Offering Mac users an alternative to Apple's OS on Power Mac systems, Be, Inc. yesterday demonstrated the BeOS running on an Intel Pentium-based PC.
The upstart operating system vendor, run by former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée, wants to take on Windows on the dominant PC platform.
At the Software Development '98 Conference in San Francisco, the company demonstrated its OS running on an Pentium PC, displaying media and document processing applications and development tools.
With only 20 or so commercial applications available for the BeOS, however, the question arises: Why would users want it?
"It's a very, very compact, fast OS," said Be's Alex Osadzinski. He acknowledges that adopting the system means parting with one's existing applications, but says there's a key advantage in jettisoning all "legacy" code - i.e. not making the OS compatible with existing Windows (or Mac) applications. That is the ability to deliver a streamlined OS software that achieves maximum performance on today's hardware.
Osadzinski said the company built its OS for Intel machines because of the size of its market share versus Power Macs, as well as the faster performance the OS has displayed on average Pentium machines.
"The chipsets you get on a standard PC motherboard are really fast," he said. As a result, the BeOS on a Pentium out-performs the average Power Mac.
The company has committed itself to a March 31 release date for the Intel-based OS, but Osadzinski says it could actually come sooner. As part of the company's "golden rule" not to make announcements until products are shipping, the company has made no official statement on the product yet.
