Be Ships BeOS Preview Release 2 Four Months After Preview Release 1.MENLO PARK Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1997--Today Be., Inc. announced shipment of the second public release of the Be Operating System operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. (BeOS Preview Release 2). Preview Release 2 continues improvements resulting from Developer and End-user feedback with features added as part of the long term development plan for the BeOS. "This release adds momentum to the BeOS," said Jean-Louis Gasse, President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Be, Inc. "This is business as usual, responding to Developers and Customers and building up the BeOS technology platform." In just the last two months: -- Over one hundred new BeOS applications have been released. -- The number of registered Be developers has climbed 10%; to more than 4,400. -- More than 500,000 copies of the BeOS have been distributed to potential users. Be plans to deliver three releases of the BeOS next year, and the BeOS Preview Release 2 is actually being delivered slightly ahead of that schedule: less than four months after Preview Release 1. The improvements made in Preview Release 2, primarily focus on application accessibility, usability, and stability. Application Accessibility The BeOS Preview Release 2 CD comes with nearly 40 3rd party applications currently available for the BeOS. These include: word processing word processing, use of a computer program or a dedicated hardware and software package to write, edit, format, and print a document. Text is most commonly entered using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, although handwritten input (see pen-based computer) and , spreadsheet, audio, Internet, entertainment, graphics, and developer applications. Usability The BeOS Release 2 offers increased hardware support, user interface improvements, and application and performance enhancements. Some of the additions are: Hardware support -- the ability to read from and write to Mac HFS (Hierarchical File System) The file system used in the Macintosh. The first version, known as "Mac OS Standard," was introduced in 1985. HFS+, an enhanced version, came out in 1998 in preparation for the upcoming Mac OS X operating system. partitions -- support for systems with up to 512 MB of RAM -- support for fixed-sync monitors User interface improvements -- double-click installation of compressed archives (zip, .gz, ...) -- editing of saved queries -- live updating of Tracker window columns -- increased keyboard navigation Application features -- BeMail's People application supports e-mail addresses -- the built-in web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. -- NetPositive -- supports page updating -- NetPositive launches other apps to handle other types of files Other changes -- broader POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX) An IEEE 1003.1 standard that defines the language interface between application programs and the Unix operating system. compliance -- faster TCP/IP TCP/IP in full Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol Standard Internet communications protocols that allow digital computers to communicate over long distances. networking Stability The BeOS is designed for digital content creation The development of newsworthy, educational and entertainment material for distribution over the Internet or other electronic media. See DAMS. markets where system stability and up-time are extremely important. A great deal of work has gone into extensive system reliability testing. The protected memory design of the BeOS fundamentally improves up-time because even if one application fails, only that application needs to be relaunched rather than the whole system. Preview Release 2 up-time is measured in months not hours or days. AVAILABILITY & PRICING The BeOS Preview Release 2 will begin shipping on October 20, 1997. Advance online orders will be taken starting on October 7th on Be's web site http://www.be.com/purchase/ordering/beos_order_form.html . Pricing remains the same: -- $49.95 for the retail package which includes a printed user's guide and next two releases, on supported hardware, for free. -- $9.95 for the trial package which includes electronic documentation and no future releases. Customers who purchased the BeOS Preview Release Retail Package are entitled to the next two releases, on supported hardware, for free. These customers will be sent Preview Release 2 CD (as one of the free releases) in the mail starting on October 20th. Customers who purchased the BeOS Preview Release after September 1st will be sent the BeOS Preview Release 2 CD without this version counting against their two free releases. Registered Be developers will be sent the Preview Release 2 starting on October 20th. A Web downloadable version of BeOS Preview Release 2 is expected to be available in November from Be's website, http://www.be.com/ . FUTURE RELEASES BeOS Release 3 is expected in Q1 1998 and will be the first commercial release to support both Intel Architecture and PowerPC systems. While the main thrust for Release 3 is support for Intel Architecture machines, it will also feature a number of other enhancements including significant performance boosts with support for 3D hardware acceleration In computing, hardware acceleration is the use of hardware to perform some function faster than is possible in software running on the normal (general purpose) CPU. Examples of hardware acceleration include blitting acceleration functionality in graphics processing units (GPUs) and and 100 Megabit Ethernet. About Be Be, Inc., founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gasse, is a software company focusing on building new foundations In mathematical logic, New Foundations (NF) is an axiomatic set theory, conceived by Willard Van Orman Quine as a simplification of the theory of types of Principia Mathematica. for the next generation of digital content and media design tools. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and Europe, the company is dedicated to removing the limitations of existing computer architectures and delivering a new level of price performance. In July 1997, Be published the first public release of the Be Operating System (BeOS), the core product of this strategy. Additional information on Be and the BeOS is available online at http://www.be.com/ . Be, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city in San Mateo County, California in the United States of America. It is located at latitude 37°29' North, longitude 122°9' East. Menlo Park had 30,785 inhabitants as of the 2000 U.S. Census. . CONTACT: Be, Inc. Ed Romson, 650/462-4176 (In the U.S. and Pacific) romson@be.com or Jean Calmon, +33 1 49 06 73 75 (In Europe) jcalmon@beeurope.com |
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