Berserk wrote:
And did BeOS start off as a freeware OS aswell??
No. It was originally the OS for a specialized computer called the BeBox, which used a pair of PowerPCs and special-purpose viedo hardware. When Be, In. had trouble selling them, the dropped their hardware line and ported BeOS to run on the Macintosh clones, only to see Apple stop licensing the Mac ROMs a short time later. They then ported it again, to the Intel platform, but had endless trouble with driver compatibility and lack of market interest. In November 2001, Palm bought out Be and declared that they had no plans to continue development of the OS.
The
OpenBeOS project didn't get started until after the buyout. OpenBeOS is not supported by Palm - according to the OpenBeOS FAQ, the developers are currently voting on a new name for the OS to avoid legal hassles - and is starting over with a fresh code base to avoid copyright problems. They haven't gotten very far yet, but they are certainly moving ahead.