Be has left the building

Published on August 17, 2001 By Frogboy In WinCustomize News

After years of almost being a major player, OS vendor BeOS has hung it up. They've been sold for $11 million (in stock) to Palm. Ironically, Be turned down a $125 million offer from Apple some years ago (doh!). It is believed that Palm will possibly use Be as a potential PDA OS. The desktop OS future looks grim though.

Comments

zathrus

on Aug 17, 2001

Since reading this article, (on BNews and ZDNet), my day has gone from bad to worse. I just can't understand how an operating system of this calibre can have had such a tough time trying and failing to capture the imagination of, well, just about anyone who is in to these things. Anyone who has used BeOS, (and I don't mean playing with teapots), would have to agree that technologically speaking, BeOS is potentially the most advanced OS out there. This is sad. Maybe they should have tried shoving it down peoples' throats, with regards to marketing.. Anyways, I've still got my R5.03. .......

Jafo

on Aug 17, 2001

Yes....it IS sad.....there were a lot of people just waiting patiently for more apps/hardware compatabilities....and it would have taken off.....;(

DaWebMassa

on Aug 17, 2001

The same thing happened to OS/2 which was a WAY better OS than Windows. Too much of this industry is reliant on marketing tactics and the old "it's who ya know" problem.

paxx

on Aug 17, 2001

Wow... sad indeed.
But potentially good news for Palm computer users though. It would be totally cool to have BeOS on my Palm device! Wheew!

GypC

on Aug 17, 2001

C++ bites it. BeOS and Windows are just so obtuse in all their multi-threaded / embedded object glory. Give me a good old Unix or Lisp system any day

. Not that anyone makes a LispOS anymore... *sigh*.

craeonics

on Aug 17, 2001

Technological superiority has little to do with commercial success. v2000 and BetaMax lost to VHS after all. I don't know how BeOS positioned itself actually, all the *nix variants are targeted towards research, network and critical markets, Windows targets the home user and businesses, while Apple traditionally targets the graphics sector. So where could BeOS possibly fit in?

paxx

on Aug 17, 2001

crae: same place as OS/2...

Larry Kuperman

on Aug 17, 2001

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ PALM) ended today at $4.14 per share. On 11/3/00 a share of PALM was worth $67.38. The day that PALM announced it was buying Be, the head of the Operating Systems unit, Alan Kessler, resigned. I don't see the acquisition of Be helping Palm.

paxx

on Aug 18, 2001

I can see why the OS guy would quit after Palm purchased one of the best OS on the market... Ya know, I'd take it personal too.

Anyway. I'd love to have BeOS on my Palm device.

fLithm

on Aug 22, 2001

C++ bites it

) Makes sense coming from someone who thinks multi-threading is obtuse.

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