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Right conclusion but wrong timeline and wrong OS! The big loser here was not Linux, it was Be, makers of BeOS. BeOS was ahead of its time. It had a modern GUI,

Right conclusion but wrong timeline and wrong OS! The big loser here was not Linux, it was Be, makers of BeOS. BeOS was ahead of its time. It had a modern GUI, where each window had a dedicated thread. It had a fantastic filesystem, with journaling and database-like searching. Very advanced. Be tried very hard to get OEMs to ship BeOS. But Microsoft's "per-processor" licensing meant that OEMs were charged for Windows on every computer they sold, even those without Windows. At the end, Be was offering to license BeOS for free to any OEM that would ship it as the default OS (even allowing dual boot), and still had no takers. Then they tried to license BeOS to Apple, but they misplayed their hand and Apple went with NeXT. That was that. By the time Linux became plausible on the desktop, the per-processor licenses were gone.

shantly 7y ago
Man, BeOS was amazing. I don't really have anything else to add, but damn did it crush Windows and Linux desktops of the time. Performance and general UX pleasantness, both. And it was at least as stable as they were (yes, the Linux kernel rarely crashed—but xfree86 crashing was almost as bad as the whole system going down, if you were using it as a desktop). BeOS felt so good to use.
xiii1408 7y ago
BeOS is one of those weird "parallel universe" products, where the history of tech could have gone in a very different direction. The old BeOS videos [1] are some of my favorites. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4A0Lc6DI7A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4A0Lc6DI7A
type0 7y ago
For those interested in continuation of Be spirit, check out Haiku OS https://www.haiku-os.org/ https://www.haiku-os.org/
- rado 7y ago
  It's potentially great, and I would like it to succeed, but it lacks crucial features like GPU acceleration (?)
- rvz 7y ago
  The philosophy of Haiku sounds like a goal that what Linux should have been for the desktop. Unfortunately the distro ecosystem has riddled it with endless pitstops of issues, competition of similar technologies like KDE, GNOME, X11 and Wayland fighting each other, whereas OSes like macOS, Windows and Haiku have an integrated system and a consistent experience of their OS.
rvz 7y ago
The example of the failure of BeOS here is still a lesson for Linux to actually be a viable desktop contender in terms of a integrated and a consistent desktop for its users. Be Inc was just one of many losers that fell into Microsoft's monopoly on the Desktop. General Magic, Commodore (AmigaOS), etc all failed for the desktop. Linux and BSD communities found better success in the server market but still failed in getting to the desktop at the time. Fast forward to today, Linux + its distros are still technically ahead of its time in all areas but still has 'developers, tinkerers and hobbyists' of its users for the desktop rather than the average personal computer user. Google seemed to have learned from the BeOS failure by 'using' Linux in the literal sense for Android, ChromeOS and Chromebooks which is working for them so far, and they are re-entering the desktop OS market with Fuchsia.

shantly 7y ago

Man, BeOS was amazing. I don't really have anything else to add, but damn did it crush Windows and Linux desktops of the time. Performance and general UX pleasantness, both. And it was at least as stable as they were (yes, the Linux kernel rarely crashed—but xfree86 crashing was almost as bad as the whole system going down, if you were using it as a desktop). BeOS felt so good to use.

xiii1408 7y ago

BeOS is one of those weird "parallel universe" products, where the history of tech could have gone in a very different direction. The old BeOS videos [1] are some of my favorites. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4A0Lc6DI7A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4A0Lc6DI7A

type0 7y ago

For those interested in continuation of Be spirit, check out Haiku OS https://www.haiku-os.org/ https://www.haiku-os.org/

rado 7y ago
It's potentially great, and I would like it to succeed, but it lacks crucial features like GPU acceleration (?)
rvz 7y ago
The philosophy of Haiku sounds like a goal that what Linux should have been for the desktop. Unfortunately the distro ecosystem has riddled it with endless pitstops of issues, competition of similar technologies like KDE, GNOME, X11 and Wayland fighting each other, whereas OSes like macOS, Windows and Haiku have an integrated system and a consistent experience of their OS.

rvz 7y ago

The example of the failure of BeOS here is still a lesson for Linux to actually be a viable desktop contender in terms of a integrated and a consistent desktop for its users. Be Inc was just one of many losers that fell into Microsoft's monopoly on the Desktop. General Magic, Commodore (AmigaOS), etc all failed for the desktop. Linux and BSD communities found better success in the server market but still failed in getting to the desktop at the time. Fast forward to today, Linux + its distros are still technically ahead of its time in all areas but still has 'developers, tinkerers and hobbyists' of its users for the desktop rather than the average personal computer user. Google seemed to have learned from the BeOS failure by 'using' Linux in the literal sense for Android, ChromeOS and Chromebooks which is working for them so far, and they are re-entering the desktop OS market with Fuchsia.