1In 1990, ex-Apple employees Jean-Louis Gassée and Steve Sakoman created a 2company: Be Incorporated. It was founded with a purpose in mind: to create 3a powerful, elegant, media-oriented, friendly computer that addressed the 4user's needs. They manufactured a product to tackle these goals head-on: a 5personal computer called the BeBox. This computer and its operating system, 6the BeOS, were first presented at Agenda 95 in October, 1995. The audience 7was elated. 8 9The BeBox and BeOS had features that were never before seen in the world of 10personal computing. The BeBox contained two processors and three additional 11chips dedicated to sound processing to provide a fast platform for video 12and audio. In the back of the BeBox was a feature of particular interest 13to computer enthusiasts and developers -- the GeekPort, which was a multi- 14purpose port intended for experimentation. 15 16The operating system, BeOS, was equally packed with features. Its design 17was attractive to many and its yellow tabbed windows distinguished it from 18the Macintosh and regular PCs. For many people, it was an operating system 19that was easy to fall in love with. 20 21Unfortunately, Be, Inc. abandoned its stake in the hardware market because 22of low sales and hardware supply problems. The BeOS was then modified to work 23on Apple Macintosh systems in 1997 and again to regular PCs in 1998. Although 24it had many enthusiastic users and developers, it never gained a significant 25market share for a variety of reasons which included a lack of third party 26programs, hardware support, and Microsoft's business tactics. In 2000, 27BeOS saw its fifth release in two versions: a Pro Edition and a Personal 28Edition. The Personal Edition didn't have quite as much software included 29as the Pro Edition, but it was free for anyone to download. This undermined 30the sales of the Pro Edition, increasing Be's financial difficulties. 31 32The company shifted its focus to attempt to use BeOS in Internet appliances. 33Some claim that this decision eroded the credibility of BeOS as a viable 34alternative to Windows or Linux. Be, Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2001 35and soon after sold its intellectual property to Palm, Inc. 36 37Be, Inc. left behind a legacy: a community of dedicated and loyal users 38who continued to use BeOS despite the demise of its parent company. Some 39people added support for newer hardware and others wrote software to keep it 40current. 41 42Others wanted to recreate the entire operating system. Michael Phipps was 43one of them and in August 2001, he founded one of several projects started 44with the intention of reviving BeOS. The project was called OpenBeOS. Not 45only was OpenBeOS going to rewrite the operating system, but it also had the 46ambitious goal of writing it so that programs written for BeOS would run 47unmodified on the new software. In June of the following year, OpenBeOS held 48a convention in Columbus, Ohio where talks were given and a new name for the 49project was announced: Haiku. The rest, as is often said, is history. 50 51