BeOS Gaining Ground

Part 6: The Future of BeOS

I may have sounded a bit harsh when talking about some of BeOS' shortcomings, but please keep in mind that this is an unfinished product! "Release 3" should not be thought of "version 3.0" of a product. It takes a lot of work to build a new operating system from scratch, and Be is trying to get it right from the start. Trying to match all the features (and add new ones) that you find in MacOS and Windows over the years does take time, and R4 will include many new features.

The R4 release of BeOS is currently scheduled for release late this fall. They plan to show it at the COMDEX show (and Be is offering free passes from their web site), and ship to customers in early December. In it you can expect to see plug-ins for working with FAT 16 and 32 file systems so you can have full access to Windows volumes that may be installed. One of the big parts of R4 will be the new media kit. Once this is in place, you can expect to see more support for the wide variety of soundcards available for PCs, as well as more built-in support for video input and output. USB support should also make it way into this release. But the most significant feature in R4 may be speed. The new Intel release will be more optimized, plus the new development tools are expected to produce much more efficient programs. If BeOS feels fast to you now, R4 should be a blast.

Looking towards to Release 5, you will see NTFS file system (Windows NT) support, and a way to access your BeOS partitions from Windows. Additional media file formats and codecs should be included as well. R5 will also increase the level of portable computer support and offer OpenGL® hardware acceleration. The R5 target date is pretty fuzzy right now, but hopefully Q2 or Q3 of 1999.

Imagine Building A New OS Ever wish you could help design the ultimate operating system for music? Then consider joining the OS:Imagine project - an attempt to build a new Intel-based operating system with multimedia tightly integrated into it. Some progress has already been made. It's currently text based only, but it does have a working file system, pseudo 64-bit memory and disk management, and command interpreter. Once the core is set, work on the GUI will begin. Needless to say, there is still plenty of work left to be done, and room for many features to be added. If you'd like to participate, you can volunteer some time and sign up on the project's web site at http://telipoint.hypermart.net/. The web site has not been kept fully up to date, and was down at press time, but work is still being done.

If you're interested in trying BeOS, you should check Be's web site for their list of supported hardware. If your precise hardware isn't listed, there is still a chance you can run BeOS if the machine is a small variation of a supported machine, as was my case. I suggest going to the BeOS for Intel x86 Compatibility Page and DejaNews to search the comp.sys.be* newsgroups to find out if your machine will work.

I wouldn't recommend going out and getting BeOS so you can dump Windows or MacOS just yet. It's not quite ready for the masses and although more and more apps are appearing, you'll probably need to dual boot for a while to do everything you're doing now. You can also expect certain applications that run fine on one release not to function when you upgrade to the next release. The current BeOS user base consists mostly of the "geek persuasion" as Be's CEO put it, but that is gradually changing. If you love playing with new technology, consider yourself a geek, and can tolerate the occasional bug, or if you're a developer, check it out. If you have an Intel-based PC, it won't cost you much to try it out at all.

BeOS has come a long way, but there's still a lot of work to be done. I know for a fact that a number of people in the music industry are interested in BeOS and what it can do. If Be plays their cards right, I think the future will be bright indeed.

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