[openbeos] Invitation to BeGeistert 011 - NeXTSteps

Be, Inc. officially stopped work on the BeOS in  2000 and  BeOS  users
everywhere  have  been  asking  themselves ever since: will there be a
replacement? and if so, will it be worth waiting for?

Some answers to  these  questions  may  be  found  at  BeGeistert  011
"NeXTSteps" in Düsseldorf on the 18th and 19th of October, where  both
OpenBeOS and yellowTab will be represented.

Many BeOS users turned to BeOS when  they  became  disillusioned  with
their  favourite  platfom (Amiga, Atari, OS/2, etc.) and couldn't live
with MS Windows or Un*x as replacements.

It is understandable that some of them feel the same is happening with
BeOS:  while  BeOS  hardware  support is excellent, there are more and
more machines where it is increasingly difficult to run BeOS  and  not
everyone is willing to rely on patches or dubious Betas.

Is worth sticking with BeOS?
Aren't we all just a group of die-hard non-conformist nostalgics?
Maybe.

But the BeOS doesn't just do things differently to  be  different,  it
often   does   things  differently  because  it  does  them  properly.
Installing other operating systems is  never  the  same  after  you've
installed   BeOS;  hardware  support  is  excellent  where  available;
extensible and indexable file attributes have become second nature.

It is often held  that  technical  merit  doesn't  guarantee  economic
success  and  the  history  of  computers  in  general  and  the PC in
particular provides plenty of examples. Intel's "dated" 8086  got  the
nod  over  Motorola's  more  "modern"  68000 in IBM's original PC, ISA
survived the challenge of MCA and MS-DOS and MS-Windows  saw  off  the
various challenges of DR-DOS, OS/2, etc.

But that isn't the whole story: ISA is now disappearing from boards in
favour of PCI; the x86 is unlikely to dominate where power consumption
is an issue in mobile phones or server farms and  the  struggles  with
64-bit archictecture show the limits of hacking instead of innovating.

Quality does matter in time.

The same is true with operating systems.

A textbook  implementation of  modern  operating systems  at the time,  
NeXTStep  was immensely successful in  niche markets  but a commercial 
failure. Now it is  the basis of MacOS X and  providing the foundation 
for continued success and possible expansion.  But  NeXTStep  was just
following on in the tradition started by Unix, which itself took  well
over ten years to establish itself or even VMS and OS/2 which are both
to some extent reincarnated in MS Windows NT. As with  Unix  expansion
isn't  entirely  direct:  the  Unix  system model, the "C" programming
language and the BSD have been successful in their own write.

Reasons enough, we think, to be optimistic about BeOS: there  will  be
OpenBeOS  Alpha,  Beta  and  version  1  and  yellowTab's Zeta will be
released.

So the  Next Steps of OpenBeOS  and Zeta provide  the backdrop for the
eleventh BeGeistert.

There will also be presentations of the latest  BeOS  software,  which
continues to be developed. But as always, it is difficult to timetable
BeGeistert as the contributions come from those attending.

Wherever  is  sufficient interest, in learning  to  program  or  using  
a particular application,  we  try  our  best to make arrangements for
workshops and tutorials and would love to  hear  from  you  if  you're
interested.

BeGeistert will be held at the Duesseldorf Youth Hostel for the second
time,  meaning  that in the evening Altstadt is just a short walk over
the Rhine. But it also means breakfast before 09:00, dinner  at  12:00
and early registration (September 19th) for guaranteed accomodation.

Regarding the eternal question of  internet access: there currently is
a pilot project in Düsseldorf to  provide public WLAN access and it is
possible that we may be able to use  this at BeGeistert. Should access
be possible it will be limited to  those who really need it. We do not
consider web cams or live broadcasts as adding to the event but rather
as resource intensive diversions.

See you there!

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