BeOS: The Alternate Universe's Mac OS X

Post by ngcc_hk » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:23 AM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #328

_8ljf wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but a technology is only a means to an end, not an end itself. What sells is product. You may have the finest tech on the planet—and that means precisely squat. What counts is putting bums on seats. Your seats. And keeping them there. Limps of tech are just a vehicle for that; to be used, abused, chewed up, and/or discarded on the road(s) to that end. Apple could have done better; they certainly did plenty wors…

I'm not sure I've ever encountered someone so invested in the "great man" theory of history. Jobs was obviously talented, but assuming no matter where he went he would have had the same level of success is discounting a lot of luck in how everything lined up,and who was available to help bring all the things to market jobs is famous for. There's no guarantee the hundreds or thousands of people that were also essentia…

Post by colinstrickland » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:26 AM UTC

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #129

I was another former Be "power user." And I think that was probably accurate -- if you weren't in the "BeOS lifestyle" during the admittedly short window that it was possible, it's hard to understand how much promise it looked like it had. When I tell people I ran it full-time for over a year, they wonder how I managed to get anything done, but... - Pe was a great GUI text editor, competitive with BBEdit on the Mac -…

Post by ngcc_hk » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:29 AM UTC

jonhendry18 wrote: post #323

TheCondor wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Security, networking, multiuser, i10n, print (don’t even begin to underestimate this and quartz and display postscript) beos was an rtos with a neat UI. it was still fun but there was a gigantic pile of work before it could do what system 7 did, let alone what next did.

Additionally, NeXTStep had been in use in production on investment bank trading floors, in scientific institutions, and in military/intelligence agencies. It wasn't widely used, but it was used. So while it might not have been quite ready for the median System 7 user's expectations, it was pretty solid.

Post by pjmlp » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:39 AM UTC

fit2rule wrote: post #334

pjmlp wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toshiba was selling Solaris laptops.

Yeah, but were they as sexy as the tiBook? Like the OP, for me the tiBook was a defining moment. A unix laptop, and it also looked good? Easy, immediate purchase.

Post by mtrower » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 10:01 AM UTC

T-hawk wrote: post #215

all2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's curious to me. Doom is specifically not 3D. Was it a publishing issue (that Doom and co weren't produced for the Amiga), or a power issue, or something else?

Doom's 3Dness or lack thereof only mattered to programmers. Players didn't care, to them Doom looked entirely 3D.