BeOS

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Revision as of 17:13, 4 November 2008 by Maxwell (Talk | contribs) (Technical Benifits)

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BeOS Opening Screen

What was BeOS?

BeOS was an operating system founded by ex Apple executive Jean ________Gaussie, in hopes of creating a completely new operating system created for media professionals from the ground up. It directly competed with both Apples Mac OS, Windows 95, and LINUX. While it was UNIX-like, the BeOS contained only new and proprietary code, a selling point of the system as it was not based off of 20 year old code and programming models. It was said to have been operating system which was future proofed to how media professionals used computers, and had many innovative features not seen in rival operating systems which have only been met in recent generation of operating systems.

General Decline

BeOS failed for a number of reasons. At its heart, the operating system was unable to secure a large variety of developers to continue to make a wide variety of software which to run on the machine. Another early limitation was the processor specific architecture, as BeOS was not originally portable across different hardwares, a folly of a business descion when they tried to bundle their hardware with their software (a la Apple 2008)

Technical Benifits

In their place was put an architecture specifically designed for handling intensive tasks, such as digital audio and video. The building blocks include:

*Symmetric multiprocessing - Take advantage of two, four or more processors in a single machine.

*Pervasive multithreading - Multithreading takes large tasks, such as applications, and breaks them down into a myriad of smaller tasks. Pervasive multithreading means that this approach is used throughout the BeOS, from the kernel, through the graphics and I/O systems, and through BeOS applications.

*Preemptive multitasking - The BeOS works on and rapidly switches between dozens, often hundreds, of smaller tasks. These tasks can be deployed on a single processor, providing a smooth multitasking environment, or across any number of processors in a multiprocessor system.

*64-bit journaling file system - This enables extremely large volumes and files, of terabyte size and more, enough to handle even raw uncompressed, high-resolution video and audio -- the foundation for high-quality editing systems. The Be file system goes even further, providing database capabilities allowing the storage of multiple attributes and indexes along with files.

*Object-oriented APIs - The BeOS API makes programming easy and efficient.

Why BeOS said about the individual using the personal computer?

The BeOS was a classic example of a product which had a very structured, deliberate use value which it proposed for consumers, and perhaps was too limited for mainstream adoption. Unlike other dead media, the people who were using the BeOS were in fact using it in the way in which it was constructed. Being a revisionist product, BeOS hoped to capitalize on user actions which were being misrepresented in other computer products. highly political example of something created to fulfill and ideal, not necessarily. used for that purpose.


What BeOS said about the technology at the time:

BeOS was loaded with techno-politics, some of which can still be seen today in current companies technogly platforms.

Brushes with success

almost bought by apple, but asked too much

Destroyed by wild beasts MICRO$$$ antitrust, apple not buying them

marketshare low, big bad microsoft, ect ect

references

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eMGbDJmgv0

http://oreilly.com/catalog/beosprog/book/

http://www.beatjapan.org/mirror/www.be.com/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/02/20/be_inc_sues_microsoft/

http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=%22Be+inc.%22&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=sub

http://macspeedzone.com/archive/art/con/be.shtml The above article is excerpted from Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc. by Owen W. Linzmayer, 1999, ISBN 1-886411-28-X,