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Haiku Tech Talk at Google a Success

mikesum writes "February 13 was Haiku's big day at Google, and we can say with a good degree of confidence that the Haiku Tech Talk was quite successful. We had a very special guest for this event: former Be Inc. CEO Jean Louis Gassée, who not only joined us at Google for our presentation, but also gave a few words of support and encouragement for our project. It was great to have JLG's presence, as well as that of the several ex-Be engineers who showed up for the talk. We were also glad to see Java for BeOS developer Andrew Bachman join us for this special event. Have a look at the pictures taken during the presentation, as well as the video of the event."

127 comments

  1. Haiku Tech Talk by sczimme · · Score: 5, Funny


    Jean Louis Gassée
    who joined us at Google and
    gave words of support .

    --
    I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
    1. Re:Haiku Tech Talk by sokoban · · Score: 5, Funny

      Jean Louis Gassée
      Be OS was a big flop
      What does he do now?

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
    2. Re:Haiku Tech Talk by new500 · · Score: 1

      for sentimental reasons

      Oh, Jean Louis Gassée!
      Beige and High Right
      was not to be.

    3. Re:Haiku Tech Talk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it could be worse. He could be one of the wastes of sperm actually _working_ on Haiku.

      I'm willing to bet that crazy bitch at OSNews is pounding herself with a vibrator after reading this story.

  2. uh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the heck does this have to do with BeOS?

    1. Re:uh by TomHandy · · Score: 1

      From looking at the Haiku OS website, it says it is inspired by BeOS.

    2. Re:uh by NiteMair · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, besides the fact that it runs BeOS R5 software natively (binary-compatible) - and is followed and supported by pretty much everyone who is left in the BeOS community, not much.

    3. Re:uh by rolandog · · Score: 4, Funny

      There you go again,
      not writing witty haikus.
      Insensitive clod!

  3. Good Luck by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

    I just want to wish the project good luck. I think Haiku is and will be a great operating system. The team have already accomplished a lot, but, undoubtedly, there is still much to do. Keep up the good work!

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  4. BeOS is back? by simp · · Score: 1

    Can it be? I always was a fan of BeOS for the reason that is looked and felt so clean and fast. And now there is a new OS, obviously based on BeOS, that has Google power behind it. I want to run this on my pda, on my laptop for basic internet usage, etc...

  5. Haiku by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 5, Funny

    Might be good OS
    But with only twelve users
    Grim future ahead.

    1. Re:Haiku by sokoban · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Be was pretty good
      It was ahead of its time
      Back in the nineties.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
    2. Re:Haiku by VorpalRodent · · Score: 5, Funny

      I know its bad form to reply to my own comment, but I just realized that there was another one I missed:

      Obligatory:
      Imagine a beowulf
      Cluster of these things.

      --
      Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
    3. Re:Haiku by Nelson · · Score: 1

      Be OS had hype

      lot's of talk but little beef

      haiku is the same

    4. Re:Haiku by drolli · · Score: 1

      Be was pretty interesting.

      But compared to Nextstep it was really ahead of it's times.

    5. Re:Haiku by drolli · · Score: 1

      I wanted to say:

      Be was pretty interesting.

      But compared to Nextstep it was not really ahead of it's times.

    6. Re:Haiku by sokoban · · Score: 1

      What you should have said:

      Be was pretty neat

      But when compared to Nextstep

      It wasn't that great

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
    7. Re:Haiku by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 1

      Its, a posessive
      It's is a contraction
      You fail it twice

      --
      It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
  6. ahh by physicsboy500 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google learns today

    new OS will thrill us all

    Slashdotters rejoice

    --
    The original generic sig.
  7. Non-haiku poem post. by Spazntwich · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wanted to go against the grain.

    There once was a man most true
    Who came to talk in Haiku
    His OS was dead
    The workers felt dread
    Their business might soon be too

    1. Re:Non-haiku poem post. by Do+You+Smell+That · · Score: 1

      Limericks are not suitable, they are just plain inappropriate.

      --
      I'm not good at making signatures...
    2. Re:Non-haiku poem post. by glittalogik · · Score: 1

      Nah, the inappropriate ones all start with "There once was a man from NAntucket..."

  8. General purpose vs. specialized by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It seems reasonable that a specialized operating system aimed at the desktop would do that job better than a general purpose os like Linux. We all complain about bloatware that is burdened with features that almost nobody uses. This operating system could solve that problem; in theory.

    On the other hand, Linux can be stripped down to the bare essentials and get most of the advantages of Haiku with much less effort. One of the complaints about gnu/linux is that there is no clear, shared vision and this results in incompatability. Solving this problem means that the Haiku team has to re-write all the gnu/linux applications. That increases their work by an order of magnitude.

    So, would I contribute to this project? Nope. I am guessing that my efforts would be more productive in the gnu/linux environment.

    1. Re:General purpose vs. specialized by mlk · · Score: 1

      re-write all the gnu/linux application No. BeOS used the GNU toolchain.
      --
      Wow, I should not post when knackered.
    2. Re:General purpose vs. specialized by larry+bagina · · Score: 1

      Linux isn't the problem, per se... current kernel speed for threading, etc. is generally better in Linux than in BeOS. Where BeOS sparkled was the desktop. The problem is X/KDE/GNOME. A combination of "good enough" and "legacy apps" means it probably won't ever be replaced.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  9. Another by DavidD_CA · · Score: 4, Funny

    Typical Slashdot
    Mention haikus and you all
    Become smartasses

    --
    -David
    1. Re:Another by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, everyone thinks they are smartasses, when in reality they are clueless. There's no strict syllable rules for haiku, and you need to incorporate a seasonal element.

  10. new filesystem by atamyrat · · Score: 1

    What's interesting for me is that, they implemented new database like file system in C++, which reminds me WinFS.

    1. Re:new filesystem by AberBeta · · Score: 1

      "new"?

    2. Re:new filesystem by mlk · · Score: 2, Informative

      They are implementing the same FS as BeOS had (BeFS). So not "new" at all. OFS (Old Be FS) had Even More database goodness I believe.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeFS

      --
      Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  11. I Feel Let Down by TychoCelchuuu · · Score: 1

    I'm disappointed Title made me imagine Tech talk in haikus

    --
    Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
    1. Re:I Feel Let Down by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      I'm disappointed Title made me imagine Tech talk in haikus

      You made a mistake
      to divide lines when posting
      must choose Plain Old Text
  12. Slashdotted Haiku by DavidD_CA · · Score: 4, Funny

    warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (11) in /home2/haiku/webapps/website/gallery2/lib/adodb/dr ivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 348. Warning: mysql
    Cannot connect to server
    No pictures to see
    --
    -David
    1. Re:Slashdotted Haiku by K8Fan · · Score: 1

      That's brilliant!

      --
      "How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
  13. Server crash go boom by SuperBanana · · Score: 1

    webserver crashes slashdotters joke server fire mysql go boom (My-Sequel, not My-Ess-Que-Ehl, fyi.)

    1. Re:Server crash go boom by SuperBanana · · Score: 2, Funny

      slashdotter hangs head
      shall not forget tags again
      always preview first
      :(

    2. Re:Server crash go boom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the MySQL website: "The official way to pronounce "MySQL" is "My Ess Que Ell" (not "my sequel"), but we don't mind if you pronounce it as "my sequel" or in some other localized way."

    3. Re:Server crash go boom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (My-Sequel, not My-Ess-Que-Ehl, fyi.)

      Yea, if you're a manager or a MS "developer".

    4. Re:Server crash go boom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From wikipedia:

      Japanese haiku are typically written as a single line, while English language haiku are traditionally separated into three lines.

      So you weren't entirely wrong, just writing in the wrong language. :)

  14. Meta-Comment by giminy · · Score: 1, Informative

    Everyone does this
    Replies with seventeen beats
    Moderate them well

    --
    The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
  15. how is this OS going to be different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get the latest patch,
    reboot. Thank you for calling
    technical support.

  16. No by Rix · · Score: 1

    It's not based on BeOS, it's an independent implementation of the BeOS API. Also, Google talks aren't Google talking to people about things, they're people talking to Google about things. They just post video so the rest of us can benefit, too.

  17. Success needs opensource drivers by DrYak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's example like this I want to give to all who say "Meh ! I don't need my drivers to be opensource, nVidia's drivers for linux are good enough".

    Yeah. And how are you going to port them to Haiku ? nVidia has not interests in supporting additional OS that don't even have 1% market share. (It's already incredible that they support BSD, Solaris and 2 Linux platforms) But if nouveau project succeeds, Haiku people will have a nice opensource code base from which to adapt a driver. And without good hardware support, nice systems like haiku won't get widespread use.

    I wish a lot of luck to Haiku, and hope they'll find a way to survive in the difficult place where companies only focus on the 1-2 most popular platforms, and refuse to help the others.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Success needs opensource drivers by nwhitehorn · · Score: 1

      I believe the nouveau driver is actually based on the Haiku one, which has 3D support for a limited range of nVidia products (up to GeForce 4).

  18. Looking forward to it being ported to PDA's by oodl · · Score: 1

    The BeOS runs great on my Mac-clone with a 250Mhz PowerPC 603 and just 32MB of RAM. The BeIDE runs fine within that amount of RAM, and you could run plenty of other applications along with BeIDE in that amount of RAM. The OS boots up amazing fast (by today's standards) and is amazingly responsive on what is considered really low-end PC hardware by today's standards.

    I'd love to see Haiku ported to PDA's. Even some phones today have more than 64MB of RAM. The BeOS is so much more capable than Windows Mobile 5.

    1. Re:Looking forward to it being ported to PDA's by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1
      that's why Palm bought them... there's a Palm 6 out there but never marketed that's a direct descendant of BeOS techonolgy... just like you said.. but it's TOO different to push on Palm developers without them all jumping to WinCE. What a shame.

      side note that it runs on at least 4 different CPUs.. Hobbit, PPC, X86, and Xscale...

  19. that's great... by picob · · Score: 1
    Now go fix your webpage at http://haiku-os.org/:

    warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (11) in /home2/haiku/webapps/website/gallery2/lib/adodb/dr ivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 348.
    1. Re:that's great... by NiteMair · · Score: 1

      Strangely enough - once I login to the site the warning goes away.

      Must be something that only affects anonymous visitors.

    2. Re:that's great... by sokoban · · Score: 2, Funny

      Strangely enough - once I login to the site the warning goes away. Perhaps you mean:

      And strangely enough
      once I log in to the site
      warnings go away
      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
  20. Appropriate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The appropriate
    font for such an OS must be
    the teeny tiny

  21. From the video: :-) by atamyrat · · Score: 1

    Any other questions while it loads Firefox?
  22. Haiku by VorpalRodent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obligatory:
    But In Soviet Russia
    Haiku Uses You

    --
    Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
  23. Whoaaaa... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Haiku will be a great
    success and make many
    AmigaOS4 users migrate

  24. you thought that went well?? by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Everything they showed didn't work, everything asked for wasn't available, they seemed _very_ impressed with themselves about a compressed form of SVG (which is just so important to Operating System design).

    I really don't see what I (or anyone) am supposed to take out of that presentation.

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
    1. Re:you thought that went well?? by Stormx2 · · Score: 1

      Nothing really worked
      Even the requested stuff
      Wasn't for our eyes

      They were impressed though
      Impressed with their SVG
      I found it useless

      What did I get out?
      Nothing, really. What a load!
      Bad presentation.

      From this point forward
      You will write all your comments
      In a haiku form

    2. Re:you thought that went well?? by cianduffy · · Score: 1

      Its not a compressed implementation of SVG - its a seperate format. Phipps managed to trip over it entirely so tried to say it again, and still tripped over it. Thats why it sounds like he's excited about it, he's just saying it three times :P

      That said, it is noticably faster than SVG-icon based vector graphic implementations on BeOS (OpenTracker has a number of forks that have SVG support) due to the icon size and relative lack of difficulty to parse them.

    3. Re:you thought that went well?? by Baba+Ram+Dass · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's alpha software, meaning it's not feature complete (almost but not quite) and has loads of bugs. As someone who checks out the regular builds on a daily basis, the stability varies considerably from one revision to the next simply because of the rapid changes and development going on.

      There's been days when it was more stable than Linux or Windows. Others when DOS seemed more useful. I'm guessing this just happened to be the performance of a lesser build.

      The importance of HVI (which isn't strictly a form of SVG, but of vector graphics) is that an icon that would normally take several kilobytes in disk space consumes less than the size that's free on a typical BFS inode, allowing gorgeous graphics with no extra disk seeks required; it's quite a feat that other UIs should take note of.

      All in all, it's very impressive what a handful of developers have managed to do in the last five years from scratch. It's going to be very exciting what happens in the next couple of years after R1 comes out.

      --
      Truckin like the Doo-Dah man...
    4. Re:you thought that went well?? by EachLennyAPenny · · Score: 1

      > The importance of HVI (which isn't strictly a form of SVG, but of vector graphics) is that an icon that would normally take several kilobytes in disk space consumes less than the size that's free on a typical BFS inode, allowing gorgeous graphics with no extra disk seeks required; it's quite a feat that other UIs should take note of.

      Yeah, because if you're not cautious all those pesky icons will fill up your 300 GB harddisk very quickly.

    5. Re:you thought that went well?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does "no extra disk seeks required" have to do with filling up 300GB?
      Oh, wait... nothing whatsoever.

    6. Re:you thought that went well?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because you're a retard, Lord Shitman. Always have been. The presentation's marketing, designed to get people to pay attention so that they might actually gain a user base. That you watched it means that they succeeded in their purpose. See how easy it is to solve puzzles when you're not a dipshit?

    7. Re:you thought that went well?? by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

      I try to avoid showing off to potential interests when I have absolutely nothing to show. I still have no idea what was "good" about the presentation. I have been asking people, and have yet to get a straight answer: What was the presentation about, why was it worth presenting?

      I'm willing to accept the distinct possibility that there's just something I don't know enough about to find interesting, but I'd love it if someone would tell me what that was.

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
    8. Re:you thought that went well?? by Baba+Ram+Dass · · Score: 1

      > The importance of HVI (which isn't strictly a form of SVG, but of vector graphics) is that an icon that would normally take several kilobytes in disk space consumes less than the size that's free on a typical BFS inode, allowing gorgeous graphics with no extra disk seeks required; it's quite a feat that other UIs should take note of.

      Yeah, because if you're not cautious all those pesky icons will fill up your 300 GB harddisk very quickly. Talk about ignorance.

      Disk seeks have nothing to do with disk space. Because the HVI icon fits within a standard inode, you're going to see great performance because your hard drive won't have to go fetch more data just to retreive a given file's icon. BeOS did this, but they were using bitmap graphics; Haiku was able to pull it off using vector graphics.

      Anything else you'd like to try and piss on?
      --
      Truckin like the Doo-Dah man...
    9. Re:you thought that went well?? by Baba+Ram+Dass · · Score: 1

      I try to avoid showing off to potential interests when I have absolutely nothing to show. Nothing to show? Haiku is almost out of alpha, that is, it's almost feature complete. It runs R5 binary software. It's reimplemented most of the BeAPI. It's reimplemented the Be File System. It's come out with a neat icon format that allows vector graphics without degrading disk performance due to extraneous seeks. Really, the big thing left to do is finish the network stack and knock out bugs.

      Don't worry if you didn't get anything out of the presentation: you're not a low-level engineer and probably wouldn't care about things like how the VM manager works, or why fitting a vector icon in a disk inode is pretty neat. But you weren't the TECHNICAL talk's target audience either; the ex-Be engineers and the Google engineers were the target audience, and the purpose was to stimulate interest and hopefully pick up some volunteers.
      --
      Truckin like the Doo-Dah man...
    10. Re:you thought that went well?? by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

      I like to think I'm great at bullshitting enough to expand nothing into something, but I really don't think I could pull off turning "We ported an existing operating system to C++ of all things for some reason. Surprisingly, it's slow and doesn't work. Also, (on a completely unrelated note) we have this smaller icon format." into a full hour.

      I heard a handful of disjointed footnotes about unrelated projects which (it being open source) should probably stay separate, and /still/ have no idea what the presentation was supposed to tell anybody that a single paragraph (or well-thought-out single sentence) wouldn't.

      To me, "we copied something that already exists, almost!" is not noteworthy.

      You still haven't mentioned what you think the presentation was about. I'm okay with not understanding the explanation, but all I've heard from ANYONE is: "if you don't know, you weren't the target audience".
      Except for those Haiku enthusiasts I asked who also said they had no idea wtf the talk was about.

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
    11. Re:you thought that went well?? by duffahtolla · · Score: 1

      >To me, "we copied something that already exists, almost!" is not noteworthy.

      Creating an open source version of a closed source OS is pretty noteworthy, to me at least.

    12. Re:you thought that went well?? by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

      Why isn't anybody making an open source version of Internet Explorer?

      Oh right, 'cause they're busy making their own thing instead of copying something [almost].

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  25. ode to gassee by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    had a great OS
    could have been the next Mac but
    wanted too much cash

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  26. Haikus are easy.... by Viper_Viper · · Score: 5, Funny

    Haikus are easy
    But sometimes they don't make sense
    Refrigerator

    1. Re:Haikus are easy.... by k3vlar · · Score: 1

      I laughed my ass off when I first heard that one.

      --
      Unlike porn, which yada yada rimshot hey-ooh!
    2. Re:Haikus are easy.... by iPaul · · Score: 1

      Isn't it a rule that you have to include a crane or a flute?

      --
      Leave the gun, take the cannoli -- Clemenza, The Godfather
    3. Re:Haikus are easy.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks, I just shat myself laughing.

  27. To be precise... by pjt33 · · Score: 2, Funny

    He "gave a few words". Would "seventeen syllables" Be right on the nail?

  28. Back in the '90s ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Client-supplied disk,
    both Linux and Windows failed.
    BeOS read it just fine

    (true story)

  29. Look at the features listed by Hackeron · · Score: 1, Troll

    * Focused on desktop, don't want to be a wristwatch
    ** So they believe in the future of desktops and not having a system that's built up of components but having a system designed for the desktop. Apple have their desktop OS running on a phone, Linux has been ported to just about anything under the sun, Microsoft have a stripped down version of their OS for phones and PDA but Haiku think they are better by focusing on desktop only -- mistake!
    * Compatible with Beos R5
    ** As he said in the presentation, why focus so much on being compatible with a 6 year old OS? - Maybe an emulator for the sake of it, but this is a priority?
    * Kernel designed for responsiveness
    ** Low latency means lower performance and that dig at Linux he made in the presentation is inaccurate - firstly, responsiveness depends on options chosen in the kernel, having the option of better performance over lower latency is a GOOD thing.
    * Unified, cohensive interface integrated, simplicity is the key, best defaults, feature complete, 7 million lines of code, Hide inner workings of the OS
    ** blah, blah, blah
    * MIT Licensed
    ** or X11 license, means you take the software, close source and sell it ;)
    * Small footprint, fast boot
    ** 60MB uncompressed is not small, Linux even with X can be as small as 6MB uncompressed if that
    * Less Debug - no need to test with FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Multiple Linux kernels, Windows
    ** Absolute bullshit, he seems to encourage software to be made for their OS only, making it compatible with Linux, FreeBSD or Windows is a sin!
    * Discourages forks and alternatives
    ** Err, discourages choice and how are they going to stop a fork if someone disagrees with their direction and say wants more choice.
    * Human Interface Design
    ** err, hello? - freedesktop.org? - And what software and operating system doesn't focus on HID sooner or later?
    * One common look makes documentation, support and QA easier
    ** 1 common look? communism anyone?
    * C++ is the best for writing OS, best balance, faster dev
    ** I'm not even going to tackle this one
    * Built for large files
    ** Err? code for the filesystem can't handle small files?
    * Database like queries to find stuff
    ** Google desktop, beagle, spotlight, etc, etc, etc
    * File mimetypes, no extensions needed
    ** Great, nautilus does this, just about any file manager can implement this easily if there's demand
    * Kits, API centered around concept
    ** Errrr, gnome, kde, cocoa are all APIs with libraries centered around concept
    * In response to how do we package management, we just drop executables
    ** This guy's on crack, either everything is statically compiled (BAD IDEA) or they must be able to handle their libraries somehow
    * Includes all libraries by default
    ** Err, what happened to the small footprint? - and what about bug fixes? -- You fix a bus in a library and all software that uses it stops working - or you don't fix the library and end up with what windows is today staying backward compatible to bugs found 15 years ago.
    * Serialized instances of Haiku applications
    ** err, dbus? -- And similar has been available for way over a decade: bonobo/cobra, kparts, etc
    * Contacts/Emails stored in standard formats
    ** errr, mbox/maildir/ics(ical), old news
    * New filetype with file Attributes
    ** No details and given example of using these to create a jazz album is stupid, you'd use compatible id3 tags.
    * Add-Ons
    ** No details
    * Applications scriptable
    ** Well, like windows 2000 scripting or like shell scripting? - Depends on what the author implements in the application either way...
    * Virtual Memory Subsystem, File System Interface
    ** Sounds standard/archaic

    1. Re:Look at the features listed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you spent all that time writing your little bullet-list response to enumarate your argument, which is:

      This is not Linux.

      No duh you can find many of the features listed in other systems. The problem is that many of them are either a) Nowhere near comparable b) Not integrated c) Crap.

      You're just another armchair developer. Stop being such a fanboy and go investigate some of the issues you dismiss out of hand. Perhaps you'll learn something, but I won't hold my breath.

    2. Re:Look at the features listed by Hackeron · · Score: 1

      Please list any of those that are a) Nowhere near comparable b) Not integrated c) Crap -- Obviously you are not yet another armchair developer and have insight on this, we'd all love to hear it.

    3. Re:Look at the features listed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Sure thing, skippy.

      1. "Google desktop, beagle, spotlight, etc, etc, etc" are nothing like live filesystem queries and in-filesystem indexes.
      2. "nautilus [and] just about any file manager" do not provide file identifcation features in the same vein as BeOS, and mimetype-based file identifcation is certainly not integrated fully into Linux.
      3. "dbus..bonobo/cobra, kparts, etc" are nowhere near as flexible as proper object serialisation, nor are they anywhere near as integrated as in BeOS. If Bonobo or KParts where any good they wouldn't be being replaced with dbus. They also do not pre-date BeOS.
      4. Just because you don't understand extensible meta-data you can't simply dismiss the concept out of hand as "stupid". These are equivilent to POSIX xatrr() attributes but are more flexible and more integrated I.e. the meta-data can be fully indexed and queried (See point 1)
      There are plenty more point I could pick up on but that would be boring and like shooting fish in a barral. As an example though, this comment:

      "..having the option of better performance over lower latency is a GOOD thing."

      Not in a desktop operating system. Would you like to explain to the class why?
    4. Re:Look at the features listed by Hackeron · · Score: 1
      • "Google desktop, beagle, spotlight, etc, etc, etc" are nothing like live filesystem queries and in-filesystem indexes.
        Why would you use live filesystem queries when inotify in the kernel notifies of changes to the filesystem in realtime? - As for in-filesystem indexes, that can be accomplished with say a reiser4 plugin but there is a performance hit accessing the filesystem with additional attributes on files - It isn't like special attributes like ACL or what SELinux provides, it's just information
      • "nautilus [and] just about any file manager" do not provide file identification features in the same vein as BeOS, and mimetype-based file identifcation is certainly not integrated fully into Linux.
        File identification includes id3v2 tags, being able to understand media files and showing the bitrate, length, etc and all this is done by storing the information in the file itself and directory cache file for the directory, so OpenBeOS would potentially duplicate all that in filesystem meta-data? - What advantages does that have? -- Any additional meta-data would surely be a performance hit on the filesystem.
      • "dbus..bonobo/cobra, kparts, etc" are nowhere near as flexible as proper object serialisation, nor are they anywhere near as integrated as in BeOS. If Bonobo or KParts where any good they wouldn't be being replaced with dbus. They also do not pre-date BeOS.
        They were replaced by dbus because it was found to be better that bonobo and kparts - what I'm saying is a message bus should be a part of any operating system and mentioning that it's there doesn't really inspire awe. As for dbus, it seems like a solid message bus, where does it lack in terms of flexibility compared to what OpenBeOS uses?
      • Just because you don't understand extensible meta-data you can't simply dismiss the concept out of hand as "stupid". These are equivilent to POSIX xatrr() attributes but are more flexible and more integrated I.e. the meta-data can be fully indexed and queried (See point 1)
        I'm not saying extensible meta-data is stupid, I'm saying using it to manage your jazz collection is, would you really use extensible meta-data to manage your music collection? really?
      I'll look into everything you've mentioned more closely, but I still don't see what OpenBeos offers that is in anyway better than Linux or any operating system and I wasn't trying to illustrate it's not Linux, but that what does it have that is unique and that makes it stand out and I still can't see what - I'll keep looking.

      As for being a fan boy, I'm currently running Leopard (OSX), FreeBSD on my weaker laptop, have Ubuntu (Linux) on my HTPC, have Windows at work, run Solaris on a couple servers, and use various other smaller OSes found in switches, load balancers, etc -- I know Linux better than the rest so that's what I'm comparing OpenBeOS to.
    5. Re:Look at the features listed by Hackeron · · Score: 1
      Oh, sorry, didn't comment on the last bit:

      "..having the option of better performance over lower latency is a GOOD thing."

      Not in a desktop operating system. Would you like to explain to the class why? I'm running Linux on an AMD3000+ set to higher performance over lower latency so it can play 720P media - the 10-15% overhead for lower latency is enough to make a difference between lagging in high motion scenes and not lagging in high motion scenes.

      That's a bit of a unique case, but what about gaming, graphics design, 3d modeling - pretty much anything that isn't sound engineering and running many CPU intensive applications while listening to music and not wanting the music to lag?

      Also, when you say low latency, how low is low? - If you need to record sound, you may want to look into a realtime (just in time) kernel even though the performance hit can be up to 30%.
    6. Re:Look at the features listed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would you use live filesystem queries when inotify in the kernel notifies of changes to the filesystem in realtime? - As for in-filesystem indexes, that can be accomplished with say a reiser4 plugin but there is a performance hit accessing the filesystem with additional attributes on files - It isn't like special attributes like ACL or what SELinux provides, it's just information

      In filesystem meta-data, indexes and live queries are less of a hack. They are also faster and more reliable. Every inotify event requires a context switch into the user-space deamon, plus additional context switches as the deamon reads and writes data.

      A Reiser4 plugin could be written, but BFS and BeOS already does this.

      File identification includes id3v2 tags, being able to understand media files and showing the bitrate, length, etc and all this is done by storing the information in the file itself and directory cache file for the directory, so OpenBeOS would potentially duplicate all that in filesystem meta-data? - What advantages does that have? -- Any additional meta-data would surely be a performance hit on the filesystem.

      For a start ID3 tags only apply to media files. The example in the Google talk may have been poor, but extensible meta data has far more application that duplicating ID3 tags. It doesn't impact filesystem performance on BFS because the meta data is a seperate data stream.

      a message bus should be a part of any operating system and mentioning that it's there doesn't really inspire awe

      They wern't doing it to "inspire awe" but now you mention it, BeOS had these capabilities long before Linux did. BeOS is designed around serialised message passing, something that Linux and the various desktop environments are only just starting to do. It will be a very long time, possibly never, before Linux ever matches BeOS here.

      I'm not saying extensible meta-data is stupid, I'm saying using it to manage your jazz collection is, would you really use extensible meta-data to manage your music collection? really?

      If the functionality to manage that meta-data was a core part of my operating system I'd be stupid not too.

      I know Linux better than the rest so that's what I'm comparing OpenBeOS to.

      You'd do better to compare it to OS X, particularly as they are both designed to be desktop OSes. Linux may be Jack of all trades, but it is not master of them all.

    7. Re:Look at the features listed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "So they believe in the future of desktops and not having a system that's built up of components but having a system designed for the desktop. Apple have their desktop OS running on a phone, Linux has been ported to just about anything under the sun, Microsoft have a stripped down version of their OS for phones and PDA but Haiku think they are better by focusing on desktop only -- mistake!"

      Mistake? How so you figure? How does Linux's (for example) ability to run on non-desktop devices make it a better DESKTOP system? If the idea is to make Haiku strictly a destop OS, then focusing strickly on the desktop makescomplete sense.

      "** As he said in the presentation, why focus so much on being compatible with a 6 year old OS? - Maybe an emulator for the sake of it, but this is a priority?"

      It was inspired by BeOS. BeOS was a pretty badass OS in its time, people still develoip for it, and there's a respectable amount of applications availible for the platform. Binary compatability is always better than emulation, especially if you're focused on performance. Besides, people, in the day, loved BeOS, they loved the way it was designed, how fast and responsive it was, this seems and aweful lot like a thinly veiled "why beos, and not linux" question. That's why.

      "** Low latency means lower performance and that dig at Linux he made in the presentation is inaccurate - firstly, responsiveness depends on options chosen in the kernel, having the option of better performance over lower latency is a GOOD thing."

      Many would prefer increased responsiveness. Also, if I recall correctly, in the Linux Kernel, the latency settings place performance/server on one end of the spectrum, and responsiveness/desktop on the other. Haiku is built strictly for the desktop. Do the math.

      "** or X11 license, means you take the software, close source and sell it ;)"

      Otherwise known as unrestricted freedom. That's the idea :).

      "** 60MB uncompressed is not small, Linux even with X can be as small as 6MB uncompressed if that"

      60MB uncompressed for a *desktop* OS (meaning not bare bones) is pretty damn small.

      "** Absolute bullshit, he seems to encourage software to be made for their OS only, making it compatible with Linux, FreeBSD or Windows is a sin!"

      Why would they need to debug their applications which are built for Haiku, for other OSes? I dunno about you, if I want to run BSD stuff, I'll use my BSD install, and if I want to run windows stuff, I'll use my windows install. Omitting unecessary debugging stuff cuts down code bloat. Remember, portability isn't their objective.

      "** Err, discourages choice and how are they going to stop a fork if someone disagrees with their direction and say wants more choice."

      The choice to not use Haiku is always there.

      "** err, hello? - freedesktop.org? - And what software and operating system doesn't focus on HID sooner or later?"

      Err, hello? That's why they're focusing on HID from the get go?

      "** 1 common look? communism anyone?"

      For the sake of better Documentation and QA. Again, Haiku isn't designed to be be everything under the sun.

      "** I'm not even going to tackle this one"

      They prefer C++. So what?

      "** Err? code for the filesystem can't handle small files?"

      That isn't what "built for large files" means. It just means its built to handle larger files, and handle them well. Much like Reiser was built chiefly for small files (that's were it shines in performace tests), and XFS is built for large files (conversely outperforming the former in this regard). Desktop machines tend to have bunches of larger files.

      "** Google desktop, beagle, spotlight, etc, etc, etc"

      You seem to have missed the part about database queries.

      "** Great, nautilus does this, just about any file manager can implement this easily if there's demand"

      And other filemanagers did this before Nautilus, point being? Its a good feature to have, that's

    8. Re:Look at the features listed by izomiac · · Score: 1

      For most of those you seem to be missing the point. Haiku is designed to be a successor to BeOS. Many BeOS users (current and past) have used or now use other OSes, but haven't seen the things they liked about the BeOS present in them. That's why there's a need for Haiku. There is the Cosmoe Project that seeks to make Linux more like the BeOS, but personally I'm placing my hopes with Haiku (although I expect Cosmoe & Haiku can improve each other). That said, there are a few of your comments that I'd like to address.

      * Focused on desktop, don't want to be a wristwatch
      ** So they believe in the future of desktops and not having a system that's built up of components but having a system designed for the desktop. Apple have their desktop OS running on a phone, Linux has been ported to just about anything under the sun, Microsoft have a stripped down version of their OS for phones and PDA but Haiku think they are better by focusing on desktop only -- mistake!


      Haiku is designed to be a desktop OS. Not a server OS, or an embedded OS. Other OSes do that, and they do it well enough that there isn't a whole lot of need to compete with them in those areas. There are also trade-offs, so Haiku is aiming to be specialized toward the Desktop, not a Jack-of-all-trades.

      * Compatible with Beos R5
      ** As he said in the presentation, why focus so much on being compatible with a 6 year old OS? - Maybe an emulator for the sake of it, but this is a priority?


      Because much of the potential userbase is currently running BeOS R5.0.3 or R5.1 or Zeta. Many parts of Haiku have even been ported (if necessary) to run in BeOS R5. Parts like the Mail Daemon and ShowImage. Binary compatibility also ensures a fairly easy transition from BeOS/Zeta to Haiku, and that means that Haiku will have a fair amount of software available immediately. Many older BeOS apps are also closed-source (with the authors incommunicado), so binary compatibility is kind-of a big deal. Haiku R1 aims to be very similar to BeOS R5, Haiku R2 - Glass Elevator may break application compatibility.

      * Kernel designed for responsiveness
      ** Low latency means lower performance and that dig at Linux he made in the presentation is inaccurate - firstly, responsiveness depends on options chosen in the kernel, having the option of better performance over lower latency is a GOOD thing.


      I assume you haven't used the BeOS. Its speed will spoil you. Whenever I have to use Linux and Windows the speed difference becomes obvious. It isn't major, just annoying. Things like folders taking one second to open instead of a tenth of a second. Or applications that start essentially instantaneously. As a desktop user I don't really care that such responsiveness causes a small hit in performance, I'm not running a MySQL database or serving webpages in x milliseconds.

      * Small footprint, fast boot
      ** 60MB uncompressed is not small, Linux even with X can be as small as 6MB uncompressed if that


      True, Linux can be small, but the desktop distros usually aren't. They also tend to have a boot time on the order of minutes, while BeOS (and I assume Haiku) has it on the order of seconds. I.e. on the same machine it's not uncommon for BeOS to boot in ~7 seconds (ready to launch Firefox), and Linux to take 2 minutes. I'm sure you could reduce the Linux boot time, but even on my GP2X it still takes 14 seconds, and that's not loading network stuff or other things.

      * Less Debug - no need to test with FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Multiple Linux kernels, Windows
      ** Absolute bullshit, he seems to encourage software to be made for their OS only, making it compatible with Linux, FreeBSD or Windows is a sin!


      Yet another way BeOS is different. BeOS isn't entirely posix compatible. Virtually all non-trivial programs are multi-threaded, and BeOS uses it's own version of threads. It's related to the responsiveness of the B

    9. Re:Look at the features listed by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``Why would you use live filesystem queries when inotify in the kernel notifies of changes to the filesystem in realtime? - As for in-filesystem indexes, that can be accomplished with say a reiser4 plugin''

      Yes, nowadays, Linux has enough features that you could implement BeOS-like live queries. But BeOS already has them - has had them for ages. Last I checked, the Linux imitations of BeOS's live queries (Beagle and KDE's thingy that they renamed) still didn't work very well. Meanwhile, Spotlight and Google Desktop search seem to be quite popular.

      ``File identification includes id3v2 tags, being able to understand media files and showing the bitrate, length, etc and all this is done by storing the information in the file itself and directory cache file for the directory, so OpenBeOS would potentially duplicate all that in filesystem meta-data? - What advantages does that have?''

      ID3 tags were a kludge added to MP3 to allow metadata to be stored in the file. BeOS would have allowed the same (and more!) metadata to be stored just like any other metadata. No bazillion different ways to store and extract metadata (ID3, ID3v2, Ogg comments, EXIF, ...); just a standard way, provided and supported by the operating system, that you can perform queries on, etc. etc. You say "BeOS would duplicate all that in filesystem meta-data", but it's really the other way around: BeOS provides a generic solution, which other systems approach with ad-hoc kludges.

      ``Any additional meta-data would surely be a performance hit on the filesystem.''

      Do you seriously think the performance hit would be larger in case of a single, unified way to store metadata, compared to having to detect and parse a bazillion different metadata formats that are stored in-file? Tell me, how do Google desktop search and Beagle perform, compared to BeOS's live queries?

      ``As for dbus, it seems like a solid message bus, where does it lack in terms of flexibility compared to what OpenBeOS uses?''

      I can still remember when dbus and hal were a big mess. Before that, I'm not even sure GNU/Linux had a standard message bus. On the other hand, I don't think I've ever missed it, either.

      However, I am beginning to see a pattern in your comments. You say "but Linux has that, too, so why is Haiku touting it as a feature?" What you need to understand is that many of the things we have been discussing here were in BeOS (and thus in Haiku - which started by literally writing open source drop-in replacements for BeOS R5 parts) before (sometimes long before) they were in Linux. Perhaps the Haiku folks are stuck in the past, where Haiku had these features and other systems didn't. Perhaps, to some extent, that is actually how things really are (I definitely think that goes for metadata and live queries).

      ``I'm not saying extensible meta-data is stupid, I'm saying using it to manage your jazz collection is, would you really use extensible meta-data to manage your music collection? really?''

      Absolutely! I think you will agree with me that it's useful to be able to annotate your music files with their artist, title, album, and whatever else. Same for email and sender, recipients, subject, perhaps some keywords, ... Pictures: occasion they were taken at, who is in them, ... Now, there are two ways to go about it: you can come up with an ad-hoc solution in every case, or you can implement a generic mechanism and use that for everything. You seem to be advocating the former approach, but I honestly don't understand why you think that approach is superior.

      And now to put things in perspective: I am really impressed by BeOS (and, by extension, Haiku and Zeta) from a technical point of view. I've come close to becoming a Haiku developer (I was actually invited, but I declined). However, I am not a BeOS user. The reason is that, on the whole, Debian provides a smoother experience for me. A large part of that is the fact that, although the software I like to use would ru

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    10. Re:Look at the features listed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      * C++ is the best for writing OS, best balance, faster dev ** I'm not even going to tackle this one

      C++ is a nightmare come true to write an OS. If you do not get killed by complexity now, you will one day or another as your developer base increases.

      But the last hit will come from binary incompatibility: once you have compiled a library with any given compiler, you force everybody else who wants to use your library to use the very same compiler. I was surprised when he mentioned gcc crashes on Haiku. What compiler do they use? How will they guarantee ABI compatibility in the future? I thought the BeOS guys had suffered enough from C++ to pass the message onto their followers. Seems like they did not learn.

    11. Re:Look at the features listed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      5 years ago the C++ ABI issues were real. These days we have the Cross Vendor C++ ABI and it is a solved problem. I can compile my library with GCC 4.1 and you can link against it with GCC 3.3, or Intel C, or whatever.

    12. Re:Look at the features listed by Max+Littlemore · · Score: 1

      Posts like the parent, all that long winded scorn from a position where opinion is indisputable fact, tend to really bug me. That is until I read them in the voice of the fat guy from the comic store on The Simpsons. Try it. It works.

      --
      I don't therefore I'm not.
  30. Long live BeOS! by Huxley_Dunsany · · Score: 1

    As someone who recently bought a used BeBox (dual-66mHz PPC 603) on eBay, I'm really happy to see that there's still life in the BeOS/Haiku scene. Such a fun and powerful OS shouldn't just disappear without a sound. Huxley

  31. Limmerick OS? or... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or we could go for Gangsta Rap OS! Don't even have to rhyme, just RESPEKT, BITCHEZ!!!

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  32. Enough by Polly_Morf · · Score: 0

    "It's enough with the freakin' nerdy Haiku poems, you faggots! It isnt even funny." That's exactly what I would have said if I hadnt read them and laughed...

  33. Same obstacle to any alternative OS by Stormwatch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, technically

    Haiku may be fantastic

    but to run what apps?

    1. Re:Same obstacle to any alternative OS by Trogre · · Score: 1

      What's fantastic about it?
      There's nothing particularly special, rhythmic or even remotely clever about making a haiku.
      Look I'll invent a new way to achieve Zen:

      7 syllables
      27 syllables
      11 syllables

      There, now the top three lines of this post display a mastery of the ancient art of Trogru.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  34. Argh by John+Nowak · · Score: 0, Troll

    Someone say SOMETHING interesting, please!

    1. Re:Argh by Stormwatch · · Score: 0, Troll

      Someone say SOMETHING interesting, please!

      You want us to say
      but just what do you regard
      as interesting?
    2. Re:Argh by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      I have been modded
      as a troll but I don't know
      what I have done wrong!

  35. Collaboration by DrYak · · Score: 1

    As far as I've read they're not *based on* but collaborating and exchanging informations.
    And the Haiku project will benefit from actual development because apparently they only support 1 generation of graphic card (the NV0x which is also supported on the next generation, i.e: NV1x. Haiku only works with TNT and GeForce 1-2 [+4MX]), and apparently isn't maintained very actively.

    The nouveau project itself is mostly build around the renouveau tool : a tool assisting in reverse engineering which sends openGL command to the card and then dumps it to see how it responded to the commands.

    There's a lot of reverse engineering going on there, and as it is documented and publicly available, it can benefit any other project trying to write nVidia drivers.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  36. When I first tried BeOS [caution - nostalgia] by iPaul · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was something really neat. What blew me away with BeOS 4.5 (I think that was the first Intel build), was being able to run 3 windows of video simultaneously (same 350Mhz PII running win95 could handle 1 window of video). I could spin multiple GL teapots in different windows with really crisp performance. And it worked really well with my Haupage capture card, no dropped frames. In the modern world of 100 fps, texture mapped, highly accelerated OpenGL/DirectX games that's not much of an accomplishment. On 1997-ish hardware, however, it was an accomplishment.

    Compared to Win32 API, MFC and Macintosh Toolbox the API was fairly clean and simple. In fairly short order I wrote a native C++ app (as an exercise for the reader) that read in image files and broke it into R, G and B channels with histogram plots. I could then lower/raise the intensity of each channel. It could read in just about any format (jpg, gif, tiff, and some other odd-balls). In addition the app was safely multi-threaded. It was a piece of cake. Compared to my beloved Mac (on which I learned C), it was completely painless. Version 5.0 and 6.0 were going to have a lot of great, new features that were giving MS a real run for their money.

    That was nearly 10 years ago. GUIs have progressed since then. I forked out the dough for Zeta - on a nostalgia kick - six months or so ago. It just didn't have the features I expect from a modern OS. When Be went belly up (remember MS had such a tight lock on OEMs Be literally couldn't give their OS away) time seems to have stopped for the BeOS. I didn't bother installing it on real hardware - just on VMware. I played around with it for a couple of days and then needed the disk space for something else. Haven't touched it since.

    Well, I hope the Haiku guys have a lot of fun with their project and other users get a chance to play with what I still think is a really neat operating system.

    --
    Leave the gun, take the cannoli -- Clemenza, The Godfather
    1. Re:When I first tried BeOS [caution - nostalgia] by mlk · · Score: 1

      BeOS 4.5 (I think that was the first Intel build) 3 was the first Intel build. (I have the box in my cupboard).
      --
      Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  37. Mod parent Troll by petrus4 · · Score: 1

    I don't have points currently or I'd do it myself.

  38. Something which I find interesting... by petrus4 · · Score: 0, Troll

    ...is that around here it seems to be the articles about other operating systems which attract the most trolls, incoherent offtopic posts, lame, unfunny attempts at humour, and other such rubbish.

    I've noticed how much flotsam is usually attached to articles about *BSD releases in particular, and now a story about Haiku seems to be attracting a fair amount of drek as well.

    Maybe this is just the paranoid conspiracy theorist in me, but I'm suspecting that my nemeses on Slashdot, the perennial GNU/cultists, feel an urgent need to try and make sure than any operating system in existence other than Linux is discredited/trashed to the point that nobody will dream of using it, thus continuing the work that their unholy Messiah began in slandering the BSD license.

    If one of the faithful are willing to indulge me, would you also be willing to explain how the word "freedom" is in fact *not* a mere euphemism in this case?

  39. Yet another by Hamoohead · · Score: 1

    Waiting for Haiku
    Seems like an eternity
    So much anxiety

    --
    "If your parents never had children, chances are you wonât either." -Dick Cavett
  40. No, Really... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can you really dress that way for a presentation on the Google campus? I'm being serious, not flaming anyone. I just wasn't expecting that when I clicked on the pics link.

  41. Poetic moderators by alienmole · · Score: 4, Funny

    Failing haiku form
    You will be moderated
    As Troll on /.

    1. Re:Poetic moderators by binkzz · · Score: 1

      What are these haikus?
      I keep hearing about them;
      Tell me how they work!

      --
      'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
    2. Re:Poetic moderators by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1
      FYI

      BE used Haikus in each of the system error messages... it was an inside joke that was all over the system... when they had to pick a non-trademarked name for the OSS project to copy it they picked "Haiku" as a throwback to the joke.

  42. Hoped Linus would adopt this orphan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've hoped that Linus and Linux would adopt an open source BeOS clone and use it as the basis for the replacement for the Linux desktop. Combine with some heavywieght backing from IBM and the donation of the Lotus office products suite, it would be quite a nice near zero cost competitor for Windows.

    1. Re:Hoped Linus would adopt this orphan by SirSlud · · Score: 1

      would be quite a nice near zero cost competitor for Windows.

      I hate windows as much as the next /. user, but zero cost is rediculous. That would take a vast amount of work, and from my end, most of the value of beOS is in the internals, not the UI. What exactly would you gain if you just took the windowing layer of beOS? Not very much.

      the donation of the Lotus office products suite

      Donation of Lotus? Do people 'donate' gonorrhea? Lotus notes should die and burn in hell. It would take me about 3 months to replace what Lotus does for our organization in PHP, were I in information services rather than being an actual programmer, and it would cost us 3 months of my salary and not a dime more. Lotus should be killed, over and over and over again.

      Sorry for the attacks. beOS was awesome, in my books, and I wish it didnt join the massive list of decent OSes that have bitten the dust just because governments can't afford to piss off the supplier of their IT infrastructure, and companies can't afford to convince users to experience some short term pain for long term free market gain.

      IBM (and MS, for crying out loud) was behind OS2, and operating system I saw quite regularly running cell phone switch centers only 4 or 5 years ago, and they got slaughtered in the desktop market for reasons which have absolutely nothing to do with technological advantages. I can't imagine that if Linux got beOSs tits and ass, but none of the brains, that it would have any significant imprint on the OS world. Linux doesn't need a beOS windowing toolkit (if you like the graphics, just download the appropriate theme for your window manager), Linux needs a social or economic angle that makes individuals willing to feel the pain for the gain.

      --
      "Old man yells at systemd"
  43. Please explain by drolli · · Score: 1

    please explain, english is not my native language.

    1. Re:Please explain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  44. French-English by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mr Gasse says in the video that his English is not very good. Did anyone else notice that despite this, he seems to pronounce "Haiku" quite well? In my experience, native French speakers who make the effort to learn English often cannot pronounce hard "H" sounds. I had a boss who was French (lovely person, very nice man) and he was speaking English for at least 20 years and would still say "ospital", "otel", "ard", etc. since that "H" is very difficult for French speakers.

    I always appreciate people who make the effort to learn English - my French is nearly passable, but not great. Spending time in France or New Caledonia, or somewhere else is the best way to pick it up. Does Jean Louis Gasse live in USA or Britain, or somewhere English-speaking?

  45. GNNA Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    GNAA post:
    Random off-topic spamming
    And links to goatse.

  46. Last line has 6 syllables by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Maybe it should be

    Waiting for Haiku
    Seems like an eternity
    Much anxiety


    for proper "haiku" form (5 syllables in first line, 7 syllables in middle line, 5 syllables in last line)
  47. Re:bad submission summary by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 1

    In an icy sky
    Soars high the lonely joke.
    You are far below.

    --
    It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
  48. Maybe you meant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Enough with freakin'
    nerdy Haiku rhymes you fags!
    Not even funny.

  49. You are a troll and I claim my five pounds by the+grace+of+R'hllor · · Score: 1

    * One common look makes documentation, support and QA easier
    ** 1 common look? communism anyone?

    This comment alone makes of you nothing more than a troll. And that is quite apart from the fact that you're completely missing the point.

    To drag this towards a strained analogy with cars:
    A Prius is fuel efficient, a Porsche is fast and an Aston Martin looks good, so noone should attempt to make a car that is fuel efficient, fast and looks good?

    All these features exist, yes, but where can I pop in a CD and *use* them, without having to take out time to install and configure them? It's nice that I can have all these features, but if I can't have them in one place, that is entirely beside the point.

    1. Re:You are a troll and I claim my five pounds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does 1 common look have to do with features? - I think parent was saying that you can't have 1 common look, developers will have different looks and would like to do things differently, if the OS gets in the way, they won't develop for it unless they have to.

  50. NO YUO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    N/T

    l>

    URLs
    http://example.com/ will auto-link a URL
    Important Stuff

            * Please try to keep posts on topic.
            * Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
            * Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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    1. Re:NO YUO by petrus4 · · Score: 1

      Why should I adhere to this if nobody else does?

  51. What Japanese say, when they agree with friend Ku by The+Monster · · Score: 1
    "What's 'Hai, Ku!', Alex?"

    Jean Louis Gassée
    Be OS was a big flop
    What does he do now?
    Since I didn't know
    I had to look him up on
    Wikipedia:

    After leaving Be
    he was the CATC
    Prez and CEO

    In Two Thousand Four
    Jean-Louis Gassée became
    Chairman of PalmSource

    In Two Thousand Six
    he started on "Le blog de
    Jean-Louis Gassée"
    Now I can tell that
    Jean-Louis Gassée is an
    Important Person
    --

    [100% ISO 646 Compliant]
    SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.