What do you like about Haiku?

Community
21

Please in a separate thread.

5 Likes
22

I think there is plenty of that around :wink:

23

I like that it is well engineered and logical. The components are all designed to work together to make a cohesive system, rather than being built from a series of other parts glued together. At the same time it is not in a continual state of redesign to be flashier or have some new UI or API paradigm. As a result the whole system works more smoothly than any other OS. This is a much more logical way of building an OS than that employed by others.

I also like specific design choices: Solving IPC with messaging, having a database filesystem with queries, stack and tile, the shortcuts for resizing windows, the familiar bash shell with (mostly) posix compliance, and so on. Developing software is also nicer because everything is provided under one roof.

I dont mind ports from other OSs, I think they are required for things like web browsers and office at this point. I would like to see haiku become my primary OS (I have tried several times in the past), but for that I need a perfectly working web browser and office suite. I would also like to continue to see ported software integrated nicely into the API, in the way that ffmpeg is integrated currently, for example. If ported software became the norm, or ported system libraries started taking over major roles within the OS (for example if native software started using a haiku port of pulse audio or something like that) it would weaken a key USP of haiku IMO.

3 Likes
24

  • Haiku is a unified OS unlike Linux and the BSDs. People like to pretend some of the BSDs are a unified OS but X, Wayland and all the GUI stuff hasn’t originated from any BSD.

  • Haiku has the best, fastest installer for a desktop OS. I love that I can install it faster than I can boot it, which doesn’t really make sense to me but its always amazing to see how fast it installs even on old hardware. My fave server OS installer is Proxmox VE.

  • Closely related to the previous point, it’s lightweight in comparison to other modern OS’s. I suppose Haiku is actually more of a “modern retro” OS, like the Uzebox is a “modern retro” console and the MEGA65 is a “modern retro” computer.

  • I’ve tried reporting bugs to several open source OS projects and Haiku has been the most responsive.

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25

OpenBSD has X11 in their base distro included with their own (forked) X11 server.

The BSD really are a unified OS, most don’t target the desktop primarily though.

2 Likes
26

Haha! Yes, I should’ve seen off the OpenBSD X11 thing. I knew it was coming!

How much use is X11 without GTK, Qt or and at least one DE or window manager? You’re not going to be able to do very much bar run an xterm.

Its fair to say most of the BSDs provide a full OS for server use but not for desktop.

27

So? Haiku would be useless too without ported software. The media kit relies on ffmpeg, the app_server on anti grain geometry.

To paraphrase you: none of these have originated on Haiku.

How much use is an app_server that doesn’t know how to draw apps or a sound server that doesn’t understand how to play media?

28

Sounds like you just want to argue now, if you really can’t see the difference of Haiku vs X thousand Linux and BSDs in respect to the desktop.

29

Never did you say “in respect to the desktop” or “as a desktop OS”, you claimed the BSD Oses aren’t unified, and that simply isn’t true. They are as integrated as Haiku, and even better in some respects.

Do they make nice desktops?
not really, but that isn’t their target audience either.

3 Likes
30

That is just not true, though. You have to install OpenBSD via the command line for instance, you cannot actually use the GUI for it. Plus, X11 is not anywhere near as deeply integrated with the rest of the OS as Haiku’s app_server and friends are. It is definitely not the same.

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31

With what are you disagreeing exactly…?

your medsages makes no sense to me

32

I really like the flat and direct graphics API. Compare that to GNU/Linux:
Framebuffer → special X driver (I forgot the correct name, DVI or similar) → X server → Xlib or XCB → Gtk → desktop environment → window manager.

Back in the old days you had to install TCP/IP to use a GUI on GNU/Linux. I don’t know if that’s still the case.

I really appreciate the xlibe and Wine compatibility layer. But it’s nice that native programs have a more direct and simple API available.

33

a complete, top to bottom cohesive api, structure, development model.

with a high emphasis on usability

3 Likes
34

Some of these are obviously repeating what others already said, but I like the coherent and unique whole it forms particularly on the UI side. I like design cues it has clearly taken from classic MacOS, at this point it is more faithful to that original vision than OS X is. I do admit I’m partial to just the retro feel too but I think back then the design was also more pure than it is now.

I also enjoy the features that are still fairly cutting edge like the BFS attributes that also have been integrated into both the GUI and multiple native apps (unlike any other system’s extended attributes) and still interesting window management ideas.

35

Let’s compare:

Hardware → Driver → Accelerant → app_server → interface kit/libbe → application

It’s not really that much simpler, and we don’t have 3D acceleration yet which will probably add some complexity to this pipeline.

2 Likes
36

Well I consider the Haiku stack still a lot simpler. But if you think different, ok. Note that framebuffer means several things: hardware, device and driver. And notice the extra complexity of X internally and of the desktop environment.

1 Like
37

a lot of the complexity with unix/linux is due to the client, server, timeshare, multiuser model it’s been built with since day1.

a very server centric use case

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38

A good friend of mine ones said; „A great operating system is the one who gets out of your way“. That’s what Haiku does for me, it doesn’t bother me with things and it’s simple to use. It just works the way I want my OS to work. On top of that it’s beautiful :slight_smile:

Edit: spelling

9 Likes
39

This! I love not having to log in or sign up for accounts in the system, on my computer, that I own and run. I just want to turn my computer on and do the work I intend to do with the computer I intend to do it with. No ads, no spyware, no restrictions. MINE.

2 Likes
40

Ah Haiku how I love thee, let me count the ways:

(in no particular order)

  1. Your architectural elegance and “best solution” approach
  2. Your beautiful ‘next gen retro’ UI
  3. Your coherence
  4. Your developer community’s “Native first, but ports ‘OK’ for pragmatic utility” approach
  5. That you do not get in my way and let me use my apps in peace
  6. That you are light-weight and performant on older hardware
  7. That you retain the “fun” luxe-frontier feel of computing in the late 90s
  8. That your community is passionate and engaged
  9. That your community keeps moving forward for the cause, when many similar equivalents have come and gone in the mean time
  10. That there are many paths you can still take
  11. That incremental, steady improvement is prioritised over “shipping product”
  12. That you don’t concern yourself with “beating” competitors and peers to implement the latest and greatest new thing, but still take on learnings and ideas from their journies
  13. Your stability
  14. Your respect for Privacy, and that I am not “The Product”
  15. That I still look forward to spending time with you, and that I am keen to tell my friends about you
16 Likes