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The operating system BeOS was in active development between 1995 and 2001.

POSIX compatible while not being unix based it was optimized for working with digital media.

Does this operating system still have anything to offer users today?

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BeOS is pretty much laid to rest by now, it can no longer be run on modern computers.

The interesting project is the "sequel" to BeOS, Haiku.

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I run it on a low-end desktop that was new in 2006, it just needed some patches. Still works great. – Kev Aug 24 '09 at 14:32
I'm sure it works, but there is no support, no relevant ongoing development, no new software. I don't consider that as having something to offer users. – Stefan Thyberg Aug 24 '09 at 14:49
It offers me a fast-booting system on poor hardware (contrary to your statement that "it can no longer be run.") I can also search my contacts and e-mails very quickly, which is something I do pretty often. There is new software at bebits.com, and relevance is subjective. It's definitely not for everyone, though, due to the lack of support in certain areas. – Kev Sep 16 '09 at 20:45
Software on bebits.com is added/updated sporadically at best. Software in the "New software" column can go as far as 4 months back in time despite only having 20 items or so. As subjective as relevance is, as a daily use operating system, it has nothing to offer users today. Searching your contacts and emails quickly is not a feature of the OS, exactly. As for fast-booting on poor hardware, that can be said of most older operating systems on newer hardware. A Mac in the mid-80s booted in eleven seconds, hard to beat today, but hardly a killer feature. – Stefan Thyberg Sep 29 '09 at 8:56
Actually, searching contacts and e-mails quickly is a feature of the OS--it's built into Tracker, meaning that I don't have to launch a big e-mail client like Thunderbird to find an e-mail. As soon as the OS boots I can hit a shortcut key, type something, and get results. Same with contacts, I just open a folder and all the information is there--no waiting for a slow client. So when I need to look up someone's number and my computer is off, fast boot plus said OS features makes for a killer 'daily' feature, for me. Your assertion that "it has nothing to offer" is false. – Kev Nov 5 '09 at 17:04
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BeOS was one of the first operating systems to effectively leverage multiple processors, and was just all around a great multimedia OS due to its pervasive multithreading. It saw a lot of use in audio and video editing and broadcasting, which has largely been taken over by Mac OSX, and partly by Windows (though usually XP, as Vista's multimedia architecture isn't very nice for these situations).

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