Be, Inc. Delivers as Promised
Be, Inc. has made good on its promise to deliver the high-power digital media operating system BeOS 5.0 to consumers free of charge. Menlo Park, CA was buzzing this morning when Be, Inc. made the operating system available for download from its Web site, be.com. Tagging along with the operating system is the developers kit and a library of programs at no extra cost.
BeOS 5.0 Personal Edition, which is available at no cost from Be, Inc., has a unique feature which allows it to run from within the Windows Operating system as a regular file. Upon executing the application, it reboots your system and runs BeOS from within a completely enclosed file on your hard drive.
This feature avoids the necessity to repartition your hard drive, making it easy for beginning computer users to install and run the Be operating system. Uninstalling the system is as easy as tossing the file into the recycle bin on your desktop.
Be, Inc. boasted that BeOS is "renowned for its rich media handling capabilities and [5.0 Personal Edition is] ideal for first-time or casual users" as they announced its availability over the Web.
Commenting on the exciting release, Jean-Louis Gassée, CEO for Be, Inc., told reporters "The launch of BeOS 5 marks an exciting change for Be, This is the first time an operating system as complete, as robust and as easy to install and use as BeOS 5 has been made available at no charge to the general public. We have also published much of our 'look and feel' code using an open source model to make our environment more accessible to programmers."
Since the announcment from Be that the up-and-coming operating system would be available for free, more than 100,000 users have pre-registered to recieve the system. Just 10 years old, Be, Inc. has quickly become known for its operating system, and its rich multimedia editing and content creation capabilities.
Further expanding on those features, BeOS 5.0 adds a MIDI kit, an audio player which can be integrated into the Web browser, and extended enhancements to streaming media resources.
View the BeOS 5 Latest Release Features for a full list of the enhancements and added featuers to BeOS.
A Pro Edition of the software, coupled with added codecs (Cinepak, Indeo 5, raw audio, P-JPEG, and MP3), 26 applications and further added applications by third parties; and the ability to install it on Intel-based and PowerPC computers, gives BeOS Pro Edition enough advantages to warrant its purchase from third party vendors including Hitachi and Gobe Software.
The source codes to the popular Be interface dubbed Tracker, and Deskbar (the taskbar), have also been made available from Be.
"We are offering an extremely open and lenient license for our open source code to provide the freedom for anyone to take this C++ code and use it to better benefit their development efforts, however they see fit."
The SDK for Tracker can be found at opentracker.org, and the SDK for Deskbar can be found at opendeskbar.org.
Pricing and availability is the responsibility of these third parties, and you can contact the following BeOS 5.0 distributors for more informatin:
- Gobe Software of Portland, Oregon
- Asia will be handled by Hitachi
- Europe Apacabar (for distribution in France, Benelux, Spain and Italy) and Koch (for distribution in the United Kingdom, Germany,
Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe
Steve Sakoman, Be's Cheif Operating Officer told reporters, "Giving away BeOS 5 Personal Edition, is a sure way to spread the use of our technology, but we also wanted a partner who could aggressively market the enhanced Pro
Edition with a passion for quality and support. Our partner of choice for the Americas is Gobe Software," as they announced the Pro Edition on sale for $69.95 USD from Gobe Software.
Read more about BeOS 5.0 from BetaNews, and visit free.be.com to download a copy. The Linux and Windows versions are available at FileForum. Before downloading, check your system readiness with this hardware compatibility list, and view the readme file for important information.