Infinite Mac: BeOS

To anyone who hasn't already: I really recommend checking out Haiku OS [1], the FOSS successor to BeOS. It's so pleasant to use and supports a surprisingly large catalog of software.

[1]: https://www.haiku-os.org/

To me BeOS was and is still the best looking desktop OS ever, and it was so fast, it felt so good. I think in 2000ish (when it was released freely) I used it on my PC pretty much exclusively for a few months.

> The distinctive tabbed window titles look neat, but they have a reduced draggable area, so I’d have to think harder every time I wanted to move a window.

Now imagine macOS progressing to the point where title bars have been replaced with toolbars, and buttons no longer have borders, so you have to guess what part of the window will drag it.

:-|

I would be very interested in a writeup that talked about the likely trajectory of Apple's OS if they had bought BeOS instead.

I loved my BeBox, but what would be the modern equivalent of the GeekPort? I've been using esp32/nRF52/etc boards for uart/spi/i2c/i2s/pwm-type work... it feels like hardware hacking on a desktop is a lost art.

I used a BeOS inspired GNOME extension or hack for tabbed windows, signature yellow color, about 20 years ago. Loved it.

I was installing GNOME pieces compiling from source, on top of Sun Solaris. So it was a weird configuration. But FWIW I relied on the tabs a lot.

I ran BeOS for a bit, and it was the best OS upgrade experience I've had, besides the Windows 95 to NT 4.0 upgrade.

One of the few upgrade experiences that was a discernable improvement and completely revised experience.

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Why do people want to look at old os's like this and Amiga what is the fascination? Just curious.