VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS • Hacker News Board

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#141

Post by limagnolia » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:04 PM UTC

conception wrote: post #116

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.

Correction, BeOS was killed. I’ll never get over Microsoft getting in trouble for including a browser in Windows but not for forcing companies to not allow BeOS to be installed when it was getting legs.

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.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#142

Post by kriro » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

My favorite part of BeOS is the file system. The book can be found freely here: https://www.nobius.org/dbg/

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#143

Post by timw4mail » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:23 PM UTC

cpuguy83 wrote: post #136

pjmlp wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Homebrew would like a word.

Homebrew wouldn't support Haiku anyway.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#144

Post by trinix912 » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:26 PM UTC

cachius wrote: post #134

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it was a freak occurence, but I actually had incredible luck running Haiku on an old laptop back in the day. It was incredibly fast, and just about all the amenities you'd expect worked with no or minimal intervention.

Even running from an HDD?

I recently tried the latest version (Beta 5?) on a 2005-ish PC with an even older HDD and it ran surprisingly fast off that. The only thing where it was somewhat slow was web browsing.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#145

Post by nathell » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

I almost overlooked this, and then when I didn’t, I almost dismissed this as Yet Another Linux Distro with a custom skin. But no, there’s novelty and exploration in here. There’s attempt to venture off the local maximum. This is a breath of fresh air.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#146

Post by malicka » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

msk-lywenn wrote: post #58

donatj wrote: post #17

The important question becomes can you stack the window decoration "tabs" of different apps into a single stack of tabs like in BeOS? Demonstrated here (animated): https://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/images/gui-images...

I used to run fluxbox in the early 2000s. I greatly miss tabbing any windows like that.

You can run fluxbox today! I still do, I can’t go without window tabs. :^)

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#147

Post by vibbix » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

Pleasant surprise to hear about this. I've had a fascination with BeOS & Haiku for decades. I am now actually developing a custom website layout themed after BeOS (good excuse to learn Figma!)

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#148

Post by thesuitonym » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:32 PM UTC

codepoet80 wrote: post #132

BirAdam wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was Palm guy and not Blackberry, so I went from a Palm Treo to webOS. After that though, I went to iPhone. I considered Windows Phone though. The tiles and text orientation were so amazing. I am, however, glad that I never went down that road, not just because Windows Phone died, but also seeing what has happened to Windows more recently.

webOS is still around -- sorta! https://www.webosarchive.org

I use webOS every day (LG television)

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#149

Post by 716dpl » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

WD-42 wrote: post #25

UI elements that have depth look so mouth-wateringly good now. So over the minimalism and bouncing back hard.

I find it soothing. There is ornamentation in its design, but it's precise and minimal, but also friendly. The icons, in particular, look so good.

Re: VitruvianOS – Desktop Linux Inspired by the BeOS

#150

Post by pabs3 » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #133

akho wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect Linux has better hardware support than Haiku, which is not exactly easy to run on laptop hardware (w/ wifi, sleep, &c)

I suspect it was a freak occurence, but I actually had incredible luck running Haiku on an old laptop back in the day. It was incredibly fast, and just about all the amenities you'd expect worked with no or minimal intervention.

In the last year sometime I ran the Haiku live image off USB on my only laptop (2011 X201t), it worked fairly well.