In 1990, ex-Apple employees Jean-Louis Gassée and Steve Sakoman created a
company: Be Incorporated. It was founded with a purpose in mind: to create
a powerful, elegant, media-oriented, friendly computer that addressed the
user's needs. They manufactured a product to tackle these goals head-on: a
personal computer called the BeBox. This computer and its operating system,
the BeOS, were first presented at Agenda 95 in October, 1995. The audience
was elated.

The BeBox and BeOS had features that were never before seen in the world of
personal computing. The BeBox contained two processors and three additional
chips dedicated to sound processing to provide a fast platform for video
and audio. In the back of the BeBox was a feature of particular interest
to computer enthusiasts and developers -- the GeekPort, which was a multi-
purpose port intended for experimentation.

The operating system, BeOS, was equally packed with features. Its design
was attractive to many and its yellow tabbed windows distinguished it from
the Macintosh and regular PCs. For many people, it was an operating system
that was easy to fall in love with.

Unfortunately, Be, Inc. abandoned its stake in the hardware market because
of low sales and hardware supply problems. The BeOS was then modified to work
on Apple Macintosh systems in 1997 and again to regular PCs in 1998. Although
it had many enthusiastic users and developers, it never gained a significant
market share for a variety of reasons which included a lack of third party
programs, hardware support, and Microsoft's business tactics. In 2000,
BeOS saw its fifth release in two versions: a Pro Edition and a Personal
Edition. The Personal Edition didn't have quite as much software included
as the Pro Edition, but it was free for anyone to download. This undermined
the sales of the Pro Edition, increasing Be's financial difficulties.

The company shifted its focus to attempt to use BeOS in Internet appliances.
Some claim that this decision eroded the credibility of BeOS as a viable
alternative to Windows or Linux. Be, Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2001
and soon after sold its intellectual property to Palm, Inc.

Be, Inc. left behind a legacy: a community of dedicated and loyal users
who continued to use BeOS despite the demise of its parent company. Some
people added support for newer hardware and others wrote software to keep it
current.

Others wanted to recreate the entire operating system. Michael Phipps was
one of them and in August 2001, he founded one of several projects started
with the intention of reviving BeOS. The project was called OpenBeOS. Not
only was OpenBeOS going to rewrite the operating system, but it also had the
ambitious goal of writing it so that programs written for BeOS would run
unmodified on the new software. In June of the following year, OpenBeOS held
a convention in Columbus, Ohio where talks were given and a new name for the
project was announced: Haiku. The rest, as is often said, is history.

