Filed under: OS Updates, Open Source
The spirit of BeOS lives on in Haiku
The last time we covered BeOS was two years ago, with this optimistic post. Since then however, YellowTab has gone down in flames and scandal, and the last hope for commercial BeOS is dead.Meanwhile, in the land of Open Source, something big is happening. After six years of development, the Haiku team is nearing completion of a completely free and open implementation of BeOS.
We downloaded a pre-built image of the fledgling OS from the Haiku build factory, and took it for a spin. Imagine our surprise when we were able to run native BeOS applications, straight from the BeOS R5 install disk! Not only that, the system boots about as fast as R5, and is nearly as "snappy" and responsive.
Why another alternative OS? Nostalgia definitely plays a big part. BeOS still has a thriving community of users, thanks to its quick boot time and appealing interface. With more and more daily tasks moving onto the Internet, any OS that can run Firefox is a good os. Haiku may never replace Linux as the open source OS for the masses, but its developers and users can surely try, and that's the beauty of it.
Despite all odds, and contrary to naysayers, Haiku is almost done. Within the next year or so, BeOS will be reborn, unhindered by patents, uninhibited by failing startup companies. Try it for yourself, and taste the future. (Warning, "future" may taste surprisingly like "past")
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jonathan Harford said 11:30AM on 12-30-2007
Well, I'll be darned. I've been on this alternative OS kick for the past few days, and I noticed Haiku pretty early on.
And I thought, "You know who should review Haiku? Download Squad!". I shit you not.
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Ian Dumych said 2:18PM on 12-30-2007
I'm glad we were able to scratch that itch for you :)
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