3 days ago, I installed Haiku on bare metal: an old PC from ~2004. I was not aware that a new version was planned at that time, but the upgrade was completely smooth.<p>My idea when I installed Haiku was to make my own version of the "old computer challenge"[1], with an emphasis on using GUI apps.<p>Similarly to @probono (a FOSS dev), I also found Haiku "shockingly good"[2] at being a lightweight, responsive, easy-to-use desktop OS.<p>After some patching, I was even able to compile Tectonic[3], a modern LaTeX engine written in Rust, and Quaternion a Matrix client supporting E2EE[4]. All that running on a single core Athlon 64 and 1.5GB of RAM.<p>I posted some screenshots in a Mastodon threads if you are curious[5] (but my posts are in french sorry :/). And of course this comment is posted from Haiku!<p>[1]: <a href="https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2021-07-07-old-computer-challenge.html" rel="nofollow">https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2021-07-07-old-computer-challe...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://medium.com/@probonopd/my-first-day-with-haiku-shockingly-good-8930cad4bbb0" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@probonopd/my-first-day-with-haiku-shocki...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/en-US/" rel="nofollow">https://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/en-US/</a><p>[4]: <a href="https://github.com/quotient-im/Quaternion">https://github.com/quotient-im/Quaternion</a><p>[5]: <a href="https://mastodon.tedomum.net/@tgoldoin/109554115997967651" rel="nofollow">https://mastodon.tedomum.net/@tgoldoin/109554115997967651</a>
>One of the newly available GTK applications is GNOME Web aka. Epiphany, which is based on a very recent version of WebKitGTK. This provides an unfortunately non-native but largely functional web browser for Haiku for the first time in many years, with “just works” status for major websites like YouTube and others.<p>For many people that makes Haiku suitable to run daily.
If anyone wants to quickly spin up a Haiku VM I leave here my Docker image [1].<p>It's just a proof of concept but some people are using it for CI as well [2].<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-haiku">https://github.com/hectorm/docker-qemu-haiku</a><p>[2] <a href="https://github.com/HaikuArchives/ArtPaint/blob/7f5c49278545eff4a6e01000814ce9ff28c8e016/.github/workflows/build.yaml">https://github.com/HaikuArchives/ArtPaint/blob/7f5c49278545e...</a>
> Since the last release, there is 1 new Haiku developer with commit access: davidkaroly, who has already made significant contributions to Haiku’s in-progress support for ARM. Welcome!<p>This is one the most interesting bits in an already awesome release notes! Haiku would rock with Raspberries and I can't wait to use it as the default OS for family 400s.
As a BeOS users in the late 90's / early 2000's - the fact that Haiku is still going twenty years since its first inception is just incredible to me.<p>I am continually amazed at how much progress the project continues to garner. It really proves there was something magical to BeOS.
Both Haiku and SerenityOS seem to have enough momentum to potentially become viable contenders for the Open Source Desktop someday.<p>Both of them highlight how much nicer a vertically integrated user experience can be as well as how much lighter weight a modern desktop can be as well. They also demonstrate that it does not take dozens of corporate paid engineers to do it ( not that I would turn them away ).<p>Haiku has a long lead over Serenity in terms of hardware support and now app compatibility ( with the new X11 and Wayland stuff ). That said, having to drag along binary compatibility with BeOS must really be slowing Haiku down at this point.<p>I am looking forward to using one or both of them in the future.
I'm eager to test this. HiDPI, modern browser, wine, emacs... that's A LOT of useful stuff.<p>I use lightweight linux VMs to keep different workspaces and hobbyspaces separate from my main OS. Depending on how the test goes, I feel that Haiku might replace some of those linuxes.
I really love how responsive the Haiku gui feels.<p>I only use if for testing free software packages in a "weird" build environment, but every time I do I feel sad for how much we've regressed in terms of the latency of modern desktop software.<p>Beyond latency the UIs are also just a lot more useful, the subtle faux-3d delineates the boundaries of control surfaces and make it much more clear where you need to click and what will happen when you do.
Try it in the browser, new version should be available soon: <a href="https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=haiku" rel="nofollow">https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=haiku</a>
This is pretty impressive. GTK, WINE, Wayland… As a “lightweight” OS, it has a lot of potential for tinkering. I can’t wait until they get a working ARM version for a Raspberry PI or an RK3688 SBC.
Beyond the nostalgia: are there any other reasons to keep contributing to Haiku? Like critical infrastructure that is reliant on BeOS/Haiku. Or anything you can plausibly do best on Haiku?
Oh what would have been what could have been had Apple bought Be instead of Next. We'd likely not have any iPhones or a 2.5T Apple but we could have had some really cool software. BeOS and now Haiku will always have a special place in my nerd-head.<p>consider sponsoring the team here: <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/haiku">https://github.com/sponsors/haiku</a>
> One of the newly available GTK applications is GNOME Web aka. Epiphany, which is based on a very recent version of WebKitGTK. This provides an unfortunately non-native but largely functional web browser for Haiku for the first time in many years, with “just works” status for major websites like YouTube and others.<p>I was really waiting for this! I want to install Haiku in an old computer for an old lady friend to use (and for me to see how she will use it). They only problem always was that youtube never really worked. That is the chance!
This is maybe about the limit for a list like this, and I omitted a few less interesting ones. If anyone knows of a good thread that I missed, we can merge it in!<p><i>Show HN: Xlibe – A serverless Xlib (X11) compatibility layer for Haiku</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31167562" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31167562</a> - April 2022 (46 comments)<p><i>Giving Haiku Beta 3 a try</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29757451" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29757451</a> - Jan 2022 (48 comments)<p><i>My progress in porting Wine</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29753069" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29753069</a> - Dec 2021 (62 comments)<p><i>Haiku Now Has Experimental 3D Acceleration</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29390689" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29390689</a> - Nov 2021 (71 comments)<p><i>Haiku has hired an existing contributor to work on Haiku full-time</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28305191" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28305191</a> - Aug 2021 (105 comments)<p><i>20 Years of Haiku</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28241255" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28241255</a> - Aug 2021 (119 comments)<p><i>Haiku Beta 3</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27955755" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27955755</a> - July 2021 (96 comments)<p><i>HaikuOS running on RISC-V hardware (HiFive Unmatched)</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27867941" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27867941</a> - July 2021 (80 comments)<p><i>The Dawn of Haiku OS (2012)</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27616822" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27616822</a> - June 2021 (15 comments)<p><i>Haiku Monthly Activity Report – May 2021</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27395511" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27395511</a> - June 2021 (20 comments)<p><i>Haiku OS ported and running on RISC-V</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27129305" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27129305</a> - May 2021 (86 comments)<p><i>Haiku Activity Report – January 2021</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26055781" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26055781</a> - Feb 2021 (24 comments)<p><i>Haiku: Call for Wallpapers</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24756787" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24756787</a> - Oct 2020 (24 comments)<p><i>Haiku: Contest for System Sounds</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24593719" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24593719</a> - Sept 2020 (15 comments)<p><i>A decidedly non-Linux distro walkthrough: Haiku R1/beta2</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23676975" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23676975</a> - June 2020 (46 comments)<p><i>Haiku R1/beta2 has been released</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23469209" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23469209</a> - June 2020 (254 comments)<p><i>Haiku Alpha 1: Rebirth of legend</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22401383" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22401383</a> - Feb 2020 (14 comments)<p><i>500 Byte Images: The Haiku Vector Icon Format (2016)</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22373422" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22373422</a> - Feb 2020 (91 comments)<p><i>The Haiku Operating System</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20812877" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20812877</a> - Aug 2019 (1 comment)<p><i>My sixth day with Haiku: Under the hood of resources, icons, and packages</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20443136" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20443136</a> - July 2019 (38 comments)<p><i>Most long-standing XHCI (USB 3.0+) issues resolved</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19352839" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19352839</a> - March 2019 (58 comments)<p><i>Haiku Beta is finally here</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18769814" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18769814</a> - Dec 2018 (53 comments)<p><i>What makes BeOS and Haiku unique</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18583722" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18583722</a> - Dec 2018 (219 comments)<p><i>Haiku R1/beta1 has been released</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18099127" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18099127</a> - Sept 2018 (79 comments)<p><i>The State of Rust on Haiku</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17472907" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17472907</a> - July 2018 (84 comments)<p><i>LibreOffice is now available for Haiku</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17440862" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17440862</a> - July 2018 (157 comments)<p><i>Haiku Project</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15973918" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15973918</a> - Dec 2017 (64 comments)<p><i>Scripting the Haiku GUI with hey</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15697697" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15697697</a> - Nov 2017 (47 comments)<p><i>Trying to work in Haiku, the BeOS successor</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14697308" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14697308</a> - July 2017 (24 comments)<p><i>Porting Swift to Haiku</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14617453" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14617453</a> - June 2017 (49 comments)<p><i>Haiku booting in UEFI mode</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13200633" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13200633</a> - Dec 2016 (94 comments)<p><i>Haiku Project</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12566056" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12566056</a> - Sept 2016 (143 comments)<p><i>500 Byte Images: The Haiku Vector Icon Format</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12420763" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12420763</a> - Sept 2016 (81 comments)<p><i>Haiku OS Action – From BeOS compatible to Desktop [video]</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9713843" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9713843</a> - June 2015 (4 comments)<p><i>Haiku OS – Fundraising 2015</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9046701" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9046701</a> - Feb 2015 (27 comments)<p><i>Whatever Happened to BeOS?</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8175135" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8175135</a> - Aug 2014 (17 comments)<p><i>Interview with Haiku developer Paweł Dziepak</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7754772" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7754772</a> - May 2014 (47 comments)<p><i>Haiku meets 9th processor</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6987731" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6987731</a> - Dec 2013 (44 comments)<p><i>Haiku Operating System</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5564766" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5564766</a> - April 2013 (110 comments)<p><i>Haiku OS (BeOS clone)</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4123941" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4123941</a> - June 2012 (46 comments)<p><i>HaikuOS x86_64 port part of Google Summer of Code</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3906710" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3906710</a> - April 2012 (15 comments)<p><i>The Dawn of Haiku OS</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3904972" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3904972</a> - April 2012 (110 comments)<p>* Haiku Project Announces Availability of Haiku R1/Alpha 2* - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1334827" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1334827</a> - May 2010 (11 comments)<p><i>Haiku: A Perfect Desktop Operating System?</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1009751" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1009751</a> - Dec 2009 (5 comments)<p><i>Haiku</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=826986" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=826986</a> - Sept 2009 (29 comments)<p><i>Haiku Project Announces Availability of Haiku R1/Alpha 1</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=820844" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=820844</a> - Sept 2009 (20 comments)<p><i>Haiku OS first alpha scheduled for September 6th</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=767766" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=767766</a> - Aug 2009 (11 comments)<p><i>BeOS Lives: Haiku Impresses</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=475756" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=475756</a> - Feb 2009 (19 comments)
It's awesome that Haiku has come a long enough way that it runs on my Framework out-of-the-box. Still ain't quite there as a daily driver, but it's very close.
> The thumbnails themselves are stored in extended attributes of the files themselves, which means applications can create their own thumbnails for custom filetypes, if they want (for example, a screenshot might be the thumbnail of an emulator’s save-state.)<p>This is pretty neat. Is it something that script-type applications can do, as opposed to more formally-programmed applications?<p>Or for that matter is there that kind of system scripting language for the OS, like an ARexx for Haiku? I've used Haiku but not at this level.
Installed this beta4 on a ThinkPad T410, 4GB RAM, 1280x800 display, SSD drive. Seems pretty fast, the Emacs UI is nice, everything is VERY responsive.<p>It detected only 1024x768 when it started up, which made things look blurry; fixed by going into the Screen app and changing it. Haven't figured out the Wifi yet, but the Ethernet was detected and worked immediately. With both Web and WebPositive browsers up and with a page or two loaded, 1.2GB RAM was in use, total, for everything.
These compatibility layers are huge and are going to skyrocket Haiku’s strength as a daily driver. I’m really rooting for everyone working on it. Keep up the good work guys.
> This means Haiku is only the third open-source operating system (to the best of our knowledge) after Linux and OpenBSD to support 802.11ac WiFi, as not even FreeBSD supports it (yet?) despite having worked on it intermittently for years.<p>9front also uses OpenBSD drivers for Intel cards, so it might also be one
> Supporting these drivers required the addition of an “OpenBSD compatibility layer”, which builds on top of the existing FreeBSD compatibility layer.<p>This doesn't look very good, in my opinion. While having working WiFi is important, stacking compatibility layers is not a good architectural decision.
While I totally despise Electron it might be a great moment for new OSes and UI toolkits to emerge. In near future it might be enough to port Electron and a web browser and your niche OS might become actually usable on daily basis.<p>It’s slow and a total memory waste, but web became a new UI toolkit that actually solved OS compatibility issues. Who would have thought…
@dang Could the URL be changed to the release notes? <a href="https://www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku/r1beta4/release-notes/" rel="nofollow">https://www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku/r1beta4/release-notes/</a><p>It's a much more filled-out page, and probably what most people are clicking through to anyways.