Help!!! I love BeOS, but an unable to find BeOS for Macintosh. Was there a personal type version? If not, does anybody know where I can download it or get a copy? Thanks, GW

Unfortunately, Apple refused to provide Be, Inc. with the information necessary to allow BeOS to run on G3- and G4-based Macintosh systems. They were funny that way. Here's a quote from The Man Himself, JLG: If Apple is selling respectable quantities of PowerPC hardware, how come we don't support the latest G3 and G4 machines? As I said above, it boils down to a chipset issue. Intel doesn't have an operating system to defend. In their best interest, they profess to be "OS-agnostic," the more options, the better. In Apple's case, it's different. They own and operate an OS and, like Microsoft, see no reason to help a competitor. Linux provides access to classical Unix applications and, therefore, is little competition for Apple's multimedia heritage. The same can't be said of BeOS, and I can see the logic in Apple's decision not to help us with access to chipset technical data for a G3/G4 BeOS port. Some have suggested that we look into the Linux sources for such data. Perhaps, but I see little reason to open ourselves to possible accusations of reverse-engineering. We're welcome on x-86 hardware, we're not welcome on Apple G3/G4. We respect the logic and that settles it for us. For additional information on supported Apple systems, check out the BeOS Ready List for the PPC-based systems at http://www.gobe.com/beos/beosready-ppc.html

But where can I get it. It only went up to R4.5, and after 3 calls to Gobe, they tell me they don't sell it!! Help!!!

This is pretty sobering news, but no surprise. I called Gobe as well and was told by a customer service rep that Gobe is no longer selling BeOS. All units have been sold and no more are on the way. Quite honestly, I'm not currently aware of any retail channel from which you can purchase BeOS. eBay may be your best bet. Every time I've looked, I've seen copies of BeOS 5.0, both Professional and Personal Editions, sometimes packaged with Scot Hacker's BeOS Bible.

You might try apacabar.fr They might ship it to the US? What a wacky dilema. If no one wants to sell BeOS then who is there to complain if someone copies the pro edition and offers is online? I just don't think Palm cares even the slightest about BeOS and wouldn't offer a letter of warning? They haven't bothered to sell it, then why defend it?

Actually, another good bet in order to get BeOS, is to download LimeWire, and search ever once in a while, until you find it. http://www.limewire.com