A FREE OPERATING SYSTEM DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR PERSONAL COMPUTING
by Rusty Keele
A FREE OPERATING SYSTEM DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR PERSONAL COMPUTING - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
A FREE OPERATING SYSTEM DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR PERSONAL COMPUTING by Rusty Keele THE PLAN FOR TODAY A brief introduction A short history lesson A show-and-tell overview Some resources A philosophical discussion
by Rusty Keele
A brief introduction A short history lesson A show-and-tell overview Some resources A philosophical discussion
A free, open source,
Designed specifically for personal computing Based on the now discontinued BeOS
Jean-Louis Gassée An executive at Apple in the 1980s Ousted from Apple in 1990 Started Be Inc. in 1991
Built BeBox hardware and BeOS to run on it First release was in 1995 Only about 2,000 BeBoxes sold from late 1995 to early 1997 Stopped making hardware, and focused on BeOS
Apple tried to buy BeOS in 1996, as a replacement for MacOS But Be held out for more money... ...So Apple purchased Steve Job's NeXT instead!
BeOS was then ported to some Macintosh clones and the x86 architecture… …But never really gained much traction on either platform Last release of BeOS was R5 in 2000 Then the company was bought by Palm
It gained a small following of loyal fans Like science fiction author Neal Stephenson In the Beginning was the Command Line - his article about operating systems You can read it for free at http://www.cryptonomicon.com/begi nning.html
OpenBeOS project started in 2001 Goals:
Support the BeOS user community by creating an open-source, backward- compatible replacement for BeOS To be source and binary compatible with BeOS
In 2004 OpenBeOS changed its name to Haiku, after receiving a trademark infringement notification from Palm September 2009: Haiku R1 Alpha 1 is released Latest version: R1/Alpha 4.1, released in November 2012
Raise money and hire some programmers Strict about their coding and interface guidelines Careful attention makes for slow progress… …But relatively stable and bug free releases
"These three are certain: Death, taxes, and site not found. You, victim of one." "Login incorrect. Only perfect spellers may Enter this system.
See them all at http://8325.org/haiku/
Because of NetPositive's haiku error messages:
Haiku currently only works on x86 systems
32 bit version only - no 64 bit system
Minimum memory required: 128 MB CPU: Pentium II 400 MHz Drive space: 700 MB
A VirtualBox Demonstration…
Specific focus on personal computing (not multi-user) Custom kernel designed for responsiveness Fully threaded design for great efficiency with multi-processor/core CPUs Rich OO API for faster development Database-like file system (BFS) with support for indexed metadata Unified, cohesive interface
Resources for Haiku
Download the OS Learn about the project Keep up on the latest news Blogs, forums, articles, tickets, etc.
Included documentation
Welcome: get you started using the OS, and points you to other resources Haiku User Guide: Details the GUI, the file system, the file explorer, the Deskbar, shortcuts, etc. The BeBook: Details the programming API for BeOS/Haiku
The website
Community > Help and Support
Community > Getting Involved Developing for Haiku (in C++) Books:
Two programming books by Jon Yoder Can download them for free on the Haiku website, under Development
Donating money
What do you think? How many of you are not using the absolute latest version of your OS right now?
So, technically, you are using an old Operating System! Why haven't you updated? Money, time, hassle, hardware, bandwidth…
An OS for older computers
Run legacy applications and older games Collectors / historical reasons Useful computers = less landfill!
Stop the Rat Race
Do we really need all the "features" of newer Operating Systems? If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Privacy and tracking concerns Fewer hassles
To provide variety in the world
Fun! Learn about Operating Systems Get involved developing an OS (with less people than Linux!) Provide alternatives to the major Operating Systems
Haiku version 1.0 could lead to development for newer machines
rusty.keele@gmail.com Slides at c64sets.com/slides Questions or comments?