market niche to go for.

(Sorry, this next part is going to sound like a troll, but...) Even Linux is a bit depressing. So much talent out there, and the best we can come up with is the amazing innovation of cloning a 30 yr old OS? Free and open source aren't technical innovations, they're marketing innovations.

There's so much research in OS theory, in programming languages, in user interfaces and human-computer interaction -- so many great ideas from the 80s and 90s that will take another generation to reach the daily lives of most of us professional developers.

--
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
A silly business model doomed Be to failure by cartman · 2002-03-04 11:24 · Score: 5, Interesting

Be wanted to create an OS that was superior to Windows and Mac OS. That was EASY TO DO. Back then, MS and Apple operating systems SUCKED ROYALLY and ANYONE could make something better. Some companies actually did make something better (OS/2). Even Apple and MS could have made something better if they started from scratch, however they both realized (correctly) that application support is far more important than kernel threading, so they stuck with their crappy backwards-compatible OSes.

Everyone was, at that time, aware of the "chicken and egg" problem: a new platform has no software, so no users will migrate to it, so nobody will write software, etc. This problem had doomed every new platform. Everyone was aware of it. Be decided to forge ahead anyway, while offering no solution to this problem whatsoever.

The result, predictably, was that BeOS had no applications. Running that nifty teapot demo got a little old, and nobody felt compelled to pay for it.

If you're going to make a new commercial desktop OS, forge an alliance with Adobe etc and have app makers lined up BEFOREHAND. The game console makers know this.

tom