BeBox News from 2005

Interested to know more about the development of the quad-processor BeBox? Curious to know whether there ever was an 8-processor BeBox? Dying to discover how many dual-200MHz BeBoxen were built? Or maybe you're interested in Be Inc's early ideas about a BeBox with both Intel X-86 and PowerPC processors? Read on for all this and more, as we take a dive through history with Joseph Palmer, former director of hardware at Be Inc, and creator of the BeBox.

Andreas Åkre Solberg has written about using his dual 133MHz BeBox to create a meeting room information kiosk which shows the booking status of various meeting rooms. The application is web based and he even uses NetPositive to display the current room information. And yes, when the page is refreshed, apparently the blinkenlights on the BeBox do flicker like crazy!

It appears there is a new broadband ISP in the UK calling itself Be. To add insult to injury, they've just begun marketing a "Be Box" - some wireless ADSL router. Unfortunately, i don't believe anything can be done about the mis-use of the BeBox name, since Be Inc's old trademark in the US has lapsed, and I don't believe was ever in effect in the UK or the European Union.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the BeBox, Joseph Palmer, has put together a photo gallery that includes photos from the BeBox Launch at Agenda '95, photos of the first run of BeBoxen which were assembled in the Be offices in Menlo Park, and a bunch of pictures from Macworld Japan, 1997.

10 years ago today, on October 3rd 1995, the BeBox made its first public appearance, receiving a standing ovation at Agenda '95. Described as "a Powerful Alternative to Traditional Computer Platforms" the BeBox launch generating a huge buzz amongst computer users, developers, and the press.

Genesi has announced it will develop a dual 970MP (dual core G5 PowerPC) based platform to be known as the "Open Server Workstation" directed at the numerous PowerPC development communities that have sprung up around Genesi's successful Open Desktop Workstation. I know we've heard this rhetoric many times before, but could this be the basis for a new BeBox?

If the London Metropolitan police are to be believed, owning a BeBox is clearly suspicious, and may actually be an indicator or evidence of terrorist leanings. Of course, it's also possible that the police officers simply wanted to make the most of an opportunity to *finally* play with a BeBox and see those blinkenlights in action. Regardless of their motives, read on to see how being a geek could make travelling on the London tube increasingly dangerous.

It has just been announced that Japanese mobile content company ACCESS Co. Ltd. will acquire PalmSource at a cost of approximately USD $324.3 million. Of course, this means that the BeOS will have yet another new owner. Are we seeing BeOS follow the fate of Amiga, or will ACCESS seize a great PR opportunity and actually *do* something with their BeOS acquisition?

In news just to hand, (thanks to Cale Lewis) Joseph Palmer has confirmed that he still has the prototype quad-processor 604-based PowerPC BeBox in his possession. Joe is planning on posting some more images of this hugely significant piece of BeBox history to his website in the near future. Stay tuned!

Steve Jobs announced today that Apple is switching from PowerPC to Intel processors for future Macs. Is it just me, or are people troubled by the analogy with the same fateful decision made by Be Inc to can the PowerPC?

OSViews has published a history of (part of) JLG's career, covering his time at Apple, his leadership of Be Inc, and his eventual move to Palm. The article is very Apple focussed, and there are a large number of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the article, especially in the Be related information, but overall it's still worth a quick read.

Scot Hacker has made the BeOS Bible website available on his personal website. This revives the content that was lost when the beosbible.com domain disappeared.

Jean Louis Gassée, in his role as partner for Allegis Capital, has chosen to finance ActiveGrid Inc, a two-month-old open source start-up which plans to build and commercialise so-called transaction grids around the LAMP software quartet.

Will Sowerbutts, of BeBox Linux fame, has resurfaced to show the world how to install Debian GNU/Linux on the Mac Mini.

Remember the Corsair XMS Pro memory reported on here at the BeBox Zone, back in September 2003? Well Corsair have gone one better: Meet the New Corsair XMS XPERT Memory, complete with a 10 character LED display that can display temperature, speed and voltage, or any message you like.