Haiku version 1.0 is still a way off however.
In the mid-1990s, former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée founded Be Inc., a company best known for its BeOS operating system.
Despite its technical strengths, which included a responsive multitasking kernel, symmetric multiprocessing, and a 64-bit journaling file system called BFS, BeOS struggled to make a dent in a market dominated by Microsoft Windows. Apple briefly considered buying it but ultimately decided the price was too steep, and went on instead to acquire Steve Jobs‘ NeXT and use its OPENSTEP OS as the basis for what became Mac OS X. In 2001, Be Inc. was scooped up by Palm, and BeOS quietly disappeared.
That should have been the end of the story, but shortly after, a community-driven project called OpenBeOS surfaced, aiming to keep the spirit of BeOS alive. In 2004, it rebranded as Haiku, complete with a new logo to mark the fresh start. Since then, the Haiku project has been steadily chugging along, and Haiku R1 Beta 5 has just been released. Yes, it’s still in beta – even after nearly 22 years – but it’s edging ever closer to that elusive first stable release.
