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You can download a free "personal" copy of BeOS, but I suggest buying the full version.
   technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Be operating system, Part 1: Fascinating alternative to Windows



Be operating system, Part 2: Multitasking like you've never seen before

July 9, 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Alternatives to Windows seem to be popping up like summer flowers. The latest I've tried is the Be operating system, or "BeOS," and I'm very impressed.
   All computers need an operating system, the software that runs behind the scenes to support all the activities of a computer. (Think of the operating system as the computer equivalent of a building's plumbing, heating, air conditioning and security systems and you'll get the idea.)
   If your computer has enough storage space, you can install the Be operating system without getting rid of Windows or any of the files or programs you use under Windows. In other words, BeOS can coexist alongside Windows, the same way Linux can. To switch from one operating system to another, you restart the computer and choose from a menu.
   You can even try out BeOS for free. I'll tell you how in a minute.
   The Be operating system was developed in the early 1990s. One of the top executives at Apple Computer Corp., Jean-Louis Gassée, left Apple and founded Be Inc. in 1990. His goal was to make a computer that would be faster, more powerful and easier to use than either a Mac or a Windows PC.
   That computer, the BeBox, got rave reviews. But the potential market for such a radical computer was small, so Be began selling the Be operating system software without the BeBox hardware.
   The current version of BeOS runs on both PCs and Macintoshes. The PC can be any modern Pentium-class PC (not a 486 or earlier design), and the Mac can be any recent non-G3 and non-G4 PowerMac. (Apple won't disclose the inner workings of the G3 and G4 models, and this has kept Be from getting BeOS to work on those systems.)
   There are two separate versions of BeOS, a free version that runs only on PCs and a "pro" version costing $70 that runs on PCs and PowerMacs. I recommend the Pro version because it comes with extra software, but the free version is fun to try out.
   The free version, BeOS Personal, installs on a PC without the need for any special disk changes -- basically, it ends up being one gigantic file on your hard drive -- and the Pro version installs on a separate area of your current drive or on a separate drive. You'll find everything much easier if you have a second hard drive you can put BeOS Pro on.
   Go to www.be.com to find out how to download the free version. It's a big file, so set aside a lot of download time if you don't have a high-speed connection. The Be site also has a link to an online ordering system for the Pro version.
   I installed BeOS Professional, version 5.0. It installed quickly on my test PC, which has an AMD K6 processor running at 233 Mhz. Everything about this PC seems old and slow by today's standards (it has "only" 96 megabytes of memory and "only" 5 gigabytes of storage space), but that also makes it ideal for testing.
   BeOS failed to get my sound card (a Sound Blaster AWE 32) working right, but a free driver I found at BeBits (at www.bebits.com) fixed that. I wasn't able to get the PC's SCSI card working under BeOS -- something I found odd because the SCSI card works fine under Windows and Linux -- but that was the only other problem I had.
   The Be operating system worked perfectly with my PC's ATI All-in-Wonder Pro graphics card, but the regular BeOS driver did not activate the special features of the card (its TV tuner and video-recording capabilities). Using the BeBits site again, I found a free ATI TV tuner made for the All-in-Wonder Pro cards. The ATI tuner worked better under BeOS than it did under Windows or Linux. (Under Windows 2000, it didn't work at all, in fact.)
   The first time I rebooted BeOS I discovered one of the biggest differences between BeOS and Windows. My PC rebooted and was ready to work in about 15 seconds. Windows takes a minute or two.
   There were other surprises, too. We'll get to them next week.