OK, the truth about BeOS...

[Sewermouth]

I've read all the claims.. DSL like I* performance with a 56k modem, ease of use, video & audio processing better than the Apple G-4, and on and on..

What's the truth??? How good is beOS really and what problems can be expected with this system??

Gregg

[CMonster]

I have BeOS 5.0 - it is a micro-kernel operating system so it boots extremely fast. BeOS is also very quick about most things but only average to poor at networking speed - the most optimized 56K handled by any OS on the same machine/same modem (that I have seen)has to go to Win2000 - take a bow MS! Sorry Linux.... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

Very little hardware is actually supported by BeOS and perhaps even less desireable software is available - key word being "desireable" - office/graphics/video editing suites are avaliable at a Co$t but better stuff is available free for Linux.

[qball]

I thought BeOS was free, had a demo from MaxPC and went to install. Found out demo was winders app, how f**ing stupid is that?

http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/

Welcome to free.be.com - the place to download BeOS 5 Personal Edition free for personal, non-commercial use.


Let's review, BeOS is free for personal use, though we will give this demo that is a winders app. So if I want the OS, I have download(47meg)/pay for a CD. Why don't you just give the OS? Stupid. In today's market/tech climate, the people who control BeOS have their collective heads up their collective ****.

Oh BTW, they took the lead from microsuck, you need 512Mb hard drive space!

BeOS wants to waste my time, I want no part of it....

[CMonster]

This is more than a slight hassle but you can convert the Winapp-free BeOS into a regular BeOS system, except that SMP is not included in the free version e.g. single processor only, and a few other applications are missing. I have done this and it worked for me - that is prior to purchasing my BeOS 5.0 upgrade CD.

(Warning!! Warning!! Do this at your own risk - improper partition canges can obliterate all information on your hard disk)

Here's how:

First off you need a second hard disk:

1. boot into the Winapp-free BeOS and use the BeOS partitioning utility (included with the free BeOS) to create a BeOS partition on the second drive (note- you cannot partition a disk that is mounted by Be).

2. drag and drop your virtual "Be" drive from your Be desktop to the new partition (make sure all files are xferred)

3. find "bootman" (which is included with the free version) and install the BeOS boot loader in the MBR of the Windows drive - you will have to specify names of partitions you want to boot

4. you should now be able to reboot and load the new BeOS from the boot loader - you can also uninstall the Winapp-free BeOS.

Finally, if you like, you can create or convert a partition on the primary drive and transfer BeOS back to it (for example in the case that your primary drive is preferred because it is very fast), reload the boot loader to indicate the changes and remove the second drive.

Note: I highly recommend Partition Magic 5.0 for making canges to Windows partitions first, then you can use the BeOS partitioning utility to change the file system or create a Be partition from free space.

Additional Observation: In the time it took to do this you could have been installing Linux!

[qball]

CMonster,

your right, I'm wrong. Sorry, feel need to rage against machine...

qball been running linux since ver6, probs with ver5 (redhat).