Honest question/honest answer: why Haiku?

Community
21

I don’t think we have a strict “no politics” stance.

The exact wording from the policies is:

The first paragraph is just about offtopic discussions. But politics can be very much on-topic for software projects these days.

And the second paragraph, as much as I’d like it to be obvious and just about being decent human beings, will be seen as a political statement by some.

We have kicked a handful of people out due to these rules. I think it works reasonably well, maybe in some cases we should have acted faster. Still learning about how to handle this after all those years :slight_smile:

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22

Like others, I loved BeOS. It was stunning running BeOS on the same hardware as Windows and seeing the difference in performance. Windows would stutter if you scrolled a window while playing music. In BeOS on the same machine I could play multiple MP3s at once, some backwards (gotta love SoundPlay) and do plenty of other stuff at the same time.

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23

It’s a fun operating system. Most essential computing tasks are easy on it. Installation is easy. Compiling it and the software is easy. I really like how hpkg works because it helps me keep the system clean. I don’t have to worry about a big mess when trying new software unless I decide to not use packages, which I can easily do if I really wanted to. Also, it is as fast as can be doing all these tasks. It doesn’t get in the way or apologize to me for my own decisions, wasting my time. I can destroy the whole system without a problem and be back up in a few minutes doing what I want to do.

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24

Same here:) I built my first PC in 1998 to be BeOS compatible, never ran Windows on that machine I think :wink:
Drove my father crazy but since he wanted to use my computer, he had to live with it:) (and get used to GoBe Productive instead of Microsoft Office, which was really pathetic at that time).

I am honored you are waiting for my passion project SEN, and I’m actively pushing through the last km to release the 1st tech preview by end of summer as planned, things are going well…

I think Haiku has quite some unique flaire and feature set, and the computing world needs a decent, fast and private, personal desktop all the more nowadays.

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25

I have discovered BeOS in 1998 and have used it until mid 2002.
During that time I have contributed to the french BeOS community by maintaining a site dedicated to this system - Le Butineur - and mid 2000 contributed to Labeille.net which was already there since 1996 and hosted on a BeBox by a person called Marc who owned that BeBox machine:)

From what I can remember it was a fresh and rewarding experience during that period to use BeOS and contribute to its community.
I’ve then lost interest in 2003 as the system was no more updated since 2000.

Twenty years later - in 2024, I’ve gained interest in Haiku because installation on one of my machine - a NUC Intel from 2019 - was a successful experience, meaning I can use it as a dedicated and primary OS on that machine.

I’ve found again the BeOS “spirit” on it :slight_smile:

So why using Haiku ?

  • It’s open-source meaning you can contribute to some improvements if you have the skills
  • It has a limited but nice community : there can be debates on features or other topics, but you will always find someone who will try to help you
  • It’s fast to use on a dedicated machine
  • It doesn’t have something to sell to you : the more Haiku users, the better of course, but nobody will try to convince you to use the system, it’s your own choice:)

On my side I will continue to dedicate some time contributing to this community, and I will follow the next releases with great interest:)

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22 posts were split to a new topic: Linux and corporate sponsorship of open-source

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I was interested in BeOS when it was PPC and bought a copy for x86 when it became available and stuck with it until the end. I even had it installed on my computer at work, needing mostly spreadsheets, web, and email. It worked nicely for all of those.

I watched the early days of the different BeOS replacements but lost the thread for a few years until Haiku started to get usable for me. So, somewhere around Beta 2, I think. Once Beta 3 dropped, I’ve had at least once computer that always had it and updated when different Betas were released. Now I have a Beta 5 computer, and one with nightlies.

To answer the question why, it’s because I like it. I liked using BeOS and I like using Haiku and would prefer to use it all the time. Because… I just do.

I use Windows, even though I don’t like it. My job is based around it (and always has been) and it plays games. I have considered ditching Windows and getting an XBox for games, but, I feel I’ll always need Windows for job related things, at least.

I also use macOS, which I’m fine with. I don’t find it at all limiting like other people do (because I know how to install programs that aren’t signed, if I need to). It’s reliable, for the most part. There are things that irk me, but that’s the nature of life.

I also have one computer that runs Linux, but I don’t use that as often because it just doesn’t thrill me and there’s not much that I can do with it that I can’t already do with Windows and macOS.

Which leaves me in a weird position. There’s nothing I can do on Haiku that I can’t already do with Windows and macOS, either. Especially since Haiku gets ports of programs that also run on those two. I just would really like to use Haiku, instead.

So, I wish there were less ports of Qt and GTK programs and more effort into creating Haiku “native” things. Like, a word processor. Something that used the strengths of the OS and UI. This probably seems convulated and makes a lot more sense in my head.

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41

Great UI, distraction free, works with most of my hardware and can run some good open source software. I appreciate the devs and all their hard work!

I bought BeOS R5 when it came out, used it for a while and have tried Zeta as well.

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42

It gives a Y2K vibe computer interface by being skeuomorphic, as a fort defending the wave of flat design.

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45

I keep my hand in with the BSDs for this reason too, there are things happening in Linux that I don’t like, but it is still the most easily usable O/S presently available. My interest in Haiku is mainly because it is fast to install. It doesn’t do things the ‘normal way’ - but is usable for the things I do, mainly…it improves year on year, but slowly - so be it.

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51

My why list:

  • for technological diversity.
    To paraphase JLG, “3 OS for personal computer are not enough!”.
  • for self-training purpose: its source code, API and source code layout is way easier to navigate and learn from
  • for its community, which seems to bring people from multiple horizons
  • for its think-outside-the-box design approach sometimes
  • for its dont-reinvent-the-wheel-when-its-good-enough-already design approach the other times
  • for, without being an Unix, its very good Unix compatibility, making porting the huge open source Unix softwares ecosystem possible
  • for its very distinctive icons set, even better looking since they’re vectorials
  • for its live and responsive feeling, at least for most of the native stuff
  • for exploring a 3rd way between Windows and Unixes
  • because that’s how I started my journey in open source software development contributor world
  • and for the Oh, BeOS! reaction when I explain what is Haiku to some people of my generation…
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52

We have kicked a handful of people out due to these rules.

And mostly people who were only contributing at discussion (noise) level than at development level IIRC

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3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Linux and corporate sponsorship of open-source

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I love Linux because I can use it like server, mainframes, supercomputers, kiosk, embedded systems, smartphones(Android), tablets(Chromebook) and desktop.
However from the beginning BeOS always was focused on desktop and multimedia, and Haiku is EXCELLENT in that TARGET.
Linux must satisfy a lot of different markets, that is a blessing and curse, because increase complexity.
One image explains all:

After_30_years
After_30_years952×710 64.7 KB

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55

However from the beginning BeOS always was focused on desktop and multimedia, and Haiku is EXCELLENT in that TARGET.

I disagree for multimedia: PipeWire is excellent (and does not break anything, which is very unusual for Linux) while Media Kit needs more work to become as good.

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7 posts were merged into an existing topic: Linux and corporate sponsorship of open-source

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Pipewire is not much use for embedded though, so again for Linux you have to select different components depending on the application!

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“Oh, BeOS!” If you weren’t there … have any idea what MacOS 7 was like? Windows 95? The team showed up at the campus where I worked at the computer center, and it was fun to see the BeBox do its stunts, but the treat was when you looked into the package and found a simple, coherent, powerful modern operating system and graphic interface.

And Haiku is way better than BeOS was. BeOS was kind of a hack job in places, and I don’t think you can say that of Haiku in any way.

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Also I like Haiku because it’s C++ - based.

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63

I like Haiku because it mostly skirts the pit of despair of modern C++.

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