BYTE.com > The Be View > 2001 > August
BeOS: The 10,000-Foot View
By Scott Hacker
August 6, 2001
(BeOS: The 10,000-Foot View
: Page 1 of 1 )
After two years of covering the finer points of BeOS for Byte.com, it recently
occurred to my editor that I had never done a "Back
to Basics" introduction to BeOS for Byte readers. This month, we're going
to stand back a bit and treat BeOS like a brand-new subject for those who have
regarded BeOS with curiosity but have never dived in head first. We'll cover
the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a BeOS user, examine the history
and current situation of Be Inc., take a 10-minute tour of the operating system,
and finish up by recommending some of the best applications, utilities, and
online resources for BeOS users.
What Is BeOS?
In a nutshell, BeOS is a modern, object-oriented operating system designed from
the ground-up to be lightweight but powerful, quick on its feet, and very easy
to use. Because it has both an elegant GUI and a bash 2.0 command-line shell,
some describe BeOS as having "The grace of the Mac, the power of UNIX."
However, BeOS is not just a UNIX variant with a borrowed kernel—it's a
fresh OS designed from a clean slate, with usability and media performance foremost
in mind. If you're interested in alternative operating systems but have become
frustrated trying to install, configure, or use Linux, you're in for a treat.
To run BeOS, you'll need:
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