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Haiku OS R1 Alpha 2 is here!

Discussion in 'Technical Discussion' started by Mad Echidna, May 3, 2010.

  1. Mad Echidna

    Mad Echidna

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    EDIT: IT's out!



    Haiku OS development continues to speed along thanks to renewed interest by the community, successful code bounties, and Google's awesome Google Summer of Code program. It's only been a few months since the last alpha, and A2 is already on the way!

    This is actually really cool when you consider the fact how far Haiku has come. It started out in 2001 as an Open Source BeOS clone, and up until the last Alpha, had NEVER gone through an official release. Now it has surpassed BeOS in many ways and is shaping up be a great alternative to more conventional OSs, especially on systems that are mostly used for Web apps like netbooks.


    [​IMG]
     
  2. Kurosan

    Kurosan

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    Alright, so I risk looking like a jerk here, but believe me when I say that it's not intended at all. There are questions I really need to ask:

    What, exactly, is the point of all those other OS's? What is their application, what they're intended for? I can understand using Windows as it's the most popular and compatible OS, MacOS because it's pretty popular as well despite not having as much material or users as Windows, and Linux variants because they apparently allow you to make your own stuff more easily or something and apparently it gives you the right to consider yourself an elite (frankly, that one kind of escapes as well), by why would you want to use anything even more small-time than that? How much support is there from bigger, arguably more important developers? Why would you want to use something that requires you or other people to build stuff that would otherwise be easily downloadable on other, bigger OS's? What are the creators of those smaller OS's trying to achieve, are they hoping that their OS will gain mainstream attention and become an important competitor to the big guys?

    Once again, none of those questions are meant as attacks or insults, not or even sarcasm. I'm just trying to understand the mentality behind this whole thing (and, to a degree, that includes Linux variants), and I'd like someone to try and explain that to me.
     
  3. AamirM

    AamirM

    Tech Member
    Perhaps they are making it for fun? Or want an OS that they liked back?

    I am myself pretty interested in this project because BeOS was probably the only OS I've EVER seen that seemed to had the serious potential to rival Windows in the desktop market share until shit happended to it. I don't see Linux etc... ever competing with Windows in that area.

    Btw, you use Windows just because its popular?
     
  4. Kurosan

    Kurosan

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    Hell no, I hate the concept of using or liking something just because it's popular or 'in' at the moment. By 'popular', I was literally talking about population; more people use Windows, therefore more people and companies are interested in developing for it, and thus there's more support for it (such as games and drivers, for example), which in turn makes it more useful. Kind of a rule of thumb.
     
  5. Nibble

    Nibble

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    Not all alternative operating systems have the goal of competing with Windows. It's certainly a desirable goal since more users is a good thing, but some OSes just serve a certain niche. Or perhaps it serves as research into alternative design.

    In the case of BeOS/Haiku, its main selling points lie in its architecture and how it was built from the ground up to be used on the desktop and not anything else. The result is that it's often incredibly responsive and takes great advantage of hardware, even if it's old hardware from the original BeOS days. In a lot of ways it was really ahead of its time.

    People often want to compare every alternative OS to Windows when the designers and developers may not have intended for it. The Haiku people, far as I can tell, don't want to compete with Microsoft. They just want to revive BeOS and introduce it to the modern world.
     
  6. Kurosan

    Kurosan

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    So, if I get you right, you're saying that the creators of Haiku don't intend for their OS to compete directly with Windows; they simply want an alternative that functions differently, possibly sacrificing non-desktop uses to instead focus on optimizing its use on desktops? Of course, I assume there's also a sense of accomplishment involved, since building an OS is a pretty big project.
     
  7. Nibble

    Nibble

    Oldbie
    That's my understanding. Haiku was started mainly by previous fans of BeOS who wanted to continue it after the company went under.

    In any case, it's really easy to get into the mentality of "this OS vs. the other", when the reality is that every OS is different in some or many ways. And you certainly don't have to stick with just one, hence why dual-booting exists. For myself, I'm just interested in seeing what's out there. My main OS has always been Windows, but I still like experimenting with others just to see what it's like—to get a different perspective.
     
  8. Kurosan

    Kurosan

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    People always feel the need to compare things, it's natural. If a company were to release a touchscreen phone tomorrow, it would immediately be compared to the iPhone. I see what you mean though, it's not meant to be compared since Haiku's goal is a different one.

    I think I'll wait until that second Alpha is released, then give it a try for curiosity's sake. I'm just hoping that not too many command lines need to be entered all the time, it's something that would turn me off.
     
  9. Mad Echidna

    Mad Echidna

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    You shouldn't need the command line for anything. That's the whole point. Haiku is designed from the ground up to be a simple desktop os. Linux is not, Gnu/Linux is a general purpose hodge podge of random shit bolted together to resemble an desktop OS.

    Also, please don't assume everyone has the same computing needs as you. I personally don't use my computer for games, in fact I rarely use my xbox for games either. And I'm not the only one. Most people these days use their computers primarily for web browsing and stuff like that. That's who Haiku is useful for.

    If you don't get why you want it, then you don't get why you want it, I don't know what else to tell you. I find other operating systems interesting for the same reason some people found combustion engines interesting during the steam age.

    Also, as far as your mass of questions go, it seems to pretty much boil down to one question: "why bother, the PC market is locked in with one major os and a couple also rans". WE bother because we can. That's like asking why people bother making their own fly fishing lures instead of just buying what everyone else buys. We don't require world domination for it to be worthwhile, the hobby os experience is purely masturbatory.
     
  10. Kurosan

    Kurosan

    Samurai of Gaming Oldbie
    I wonder why I even bothered making sure it was understood that I wanted answers to legitimate questions as opposed to butthurt retorts and assumptions as if I had been slinging shit around. Next time, I'll just make sure I don't try and learn more about another group's mentality.
     
  11. Mad Echidna

    Mad Echidna

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    Uh what
     
  12. Conan Kudo

    Conan Kudo

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    And Haiku (as well as BeOS before it) is intended for multimedia. BeOS was designed to be good for gaming, video and audio production, etc. POSIX compatibility was built into BeOS to make it easier to develop for, rather than inventing their own system like Microsoft did for Windows.

    With the current state of Haiku drivers, the intention is basically academic. There is no way you could run a sufficiently modern game on it without problems.

    Many of the Haiku devs loved the design of BeOS. When Be, Inc. started having troubles, this project among many others was conceived to keep the architecture alive.

    It is hoped that Haiku will eventually become good enough to replace Windows, Linux, and Mac as the go-to Multimedia workstation system OS, while remaining light enough for netbooks to use it effectively. Hence, being more "general purpose" than the original BeOS.
     
  13. Mad Echidna

    Mad Echidna

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    It's out!
     
  14. Chilly Willy

    Chilly Willy

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    Yay! Alpha 1 was pretty awesome... I'm gonna have to go get Alpha 2 now! :)