First, Haiku is a wonderful OS, and I applaud everyone who is working on it. I have been testing it for several days. Really excellent.
Just a couple of questions:
Is there a ‘dream machine’ for running Haiku? In other words: If someone wanted to build the modern-equivalent of a BeOSBeBox to run Haiku, what components would be in the system?
The reason I ask is that (although Haiku works great on my computer) I’m curious about introducing a couple of developer-friends to the OS and I’m considering building custom-PCs for Haiku for them, as gift.
Are there some specific PC configurations that Haiku has been most-extensively tested against? Are there primary development machines used by the core-team?
I’m curious about what the most bare-bones, but usable, system would be; and what the most high-end system would be? With Haiku’s ongoing-stability and compatibility being the priority.
The Rack-O-Matic bus. Too technical to describe here but at least we could explore how it looks and feels. Let’s begin with the form factor similar to Mac Mini. Basic unit with single CPU, some ram, storage, basic graphics &c.
One day you will need more CPU and RAM and storage. You buy another box and stack it on top the previous one. You’ll now have dual CPU, double the RAM and additional storage configurable as raid or single volume spanning multiple physical ones.
This is facilitated by the Rack-O-Matic ports on top and bottom of each Haiku box. Bottom ports are hidden in its feet, top ones are under tiny doors. The feet will submerge into the top ports and the two boxes are now one.
There may be additional boxes of different kind:
CPU and/or RAM only
GPU box
Storage box
PSU box
Front ports box
Video capture box
you name it (if you are an OEM vendor)
The are all “Rack-O-Matic” compatible, use the same design language, and can grow vertically to the size of a tower PC.
I understood! For hardware made for Haiku, it would be Arm, Risc-V or PPC, since PPC is easier to find old hardware for testing, there are also several current projects!
No. Even with lack of some drivers, x86 / x86_64 still is the better option nowadays for running Haiku.
The OP clearly asked for a normal computer , that he could get/recommend for his friends. Arm, Risc-v and ppc support is still incomplete / not common. PPC hardware is not easy nor cheap to find.
Great concept. It reminds me of where Apple was heading before it became a surveillance-op. Way back in 1985, Apple designer Hartmut Esslinger presented this modular computer design to Steve Jobs:
“The idea was to design a simple hardware “backbone” carrying basic operations and I/O on which the user could add a series of modules, carrying hardware for running Apple II, Mac, UNIX and DOS software, plus other modules with disk drives or networking capabilities.”
Thank you to the community here for all the other responses. I will investigate those suggestions.
This model has been very stable and my current Haiku installation has become my daily driver.
I’m am slowly testing through the many different software apps from HaikuDepot that are important for me to use or what I like to use in other platforms (to compare performance and use) as I slowly move activities from my other daily drivers to Haiku. Though there some activities I cannot do yet in Haiku–but eventually these will get resolved (like DVDRip issues).
Is Haiku perfect–no! But it has come a very long way and will be soon enough to be R1!! I cannot wait for that day…we have great developers!!
So if you are looking for some of these PCs–they are plenty on the e-markets in barebone to affordable configs. Love it–with Haiku installed, it is very zippy!!
As a developer, I currently run a Fujitsu Lifebook U7311. However I would not recommend it. The touchpad, trackpoint and sound are not working, nor are the external video outputs (unless I use failsafe graphics and start the laptop with the lid closed). So that may not be the right question.
As for the “dream machine”, the goal of Haiku is to cover all typical usages of desktop/laptop computers, and each of us have different needs. I like 13" or so laptops, for me this is a great compromise, allowing me a decent screen size and still easily fitting in my backpack when I go on a train trip accross Europe. Other people will want a big, fast desktop machine.
One thing you can check is the BeSLY hardware database, that will give you a good idea of supported and not supported machines: Haiku Hardware Database
General hints for current usage:
You don’t need a graphics card. We don’t have any 3D acceleration, so the built-in video outputs on the motherboard/chipset will work just fine
Any CPU, RAM and disk will do. Use an SSD rather than a spinning hard disk, since you probably don’t need 16TB of storage
The trickiest thing at the moment is probably audio, but it is quite hard to know what works and what doesn’t without testing.
I do apologise for hijacking the topic, what resolution do you get from the external port?
Can you see the boot menu? Do you use a docking station?
Maybe we’d rather spin a new thread off of it…
Yes, the boot menu works fine. This behaves the same with and without the docking station, if the laptop lid is closed, it switched to external display, but to preserve this after booting I have to use failsafe graphics, otherwise the Intel driver will try to switch back to the internal display (and fail).
Brilliant, thank you!
I’m looking for a new laptop that would replace both my Dell Optiplex and the MacBook Air 10” (both Haiku only), the latter used when I travel.
Could anyone confirm this works also for Thinkpads, specifically T470s and T480s?
