OSUser: BeOS Journal #12 - BeOS, Meet the Public

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BeOS Journal #12: BeOS, Meet the Public Scot Hacker, ZDNet 07/15/97 For a long time, it's been difficult to write about the BeOS from an end user's perspective, because all releases have been aimed at developers. Most of the OS' innovations were technical in nature, and largely invisible. Now, after months of anticipation, it's finally happened: The first version of the BeOS to be offered to the general public has been released, and it looks like it has been more than worth the wait. This is not, however, a 1.0 release; it's a Preview Release (not to be confused with the Advanced Access Preview Release, which I wrote about last month). And, like any other preview release, this version of the operating system has its share of bugs and rough spots. Still, there's no question that this is the most polished and stable version of the BeOS yet. Of course, the goal of all this OS evolution has to be a great user experience, and the BeOS is finally rounding the corner from being a developers' dream to being a users' dream. We're not all the way around the corner just yet, but we can see more easily what the future holds. Just because this system is aimed at "bit-flingers" such as programmers on the lunatic fringe and multimedia designers with visions bigger than their current operating systems will allow doesn't mean that the system can't also rock for the average user. Installing the Preview Release is simple and painless. The first step is to install the boot ROM so that the hardware will talk to the OS properly, which is a simple matter of dragging a file supplied by Be onto the ROMUpdater applet and rebooting with the install CD-ROM in its drive. As the system reboots, hold down the left Shift key to invoke a menu of boot options, and choose to boot from the CD-ROM. The install routine pops up and offers options such as whether to install clean (destroying all existing data on the disk or partition you're using for the BeOS) and whether to install optional data such as images, movies, and GNU source code. Since I like clean systems and had already backed up my personal data to a Zip disk, I opted for a clean install with all the options. Copying the entire system to my hard disk took less than ten minutes. When the system rebooted, I was up and running and ready to start playing around. Compare that with the headaches I recently had while installing NT several times in as many days (suffice it to say that Bufferin didn't help) or my ongoing attempts to make Linux happy on my x86 machine, and the elegance of a brilliantly designed, well-thought-out OS with no baggage to support starts to really make sense. This is the way it ought to be. I've described the OS and its UI in quite a bit of detail in previous Journal entries, so I won't go into a lot of detail about that here, but there are tons of substantial improvements to the OS and UI in the Preview Release, notably to the file system, graphics and interapplication services, Internet capabilities, and hardware support. You can read in detail about improvements in Be's online documentation, but I'll go over a few enhancements I noticed right off the bat. The PoorMan built-in Web server and BeMail e-mail applications are back, after having gone missing in the Advanced Access Preview Release. BeMail installs itself as a small icon in the TrackBar, alongside the system clock. A single click pulls up new mail, and a right-click conveniently brings up a menu offering New Mail, Read, Sent, Queued, and Get/Send options. This is an elegant design that acknowledges the importance of e-mail in our lives. Very nice. Replicant technology is now fully functional. What took Microsoft years to develop was allegedly a simple matter of adding nine lines of code to BeOS. To quote Be's description, Replicant technology allows "objects within applications to be 'dehydrated' into a storage container, then rehydrated later within any context. This means that objects, views, and other elements of one application can be shared with another application -- code and all." Grab the small Replicant icon at the lower left of a NetPositive window, and bingo, you've got a Web page embedded in your desktop (see screenshot of a search engine embedded in the desktop). Java is now enabled in the operating system but is not yet supported in NetPositive, so nonprogrammers can't really test it out yet. But since Netscape has already announced a 100-percent Pure Java version of Communicator, Be doesn't need to look for a Netscape port (although a native version sure would hum!). NetPositive, however, continues to improve in performance and functionality. Cached pages load lightning-fast -- much faster than in Communicator or Explorer on other platforms. And the app itself, which used to load rather slowly, is now ready to go in the blink of an eye. The new 64-bit file system can handle files of up to 256 terabytes (today's 32-bit file systems are limited to files with a maximum size of 4 GB). That may not sound like a lot to the average user, but when you remember that this is a MediaOS, designed to do the work of a Sun SPARCstation for a fraction of the price and overhead, the implications are vast. I can't wait to see the first Toy Story rendered on a box running the BeOS. You'll find more in the Preferences panel than before for such things as systemwide font handling in menus and window titles, and fonts now enjoy full caching support, with user-configurable sizes for screen- and print-font caches. Bitmapped fonts are no longer supported, but TrueType support is all there, and I was able to bring dozens of my favorite fonts over from my NT box easily. Now that the core development of the OS' fundamentals is nearing completion, it's time for Be to start really refining and dialing in the nuances and subtleties that will make the OS a sheer joy to own and operate. To that end, I've started compilation of my BeOS Wish List of features I'd like to see implemented in the BeOS at some point. I could go on for days, but the best way to get acquainted with all this exciting new technology is to try it yourself. And now that the BeOS is public, you can. Visit Be's home page for details on ordering a copy for $9.95, or pick up a copy of the October issue of MacUser (the newsstand price is only $3.99) for a copy on CD-ROM. Just a few days after release, Be's software library is already starting to fill with applications and utilities compatible with the Preview Release (no backward-compatibility concerns from here on in -- Be has driven a stake into the ground with this API). BeHive will also be building its own software library of Be applications, so stay tuned. |
Complete List of OPERATING SYSTEM REVIEWS
| Operating systems aren't built in a day. Here's a quick list of what's not quite there yet.
| Get the latest BeOS headlines from ZDNN
| PowerMac users, download the BeOS Preview Release 2 for free.
| Talk with other BeOS users on BeBuzz, the Be message board.
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