The economy would dramatically change if Google picked up Haiku and made it the GoogleOS.

[originalpckelly]

Haiku is the open source version of BeOS, and operating system created in the early '90s by Be Incorporated, a now defunct company once headed by Jean-Louis Gassée a former Apple (Computers) Inc. executive.

BeOS is a zen filled operating system, and six years ago it was my life. You see Be Inc. released BeOS R5 to the public for free, believing that they would be able to continue working on an internet appliance operating system, used in the Sony eVilla IA and other IA designs. Unfortunately, the business gamble didn't work out and Be's only other product, BeOS, stopped selling well because they'd released the free version. Be went bankrupt. Be and its intellectual property was purchased by Palm Inc.

The BeOS community was left stunned by this turn of events, but it managed to survive for several years off of R5.

However, that simply wasn't enough for many of BeOS's power users who wanted their favorite operating system to live on into the future. Several open source projects were created to reproduce BeOS with code not owned by Palm, so that it could be developed and updated regularly and never again would the fate of their favorite OS depend upon the survival of one company.

Haiku was one of the various open source projects, and to date it has been the most successful at re-doing BeOS. It's name comes from the clever little error messages in BeOS's web browser "NetPositive".

Just recently Haiku's development team introduced the OS in a Google "Tech Talk", a series of lectures held by Google to explore technology (surprise. :-))

I wonder if Google will select Haiku for it's Google OS (something that has been rumored to be an interest of Google.) They already use something nick-named Goobuntu, it's a version of the open source Linux distribution Ubuntu.

But of course, BeOS (and now Haiku) unlike any version of Linux is SUPER EASY TO USE AND EFFICIENT! It's so easy, it is so uncomplicated, it is the anti-Windows even more so than Mac OS X is.

I know this may not seem like something we'd usually discuss here, but if this were to happen it would have some very important consequences for society. People would waste less time with computers, and there would be less frustration.

It would also make it cheaper to buy a computer, for everyone, not just those courageous souls willing to try an *nix flavor.

Here's the Google Tech Talk video of this OS:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=236331448076587879

Here are some photos from Haiku:
http://haiku-os.org/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=1288

[Deja Q]

1. I tried beOS back in the day...

Exceptional with multitasking... that and other factors made it much better than Linux... but hardware support and compatibility was horribly limited.
:(

[originalpckelly]

3. Yes, it was, but it was so fast and so wonderful!

:loveya: I miss my BeOS!

[The Sushi Bandit]

2. I Live in Haiku (Maui) and Google cant have us!!

Keep your OS on the mainland!!!

[originalpckelly]

4. ...

:spank: :spray:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Then there are those who advocate for...

AmigaOS.

Which Gassee' openly admitted was the model for BeOS, so much so, he tried to hire Dave Haynie and a lot of other Commodore Amiga vets. Trouble was, Gassee' being Gassee', he didn't want to pay them what they made. Besides, as far as running a business was concerned, Gassee' left a lot to be desired. But he sure could sustain a burn rate.

And yes, I do know what I am talking about. I watched it all happen. Some of those vets are good, long-time friends.

[Redstone]

6. Looks interesting. But if it can't run Photoshop, Quark, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver,

It's frankly of zero use to me. Too bad, because as I said it looks interesting.

Redstonee

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Thanks for the news updates! I wondered if BeOS had disappeared for good.

I got to see BeOS demoed by Gassé himself at Carnegie-Mellon. I didn't have the bux to buy a Be Box, so I never played with it much, and not being a programmer, wasn't curious enough about it to be an early adopter. But I was kind of sad to see what looked like a well-designed product sink beneath the waves.

I'll take a look at Haiku, in my copious free time.:)