Hmm i was wondering if i Should get BeOS... There is a couple of questions i need answered before i deside... Is it free? Can i install it with XP? Will any of my windows games be compatible? (I dont care if they arn't, just want to know) Whats it like?

BeOS PE is free It has to be installed on a Fat32 partition. You can then run Installer and create a BeOS partition. No Windows games will run on BeOS. What's it like? No viruses, never crashes, very fast. Try it.

BEOS is DEAD...it tried to migrate to opensource, but it has almost zero support. It is best left to server uses. Instead, I recommend linux. Almost any distro can (with the free program WineX) run windows games. Linux tends to be very stable, has no viruses, and can give you incredible performance. It can be installed on almost any partition (not NTFS) and is a "good neighbor" to Windows (and every other OS on the planet.) Try it.

I think that if you understood the internal design of BeOS you would agree that any Linux developer should be working on OpenBeOS instead of forcing a unix clone on an x86 box. BeOS is more native to the design of the x86 machine. Now there are more than a few places to get it. I suggest that you visit bebits and get either the developer edition or Max. Both have newer drivers and edits for AMD's mistake on SSE. There is an edit for the very few first die sized P4's with Rambus if you have that. The PE version runs on a virtual file system like what qnx offers. It is a single file that contains the correct format for BeOS. BeOS's file system is a 64 bit system and uses extended attributes to set file attributes. So you can't ever unzip a beos file on any other machine and expect it to work. There is also a way to run the Pro CD/Max/Dev Ed as a live CD too. Yes, the games are limited blaa blaa blaa but for fun see how well your system runs 7 or 8 mpg's at a time while surfing the net. Can any other OS do that?

DRVR, are you sure you're thinking of BeOS? "it tried to migrate to opensource" BeOS was never released as OpenSource. Palm owns the code now, and will never release it. There is an Open Source group trying to re-create BeOS, but it's not BeOS, can't be called BeOS, and probably won't be available for years. "It is best left to server uses." I've never heard of BeOS being used as a server OS. Is it possible? "...can (with the free program WineX) run windows games" WinX can be used to run some Windows applications in Linux, but emulation is ~way~ too slow for modern gaming. Luckily there are Linux versions available of many popular PC games. the bit about "good neighbor" BeOS easily installs to any single partition, logical or primary, slave drive or master, and never causes partition problems. Roughly half of the Linux distros I've tried totally screwed up the Extended partition table, and Linux requires at least two partitions... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CorysProbs, BeOS is the easiest OS to install and use that I've ran. Definitely try it out. You'll need a single available partition and one of the distributions that Jefro mentioned. Best Wishes, Bob

BeOS won't create overlapping partitions either, unlike Linux!

Mebbe DRVR wuz thinking of (free)BSD..its not dead either, but it's more likely to have been used for the things he mentioned...apple seems to like it too, more than (ouch!) BeOS...ahh well, no accounting for taste :)