5 ms·

Why would BeOS not be open source at this point?

by pbreit 8y ago

Tomte 8y ago
Is there a real difference to Haiku?
- pbreit 8y ago
  My understanding is that there is not much BeOS in Haiku. "The only BeOS code that has made it into Haiku are Tracker and the Deskbar (the file manager and the equivalent of the start menu/taskbar, respectively)."
  - axaxs 8y ago
    Understood...but then what is Haiku. I stil remember when r5 was released...an unheard of OS. As a tech geek I installed it and was blown away. Especially the media capabilities...two streams playing at once. That OS was way ahead of its time, and a shameful demise. I was excited about Haiku until I saw how far behind it was. And I mean absolutely 0 disrespect to its authors... but today it seems like an attempt to keep stable an already decades old OS that lost its way.
    - alain94040 8y ago
      What would blow you away today? I’m always curious to know what to build next.
      - zmix 8y ago
        I want a new Desktop. Let's talk ;-)
        AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        Same here, but not Linux Desktop Distro #301, which is pretty much all anyone wants to make.
        Fnoord 8y ago
        i3 should be good enough for anyone.
      - axaxs 8y ago
        A truly convergent desktop. And I don't even know the details to explain what I would like, I probably wouldn't even know until I used it. I do know Android for Desktop is not it, though. Being able to throw apps from my phone to my pc to my tv would be nice too, and not so clunky as casting.
        zmix 8y ago
        I would continue, where the ideals of the 60s/70/80s/90s left off. Since IT gets dominated (sponsored) by service companies, book and grocery stores, things are a bit fucked up, to say at least ;-)
    - snvzz 8y ago
      >seems like an attempt to keep stable No. They rewrote the whole thing (minus the deskbar/launcher). If it looks to you that they're just keeping the old system stable, that'd mean haiku has been very successful in recreating it as open source. They're close to 1.0beta1, which is defined as feature-complete for 1.0. It's after they do get 1.0 that they plan on really taking the system's design forward. Not that it doesn't already have a few fundamental improvements, such as the integrated kernel debugger, the support for newer architectures or the package manager.
codezero 8y ago
Bought by Palm, then HP, then ??? I guess, try to navigate that corporate IP nightmare.
- fredoralive 8y ago
  I think BeOS went Palm -> PalmSource -> Access (the embedded web browser people).
  - codezero 8y ago
    I assume you are right and I was hasty :)
johannes1234321 8y ago
Because the incentives for going through with that are low. Most likely it contains some parts of third-party code under non-ooen license (i.e. in device drivers, but not only) and maybe some subsystems were licensed in some form of exclusive form to others. Also they might want to double check that code not by "accident" looks like somebody else (i.e. the ext2 code might be inspired by Linux's) This all leads to review of old contracts and code while serving no business (besides marketing to a niche of nerds)
- jccalhoun 8y ago
  Basically this. Access owns it. Even though they aren't doing anything with it, if they just released the code they would probably open themselves up to lawsuits over possible 3rd party code. So they would have to pay someone to go over the code to take out 3rd party stuff. That would take money for which there is no tangible benefit to them so they won't do it.
memsom 8y ago
The source code, with all the stuff removed that was licensed or probably violated some patent or GPL restrictions would be pretty useless. It also suffers greatly from the lack of engineers working on it - as in some parts have a lot of comments, some nothing what so ever. Some parts look very well done, some parts less so. Back in the day, I saw the code (those leaks were real) and one zip was able to fully compile (and this is where the PowerPC version of post R5.03 came from, I used to have it compiling on my old BeBox - long gone now) and the other was a much later version, but the zip was corrupt and half the files were garbled. DISCLAIMER: No I don't have the code anymore, not that I would never share it if I did, and no, I have never worked for or contributed to the Haiku Project.

Why would BeOS not be open source at this point?

by pbreit 8y ago

Why would BeOS not be open source at this point?

Tomte 8y ago

Is there a real difference to Haiku?

pbreit 8y ago
My understanding is that there is not much BeOS in Haiku. "The only BeOS code that has made it into Haiku are Tracker and the Deskbar (the file manager and the equivalent of the start menu/taskbar, respectively)."
- axaxs 8y ago
  Understood...but then what is Haiku. I stil remember when r5 was released...an unheard of OS. As a tech geek I installed it and was blown away. Especially the media capabilities...two streams playing at once. That OS was way ahead of its time, and a shameful demise. I was excited about Haiku until I saw how far behind it was. And I mean absolutely 0 disrespect to its authors... but today it seems like an attempt to keep stable an already decades old OS that lost its way.
  - alain94040 8y ago
    What would blow you away today? I’m always curious to know what to build next.
    - zmix 8y ago
      I want a new Desktop. Let's talk ;-)
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        Same here, but not Linux Desktop Distro #301, which is pretty much all anyone wants to make.
        Fnoord 8y ago
        i3 should be good enough for anyone.
    - axaxs 8y ago
      A truly convergent desktop. And I don't even know the details to explain what I would like, I probably wouldn't even know until I used it. I do know Android for Desktop is not it, though. Being able to throw apps from my phone to my pc to my tv would be nice too, and not so clunky as casting.
      - zmix 8y ago
        I would continue, where the ideals of the 60s/70/80s/90s left off. Since IT gets dominated (sponsored) by service companies, book and grocery stores, things are a bit fucked up, to say at least ;-)
  - snvzz 8y ago
    >seems like an attempt to keep stable No. They rewrote the whole thing (minus the deskbar/launcher). If it looks to you that they're just keeping the old system stable, that'd mean haiku has been very successful in recreating it as open source. They're close to 1.0beta1, which is defined as feature-complete for 1.0. It's after they do get 1.0 that they plan on really taking the system's design forward. Not that it doesn't already have a few fundamental improvements, such as the integrated kernel debugger, the support for newer architectures or the package manager.

codezero 8y ago

Bought by Palm, then HP, then ??? I guess, try to navigate that corporate IP nightmare.

fredoralive 8y ago
I think BeOS went Palm -> PalmSource -> Access (the embedded web browser people).
- codezero 8y ago
  I assume you are right and I was hasty :)

johannes1234321 8y ago

Because the incentives for going through with that are low. Most likely it contains some parts of third-party code under non-ooen license (i.e. in device drivers, but not only) and maybe some subsystems were licensed in some form of exclusive form to others. Also they might want to double check that code not by "accident" looks like somebody else (i.e. the ext2 code might be inspired by Linux's) This all leads to review of old contracts and code while serving no business (besides marketing to a niche of nerds)

jccalhoun 8y ago
Basically this. Access owns it. Even though they aren't doing anything with it, if they just released the code they would probably open themselves up to lawsuits over possible 3rd party code. So they would have to pay someone to go over the code to take out 3rd party stuff. That would take money for which there is no tangible benefit to them so they won't do it.

memsom 8y ago

The source code, with all the stuff removed that was licensed or probably violated some patent or GPL restrictions would be pretty useless. It also suffers greatly from the lack of engineers working on it - as in some parts have a lot of comments, some nothing what so ever. Some parts look very well done, some parts less so. Back in the day, I saw the code (those leaks were real) and one zip was able to fully compile (and this is where the PowerPC version of post R5.03 came from, I used to have it compiling on my old BeBox - long gone now) and the other was a much later version, but the zip was corrupt and half the files were garbled. DISCLAIMER: No I don't have the code anymore, not that I would never share it if I did, and no, I have never worked for or contributed to the Haiku Project.