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For more information, contact: A&R Partners for Be, Incorporated Elizabeth Conrady, 650/762-2815 econrady@arpartners.com In Europe: Be Incorporated Marie-Francoise Lelong-Weinberg, +33 (0)1 55 91 77 36 mflelong@beeurope.com Be Delivers New Personal and Pro Editions of BeOS 5 No-cost Downloadable Version of Powerhouse Media OS Removes "Barrier of Choice" for Programmers and Users MENLO PARK, Calif. - March 28, 2000- Be Incorporated (Nasdaq: BEOS) today announced the availability of the latest release of its highly-acclaimed digital media operating system, BeOS 5. The Personal Edition of the operating system, renowned for its rich media handling capabilities and ideal for first-time or casual users, is now available at no charge, via the web at http://free.be.com. Additionally, BeOS 5 Pro Edition, a fully-featured version designed for audio and video applications, has also been made available to third-party publishers in North and South America, Asia, and soon to follow, Europe. With the new release, Be is offering a programmers development kit (BeIDE, or Be Integrated Development Environment) and a library of demonstration applications at no charge. These development tools aid software developers in bringing their products to market faster. Additionally, Be is opening access to its desktop, known as Tracker, and its taskbar, known as Deskbar, by publishing a software developers kit (SDK) along with the source code. Since Be announced in January that it would make a version of BeOS available at no charge via the web, more than 100,000 users have pre-registered for the download, demonstrating increased interest and demand in experiencing the power, flexibility and robust media handling capabilities of BeOS. The interest comes from three user communities: professionals using Be to manage the creation and editing of audio and video content; new and casual users who enjoy the richness and ease-of-use of BeOS; and programmers who want to adapt and personalize the user experience of BeOS' powerful desktop. "The launch of BeOS 5 marks an exciting change for Be," said Jean-Louis Gassée, chairman and chief executive officer of Be. "This is the first time an operating system as complete, as robust and as easy to install and use as BeOS 5 has been made available at no charge to the general public. We have also published much of our 'look and feel' code using an open source model to make our environment more accessible to programmers." At No Charge and Without Risk - BeOS 5 Personal Edition For the first time, BeOS 5 Personal Edition takes advantage of a remarkable operating system installation procedure that makes no alteration or modification to the boot drive. While other operating systems typically require a repartitioning of a disk drive to make room for the new OS, BeOS 5 Personal Edition simply resides on the disk as a single file. This single file can be moved or deleted like any Windows file, but when it is double clicked, it switches control from Windows to BeOS. As a result, the new or casual user will find the installation process is no more difficult and no riskier than installing a typical Windows application. BeOS 5 Personal Edition is compatible with Intel-based PCs and includes HTML-based documentation. BeOS 5 Personal Edition General Features (partial list) BeOS 5 Personal Edition handles an ever increasing number of IDE and SCSI drives as well as broader PCMCIA and USB support, including digital camera and IEEE 1394 FireWire video support. BeOS can read virtually every major audio and video format as well as produce output that can be processed by most popular applications and devices. Dial-up and LAN-based TCP/IP networking is available and the OS comes with an Internet browser, an ftp and telnet server, and AppleTalk support. BeOS 5 Personal Edition Special Features (partial list) The usability of BeOS 5 has been enhanced to include an improved 'find' panel, spring loaded folders that aid in traversing the desktop and lists of recent applications and documents. Audio support has been streamlined to be the fastest in the industry. There is a new MIDI Kit that allows USB and application-to-application MIDI support. Besides support for MP3, there is a new media player that can be integrated into the web browser for better playing of streaming media. The Multimedia Professional's OS - BeOS 5 Pro Edition Be has created relationships with four third- party publishers who will add value, market and distribute BeOS 5 Pro Edition. The Americas will be supported by Gobe Software of Portland, Oregon, a long-time Be partner. Asia will be handled by Hitachi, who also has a long history with Be. In Europe, Be anticipates working with Apacabar (for distribution in France, Benelux, Spain and Italy) and Koch (for distribution in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe). These publishers will be responsible for all pricing and packaging as well as physical and electronic distribution into retail and other channels. Bundling additional third-party applications and licensing with OEMs and ISVs, technical support and customer services will also be handled by Be's channel partners. BeOS 5 Pro Edition Special Features (Partial List) The professional features of BeOS 5 Pro Edition allow it to be installed on both Intel- and Power PC-based machines and has the ability to handle terabytes of data. Among the list of popular audio and video codecs include new encoding support for Cinepak, Indeo 5, raw audio, P-JPEG, and MP3. This coupled with a CD Burner (x86 only) gives BeOS the distinction of having a virtual "jukebox" built into the OS. Twenty six applications, many of which are multimedia oriented, are bundled with BeOS 5 Pro Edition by Be and the third- party publishers may add their own as well. Open Source and Free Developer Kit for the Development Community Demonstrating its strong commitment to supporting the development community, Be has placed the source code for its desktop user interface in a site for access by any developer. The move to provide support for the Open Source movement is designed to increase development and integration of key applications on BeOS. The Tracker SDK (desktop) and the Deskbar SDK (taskbar) can be found at the download sites http://opentracker.org and http://opendeskbar.org, respectively. In addition to the open source, Be is publishing a developer's kit that includes the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and a rich developer library consisting of make file scripts, compilers, package builders, sample code and documentation. Availability and Pricing BeOS 5 Personal Edition, the BeOS Developer Kit and demonstration application packages are available at no charge from http://free.be.com as well as dozens of mirror sites throughout the world. BeOS 5 Pro Edition will be available in the Americas through Gobe Software, in Asia via Hitachi, and should be available in Europe through Apacabar, and Koch. Each publisher will price BeOS 5 Pro Edition independently and based on other bundled components[FCB1]. Publishers are also responsible for setting the upgrade policy for existing BeOS users in their territory. About Be Incorporated Founded in 1990, Be Incorporated creates software platforms that enable rich media and web experiences on personal computers and Internet appliances. Be's headquarters are in Menlo Park, California, with offices in Paris and Tokyo. It is publicly traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol BEOS. Be can be found on the Web at http://www.be.com. ### Be Incorporated Forward-Looking Statements The statements contained in this Press Release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" including without limitation statements regarding plans for product development and release, future availability and performance of BeOS and third party devices and applications, market penetration and market acceptance of BeOS and the benefit of BeOS to publishers and end users. Actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks facing Be Incorporated or actual results differing from the assumptions underlying such statements. Such risks and assumptions include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties related to product development, the competition and market acceptance of BeOS and our ability to meet publisher and end user customer requirements and establish relationships with such publishers. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the "Risk Factors" and other cautionary statements included in Be Incorporated's prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 on July 20, 1999 (Commission File No. 333-77855), and other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Be and BeOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Be Incorporated in the United States and other countries. Other brand product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. All rights reserved.

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