[HN Gopher] Launching the BeOS on Hitachi Flora Prius Systems (1...
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       Launching the BeOS on Hitachi Flora Prius Systems (1999)
        
       Author : doener
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2025-06-08 14:46 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (testou.free.fr)
 (TXT) w3m dump (testou.free.fr)
        
       | doener wrote:
       | Via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzosnPSETzk
        
       | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
       | Launching from Windows is funny. Reminds me of GRUB4DOS and
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_(software) even if the
       | particulars differ.
        
       | AshamedCaptain wrote:
       | This article is not complete without the reminder that this
       | entire dance of instructions was required because MS would not
       | allow a Windows OEM licensor to ship ANY customer-facing computer
       | that would offer the option to boot BeOS via a pre-loaded
       | bootloader or similar.
       | 
       | https://www.zdnet.com/article/be-stings-microsoft-with-lawsu...
       | 
       | > Be outlines its tortured history of trying to get its operating
       | system included on machines from major computer makers, most
       | notably Compaq Computer and Hitachi.
       | 
       | > Be said that in September 1998, Hitachi verbally committed to
       | loading the BeOS alongside Windows on a line of PCs. Be had
       | planned to offer software that would easily let computer owners
       | choose between the two operating systems, but said it was
       | notified by Hitachi in November 1998 that Microsoft's licensing
       | deal with Hitachi effectively prevented such an approach.
       | 
       | > Although Hitachi eventually sold some PCs with the BeOS loaded
       | on the hard drive, Be said the operating system had to be started
       | from a floppy disk, and the machines bore no indication that they
       | even came with the operating system.
        
         | AtlasBarfed wrote:
         | That's the state of antitrust in the US: openly State publicly
         | anti-competitive language and documents...
         | 
         | Zero chance of any enforcement.
         | 
         | It's kind of hilarious seeing hacker news report on what the EU
         | does. "Can you believe these ridiculous requirements" says
         | Hacker News.
         | 
         | Yes. Yes I can believe that
        
         | yardie wrote:
         | > it was notified by Hitachi in November 1998 that Microsoft's
         | licensing deal with Hitachi effectively prevented such an
         | approach.
         | 
         | For those too young to remember, this is what the anti-trust
         | case against Microsoft was actually about. Internet Explorer,
         | while important, was just a small part of the Microsoft's
         | monopolistic practice of absolutely fucking over developers,
         | other OSes (including Linux) and consumer choice. It's mildly
         | infuriating now to hear about the bad old Microsoft not being
         | allowed to give end users the best browser available, knowing
         | that was just the tip of the iceberg.
        
       | codr7 wrote:
       | Imo they had already lost at this point.
       | 
       | Sad, I used BeOS full time for a few glorious months right after
       | the Intel pivot. Reminded me of my Amiga days.
        
         | Aldipower wrote:
         | May I ask what your tasks were you did with BeOS. Just curios.
        
         | drooopy wrote:
         | I played quite a bit with that free intel version they came out
         | with back in 98? 99? Shame that my internal modem wasn't
         | working and I couldn't get on the internet with it.
        
       | doublerabbit wrote:
       | And from BeOS Haiku lives on.
       | 
       | If you haven't you should check it out.
       | 
       | https://haiku-os.org
       | 
       | It without all the X and Wayland mess it's a good alternative for
       | an operating system.
        
       | jonah-archive wrote:
       | This is an utterly random question, and I'm sure there's a better
       | place to ask it, but does anyone reading this happen to have/know
       | the logic analyzer pinout [0] on the BeBox mainboard? I got a
       | weird rackmount BeBox (an LCS LD-CS1, the controller for their
       | LD-88 audio mixer [1]) and have been rebuilding the blinkenlight
       | board, but I'd love to drop an Agilent on there at some point.
       | 
       | 0:
       | https://bebits.irixnet.org/beos/docs/DR8/UserDoc/DR8UsersGui...
       | "The pin-out for the logic probe interface is available upon
       | request from Be, Inc. Be can supply a card and analyzer set-up
       | libraries that connect the CPU bus to an HP 1660A."
       | 
       | 1:
       | http://testou.free.fr/www.beatjapan.org/mirror/www.be.com/de...
        
         | detourdog wrote:
         | It's been a while but are you talking about the "Geekport"
         | 
         | https://www.beunited.org/bebook/
         | 
         | The Nike store on 57th street in Manhattan was powered by a
         | BeBox. I forget if it ever actually worked. The original
         | developer was replaced by Kandu and I remember them thinking it
         | was trouble. Kandu was famous for hating anything more complex
         | than MS-DOS. We worked on a project where they claimed to have
         | rewritten most of DOS.
        
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       (page generated 2025-06-08 23:00 UTC)