| I've used various Windows OS for the past 10 years, various Linux for the past 2, and played around with Mac some. BeOS is not just different, but clearly superior in many ways. Part of the reason why is that BeOS doesn't run on top of DOS, as Windows did until recent years, and it doesn't run on top of Unix, like Linux and Mac OS X. BeOS instead started with a clean paper and wrote code to do the various jobs required of a modern OS in the most efficient way possible. Additionally, BeOS uses 'pervasive multithreading' allowing commands to execute much more rapidly. The combined result is that the system is much less bloated, and truly is faster than anything I've ever seen. BeOS running on a Pentium 233 is MUCH faster than Win XP or Mac OS X on a 2 gigahertz machine, simply because the code is written so much more cleanly. I had difficulty believing it myself, until I installed BeOS on my own 900 Mhz machine. The performance difference between BeOS and Windows is truly like night and day. Quite a bit comes with the OS itself. There are browsers (their own, NetPositive, plus Mozilla), CD burners and players, utilities, and applications. Gobe Productive is a software suite written for BeOS which is comparable to Microsoft Office, with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program etc. The BeOS Bible is over 900 pages of hints, documentation, and instructions on how to set up the OS and use it.If there is a downside, it is that (1) BeOS doesn't have drivers for every piece of hardware in existence, although it natively supports a pretty wide range. Check the Hardware Matrix at [frizbe website] to see if your hardware has been tested yet. (2) There isn't a lot of software available at the moment in stores. However, there is an active BeOS user community with quite a lot of software, drivers, and assistance online. Try [begroovy, or bebits websites] to see what is available, and links to other BeOS related sites. Just think, an entire OS, PLUS an office suite PLUS the most comprehensive manual you are likely to ever see, all for the price of a game. Ron |
