2025-11-25
I can't remember how old I was, but I was in middle school when I first saw this video:
Even though we were in the Vista age, it blew my mind to see an OS from the 90s able to do what Vista still couldn't. And the interface! I have never seen a GUI as perfect before or since. Something about it all clicked. I was interested in trying this dead thing called BeOS.
Turns out even in the mid-2000s BeOS could still be bought from vendors new. I can't remember the name of where I bought it from (started with a P?), but I snagged (well, my Dad bought for me) a copy of BeOS 4.5 and 5 Pro.
All I had was a Dell Inspiron 9300. This laptop is from 2005. I remember booting from the CD and being greeted with a large black and white screen with the BeOS installer. I didn't know there was a way to force a color resolution at the time, so for a while rocked BeOS in black and white. It was smooth, and it was still fun to use. I later figured out the boot menu options and forced a resolution - I never could get a working driver for the ATI graphics in the laptop. So here I was, rocking BeOS unaccelerated, without sound, without networking, without anything really working on it. But it still felt right.
I later got sound and network working thanks to drivers on BeBits, and ran BeOS until about 2007-2008 when I switched over to Zeta. Yep, moved from one dead OS to another. I would frequently try out Haiku, but it wasn't quite there at the time to be a daily driver.
I have quite the collection of BeOS software, books, magazines, and even some hardware. I own multiple copies of BeOS and Zeta, Gobe Productive, Corum III, GrooveMaker, and others. I also have three (!) Compaq Clippers running BeIA.
It's 2025 and I still love BeOS more than any other operating system. I'll regularly bust out a copy and play around with it or spend a few hours in Corum III. I have a Clipper on display with a copy of Be's BeIA brochure, and boxes and boxes full of goodies I'll browse through sometimes. It's weird to pine for the old days that I wasn't a part of. I missed what I think was the pinnacle of personal computing. Nothing I've used has ever felt as right as BeOS does. I don't think we'll ever have something like it again. Haiku is close, but it never felt quite right. Same with Zeta. Nothing could ever replace the original BeOS.
BeOS came with a few sample videos and songs. Here's one of them:
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