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FREEBE WATCH
Check this column daily for the latest news on BeOS 5.0 Personal Edition (FreeBe).
DOWNLOAD PROBLEMS? GET "BeCD"... Not everybody is going to be able to handle a nearly 50 megabyte download, and some who can may not care to try. Others, including some Europeans, are on metered Internet service. If you fall into one of those categories, I'm pleased to announce that leBuzz is releasing "BeCD."
BeCD is a compilation CD containing BeOS Personal Edition, the entire leBuzz web site on disk, our Audio Buzz Internet Radio show program series produced in 1999, and as many shareware, freeware, and trialware programs of interest to Buzzers as I can get permission to include and cram onto the disk. The cost will be $9.95 plus $3.00 shipping. To request a copy, just send a check for USD $12.95 to:
Dane Scott Productions
P.O. Box 222
Oconto, WI 54153 USA
For overseas shipments, add USD $2.00 more for shipping.
As those who have dealt with me in the past can attest, I do what I say I'll do, so have no fear. If you send your order, you WILL receive your disk!
Now that it's been announced officially here, we'll move this item to the right column, where you'll find it on future visits.
WELCOME! With such a huge influx of new Buzzers (BeOS media lovers) visiting our site (we've jumped to over 8 times our regular traffic since the introduction of FreeBe), I think it's time for some introductions!
I'm Dane Scott, and it's my musings you see on leBuzz each day. Here, at the top of the page are the latest headlines about BeOS Personal Edition and help for Newbies (NewBe's?). Beneath FreeBe Watch is the day's regular news. leBuzz specializes in information on the use of BeOS to work and play in high bandwidth media such as audio, video, graphics, and 3D/animation.
Note that at the end of every story is a "Buzz About It" button. This takes you to a leBuzz forum that's set up as a place for you to comment on and discuss the stories you read here.
This site contains a huge amount of information via our archive section. You can visit the archive directly via the left column menu, or you can search the entire site for what you need via the "BUZZ THE SITE" feature on the left. There are also other features which you can check out which I hope you find helpful.
Our sister site, the StudioLab, is even more specialized, featuring information for people who want to set up BeOS in their studio to work in audio, video, animation, etc., and there is a growing list of reviews and articles to assist you.
WHAT ABOUT BE? BeOS is a slick, well-crafted, user-friendly operating system designed from the ground up for performance. If you've started fiddling around with BeOS Personal Edition, you've probably noticed how fast everything opens and how smoothly it all operates.
Here are a few quick notes to help you get off to a fast start.
First off, unless you like 640x480 resolution, click on the BeOS icon in the upper right of your screen and select Preferences/Screen, and change it to something comfortable for your eyes. Be sure not to set it to something that exceeds your monitor's capabilities or you could cause damage to your monitor.
Next, if you prefer the traditional Windows start bar at the bottom, look closely at the upper right corner of the existing toolbar, next to the digital clock, and you'll see a little friction bar. Grab it and drag it down and to the left until you reach the bottom of the screen. Voila.
Then, if you haven't already, take a quick minute to set up dial-up networking. Go back to Preferences for the "Dial-Up Networking" setup and give it the phone number and IP address of your service provider, select a modem, and just that quickly, you'll be able to go online. Similarly, inputting your e-mail information into the e-mail preferences will get you going with the very nicely 5.0-enhanced BeMail e-mail client.
Then, after you've messed around with all the goodies in BeOS 5.0, you'll want to start adding software. While there are fewer programs available for Be than there are for, say, Windows, there are programs to do virtually anything you'd like to do. BeBits does a great job of getting you geared up with shareware, freeware, and trialware. BeDepot has commercial software available.
A COMMON TALE: While BeNews reports a few people having hardware-related difficulties with BeOS 5.0, they appear to be the exception. In general, 5.0 seems to install like a beautiful dream. Here's one letter we received yesterday
"in 5 minutes from start to finish, I
was on the net browsing! this is great.... I
installed the OS, rebooted, and figured I would have a nightmare.... I
have sound... I have 32 bit video, Be saw my cd-roms, including the
burner, my pcmcia reader, my net card, and my USB... I haven't got my
cam figured out yet, but it has only been 20 minutes!"
Cool, huh?
LEAVING THEM UP: For the sake of those just arriving on the scene, I've kept Be's press releases from Tuesday online here for you to read. Here they are.
THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: In the interests of speed, here's the actual press release which arrived here at 8:35 a.m. central time today:
Be Incorporated (Nasdaq: BEOS) today announced the availability of the latest release of its highly-acclaimed digital media operating system, BeOS 5. The Personal Edition of the operating system, renowned for its
rich media handling capabilities and ideal for first-time or casual users, is now available at no charge, via the web at
http://free.be.com. Additionally, BeOS 5 Pro Edition, a fully-featured version designed for audio and video applications, has
also been made available to third-party publishers in North and South America, Asia, and soon to follow, Europe.
With the new release, Be is offering a programmers development kit (BeIDE, or Be Integrated Development Environment) and a
library of demonstration applications at no charge. These development tools aid software developers in bringing their products
to market faster. Additionally, Be is opening access to its desktop, known as Tracker, and its taskbar, known as Deskbar, by
publishing a software developers kit (SDK) along with the source code.
Since Be announced in January that it would make a version of BeOS available at no charge via the web, more than 100,000 users
have pre-registered for the download, demonstrating increased interest and demand in experiencing the power, flexibility and
robust media handling capabilities of BeOS. The interest comes from three user communities: professionals using Be to manage
the creation and editing of audio and video content; new and casual users who enjoy the richness and ease-of-use of BeOS; and
programmers who want to adapt and personalize the user experience of BeOS' powerful desktop.
"The launch of BeOS 5 marks an exciting change for Be," said Jean-Louis GassĪe, chairman and chief executive officer of Be.
"This is the first time an operating system as complete, as robust and as easy to install and use as BeOS 5 has been made
available at no charge to the general public. We have also published much of our 'look and feel' code using an open source
model to make our environment more accessible to programmers."
AT NO CHARGE AND WITHOUT RISK - BEOS 5 PERSONAL EDITION
For the first time, BeOS 5 Personal Edition takes advantage of a remarkable operating system installation procedure that makes
no alteration or modification to the boot drive. While other operating systems typically require a repartitioning of a disk
drive to make room for the new OS, BeOS 5 Personal Edition simply resides on the disk as a single file. This single file can be
moved or deleted like any Windows file, but when it is double clicked, it switches control from Windows to BeOS. As a result,
the new or casual user will find the installation process is no more difficult and no riskier than installing a typical Windows
application. BeOS 5 Personal Edition is compatible with Intel-based PCs and includes HTML-based documentation.
BEOS 5 PERSONAL EDITION GENERAL FEATURES (PARTIAL LIST)
BeOS 5 Personal Edition handles an ever increasing number of IDE and SCSI drives as well as broader PCMCIA and USB support,
including digital camera and IEEE 1394 FireWire video support. BeOS can read virtually every major audio and video format as
well as produce output that can be processed by most popular applications and devices. Dial-up and LAN-based TCP/IP networking
is available and the OS comes with an Internet browser, an ftp and telnet server, and AppleTalk support.
BEOS 5 PERSONAL EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES (PARTIAL LIST)
The usability of BeOS 5 has been enhanced to include an improved 'find' panel, spring loaded folders that aid in traversing the
desktop and lists of recent applications and documents. Audio support has been streamlined to be the fastest in the industry.
There is a new MIDI Kit that allows USB and application-to-application MIDI support. Besides support for MP3, there is a new
media player that can be integrated into the web browser for better playing of streaming media.
THE MULTIMEDIA PROFESSIONAL'S OS - BEOS 5 PRO EDITION
Be has created relationships with four third- party publishers who will add value, market and distribute BeOS 5 Pro Edition.
The Americas will be supported by Gobe Software of Portland, Oregon, a long-time Be partner. Asia will be handled by Hitachi,
who also has a long history with Be. In Europe, Be anticipates working with Apacabar (for distribution in France, Benelux,
Spain and Italy) and Koch (for distribution in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe). These
publishers will be responsible for all pricing and packaging as well as physical and electronic distribution into retail and
other channels. Bundling additional third-party applications and licensing with OEMs and ISVs, technical support and customer
services will also be handled by Be's channel partners.
BEOS 5 PRO EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES (PARTIAL LIST)
The professional features of BeOS 5 Pro Edition allow it to be installed on both Intel- and Power PC-based machines and has the
ability to handle terabytes of data. Among the list of popular audio and video codecs include new encoding support for Cinepak,
Indeo 5, raw audio, P-JPEG, and MP3. This coupled with a CD Burner (x86 only) gives BeOS the distinction of having a virtual
"jukebox" built into the OS. Twenty six applications, many of which are multimedia oriented, are bundled with BeOS 5 Pro
Edition by Be and the third- party publishers may add their own as well.
OPEN SOURCE AND FREE DEVELOPER KIT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
Demonstrating its strong commitment to supporting the development community, Be has placed the source code for its desktop user
interface in a site for access by any developer. The move to provide support for the Open Source movement is designed to
increase development and integration of key applications on BeOS. The Tracker SDK (desktop) and the Deskbar SDK (taskbar) can
be found at the download sites http://www.opentracker.org and http://www.opendeskbar.org, respectively.
In addition to the open source, Be is publishing a developer's kit that includes the Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
and a rich developer library consisting of make file scripts, compilers, package builders, sample code and documentation.
AVAILABILITY AND PRICING
BeOS 5 Personal Edition, the BeOS Developer Kit and demonstration application packages are available at no charge from
http://free.be.com as well as dozens of mirror sites throughout the world. BeOS 5 Pro Edition will be available in the Americas
through Gobe Software, in Asia via Hitachi, and should be available in Europe through Apacabar, and Koch. Each publisher will
price BeOS 5 Pro Edition independently and based on other bundled components[FCB1]. Publishers are also responsible for setting
the upgrade policy for existing BeOS users in their territory.
ABOUT BE INCORPORATED
Founded in 1990, Be Incorporated creates software platforms that enable rich media and web experiences on personal computers
and Internet appliances. Be's headquarters are in Menlo Park, California, with offices in Paris and Tokyo. It is publicly
traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol BEOS. Be can be found on the Web at http://www.be.com.
GOBE DOES BE5PRO: Gobe Software, Inc. of Portland announced today that it has licensed the BeOS from Be Incorporated and will be the exclusive publisher of BeOS 5 Pro Edition in North, Central and South America.
In a major move to promote BeOS and increase public awareness of Be's technology, Be is freely distributing its BeOS 5 Personal
Edition, which installs under Microsoft Windows much like a standard Windows application. "Giving away BeOS 5 Personal
Edition," says Steve Sakoman, Be's Chief Operating Officer, "is a sure way to spread the use of our technology, but we also
wanted a partner who could aggressively market the enhanced Pro Edition with a passion for quality and support. Our partner of
choice for the Americas is Gobe Software."
Scott Holdaway, Gobe President and Board Chair, credits the quality of engineering in BeOS and Be's bold marketing initiative
with BeOS Personal Edition for Gobe's eagerness to publish the BeOS Pro Edition. "Research data has shown that users who try
BeOS are tremendously excited by it. The momentum behind alternative operating systems coupled with Be's freely distributed
Personal Edition gives us a great opportunity."
BeOS 5 Pro Edition, which includes RealPlayer G2, MP3 encoding and many other enhancements, will be widely available in stores
by mid-April with a suggested retail price of $69.95 and may be obtained directly from Gobe at http://www.gobe.com.
ELEGANT TITAN
Mar 29
A Swedish company called, "Elegant Media has plans to produce a "complete media system" for BeOS, which sounds absolutely breathtaking. Should "Titan" come to Be, here are some of the features you're likely to see:
- Recording, non-destructive editing and playback of MIDI, audio and video data
- Unlimited number of simultaneous tracks
- Unlimited levels of undo and redo
- Unlimited number of realtime effects (up to CPU capacity)
- Previewing of rendered video data
- Intelligent read-ahead buffering
- Internal audio data storage in RAM as well as on disk
- Up to 24-bit 96kHz internal processing of audio data
- One- as well as two-channel audio tracks
- A new and very flexible approach to digital effects management
- Intelligent quantizing of MIDI data
- Easy-to-use and highly configurable graphical user interface
- Importing and exporting of several common media formats
- Plugin support including VST2.0** audio plugins
Based on that description, Titan has a distinctly Nuendo-like sound to it, doesn't it? Obviously, this is a hugely ambitious project, and its release is at least a year away. The people behind it want to get input from Buzzers. You're encouraged to take a survey to talk about your degree of interest and other issues.
EXCITING STUFF AHEAD!
Mar 29
A number of exciting products that were poised for release following the public availability of BeOS 5.0 are likely to see the light of day very soon, including ObjektSynth 2.0 (an evaluation copy of which we have just received), MidiOxygen44, the Echo line of blockbuster audio gear, RME audio hardware (supported with the FreeBe release), the free release of Beatware's commercial-quality "Get-it" download program, IK Multimedia's Groovemaker, an ACID-style musical groovebox, and others. Keep watching daily for updates!
SCANNER SUPPORT MAY BE FORTHCOMING
Mar 28
The recent buzz in BeOS discussion groups has been about developing some support for scanners. Now the talk appears to be turning into action. An alternative to TWAIN called BESANE is being planned.
Massimiliano Origgi reports:
"The development plan for porting BSANE is mostly ready and I'll put up a page on my site in the next few days with more details, news, links and stuff.
Meanwhile I have received emails from several users and want to thank them
for their help."
If Massimiliano is behind the effort, that's almost like guaranteed success. Massimiliano is the creator of the excellent, commercial-quality "Squeezer" archive/unarchive software for the BeOS. Here's his Intuiware web site.
Looking for an older story?
It has passed beyond, into the Great Archive.
Go there, my son.
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ADVANTAGE UPDATE
MAX OUT IN MARCH!
If you've signed up for AllAdvantage through le Buzz, let me take a moment to thank you for helping support this web site. Now, do YOURSELF a favor. Be sure to keep the AllAdvantage "viewbar" visible whenever you're browsing in Windows.
By doing so, you'll get the largest amount of cash...and yes, they really do pay. So be sure to "Max it Out in March!"
TO EVERYONE ELSE
If you want to get paid 50 cents per hour you cruise the web, and a dime for each hour your friends cruise the web, take a moment now to read my 10 Ten Reasons for signing up.
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