I always wondered what is the motivation behind Haiku. Is it a recreation of BeOS for the sake of recreating it, or is it practically usable for daily use?

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wolrah a day ago | parent | next [-]

Can't speak for the project members or main users, but as an alternative OS nerd who actually used BeOS R5 on a 300 MHz Pentium II in-period I see Haiku as having two different "purposes" depending on version.

The x86-32 version (and hypothetically the never-complete PowerPC version), as I see it, exists (or would exist) for binary compatibility with legacy BeOS systems. The AMD64 version on the other hand is a hobby OS demonstrating a path not taken where personal computer operating systems remained separate from server operating systems.

Also, like others, these days I can do basically everything I need to do on a computer other than gaming as long as I have a browser that supports the modern web and a SSH client so Haiku is absolutely fully usable on the right hardware.

	▲	fragmede a day ago \| parent [-]
		And even then, there's a webssh client you can setup to run in the appropriate context that you need.

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efficax a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

i can't speak for the project's maintainers and their motivation, but it is workable as a daily use OS if your hardware is supported and you are willing to use the still beta firefox port.

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shevy-java a day ago | parent [-]

But compared to Linux, why would I want to use Haiku these days?

	▲	MisterTea a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		To explore a different OS.
	▲	ranger_danger a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		For one, it's not being actively targeted with new daily exploits.

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jdboyd a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It appears to be usable for daily use for some people, in that enough of a web browser works that you could mostly get by. It would be hard to say it is really practical, nor that it has a convincing path to being practical in the way that say ReactOS does.

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throwaway27448 a day ago | parent [-]

People still find plan9 usable for daily use. The major barrier these days is indeed a web browser. I suspect even there you can get 95% of the way to that goal with a "browser" that is actually a linux VM.

	▲	MisterTea a day ago \| parent [-]
		For most Plan 9 users, the lack of a web browser is a feature, not a barrier. 9front features VMX on supported Intel machines so one can run a Linux VM using then connect using VNC.

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kouosi a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Most people working on kernel/osdev do for the sake of recreating it :)

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ranger_danger a day ago | parent | prev [-]

IMO For some it is practically usable with an ever-growing repository of new and familiar packages. HaikuPorts has over 4500 packages.

For the longest time there was not a modern browser that could run, but now there are multiple chromium-based and firefox-based options.