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BeOS Max Edition v3.0 Released
JigSaw writes "After Be went down, 2-3 "distros" of BeOS 5 PE (the free version of BeOS) were created and continued making releases by literally tweaking the internals, patching the kernel etc. in order to bring BeOS up to speed with new hardware. Additionally, these distros include lots of third party software. BeOS Max Edition is the most popular of the bunch, and version v3.0 came out today. The BFS ISO installs in its own BFS partition, however it requires a bit of attention in the way you have to burn it."
With this release as well as the several OpenBeOS (openbeos.org) Milestones reached recently and Zeta (yellowtab.com) coming out soon, BeOS is probably not as deas as some trolls claim.
BeOS has never been and will never be open sourced. There are several open sourced projects to try reproduce its functionality and some go as far as to try to achieve binary compatibility. However those projects are far from complete.
Regarding your question why would anyone...? Hell 'cause they want to, 'cause they fell like doing it, 'cause they like the OS.
Don't dismiss people's efforts and projects because in your narrow mind you don't find a use for whatever they are doing?
Linux would not exist if everyone would think in such a near sighted terms.
"In God we trust, all others must bring data" - W. Edwards Deming
So what if nobody cares about it right now?
;)). People should be able to choose the OS that fits them, even if nobody else "cares about it". One size does not fit all.
Popularity is not the same as quality.
A few minutes ago, I knew nothing about BeOS except that it was an OS. But the fundemantals of the BeOS sounds very nice indeed.
So, why dont you care about BeOS?
Lack of apps? hm?!
I suppose you are the kind of person that didnt care about Linux 3 years ago.
"FreeBSD is dying, BeOS is dead, MacOS is dying" - please shut up! it only applys if you think the single CPU-arch + single OS model is a great thing. Free Software is not just about replacing Windows with Linux because its c00l3r (witch it is by the way
I know this article will generate a ton of "BeOS is dead, who cares" and "Who the hell uses BeOS anymore?" or "What is BeOS?" style posts, so as an avid user of BeOS I will attempt to explain some things:
(1) You'd be surprised how much hardware is supported by BeOS, Athlon XP CPUS, P4s, firewire cards, SCSIs, Magneto Optical, scanners, etc. If it's not natively seen, www.bebits.com (as well as bedrivers.com) is the place to go.
(2) BeOS is a refreshing change of pace from the "Big Brother" of Windows, the "Here's a million bits, put them together yourself" of Linux or the "Our way, the only way" of Apple. BeOS relies on the "less is more" viewpoint. Software packages range in the hundereds of k, as opposed to the hundereds of megs in size, yet still do what they need to do.
(3) I have yet to see a GUI is clean, useful and *consistant* as BeOS.
(4) It just works.
(5) The user base is friendly, enthusiastic and you won't get any of the typical *nix attitudes of "lamer" or "rtfm" in the BeOS user forums.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
A decent user interface?
Yes, yes, troll -1 I know. I'm normally a Mac OS X user and developer. I know about GNOME and I know about KDE and I use both of them (GNOME 2.4, even) on my Linux box. They still cannot hold a candle to Mac OS X or BeOS for consistency and overall polish. Also, BeOS is much easier to code for. (Nothing is as good as Cocoa -- and GNUstep isn't quite there yet.)
I do expect this to change over time. GNOME is almost there; it needs a few more really solid releases and a decent set of supporting tools, and probably a few more major architectural revisions. Right now, however, the prospect of running BeOS instead of Linux on my PC is one that excites me: an environment I actually might enjoy living in on my PC? Bring it on!