I was a BeOS user back in the day, and have fond memories of that system. Since then Haiku OS has been an ongoing project to recreate and extend BeOS. It has reached second Beta readiness which received a favourable review on Distrowatch. I am currently trying to install Haiku on an old iMac.
Haiku shares its microkernel architecture with Redox but as a user I remember it most for its realtime qualities which allowed cutting edge multimedia utilities at the turn of the millennium, such as a DJ’ing app that allowed realtime use of techniques such as scratching. BeOS’s database-inspired filesystem also allowed neat stuff to pervade the system, and I particularly remember the address book app did not produce a file with the personal data in it, rather each of your contacts was an individual file (with a little person shaped icon) who all “lived” in the address book folder each of whom you could drag, copy and paste as with any other file.
I would love to see Redox borrow some of the qualifies of Haiku. Would I be correct in thinking that the unique qualities of Haiku are made possible by its architecture, and this being so, the architecture of Redox (microkernel, its own sophisticated filesystem) would make it easy to have those same qualities? Has Redox knowingly drawn inspiration from Haiku? In the Redox Book, there are brief appraisals of Linux, BSD and Minix; perhaps Haiku should be a benchmark also?
Also, please pipe up if you have used BeOS or Haiku and let everybody know your thoughts!