About

beunited.org, established in 1999, is an independent, non-profit organization working to define and promote open specifications for the delivery of an Open Standard BeOS-compatible Operating System (OSBOS) platform for personal computers in consumer and business environments. beunited.org works to proliferate these open specifications through the sponsorship of technology, market, user education, and support programs.

When Be Inc was the sole developer of the BeOS it was possible for Be to determine how BeOS was constructed. Now, with many separate projects underway, there is a possibility that the design and behavior of the separate projects will not be compatible, thus introducing fragmentation. This fragmentation has the potential to cause incompatiblities between applications, system components, and provide a generally poor user experience thus limiting the adoption of the OSBOS platform.

The goal of beunited.org is to provide a forum for the development of a consistent, open specification for the OSBOS platform to increase the demand for products and services based on this platform worldwide. By providing a common, unified and community-represented body, beunited.org will publish and accredit OSBOS distributions for the benefit of the Be Community.

History

Between 1990 and 2001, Be Incorporated (Be Inc) developed one of the most advanced operating systems in the world, the BeOS. Renowned for its impressive technical achievements and ease of use, the BeOS gained a faithful following of users and developers around the globe known collectively as the Be Community.

The struggles that Be Inc endured are well documented and resulted in the demise of the company in 2001. With this, the loyal user base was left with an operating system that was no longer supported and no future development was planned. As a result, the Be Community initiated several open source projects to create 'clean room' implementations of BeOS.

Today there are several OSBOS projects well underway and more developers joining the ranks each day. Through this effort, beunited.org, as a standards organization, seeks to supply the Be Community with the best possible OSBOS implementations and to support them so they may flourish for many years to come.