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VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

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Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#161

Post by bluedino »

silisili wrote: post #24
nico wrote: post #16

BeOS was such an amazing experience back in the day. It really felt magical. Too bad it got shutdown. I wonder what the evolution of it would be like today

My first memory of BeOS was that it could play media independently. You could play a video in one window, and an MP3 or another video in another, and they'd both play audio at the same time. I don't know exactly why, but child me thought that was so interesting, since every other OS at the time seemed unable to.

BeOS was released in October 1995, and Windows 95 was able to play two videos (or more) at one time, with audio from both.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#162

Post by endemic »

MarsIronPI wrote: post #159
yason wrote: post #54

I bought an Amiga in the early 90's and enjoyed it immensely. Commodore went under and Amiga died. I bought BeOS in the late 90's and enjoyed it immensely like a breath of fresh air in a sewage pipe. BeOS died. With my track record I really, really should've bought Windows. Twice, to make sure.

I'm too young to remember BeOS but I've taken a superficial look at Haiku and I don't get the hype. What made BeOS so special? How is it different from GNU/Linux or BSDs?

I liked it because it was very fast (I would always demo the startup time vs. Windows) and had a clean, macOS-inspired UI.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#163

Post by vidarh »

pjmlp wrote: post #59
shevy-java wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And things such as ruby don't work on it. Well, what shall I say? The "best" ideas get beaten when in practically already works very well - aka Linux. People need to compare to Linux and if there are failure points, they need to fix it. Haiku keeps on failing at core considerations. If you look at guides, they recommend to "run in qemu". Well, that is a fever dream. They need to focus on real hardware. And they need…

People aren't really running servers on Haiku, which is basically the only relevance to use Ruby in 2026, Rails powered web applications. Then again, there is a golden opportunity to become a Ruby contributor, road to fame on Ruby contribution list.

Maybe 5% of what I use Ruby for is on the server. I'd suggest those of us who use Ruby client side are likely to outnumber Haiku users by magnitude or two.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#164

Post by numerio »

zozbot234 wrote: post #84
watersb wrote: post #3

25 years ago, I configured GNOME to run a BeOS-like tabbed window manager. On a sun workstation. But that's not what this is. Or not only: Nexus Kernel Bridge Nexus is Vitruvian's custom Linux kernel subsystem that brings BeOS-style node monitoring, device tracking, and messaging to Linux — making it possible to run Haiku applications on a standard Linux kernel. It claims to run apps from Haiku, the current open-sour…

Looks like this is a thin translation layer for BeOS/Haiku syscalls. I wonder why they aren't relying on Syscall User Dispatch https://docs.kernel.org/6.19/admin-guide/syscall-user-dispat... which would enable them to put this compatibility layer in user space. It's already being used by recent Wine versions.

BTW because that would not solve any problem for us, the technique you're linking can be useful only if what you want to achieve is binary compatibility otherwise it's useless. That's not really what we are after.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#165

Post by hamburglar »

pjmlp wrote: post #155
tvaughan wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OS/2 Warp was out before Windows 95, and better.

If we ignore the fact that it required 1000 euros more in additional hardware, thus most folks went with DOS/Windows 3.x instead, and when Windows 95 came around it was already too late for adoption.

To pick a nit, I highly doubt you bought your OS/2 hardware with euros. :D

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#166

Post by paodealho »

mgerdts wrote: post #123
erremerre wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in the same boat, every time I like something, it is a commercial failure. They should really hire me to check if I like whatever project they got in mind and if I do, cancel immediatetly and save the losses from being a failure.

You aren’t alone: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/working-defini...

Funny thing. This never happened to me with tech/electronics, but happens from time to time with food items.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#167

Post by blacklion »

dddw wrote: post #50
jazzyjackson wrote: post #27

I’ll try this out with my eink display, interface might look good in grayscale. So far my favorite desktop for this is the Chicago95 theme for xfce

Do share a screenshot if you do. What refreshrate do you have on that display?

I think, in case of e-Ink photo is much more informative, as screenshot takes data from frame buffer and didn't take screen technology in account.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#168

Post by mixmastamyk »

MarsIronPI wrote: post #159
yason wrote: post #54

I bought an Amiga in the early 90's and enjoyed it immensely. Commodore went under and Amiga died. I bought BeOS in the late 90's and enjoyed it immensely like a breath of fresh air in a sewage pipe. BeOS died. With my track record I really, really should've bought Windows. Twice, to make sure.

I'm too young to remember BeOS but I've taken a superficial look at Haiku and I don't get the hype. What made BeOS so special? How is it different from GNU/Linux or BSDs?

Super responsive—running ten things at once, on a Pentium 90 or PPC. The filesystem metadata was neat as well, and though we have these things today, it was unique in the 90s.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#169

Post by rjrjrjrj »

MarsIronPI wrote: post #159
yason wrote: post #54

I bought an Amiga in the early 90's and enjoyed it immensely. Commodore went under and Amiga died. I bought BeOS in the late 90's and enjoyed it immensely like a breath of fresh air in a sewage pipe. BeOS died. With my track record I really, really should've bought Windows. Twice, to make sure.

I'm too young to remember BeOS but I've taken a superficial look at Haiku and I don't get the hype. What made BeOS so special? How is it different from GNU/Linux or BSDs?

Keep in mind that BeOS was released in 1995.

BeOS had pervasive multithreading and a slick UI. The BeBox had dual CPUs, a novelty at the time and many years before multi-core CPUs.

Linux was still very new, and didn't have much of a GUI at all (maybe basic X, but this was long before Gnome, KDE, Englightment, etc)

Mac System 7 didn't have protected memory or preemptive multitasking.

Windows 95 was brand new and while a big improvement over Windows 3.1, was still very prone to crashing.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#170

Post by tobinfricke »

tvaughan wrote: post #153
limagnolia wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I studied the MS antitrust case extensively when it was happening, and I agree that the abuse against BeOS was MS greatest antitrust offense. However, as a fan of BeOS, I see no evidence at all that Be Inc. would have been successful if MS hadn't abused its position. Unfortunately we will never really know what might have been.

OS/2 Warp was out before Windows 95, and better.

I ran OS/2 Warp and was a fan of it... But to say that it was simply "better" than Windows 95 is a bridge too far. It had its strengths (rock solid multitasking) but also plenty of rough edges.
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