[openbeos] Invitation to BeGeistert 011 - NeXTSteps
- From: infoservice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: charlie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:14:00 +0200
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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