Be Incorporated, makers of the Be OS, a multimedia operating system for content creators, are preparing version 4.0 of the product for a launch later this year. Be OS 4.0 will run on Intel and PowerPC hardware, as does the current release, 3.x. The big news for this release, however, is the move to a new binary format which means that older Be applications will need to be recompiled before they will run on the new version. Other new features include a new partition boot loader for compatibility with the existing operating system, user interface improvements, FAT32 compatibility, expanded hardware support, new developer tools and more. For information about the switch to Be OS version 4.0, please visit the Be Web site.
The Be OS, like Linux and Solaris x86, represents an interesting alternative to Windows and I will be taking a closer look at it later this year as part of a survey of non-Windows operating systems that run on regular PC hardware
