BeOS 5.0 Pro Version

Contents: 1 Be-OS CD (Bootable).

1 Manual.

System requirements:

Pro Edition: Pentium-class computer; 32MB RAM; dedicated partition or hard

drive of 550MB or more.

Windows is undoubtedly the most user friendly OS available today and Mac the

most handsome hunk or the sexiest geek girl that exists around. So when the

"Be" think tank came out with the idea of blending these two features

together into a single OS, everyone liked the new idea, at least for some time.

Driven by curiosity, I installed it on my system and was more than disappointed

with what "Be" offered me.

Friendly Installation procedure:

Finally, after a long time, a Linux type OS is simple to install. No more hostile

"fdisks" or "diskdruids". A GUI based Partition Manager

is included in the BeOS distribution with a provision to install the OS as a

single file. Run Partition Manager and the rest is a simple click-n-click process

towards a new Operating System.

The same however didn't work when I installed BeOS on my Linux partition. Even

after having 1GB of free space, the software formatted my Linux partition giving

me an error that it was unable to transfer my data. The details of the error

were however not given. Just be careful at this stage, for though BeOS says

that it can install itself over your windows, there are not many warnings or

messages whilst partitioning and a few wrong clicks can erase your data even

before you realize what you are doing.

Users who custom partition their drive using "fdisk" and "diskdruid"

cannot do the same in BeOS. Mainly because the partition manager can install

"Be" on any partition but cannot modify/create partitions.

The remaining part of installation is a breeze. Just sit back and relax. "Be"

is installed in less than 20 minutes, just as promised in the installation manual.

"B (Be)" means Blues:

During installation of most Linux distros, the main trouble is getting the OS

installed properly. With "Be" it's exactly the opposite. The trouble

starts soon after the OS is installed. Once the OS was completely installed

I had a smile on my face, happy that I shall had a wonderful OS with snazzy

graphics just as they described in the glossy BeOS manual. The experience was

however very short lived. "Be" told me that my Display Card was not