BeOS

operating system The operating system originally designed

to run on the BeBox microcomputer. BeOS is good at both

multitasking and real-time operation. It has a bash

command shell, with ports of many GNU programs by Be, Inc.

It has a GUI front end (not X). A C++ compiler is

supplied with the machine, and there are rumours of other

languages being ported in the future.

BeOs eventually became used on the x86 and

standard PPC.

Be, Inc. went bankrupt in 1999, after releasing the last

upgrade of BeOS (R5.0.3), and was sold to Palm.

Several groups are currently (2003) attempting to create an R6

version of the OS. The most likely to succeed are Yellowtab

and OpenBeOS, which is likely to be renamed.

(2003-05-30)