Haiku, the little PC operating system that you've probably never heard of (not a Linux distro)

[Guestx]

I heard about this a little while back and just ran across some more info on it, so I thought I'd make a thread for anyone who is interested.

I'm not entirely sure exactly what the intentions of the developers are--to become a legitimate competitor in the OS world? just to give computer enthusiasts something fun and off-beat to play around with?--but it is a fully functional (albeit still in alpha-phase) operating system that anyone can download and install on their computer.

According to Wikipedia:

Haiku began as the OpenBeOS project in 2001, the year that Be, Inc. was bought by Palm, Inc. and BeOS development was discontinued; the focus of the project was to support the BeOS user community by creating an open-source, backward-compatible replacement for BeOS.

The first project by OpenBeOS was a community-created "stop-gap" update for BeOS 5.0.3 in 2002. In 2003, the non-profit organization Haiku, Inc. was registered in Rochester, New York, to financially support development, and in 2004, after a notification of infringement of Palm's trademark of the BeOS name was sent to OpenBeOS, the project was renamed Haiku. However, development only reached its first milestone in September 2009 with the release of Haiku R1/Alpha 1. As of September 2017 R1/Alpha 4.1 (released in November 2012) remained the latest release, but the Haiku website reported in 2017 that work continues,[6] and nightly builds continue to be released with the site recommending that users try the nightly build rather than the alpha release.

Here are some screenshots:

I always like weird, off-beat projects like this. Anyone fucked with it?

Considering they're still in alpha after nine years in development I'm not sure how well that bodes for Haiku to ever come into its own and gain any real marketshare, but according to the FAQ they feel it is stable enough to use as your primary operating system (with the caveat that you make back-ups of essential data).

Official website: www.haiku-os.org

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

Looks cool but not something I would fuck with

 

[Guestx]

Looks cool but not something I would fuck with

Like I said in the OP, I wonder what the endgame is here. It's been development since 2009 and the latest version is still an alpha release.

What are they wanting to happen here? Is it just a hobby, both for the developers and the users? Or is there a bigger plan here?

 

[Long Dark Blues]

Other than Ubuntu, Linux has spotty driver support.

I doubt this OS will be compatible with really anything worthwhile.

 

[bandicoot]

@22k

 

[Andy Capp]

Other than Ubuntu, Linux has spotty driver support.

I doubt this OS will be compatible with really anything worthwhile.

More than likely, they're trying to attract VC. An operating system on its own isn't worth much without native software, so I would also question their app development model. Is anyone writing software for this OS?

 

[marioh]

wow, be os. had to wiki it to make sure, but yeah, i tinkered with that a long time ago.
was meh towards it back then, don't see haiku being any different.

 

[weed]

@22k

hey, check out Haiku
the operating system
& this one here, too.

 

[loyalyolayal]

Sounds like Hack-u.

 

[ToxicShocker]

Never understand why people need to invest all this time to reinvent the wheel.

I've been building computers for 20 years and never had a prblem with Windows that wasn't easy to fix.

 

[Guestx]

Never understand why people need to invest all this time to reinvent the wheel.

I've been building computers for 20 years and never had a prblem with Windows that wasn't easy to fix.

Can you be 100% certain it's not spying on you?

 

[ToxicShocker]

Can you be 100% certain it's not spying on you?

Can you be 100% certain that haiku isn't run by NSA lizard people 911 was an inside job.

I don' care if the NSA watches me fap. And frankly if they get a warrant let em bang

 

[ToxicShocker]

Can you be certain your cellphone is secure?

Your landline?

Your mail?

Are people watching you through your Windows?

Are you being tailed on a daily basis?



There is no certainty in life, so it's misleading to imply that Haiku is going to be immune to surveillnce while another operating system is not.