I have to laugh whenever some "new" technology gets added to the *nix world and all the Lino-nuts go, "ooh, ahh", without a clue that BeOS already had it 4 years ago, if not sooner. In some cases, BeOS *still* does it better - journalling, SMP, attributes; but I digress.
Tonight I read on slashdot that they've improved XFree86 so that you can change the refresh rate of each screen of an X display on the fly. Yep, BeOS has been able to do this* since I've owned it. Number of times I've actually used that ability? Once, just to see it.
To be fair, you can also rotate and reflect each screen. Oh, yeah; that's useful.
*I realize that BeOS doesn't run X. I mean, the ability to use different refresh rates (and resolutions) within each workspace.
While at O'Reilly, I got to play with a BeBox. I enjoyed watching the CPU LED monitors. Since I do a lot of hard drive recording, I'm particularly sad that BeOS didn't catch on. No one wanted to write apps for it. I'm one of those 'Lino-nuts' and I'm public confess my profound disappointment at the developement speed of multimedia on Linux.
For typical desktop things I find Linux readily usable. Unforuntately for more specialized desktop apps like audio/MIDI recording, Linux isn't even where MacOS X let alone Win32.
Multimedia infrastructure isn't easy to build and it's not something hackers are likely to find in old AT&T Unix source. Open Source is very good at tackling the lowing hanging fruit of OS features. The challenge remains for Open Source to lead the way into the hard stuff (that is, stuff that really isn't that much fun to work on).
While I also found BeOS nice and I'm sad that it didn't survive (businesswise), saying that "only now UNIX is catching on with BeOS (featurewise)" is a bit parochial, to say the least... "What do you mean by UNIX, white man?" That a particular strain of Linux/BSD gains a feature doesn't mean that only know "UNIX as a whole" (whatever that means) gains a feature. SMP? Been there for I think decades, certainly for more than a decade. Journaling (data or metadata or both)? Been there for more than a decade. 64-bitness? Been there for more than a decade. And so forth.
In other words: while it is nice to snicker at other platforms getting feature X only now when BeOS had that one four years ago, please check your facts before claiming that BeOS was there first, so that you are not snickered at yourself.
I learned my lesson in not snickering by being an ex-Amiga user. Sure it was cool, "ahead of its time", but very few features were really trailblazing. It was the combination of them, and few hardware things, that made it great. And it is in a quite similar position as BeOS: the enthusiasts are keeping the flame alive, by emulators and such.
Re:Well...
djberg96 on 2002-10-21T14:24:43
Ok, let's talk just about Linux specifically.SMP? Been there for I think decades, certainly for more than a decade
It wasn't until Mandrake 7.2 that I could even get Linux to recognize my second CPU. Given that BeOS had SMP support in mind from day 1, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that their implementation is at least as good as, and probably better than, Linux SMP support. I'm not sure where windows is at these days - NT was at 80% of up to 4 cpu's (max) last I heard.
Journaling (data or metadata or both)? Been there for more than a decade
And yet I continue to read negative articles and/or comments about the various journalling implementations for Linux. All appear to have various flaws.
64-bitness? Been there for more than a decade.
Some flavors of *nix, sure. Irix, Solaris 7+, etc - not the stuff people use at home. Linux? Nope.
In other words: while it is nice to snicker at other platforms getting feature X only now when BeOS had that one four years ago, please check your facts before claiming that BeOS was there first, so that you are not snickered at yourself.
Originally I said "Linux" instead of "*nix", because I realized that XFree86 ain't Linux, even though you would be hard pressed to find any other window manager on a Linux box. But generally, I was taking aim at Linux.
Re:Well...
jhi on 2002-10-21T15:20:29
That sounds better, I'm fine with taking shots at Linux geeks
:-) Somehow, oddly (since they seem to think of themselves as tecnoliterati), they are often quite ignorant of technological advancements existing or happening anywhere outside of Linux... somewhat reminiscent of Windows users, actually.
(Of course, I'm a BSD-head, so take my grumpiness about "Linux freaks" with appropriate amounts of chlorides.)
Which kind of journaling BeFS had/has? I've packed away my BeFS book by Giampaolo or I would check myself...
Data, metadata, both, something else?
Re:Well...
jjohn on 2002-10-21T15:28:25
since they seem to think of themselves as tecnoliterati
Dear Jarkko,
Please never, ever, ever, even in your most frothy, vitrolic post use the word tecnoliterati again.
I need the vapors...
Re:Well...
jhi on 2002-10-21T16:01:04
Just to clarify I of course didn't refer to Linux geeks as the wannabe-literati of high-beat or trance music, with or without an aitch:-)
Re:Well...
jdporter on 2002-10-22T14:54:27
What do you mean, you need the vapors?
I think you can probably find "Turning Japanese" on gnutella...;-) Re:Well...
jjohn on 2002-10-22T17:30:47
A. I like the Vapors. They rock.
B. It took me three re-reads to correctly reading 'Turning' and not 'Turing'. Sad, sad day.
Re:Well...
djberg96 on 2002-10-21T16:28:31
Which kind of journaling BeFS had/has? I've packed away my BeFS book by Giampaolo or I would check myself... Data, metadata, both, something else?I think it's metadata, but I don't know the nitty-gritty details. Here's an interesting (if older) article that may also be of interest to you:
http://www.byte.com/documents/s=620/byt20010531s0001/index.htm
OS X users should be happy to have Giampaolo in their camp at least.
