A real BeOS and Be Inc museum! Need your help!

1

It would be wonderful to make a public museum about BeOS and Be Inc, with a room (or rooms)
full of BeOS and Be Inc related stuff. Imagine a room full of computers running BeOS
(Bebox, Intel X86, PPC), every posible version of it (DR1-DR8, PR1-2, R3, R3.1, R3.2, R4, R4.5, R5),
executing all kind of software (audio, video, games, 3D, etc).

It could be in ANY city or town of the world, I was thinking maybe in a University,
High school or some public building which borrows a room or some place (no need to pay a rent),
which could be visited by everybody.

Im looking for anything related: Bebox, BeIA, original software, manuals,
magazines, intel compatible hardware, books, posters, t-shirts, photos from events,
compatible ppc computers, x86 SMP motherboards, stickers, geeklights projects, or whatever
you consider it would be nice to show at the museum.

If you have any of these things that you want to donate and collaborate with the museum,
please let me know through this post, telling where you are from. Suggestions about a place
where to build the museum are welcomed, maybe you know a place in your city which could be
posible to do it!

Maybe we can use the place in the future for events like BeGeistert or any BeOS/Haiku related
event (Bug/Hug meetings) and promote Haiku OS, too!

Thank you very much, I hope we can make it! :slight_smile:

2

Hello, lorezan! Thanks for writing! Making a digital museum is a nice option! :slight_smile:

3

You would be better served making a website or youtube videos I think.

4

That’s the exact sort of thing I’m trying to do with the Land of the Leaves project…

5

Where are you located? Europe or North America?

6

Hello, Haiku_Programmer! Im from Argentina, South America. And you?

7

I am in Ontario Canada.

I see that as a problem in locating the museum with the most viewers.

What i mean is the best location would be in Europe, and the second best would be in the USA.

8

Its not a problem or an obstacle! If Europe is the best place, we are going to make it in Europe! One day we could visit the place, its not about the location, it doesnt matter, as long as we can make this little dream come true together.

Thanks Haiku_Programmer! We made one more step in the project! Now we need a place in some country of Europe! So, anyone has any suggestions about a place in Europe?? It could be possible in any place you imagine, no need of luxury, a garage, a school, a house, in some abandoned place, etc.

While we find a place, if someone has something related to donate, please tell us! We need as much help and collaborators as posible!

Thank you very much! :slight_smile:

9

There are non-profit organizations collecting old computer hardware and sometimes displaying it. Maybe you could try contacting them for help. Some of them in France, for example:

http://silicium.org/site/

http://mo5.com/asso/

10

Hello, Pulkomandy! Thanks for your advise! I´ll try to contact them, to see if they can borrow us a room or some place to make the project. Any other ideas or suggestions about a place in Europe? Does anyone have some BeOS / Be Inc related stuff to donate?

Thank you! :slight_smile:

11

Personally, I think you’re wasting your time. A psysical place to hold a BeOS museum is a bad idea, and here’s why:

  • you ca only make it in one place, in one country. Where would that place be? In France? Germany? Who will travel from Poland to France just to see a BeOS museum. I wouldn’t.
  • who will ship you BeBoxes and packages to display? Who will pay for the shipping cost? And why would someone send you a BeBox you’d only put on display instead of keeping it or selling it on eBay?
  • who will pay for the space and utilities? Water, rent, taxes, electricity, legal forms. These will not be covered from an entrance fee, I assure you.
  • a BeOS museum is of no interest to people. It may sound nice to you and me, but we’re two. We’re about 100 people in here, all spread around the globe. Say we visit the museum once because it’s of interest to us (an furthermore, why would we come for a second time?). That’s an estimate of 5 euros entrance fee. So you have about 500 euros in about 10 years. Keep in mind that the rent alone will be of about 200 euros per month to say the least.
  • who will manage the museum? Who will pick up packages, register them, display them, buy glass cases, displays? Who will dust them from time to time and who will stay 8 hours per day to guard a museum with no visitors? You? I think not.
  • the interest for a BeOS museum in the general population is about as high as a museum for guinea pig outfits. Although I’m pretty sure the guinea pig outfits would stir five times more interest in people as old, niche hardware and software would.
  • what exactly would you display? A BeBox, a G3 running the PPC version, maybe a BeIA prototype if you are extremely lucky to find one. A few games and apps on about three screens. A visitor would be able to see all these in about 3 minutes. Hardly a “museum” I’d say and not worth an entrance fee. You just don’t have enough stuff to display.
  • in the mind of most people, “BeOS” means exactly nothing. It could be a soft drink for all they care. The “BeOS Museum” would not attract visitors and therefore would not make enough money to sustain itself simply because normal people have no idea what BeOS is. Normal people didn’t know what it was back in the glory days, much less now. When you hear about the “Coin Museum”, you assume you get to see old coins. When you hear about the “Wax Museum”, you assume you’ll see wax figures. What would you explain to your father, grandmother or a Spanish tourist that BeOS was? And why would they care to see it? Why would they pay to see it? POSIX-compliancy means absolutely nothing to 99,9% of the planet.

Don’t get me wrong: i’d love to see a BeBox up close; but I wouldn’t travel half across Europe to see it, consult a map, take cabs, pay fare, pay entrance just to see blinken lights for 5 minutes.

12

i’d be interested in seeing a computer museum that talked a bit about the design of certain systems – what it was that attracted people to develop software for them. there are reasons the amiga was used for editing star trek deep space nine and there are reasons beos and haiku power/ed radio stations but aside from haiku, information about the quirks and idiosyncracies of desktop operating systems is pretty sparse, though i’m sure the must be tons of interesting history waiting to be uncovered and published (and also dying the longer it goes uninvestigated)

13

Heh… I practically have my own personal sun4m museum + a few sun4c, sun4d an sun4u and one sun4v :smiley:

That said I don’t know a single person that actually cares certainly no one could pay to see them! BeOS computers and in my case Sun/Ross/Tadpole computers are at best Collectible things… if you want to let others see them for themselves and experience the software an emulator that is easy to run is the best way.

14

i’ve been to computer-themed exhibits in san diego, san jose, oakland and san francisco in california, and heard of others doing well in nyc and san antonio – also there’s a good deal of stuff at the smithsonian. people are interested in this stuff.

15

Yes but those are multi manned efforts put together by universities or computer societies and such… I could see a museum having a BeOS exibit. But not a whole museum around it as it wouldn’t attract even enough people to support it.

16

i agree, exhibits all the way