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Haiku

The Haiku desktop, running a variety of applications.
Website:	http://haiku-os.org/
Company/ developer:	Haiku Inc.
OS family:	BeOS
Source model:	Open source
Latest stable release:	N/A / N/A
Kernel type:	modular kernel
License:	MIT License
Working state:	Pre-Alpha

Haiku, formerly known as OpenBeOS, is an open source project dedicated to the re-creation and continuation of the Be Operating System on x86 and PowerPC based computers. Image File history File links Current_event_marker. ... Image File history File links Nuvola_apps_kpager. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 18 KB)Haiku (OS) in action. ... A website (alternatively, Web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on a Web server, usually accessible via the Internet or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML, that is almost always accessible via HTTP, a... It has been suggested that software publisher be merged into this article or section. ... A software developer is a person who is concerned with one or more facets of the software development process, a somewhat broader scope of computer programming or a specialty of project managing. ... BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... A kernel connects the application software to the hardware of a computer. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... The MIT License, also called the X License or the X11 License, originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a license for the use of certain types of computer software. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. ... An Intel Pentium 4 chip; early Northwood build x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture, first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ...

History

The development project began as "OpenBeOS" in 2001 following the purchase of Be by Palm, Inc. and the subsequent discontinuation of BeOS. This move left BeOS users without a viable upgrade path and BeOS developers with programs stranded on an unsupported platform. Although one of several projects with the aim of continuing the operating system, OpenBeOS differed from other attempts such as Cosmoe and Blue Eyed OS (projects which both remain incomplete), in that rather than take an existing Linux or BSD kernel and reimplement Be's APIs on top of it (which would break binary compatibility with BeOS R5 and significantly deviate from the original design), the project planned an almost complete rewrite of the system, maintaining both binary and source compatibility. This should allow any existing BeOS R5 programs to run on the new system without being recompiled. Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Be, Incorporated was the company that developed the BeOS operating system and BeBox computer. ... Palm, Inc. ... API may refer to: In computing, application programming interface In petroleum industry, American Petroleum Institute In education, Academic Performance Index This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... In computer software, an application binary interface (ABI) describes the low-level interface between an application program and the operating system, between an application and its libraries, or between component parts of the application. ... In computing, a device (usually a computer processor) that can run the same source code intended to be compiled and run on another device is said to be source-compatible. ...

In 2004 a new project name was chosen in order to avoid infringing on Palm's trademarks. The new name, decided by project leaders and influenced by an official community vote, was revealed at that year's WalterCon. The name "Haiku" intends to reflect the elegance and simplicity that attracted many to the BeOS platform, but is also a direct reference to the distinctive haiku error messages found in NetPositive, the default BeOS web browser, and many other Be applications. shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... WalterCon is the North American user and developer conference of the Haiku Operating System. ... Haiku )   is a mode of Japanese poetry, the late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the older hokku ), the opening verse of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. ... NetPositive (often called Net+) is the default browser that comes with the BeOS operating system. ...

The project is controlled by Haiku Incorporated, a New York based non-profit organization. State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... A non-profit organization (abbreviated NPO, or non-profit or not-for-profit) is an organization whose primary objective is to support an issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes, without concern for monetary profit. ...

Development

BeOS's modular design has enabled teams of volunteer programmers to work independently on replacements for individual servers and APIs (collectively known in Haiku as "kits"). These teams include: This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

• App/Interface - under which the Interface, App and Support kits fall;
• BFS - aimed at recreating the Be File System - this task is mostly complete with the resulting OpenBFS
• Game - developing the Game Kit and its APIs;
• Input Server - the server that handles input devices, such as keyboards and mice and how they communicate with other parts of the system;
• Kernel - working on the kernel, the core of the operating system;
• Media - developing the audio server and related APIs;
• MIDI - implementing the MIDI protocol;
• Network - in charge of writing drivers for network devices and APIs relating to networking;
• OpenGL - working on the OpenGL support;
• Preferences - recreating BeOS's preferences suite;
• Printing - working on the print servers and drivers for printers;
• Screen Saver - implementing screen saver functionality;
• Storage - developing the storage server and drivers for required filesystems;
• Translation - recreating the reading/writing/conversion modules for the different file formats;

A few kits have been deemed feature complete and the remainder are currently in various stages of development. The Be File System (BFS, occasionally misnamed as BeFS) is the native file system for the BeOS operating system. ... The Be File System (BFS, BeFS) is the native file system for the BeOS operating system. ... A kernel connects the application software to the hardware of a computer. ... Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 3D computer graphics (and 2D computer graphics as well). ...

Haiku's kernel is a fork of NewOS, a modular kernel written by former Be Inc. engineer Travis Geiselbrecht and is currently under heavy development. Many features have been implemented, including a VFS layer and rudimentary SMP support. In software, a project fork or branch happens when a developer (or a group of them) takes code from a project and starts to develop independently of the rest. ... NewOS is a free, in development, operating system with full source code available, along with periodic binary snapshots. ... A virtual file system (VFS) or virtual filesystem switch is an abstraction layer on top of a more concrete file system. ... Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ...

Progress

A number of major milestones were achieved in a six week period during March to April 2005, such as the first graphical applications to run on Haiku itself (running with full 2D acceleration), and the first use of a web browser on Haiku (Links). Both of these were achieved without using any code or binaries belonging to Be, Inc., including the drivers used for the graphics and network card in the original examples. Another major milestone was reached in July 2005, with the system now capable of running the BeOS desktop shell, Tracker. April 2005 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - → Hamas and Islamic Jihad have declared, in principle, their intention to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). ... Links is an open source text and graphic web browser with a pull-down menu system. ... Ongoing events • 2005 Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes • 2005 Maharashtra floods • 2005 Gujarat Flood • Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan • Fuel prices • Gomery Comm. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Shell_(computing). ... OpenTracker is the generic term given to the open source versions of the Tracker and Deskbar desktop management tools for BeOS. The original Tracker and Deskbar were created by Be, Incorporated, as part of BeOS, but were opensourced in late 2000. ...

In October 2005, Axel Dörfler, one of the most prolific Haiku developers, became the first full-time paid Haiku developer, working via funds donated by the community. He worked on CD booting, SMP and other kernel and app_server work. Employment continued until December 2005, at which point the funds allocated ran out.

Work on the operating system continues to progress; Haiku is now at a stage where it is bootable and even semi-usable. Despite the progress made, there is still a lot of work to be done before a release can be made. Network and USB functionality is under heavy development, and the media_server also lags behind the other components. Additionally, Haiku is currently far from stable, with (as should be expected in its pre-release state) crashes being prevalent. In terms of a release, a date has yet to be set. As of January 2006, project developer Stephan Aßmus suggests that at the current level of development, R1 is at least a year away, if not two. ^[1] Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to interface devices. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In August 2006, Haiku celebrated its fifth anniversary. Development on the aforementioned network and USB stacks continues at a rapid pace, and as the two last major remaining pieces of the operating system, it is expected that once complete, Haiku will be suitable for day-to-day use by developers and testers. A new website, based on Drupal was launched. Additionally, a contest to find Haiku's default icon set was held. The winner was Stephan Aßmus's set, "stippi". Aßmus was also the developer responsible for Haiku's icon creation tool, Icon-O-Matic, and integrating Haiku's own format of scalable vector graphics, HVIF (Haiku Vector Icon Format) into the Deskbar and Tracker. A partial implementation of the set can be found in the latest builds.^[2] Drupal is a free modular content management framework, content management system, framework and blogging engine which was originally written by Dries Buytaert as a bulletin board system. ...

In March 2007, the first unofficial Haiku distribution, called "Pingwinek GNU/Haiku", was created^[3]. Later on in the month, Haiku was accepted into Google's Summer of Code. Google, Inc. ... The Google Summer of Code was a season-long event held during the summer of 2005 in which Google rewarded open source projects which sucessfully completed projects which they set for themselves, though many projects were proposed, Google selected which ones would be eligible for this financial support program. ...

Compatibility with BeOS

Haiku aims to be compatible with BeOS at both the source and binary level, allowing software written and compiled for BeOS to compile and run without modification on Haiku. This would provide Haiku users with an instant library of applications to choose from (even programs whose developers were no longer in business or had no interest in updating them), in addition to allowing development of other applications to resume from where they had been terminated following the demise of Be, Inc. This dedication to compatibility also has its drawbacks though, with Haiku stuck using version 2.95 of the compiler GCC, which as of 2005, is essentially over 6 years old (although there have been minor point releases in the interval and Haiku does compile with the latest version of GCC, the drawback being the loss of compatibility). The second major release of Haiku, to be known as "R2", will break backwards compatibility. This article is about the computing term. ... The GNU Compiler Collection (usually shortened to GCC) is a set of programming language compilers produced by the GNU Project. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Despite these attempts, compatibility with a number of system add-ons which use private APIs will not be implemented. These include additional filesystem drivers and media codec addons, although the only affected addons for BeOS R5 not easily re-implemented are Indeo 5 media decoders for which no specification exists. Indeo Video (commonly known now simply as Indeo) is a video codec developed by Intel in 1992. ...

R5 binary applications which run successfully under Haiku (as of May 2006) include (but are not limited to):

• Opera
• Firefox
• Gnash
• NetPositive
• Quake II
• Quake III
• SeaMonkey
• Vision
• VLC Media Player

Driver compatibility is incomplete, and unlikely to cover all kinds of BeOS drivers. 2D graphics drivers in general work exactly the same as on R5, as do network drivers. Audio drivers using API versions prior to BeOS R5 are as-yet unsupported, and unlikely to be so; however, R5-era drivers work. Opera is a cross-platform web browser and Internet suite which handles common internet-related tasks including visiting web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting online and displaying Widgets. ... Mozilla Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and a large community of external contributors. ... Gnash is a project which aims to create a player and browser plugin for the Adobe Flash file format which is free software, replacing the proprietary software niche currently occupied by Adobe Flash Player. ... NetPositive (often called Net+) is the default browser that comes with the BeOS operating system. ... Quake II, released on December 6, 1997, is a first person shooter computer game developed by id Software and distributed by Activision. ... This article or section should include material from Anarki For an overview of the Quake game franchise go to Quake series. ... SeaMonkey is a free, open source, and cross-platform Internet suite that is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite. ... Vision is the leading IRC client for BeOS, and the only one currently maintained. ... VLC media player is a free software (GPL) media player by the VideoLAN project. ... BeOS R5 is the final version of BeOS from Be Inc. ...

Low-level device drivers, namely for storage devices and SCSI adapters will not be compatible. USB drivers for both the second (BeOS 5) and third (BeOS Dano) generation USB stacks will work, however. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Beyond R1

Although the first release of Haiku is yet to be completed, initial planning for R2 has already started through the "Glass Elevator" project (a reference to children's novel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator). The only detail confirmed at this point is that it will switch to a current GCC release (that being v4.1.1, as of May 2006). In a discussion on the Haiku mailing list one of the lead developers, Axel Dörfler, commented that a compatibility layer is planned that will allow applications developed for Haiku R1 to run on Haiku R2 and later. In terms of features, file indexing on par with Unix's Beagle, Google Desktop and Mac OS X's Spotlight, greater integration of scalable vector graphics into the desktop, proper support for multiple users and additional kits are all among those that have been suggested.^[4] Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is a childrens book by British author Roald Dahl. ... The GNU Compiler Collection (usually shortened to GCC) is a set of programming language compilers produced by the GNU Project. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... Old UI for Beagle, code named Best Beagle is a search tool for Linux, enabling the user to search documents, chat logs, email and contact lists in a similar way to Spotlight in Mac OS X, or Google Desktop under Microsoft Windows. ... Google Desktops logo Google Desktop is Googles version of the desktop search that runs locally on a Windows XP or Windows 2000 SP3+ PC. The desktop search program allows full text search of all of ones e-mail, computer files, music, photos, chat, and Web pages that... Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Spotlight is an as-you-type, system-wide desktop search feature found in Mac OS X v10. ... Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a XML markup language for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and animated, and either declarative or scripted. ...

References

See also

• List of BeOS programs
• Comparison of operating systems
• BeBits
• BeOS API

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This is a list of computer programs for BeOS. 3dmiX - sound mix NetPositive - web browser SoftwareValet - software package manager Vision - IRC client In addition, many cross platform programs have or had BeOS ports AbiWord Blender 3D CodeWarrior (as BeIDE) Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Nvu Opera VLC media player As well... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating systems. ... BeBits -- always the same. ... The BeOS API, often called the Be API after Be, Incorporated, is the application programming interface required to write graphical native applications on BeOS, and hence its derivatives such as yellowTAB Zeta. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Haiku

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

Haiku

• Haiku News (formerly The BeOSJournal) Focuses on Haiku OS news reporting, interviews, application reviews, and community events, in addition to BeOS related interests.
• HaikuHost.com Hosts & mirrors various "unofficial" Haiku builds; new build every 2 hours.
• Haiku Podcast A monthly podcast providing news and interviews with the individuals behind Haiku.
• IsComputerOn A BeOS news site, focusing predominantly on Haiku.
• BeOS News All things BeOS (and Haiku) related
• Glass Elevator Summaries A Wiki for documentation of ideas from the mailing list for Haiku R2 ("Glass Elevator")
• OSVids Video preview of Haiku OS

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Wikimedia Commons (also called Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ...

Articles on Haiku

• Haiku: Where are we at? (February 2006)
• Haiku: Where are we at? Part 2 (March 2006)
• Haiku: Where are we at? Part 3 (March 2007)
• Three Years of Haiku: The Long Road to Evolution (August 2004)

Development blogs

• Weekly Haiku
• Axel Dörfler
• Michael Lotz
• Marcus Overhagen
• Niels Reedijk
• Rudolf Cornelissen
• DarkWyrm
• Sikosis
• Bryan Varner