Be Inc., 2000. Independent.
BeOS was the operating system of Be Inc., the company of former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée. It was designed as a “media OS”, with multitasking, multithreading and support for multiple processors. The first version shipped with Be’s own BeBox computer to a limited number of developers in October 1995. BeOS later ran on PowerPC Macintosh computers, and Release 3, in March 1998, was the first for Intel x86 PCs.
Apple hoped to replace its aging Mac OS, and in 1996 it negotiated to buy Be Inc. The talks stalled when Gassée asked for US$300 million and Apple offered US$125 million. Apple bought Steve Jobs’s NeXT instead.
Release 5, from 2000, came as a Pro Edition and a free Personal Edition that could be started from within Windows or Linux, and Be released parts of the user interface as open source. BeOS still didn’t sell well. Be turned to BeIA, a version for Internet appliances, and sold its assets to Palm in 2001, which made Release 5 the last official BeOS. Enthusiasts carry it on in Haiku, an open-source system that aims to stay compatible with BeOS 5.
When this exhibit starts, BeOS reports that DHCP lost the lease on its network interface. Press Enter to close the alert and reach the desktop.