 |
 |
This page was archived in 2023 as part of the Mac Hut archive and is no longer updated.Most of the site pages were last updated around 2001 and some information may be out of date. Various links may be broken. Become a patron: Support our efforts by contributing a small amount each month to cover our hosting costs and the time it takes to archive these pages properly. Thank you. |
|
|
|
What is the BeOS? - Many people have never heard of the
BeOS, and I'm not really surprised, it's been kind of underground for a commercial operating
system, but it is out there. Just recently, Be, the company that wrote the BeOS, released the x86
as freeware (see free.be.com) for non-commercial uses,
but the PowerPC version is still being sold only as a commercial product. Yes, the BeOS will run
on PowerPC Macs, that's actually where it's life started (on PowerPC Macs and PowerPC BeBoxes). The
BeOS takes many of the best features from main-stream operating systems such as the MacOS and
X-Windows, and Windows, and puts them together in an extremely fast, object-oriented, multi-tasking,
multi-processing operating system.
So, how do I become more cross platform compatible with the BeOS? - Well, luckily, since the BeOS got it's start quite a bit on Mac hardware, it already has features built-in which make it more compatible with your Mac. Some of these features include the ability to read, write, and format, Macintosh HFS disks, and to access AppleTalk networks. The BeOS also has built in HTTP (web) and FTP servers and can access TCP/IP networks like all computers these days. This saves some effort in trying to find FTP or HTTP servers for either the Mac OS or the BeOS (unlike when working with operating systems such as Windows), although you may still want to find some of these servers for your Mac too. What does that leave us? Well, files and applications. How do I run BeOS applications on my Mac? - Well, there aren't any emulators specifically designed to emulate the BeOS, but, if your Mac's model is supported, you could could actually run the BeOS on your Mac. If your Mac isn't supported, then you're only other option is to get an x86 hardware emulator such as Virtual PC to emulate the x86 version of the BeOS on (much as you can emulate Windows or x86 versions of Linux on it). Okay, what if I want to run Mac applications from within the BeOS, can I do that? - Yes, you can, if you are running the PowerPC version of the BeOS (on a Macintosh or a BeBox). The way you can do this is with an application called SheepShearer, which doesn't emulate the MacOS, but runs it simultaneously with the BeOS, in a BeOS window. Obviously this won't work on x86 PC hardware, so you will not be able to take advantage of this ability. When the x86 processor becomes powerfull enough to emulate the PPC processor you will most likely be able to emulate the PPC version of the BeOS on it, but until that day there are no options available. How do I access read Mac files in the BeOS? - There are two things which you will need to do to be able to read your Mac files under the BeOS. First, you'll need to save your Mac files in a format that is more suitable for transfering between various platforms (see the File Types page), this way you'll best be able to follow the next step. Second, you'll need to find a respective BeOS application that can open your files, the best source of BeOS software that I have found to date is BeBits.com, so check it out.
|