Be Ships BeOS Preview Release to the Public

RELEASED JULY 16, 1997

For more information contact

In the U.S. and Pacific:
Alex Osadzinski, alex@be.com
+1 (650) 462-4126

In Europe:
Jean Calmon, jcalmon@beeurope.com
(33) 1 49 06 73 75

BE SHIPS BeOS PREVIEW RELEASE TO THE PUBLIC
Be announces initial distribution plans, and opens direct ordering via the Internet

MENLO PARK, Calif (July 16, 1997) -- Today, Be, Inc. announced that it has begun shipments of the first public release of the Be Operating System (BeOS(tm)), the BeOS Preview Release. Be has opened direct ordering via its Internet web site, and has announced additional channels of distribution.

Simultaneous with this announcement, Be announced agreements with leading Macintosh magazines in five countries to distribute the BeOS Preview Release with special editions during the next three months.

"With the release of the BeOS to the public, we're launching a new phase in the life of Be, and of BeOS developers.", said Jean-Louis Gassée, president and CEO of Be. "Over the next few months, our goal is to get copies of the BeOS into as many hands as possible and to begin building a market foundation for our developers. Today's announcements are the first step in that process."

BeOS Preview Release Features

The BeOS is a new operating system environment designed to meet the high-performance needs of digital content design and Internet communications, removing the limitations and complexity of the aging architectures of current mainstream operating systems. The engineering team at Be didn't start with an existing OS and transform it, they started with a concept called the Media OS (http://www.be.com/products/beos/mediaos.html) and optimized every portion of a new OS - the BeOS - for handling digital media. The BeOS is the first new operating system designed to unlock the door to much more powerful personal computers, and extract more performance from the systems we use today.

Among the new features of the BeOS Preview Release;

New Be File System. The Be File System (BFS) is a full 64-bit system, allowing the BeOS to handle files and volumes of terabyte size and larger. The BFS is fully multithreaded, allowing it to take advantage of multiple processors. It is a "journaling" system, ensuring that the file system is always in a consistent, uncorrupted state, even after power losses, and reducing system boot up time to a few seconds. Developers working with this release report performance up to ten times that of the MacOS running on similar hardware.

New Graphics Capabilities. The BeOS graphics capabilities have been vastly expanded. Among the new capabilities are anti-aliased fonts, direct and network printing support including Postscript and AppleTalk printer support, and a software-based version of the industry standard OpenGL 3D graphics libraries.

New Interapplication Services. Internet MIME type identification is used throughout the system, improving integration with Internet applications. In addition, the Preview Release introduces Be's Replicator technology, a new object messaging model which allows you to embed active pieces of data and code called replicants from one application into documents and into other applications. Replicants represent the next step in modular BeOS software.

Enhanced Internet Capabilities. The native TCP/IP capabilities of the BeOS are improved and expanded, with increased network performance, integrated FTP file server and personal web server capabilities, and mail client support, and remote access capabilities. The integrated BeOS web browser, NetPositive, is enhanced and integrates the BeOS Replicator technology. Using this, you can install active web pages onto the BeOS desktop.

New Hardware Support. The range of PowerPC-based systems capable of running the BeOS has been expanded. PowerPC 603 based systems such as PowerComputing's PowerBase, new 604 systems from Power, Apple and others, and Motorola's StarMax line are a few of the newly capable systems. In addition, the BeOS provides full true symmetric multiprocessing support for dual and quad processor systems from UMAX, Daystar and Apple.

In response to the overwhelming interest in the BeOS in Japan, Unicode support now appears throughout the system. A feature originally planned for a future release, the Preview Release utilizes the Unicode UTF-8 format (the format used by Java) within all text objects and within the font system. This support is a major step towards a fully international version of the BeOS, and further enhancements in this area will be introduced in follow on releases.

The BeOS can be installed as a dual-boot system with the MacOS, either on a separate hard drive, a partitioned hard drive, or on removable media such as a Jaz drive. This allows users to easily switch between systems. MacOS HFS disks can also be accessed from within the BeOS, allowing easy access to data.

BeOS Initial Distribution

Beginning today, customers can order the BeOS directly from Be via the Internet (US and International) or via telephone (in the US). In addition, Be is announcing several additional channels of distribution for the BeOS Preview Release;

Direct Ordering. Customers can order the BeOS Preview Release direct from the Be Web Site (http://www.be.com) The BeOS Preview Release Trial Pack, including a full, unrestricted copy of the BeOS and on-line documentation is available for $10. The BeOS Preview Release Full Pack, including printed documentation and two free future upgrades to the BeOS is available for $49. In addition to the BeOS, Metrowerks CodeWarrior for BeOS is available via the Be web site, as well as Be T-Shirts and other items.

Magazine Special Bundles. In a spearate release today, Be announced that it has agreements with a number of the largest Macintosh and PowerPC magazines in five countries to distribute the BeOS Preview Release in special issues over the next few months. A full, unrestricted version of the BeOS Preview Release will be bundled at newstands with MacUser (US), MacPower (Japan), UniversMac (France), MacUser UK (UK), and MACup (Germany).

Macworld Expo Distribution. Be also announced today its participation in the Macworld Exposition, August 6-8 in Boston, Massachusetts. At the Expo, every attendee who stops by the Be booth (World Trade Center, #5119) will receive a free copy of the BeOS Preview Release on CD, and will get a chance to see a range of applications being introduced at the show by third party developers.

Be Developer Distribution. All registered BeOS developer will receive BeOS Preview Release CDs free of charge. The CDs will be delivered directly to developers beginning today.

Be plans to announce additional channels of distribution for the BeOS, as well as country-specific channels, over the next two months. In addition, Be will be opening customer support channels via the Internet and by phone. Information on distribution and customer support can be found at Be's web site.

Complete details on the new features of the BeOS Preview Release, and a complete list of BeOS capable hardware systems, can be found at http://www.be.com/products/.

About Be
Be, Inc., founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gassée, is a software company focusing on building new foundations for the next generation of digital content and media design tools. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States and Europe, the company is dedicated to removing the limitations of existing computer architectures and delivering a new level of price performance. In 1997, Be is publishing the first public releases of the Be Operating System (BeOS ), the core product of this strategy. Additional information on Be and the BeOS is available online at http://www.be.com. Be, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.