What's Be?

In 1990, Jean-Louis Gassée, former president of Apple's product division, formed Be, Inc. to address the problems involved with older computer operating systems head-on -- to step beyond the evolutionary approach to personal computing architectures. To see what could be accomplished if you built a personal computer using new assumptions, based on cutting-edge software design concepts, and designed for the next decade's applications, rather than the last decade's. The result is an operating system with a new level of price-performance and a dramatic reduction in the complexity of software development.

Read more about the philosophy behind Be's formation and product development, read the Media OS white paper.

What is the BeOS?

The BeOS is, quite simply, an operating system. An operating system provides programmers with a means of performing input and output to and from the hardware of a computer. For instance, an operating system helps applications display information on the screen, and tells applications where the user clicked the mouse. Computers can often run several different operating systems; Intel-based PCs can run Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows NT, for instance, while Power Macintosh hardware could only run the Mac OS. Now users of either hardware platform have an additional choice: the BeOS. The BeOS is also particularly well-suited to digital media creation.

What are the main features of the BeOS?

For an in-depth look at the features of the BeOS, see the Products section of the web site. Here's a brief summary of the features:

• A True Preemptive Multitasking, Pervasively Multithreaded Operating System. The BeOS is a heavily threaded system, and the application model is designed to divide an application into multiple threads even if the programmer doesn't explicitly do so. This increases the efficiency and performance of applications and of low-level OS operations, allowing developers to structure their applications for simplicity and performance without worrying about arbitrary architectural limits.

• Symmetric Multiprocessing. The most efficient way to take advantage of multiple processors is to allow threads to move from one processor to another depending on system load -- a process called symmetric multiprocessing. The result is significantly greater parallelism on multiprocessor systems, and significantly higher overall performance throughout.

• An Object-Oriented Design. The BeOS application programming interface (API) is object-oriented, rather than the procedural API common in other mainstream OS architectures. The result is faster time to market for new applications, and faster revisions to existing applications over time.

• A Design for Real-Time Media and Communications. The architecture of the BeOS is optimized for dealing with real-time, high-bandwidth data types such as audio and video, and for handling a wide array of communications capabilities.

• Simplicity. Throughout the BeOS, there has been a heavy emphasis on delivering simple, elegant solutions to programming problems. The attention to simplicity within the BeOS stems from an underlying belief that software programmers are most effective and efficient when each one can understand the entire OS model.

What machines does the BeOS run on?

The BeOS Release 3 makes the BeOS available on both Intel-based hardware (Pentium and up) and PowerPC-based hardware (603 and 604 PCI-based systems).

Initial support for the extremely wide range of hardware available in the Intel architecture market is limited. While we will expand our hardware support in future releases, before buying, make sure you have supported hardware, by visiting the BeOS Ready Systems list.

Where can I get the BeOS?

In addition to reaching out to a new hardware platform, this release incorporates many new features, bug fixes, and design enhancements. To get BeOS Release 3, for either hardware platform, see the BeOS Now! page.

Where can I learn more?

For more Q & A style information, check the FAQ area of the Support section; all sorts of questions are answered there. We definitely try to put all of the information we possibly can onto the web site, and we encourage you to spend some time browsing the entire site -- there are several hundred pages to explore!

The site is organized into several main sections:

• About Be: This section contains information about Be Inc.'s overall goals and strategy, how to contact us, employment opportunities, information for the press, links to press articles about Be, information about Be's electronic mailing lists, and the complete back issues of the weekly Be Newsletter.

• Products: Detailed information about The BeOS, including specific features of the BeOS, a tour of the BeOS in action (with screenshots), a white paper on why the BeOS is a true Media OS, and a chart of BeOS-compatible computers. Links to applications which can make your Mac look like it's running the BeOS are available here too.

• BeWare: BeOS-compatible software, organized into categories. Links to downloading much of this software are available here. BeWare Highlights provide an in-depth look at specific applications, while the BeWare Gem of the Week notes applications that tickle our fancy, a new one every week.

• Purchase: Here's where Be t-shirts, CodeWarrior for BeOS, and the BeOS Release 3 can be purchased. Both secure and non-secure servers are available. We also have the Be Bookstore, books we recommend to our users and developers.

• Developers: Developers can learn about the Be Developer Program, learn more about the advantages the BeOS holds for developers, sign up for the Be Developer Program on-line, and enter the Registered Developer Area once they're confirmed.

  Extensive technical information about the BeOS is also available in the Developers section. The complete BeOS API (instructions for programming the BeOS) is available here for free. The Developer Library includes tutorials, articles, and sample C++ code, all categorized by topic. We have guidelines for uploading to the FTP site so that software developers can distribute their software through BeWare. Bug reports can be submitted, and previously submitted bugs can also be reviewed on-line.

• Users: BeOS users will find a plethora of useful information about using the BeOS. We write weekly Tip of the Week and IconWorld stories, which give you hints and tips for using the BeOS and an icon-by-icon description of the BeOS system software, respectively. Registered BeOS users can log into the Registered Users section of the site, with special resources for Be's customers.

• Be User Groups: Be has dozens of user groups located all over the world, and information about them can be found here on the web site. Instructions on how to create a new Be User Group are also available here, as well as the BUG Resources that can help a BUG tell the world about the BeOS. Links to Be-related web sites can be found here too.

• Events: Be holds demonstrations of the BeOS all over the world; information about when and where these demos are held can be found in the Events section. Special demonstrations are also held every Friday at 3pm at Be's Menlo Park offices; information about signing up for them can be found here too.

• Support: If you're having problems with the BeOS on your computer, the Support section is the place to go for help. We answer as many questions as we possibly can here. Updates to the current BeOS release can be found in the Support section as well as complete documentation for the BeOS. Answers to other frequently asked questions are also in the Support section; it's the best place to go for miscellaneous bits of information about Be.

For more information about Be or the BeOS, we invite you to delve into our web site. If have specific questions about Be and can't find the answers in the general areas of the site, check the Support section -- it really does have answers to the vast majority of the questions we've received over the years. If the Support section doesn't have what you're looking for, please e-mail us; we'd be happy to answer your questions.