Haiku releases alpha 1

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Giles Orr <gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| Nevertheless: Haiku, the Be-alike OS, has released (finally, after
| eight years) an alpha version.

Thanks for posting this.

Here's why I won't be bothering with Haiku.  Some of what I say might
be wrong: I don't want to invest the time to become an expert.  Please
correct any mistakes.

I can't imagine wanting to run Be.  If I remember correctly, it won't
run POSIX programs.  So it is starting from scratch as far as
applications go.

As I understand it, Haiku is binary-compatible with BeOS.  After a
decade if disuse, those binaries are likely not worth saving.  This
seems like a horrible constraint.

If I were willing to start from scratch, I'd use Plan 9.  It has a
great design and a community with some really smart folks.

Plan 9 is fairly friendly for UNIX folks.

Drivers are a real problem for any OS.  The PC platform is
particularly difficult because there is just so much diversity.
Compare that with the Mac PowerPC platform on which Be had its best
run.

Vista support is a must for any hardware manufacturer, so that is sort
of taken care of (but not for hardware that is no-longer sold).

Linux and BSD have brute-forced their way.  Not easy.  Lots of gaps.
Good enough for me to adopt but not good enough for me to be
satisfied.

Plan 9, AmigaOS clones, OS/2, Haiku, etc.: you probably have to select
each hardware component carefully to get support.  You may even be
limited to older components.

I don't quite know where OpenSolaris fits on this issue.  I used
Solaris on my desktop before switching to Linux.  I don't know of any
reason to switch back so I have not investigated.

I think that diversity is a great thing.  Too bad that it is so hard
to achieve.
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