Editorial: Homogeneity and the Level Playing Field

Recent Antitrust actions may serve to level the playing field in the OS market, providing the opportunity for superior technologies to be judged according to their merit. Assuming Hardware vendors and ISVs take advantage of this open "window," the consumer will benefit greatly. Determining which OS a manufacturer should port their products to is a key decision, which requires a valid evaluation process - not just listening solely to what popular media says is hot.

Judge Jackson has given his Findings of Fact and Microsoft now has a stigma that will not be going away anytime in the near future (or so we have been told by each and every technology oriented article that has been published recently). Overly aggressive business tactics will no longer be the norm at Redmond, as the company attempts find ways to change its focus before it is too late. The resulting freedom to break from their non-beneficial relationships with the software giant allows vendors to make decisions based upon what would be best for their own products, so long as malcontent developers take advantage of the position that they now find themselves in. Rather than porting products to what seems to be a Windows killer, the opportunity presents itself to finally make a break with the past.

BeOS is the greatest potential threat to the consumer base of Windows. It is extremely fast, stable, easy to install, and pleasingly different. Most importantly, Be Incorporated has made a clear break with the past, which is something that has been needed for a long time.

While Linux and the meritorious open source movement continue to raise eyebrows (including my own), Linux is still best suited as a server and has far too many vendors to garner significant market share. OpenBSD and FreeBSD may also be future rivals to Linux, resulting in too much of fragmentation within the developer community and not enough focus to overtake Microsoft. Both Corel and Red Hat have made significant inroads toward end users, but only time will tell which of the many Linux vendors will win out (the ability to customize is good but most end users do not care about how it works, just that it works). Also, which components such as graphical shells will become uniform is a nagging concern. Many end-users require consistency, albeit the platform they are using must be satisfactory or god forbid, even work properly.

BeOS certainly works properly and is perhaps the finest consumer OS available today. All that is needed is steady support from hardware and software manufacturers to make Be's transition into the Intel Platform as smooth and successful as possible. Having a clean start on an OS which has no where to go but up will prove to be a huge advantage in the long run, especially if one grabs the flag and runs away with it before the competition does. Also, nothing is gained by becoming complacent and not taking any risks except an uncertain future and missed opportunity. BeOS's short boot time (20 seconds), extremely fast64-bit file system (faster than ANY other OS), and stability make it an ideal platform for developers. Being built from the ground up for Internet use,media and gaming make BeOS the ideal platform for the late 1990's and beyond. Whether it be installed by OEMs, bundled with games to provide for superior performance, or embedded in devices, BeOS is the clear choice as the successor to Windows 9.x.