4 ms·

BeOS 5.1 with the network stack patches is nice. That wasn't leaked until after Be stopped operating. 5.0, which was almost usable was only out for about 8 mo

BeOS 5.1 with the network stack patches is nice. That wasn't leaked until after Be stopped operating. 5.0, which was almost usable was only out for about 8 months before Be stopped operating. 4.5 and prior? What does the dog say? "Ruff" Yeah. 4.5 and prior could spin some teapots but not much else. By the time "good" BeOS came out all computers could spin teapots and Windows PCs had 3d hardware acceleration. BeOS barely had 2d hardware acceleration. In the year 2000, after five years of development, BeOS didn't have multi-user support, a stable network stack, or USB mass storage support. I think that people are remembering with rose-colored glasses about 5.0 (which if I remember right was "oops leaked lol" for free on a magazine disc) or 5.1 with all of the patches which started circulating after all of the laid-off Be employees started dumping files online. Those of us who struggled for months to get BeOS stable and useful on our Performa 6400/200s have more bittersweet memories.

memsom 4y ago
So - BeOS was very usable on Intel. It had a lot more support. It also had more modern browsers. I ran it as a main OS well in to the 2000's. On PowerPC is was a lot more hobbled. You sound like you were on PowerPC unfortunately. 4.5 and 5.0 were so similar that it really isn't worth talking about the differences - a few minor API differences. The main thing with 5.0 was that Tracker was opened, so they moved the About box in to the Kernel to prevent people using a fake one and preserve their copyright notices etc.. The API was really similar and mostly anything that compiles under R4.5 will run under R5. They also added in a bunch of 3rd party codec and changed some of the icons. In fact, Stinger (BeIA) was based on the 4.5 codebase, not the R5 codebase. This is apparent when you try to use the API and notice anything newer than 4.5 is not present.

memsom 4y ago

So - BeOS was very usable on Intel. It had a lot more support. It also had more modern browsers. I ran it as a main OS well in to the 2000's. On PowerPC is was a lot more hobbled. You sound like you were on PowerPC unfortunately. 4.5 and 5.0 were so similar that it really isn't worth talking about the differences - a few minor API differences. The main thing with 5.0 was that Tracker was opened, so they moved the About box in to the Kernel to prevent people using a fake one and preserve their copyright notices etc.. The API was really similar and mostly anything that compiles under R4.5 will run under R5. They also added in a bunch of 3rd party codec and changed some of the icons. In fact, Stinger (BeIA) was based on the 4.5 codebase, not the R5 codebase. This is apparent when you try to use the API and notice anything newer than 4.5 is not present.