Initially designed to run on AT&T Hobbit-based hardware, BeOS was later modified to run on PowerPC-based processors: first Be’s own systems, later Apple’s PReP and CHRP platforms, with the hope that Apple Computer would purchase or license BeOS as a replacement for its then aging Mac OS. Apple CEO Gil Amelio started negotiations to buy Be Inc., but negotiations stalled when Be CEO Jean-Louis Gassée wanted $400 million; Apple was unwilling to offer any more than $125 million. Apple’s board of directors decided NeXTSTEP was a better choice and purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million, bringing back Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.To further complicate matters for Be, Apple refused to disclose architectural information about its G3 line of computers—information Be deemed critical to making BeOS work on the latest hardware from Apple, though Terra Soft Solutions was able to port Linux to these machines without Apple’s assistance.
In 1997, Power Computing began bundling BeOS (on a CD for optional installation) with its line of PowerPC-based Macintosh clones. These systems could dual boot either the Mac OS or BeOS, with a startup screen offering the choice.
The BeBox was a short-lived dual processor PC, offered by Be Inc. to run their own operating system, BeOS. The BeBox made its debut in October 1995 (BeBox Dual603-66). The processors were upgraded to 133 MHz in August 1996 (BeBox Dual603e-133). Production was halted at the end of 1996, following the port of BeOS to the Macintosh, in order for the company to concentrate on software. Be sold around 1000 66 MHz BeBoxes and 800 133 MHz BeBoxes.
Due to Apple’s moves and the mounting debt of Be Inc., BeOS was soon ported to the Intel x86 platform with its R3 release in March 1998. Through the late 1990s, BeOS managed to create a niche of followers, but the company failed to become solvent. As a last-ditch effort to increase interest in the failing operating system, Be Inc. released a stripped-down, but free, copy of BeOS R5 known as BeOS Personal Edition (BeOS PE). BeOS PE could be started from within Microsoft Windows or Linux, and was intended to nurture consumer interest in its product and give developers something with which they could tinker.
Be Inc. also released a stripped-down version of BeOS for Internet Appliances (BeIA), which soon became the company’s business focus in place of BeOS. BeOS PE and BeIA proved to be too little too late, and in 2001 Be’s intellectual property was sold to Palm, Inc. BeOS R5 is considered the last official version, but BeOS R5.1 “Dano", which was under development before Be’s sale to Palm and included the BONE networking stack, was leaked to the public shortly after the company’s demise.
BeOS was ultimately unable to achieve a significant market share and proved commercially unviable for Be Inc. The company was acquired by Palm Inc. and today BeOS is mainly used and developed by a small population of enthusiasts.
As of March 2008, the site of Be Inc is still up and running.
In 2001, a group of enthusiasts began building a BeOS compatible operating system in an open source manner. Then the name was OpenBeOS, which changed to Haiku OS in 2004. Today, there's already fully working VMWare images of a soon-complete operating system which is binary compatible with the original BeOS.
In addition several other projects aimed to rebuild, or to build upon what was left of BeOS. Read more about them in them in the Clones section.
In fact, BeOS is still used on some current hardware. These include: