Scot
Hacker is a name synonymous with BeOS.
Not that Scot is an operating system, he is a full-time user of BeOS and, more
importantly, a writer that has gained respect among BeOS users. He has done this
by offering useful information and insight into the operating system in his articles.
Not
only does Scot write great articles about the BeOS, he is the main author of The
BeOS Bible and is currently writing a book for O'Reilly
on MP3. Impressive.
Now,
let's take a look at the interview...
What
do you believe it would take to get a large hardware company, such as Dell, to
offer an option to pre-install BeOS on new PCs? How would a prevailing Linux option
affect such a decision?
No
simple answer to that. It's all about momentum. As you know, Dell's Gigabuys just
started selling BeOS, and they're now selling Linux laptops. We need to grow the
userbase and crank up the amount of press attention. Be's marketing and sales
teams are working really hard. Everyone is doing all they can do. We just have
to persist and not lose sight of the golden ring. It's real gold.
Has
Microworkz tarnished the BeOS licensing image any? If so, should Be distance themselves
from Microworkz?
Microworkz's image was already badly tarnished before
they started talking to Be. The Linux lie hasn't raised them in my esteem any.
Now their CEO has stepped down, so who knows what will happen next? Personally,
I think iDot is the one to watch. I won't say anything else about Microworkz...
I'll wait for them to prove themselves. I applaud them for having the wisdom to
go with BeOS, really, but I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. If they
can turn the image of the company around under another CEO, great things could
still happen.
Should Be start considering the enterprise market? For
example, there is an emerging market for media-savvy servers, and clients to go
along with that. Is now the time for Be to start working on their products to
offer to these new markets?
That's a tough paradox. So many big business
decisions revolve around the enterprise. But without an absolutely killer server
and a big name database, it's not even worth bringing it up right now. Be in the
enterprise is a vapor notion. However, the potential to do those things is there,
and it's great. Be provides an infrastructure that could potentially make for
a tremendous server, and a great database host. Be can take care of the server
side by replacing the whole network stack, which they're doing. That will be half
the battle. The other half will again be momentum and userbase, in order to attract
the big database vendors. Then we can talk about the enterprise. For now, more
realistic goals make more sense. Focus and bring those creative types on board.
We're a lot closer to impressing media types than database types right now. The
strategy is starting to work. Maybe Be will diversify into other targets in the
future, but now is definitely not the time, unless we all want a big black eye.
As you know, there is both the Mozilla Seamonkey (upcoming Netscape Communicator
5.0) and Apache 2.0 server projects in development for the BeOS. Just how important
is it that these products are available for the BeOS?
Very important,
unfortunately. I say unfortunately because I'm still not a big fan of ports. I'd
much rather see Be selling so many copies of the OS that they could afford to
put 10 people on the NetPositive team. I really do love NetPositive, and don't
find it missing much for basic information gathering. Still, things like DHTML
and JavaScript and Flash definitely fall under the Media label, and they can make
surfing more fun (though not always more useful). For me, DHTML is really the
big one. That's the key to "weblications," far more than Java in my
mind.
The public perspective is "Can it run Netscape?" That's
technically not important if the solution you provide is just as good, but it
doesn't matter. The public needs to see big names in order to establish credibility.
So, yes, those things are really important. There are also dimensions of interoperability
that come into play. It's hard enough for webmasters to make sites that work under
a lot of browsers. Having most Be users using a popular browser would be nice.
I just received word that Apache 2.0 has been successfully built on BeOS
for the first time today, which is great news. We should see a downloadable version
very soon, and I'll probably switch to Apache when its performance exceeds that
of Robin Hood. I'd like to stay with native software, but I look forward to the
support I'll get from other Apache users, not to mention the security advantages.
Couple a mature, multithreaded Apache with multiuser capabilities and a secure
filesystem, and we'll be sailing.
The BeOS is not currently not considered
a good server platform, simply because of the lack of multi-user support (though
it is present in the file system). However, the Army's recent swing off of NT
and onto a Mac server has opened many eyes to the fact that NT and UNIX based
systems leave a lot of doors open to hackers as soon as they are put online. The
MacOS is not this way because there is no command line interface. How would BeOS
compare?
First of all, multiuser is not the only reason BeOS isn't
a great server yet. The coming rewrite of the network stack will provide more
speed and stability. Then we can get competitive. Multiuser is very important
though, and I'm really looking forward to it.
Clearly Be has a command
line and a telnet daemon, etc. It will be subject to the same kinds of holes that
are found in UNIX/Linux/BSD. And I expect that MacOS Server will also start to
face those issues. You just can't have a quality computing experience or take
full control of your machine without a command line, but you pay a price.
If BeOS went the way of the Amiga OS, would you still keep using it? How
would you see yourself then, it that situation?
Well, I think it's
a little premature to even think about that. Be just raised $36 million or whatever
in their IPO, which should hold out for another few years if they play their cards
right and sales continue to grow.
Hypothetically,
if Be went under tomorrow, yes, I'd probably be like one of those die-hard Amiga
users, hanging onto the platform for years. I'm miserable when I'm in other operating
systems. Maybe by that time Linux will start to approach Be's ease of use, though
I have my doubts. I have no hope for Windows making me happy ever again, and my
feelings about MacOS are well known, though I'd like to experiment with the Server
edition.
I'm not going anywhere.
When did you realize that
writing about Be and the BeOS was going to consume your life?
It
was a pretty slow evolution, starting with the review BeBox I received at ZDNet
in exchange for writing the ongoing BeHive diary (the column and the box are both
now sadly defunct). A contact at Peachpit had been bugging me for a while to write
a book, and it was only later that we realized we had a mutual interest in Be.
It wasn't until a year later that I quit my job at ZDNet to write the book though.
But I knew I would need more money than the book advance to survive, so I started
scouting out other opportunities, and fortunately they materialized. I was also
really frustrated that ZDNet, like nearly every mainstream news and information
organization, has a problem acknowledging that it *creates* the world around it
as much as it reflects it. IOW, they claim to cover mostly Windows products ---
and now, to an increasing extent, Linux -- because that's what the public uses.
But they never own up to the fact that the most of the world uses only the products
the media tells them about. I felt they had as much responsibility to cover Be
as the San Francisco Chronicle has to cover the ongoing massacres of Tibetan monks
by the Chinese. But it doesn't happen. That was extremely frustrating for me.
Now I get to write about what *I* feel is important. I'm not beholden to anyone
else's editorial agenda.
Since that time, how has your lifestyle changed?
My schedule is totally whack. I work until 3 or 4 a.m, and wake at eleven
or noon. Sounds nice if you're stuck in a nine to five, but I really do want to
get on a normal schedule. I just can't seem to make it stick. I also work a lot
more. I do 12-14 hour days practically 7 days a week now. On the other hand, I
can now just hop on my bike and head randomly into the Oakland hills anytime I
get stir crazy. In the winter I can snowboard weekdays, when the lines are shorter.
I get more exercise now, at least.
Not all of this time is spent doing
Be stuff. I'm writing a book on MP3 for O'Reilly and Associates now, and getting
closed to finished with that. That's consumed me for quite a while. But the flood
of Be-related mail and projects never stops, so I do both at once.
What
advice would you give to a person who may be interested in starting a BUG in their
area, and meeting or evangelizing other BeOS users?
I've found myself
in surprising situations just by wearing a Be shirt in public. I strike up conversations
with people in public. The aisles of book stores and computer stores are great.
Seems every time I'm in the local superstore I end up talking about BeOS. Of course
you can't just come out of nowhere. Just yesterday I overheard someone saying
that USB mice are a pain. I piped in and told them that mine was a dream under
BeOS, a nightmare under Windows, and that started a whole conversation. Seems
it always starts like that. As for starting BUGs, I don't know. Start with usenet
or beusertalk to see if there are people in your area who would be interested,
and take it from there. Be is *really* generous with the BUGs.
