Table of Contents

1. The MediaOS.
The Fed-Up, the Disenfranchised, and the Futurists. The Fed-Up. The Disenfranchised. The Futurists. Unchain My Hardware. BeOS as a General-Purpose System. The Buzzword-Enabled Operating System. The Rise of the Multi-Boot Environment. Preemptive Multitasking. Pervasive Multithreading. 64-Bit, Multithreaded, Fully Journaled Filesystem. How Big Was That File Again?. Client/Server Architecture. Data Interchange and Scripting. Database-Like Filesystem. Direct Graphics Access. Dynamically Loadable Device Drivers. Object Orientation. POSIX Compliance. How OOP Works. BeOS Ain't Unix. Processor Agnosticism and Portability. PowerPC versus Intel. Protected Memory. Symmetric Multiprocessing. Sense, Sensibility, and Multiple Processors. Why the Upper Limit?. The History of Be, Inc. The Last Supper: Gassée Exits Apple. The Early Days: Be Builds a Team. The Birth of BeOS. Offsite on the Cheap: The Hike to the Sea. Five Chips Are Better than One: The First BeBox. The Demise of the Hobbit: Be's Shift to PowerPC. Starting Over 34. Public Exposure: Agenda 95. Crossing the Frontier: Be Ports Its OS to the Mac. Dancing with the Devil: Negotiations with Apple. Flying Solo: Be Returns to Plan A.

Interview: Jean-Louis Gassée.


2: Meet the System
User Interface Conventions. Notes on Keyboard and Mouse Usage. A Tour of BeOS. Desktop. The Easter Eggs. User Interface Basics. Workspaces. The Bundled Apps. BeIDE. BeMail. CD Player. Clock. DiskProbe. Expander. Build Your Own Icon Library. Installer. Magnify. MIDI. MIDI Crash Course. MiniPlayer. NetPositive. People. PlaySound. PoorMan. Pulse. Blinky Lights in Memoriam. ROMUpdater BeBox Owners Only. SCSIProbe. SerialConnect. ShowImage. SimpleMIDI. SoftwareValet. StyledEdit. A Crash Course in Attributes. The Terminal. The Demo Apps. 3dmov. BeBounce. BeLogo. Calah. Container. Dominos. Flight. Font Demo. GL Teapot. Kaleidoscope. Life. Mandelbrot. What Is Life?. Minesweeper.

Interview: Peter Potrebic.


3. Installation
Pre-Installation Considerations. Where to Get BeOS. Compatibility. Hardware Requirements. International Versions. Basic Installation. Basic Installation. Installing BeOS Upgrades. Other Configurations. Working with Partitions. Partition History. Discovering Your Partition Types. Other Multi-Boot Options. OS-Provided Boot Managers. Third-Party Boot Managers. Boot Glitches. Install Operating Systems in Optimal Order. Installing BeOS on PowerPC Hardware. Where to Get BeOS. Mac Hardware Requirements. Basic Installation on PowerPC Hardware. Partitioning Your Mac Drive. Easy Installation. Booting the BeOS.

Interview: Bob Herold.


4. Get Online Fast.
The BeOS Advantage. The Three-Minute Web Connection. Configuring Internet Services. Dial-Up Networking. DNS Explained. Adding Modems Manually. About CHAP and PAP. About Framing. Network Interface Cards. Supported Network Cards. Network Setup on a Mac. Restart Networking. Email Configuring Email Preferences. The SMTP Dilemma. Bundled Internet Apps. NetPositive. NetPositive's Secret Past. Error Message Haiku. Displaying Non-English Websites. Accessing Super-Secret SettingsÊ. Working with Bookmarks. On Strong Encryption. BeMail. What about Navigator?. BeMail and Filters. Using FTP. Real Men Use the Terminal. Using Telnet. Using ping. Interpreting Round-Trip Times. Stay Awake.

5. Files and the Tracker.
A Closer Look at the Tracker Working with Files and Folders. Context Menus. The “Open With” Relationship. Desktop and Trash: More than Meets the Eye. Add-Ons. Attributes What's in a File's Attributes?. Attributes and the Tracker. Creating Custom Attributes. Searching on Custom Attributes. Viewing Extra Attributes. The Filetyping Problem Guilt by Association. The Filetyping Solution: MIME. The Format of a MIME Type. Meet the Registrar. Assigning MIME Types: The Rules of Engagement. Changing FileTypes--Think Globally The Rules of Inheritance. Meet the FileTypes Database. Changing the Preferred Application. Changing Icons. Adding New Filetypes. Removing FileTypes. Attributes. Extensions. Invasion of the Meta-MIME. Act Locally The FileType Panel for Individual Files. FileType Settings for Applications. Change Batches of Files. Dealing with Archives. Decompressing ArchivesÊ. Compression Basics. Unzipping from the Terminal. Compressing Files with zip. Growing a zip Archive. tar and gzip. Stick with Zip. SoftwareValet Package Files. Zipping Files on the Mac. BFS: The Be Filesystem. Journaling. Multithreading. Attributes. Node Monitors. Disk Utilities for BeOS. Sixty-Four Bit Storage System. Speed.

Interview: Pavel Cisler.


6. The Terminal.
Critical bash for BeOS.. The Purpose of This Chapter.. About Open-Source Tools. Using the Terminal Application. The Terminal Application Window. Basic bash. Navigation and File Management. Change Your Prompt. Quoting and Escaping. Standard In, Standard Out. Basic Shell Syntax. Terminal/Tracker Integration. Redirection. History Lesson. Tab Completion. Finding Stuff. Tracker Grep. Setting Permissions. The Rule of Sevens. Text Processing. Crunching Numbers. GeekGadgets. Quick Access to Long Commands. Using Shell Commands from the GUI. Communing with the Shell. Who the Hell Is Baron, and Why Does He Own My Files?. Tweaking Your Path. UserSetupEnvironment versus .profile. Assign the Results of a Command to a Variable. Miscellany. Why Is So Much Memory Being Used?. Fun with Alert Boxes. Learning More.

Interview: Cyril Meurillon.


7. Working with Queries.
Data Mining Your Hard Drive Database 101. The Open-Minded Data Format. Attributes and MIME Types. Digging for Gold. Constructing Queries All Files and Folders versus Individual Filetypes. Unlisted Filetypes. Use Plain English. Using Saved Queries Querying Custom Attributes. Do “Real” File Locations Matter Anymore?. Case Study: Queries and BeMail Is the Be Filesystem a “True” Database?. Quick Glimpses. Scripting BeMail Queries. Sample QueriesQuery by Formula Starter Formulas. Why the Double Equal Signs?. Running Queries from the Terminal.

Interview: George Hoffman.


8. Networking.
Networking Concepts and Beyond PPP. Networking from 20,000 Feet. How TCP/IP Works. BeOS's Home-Brewed TCP/IP Stack. LANs versus WANs. Kernel Space versus User Space. Building a Network. Making the Connection. Test Your Connection. Moving Files via FTP. GUI versus CLI. Setting Up the Server. Logging In. Command-Line FTP. Other File-Sharing and Transfer Methods. Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS). NFS. AppleTalk. The Five-Minute Web Server Who Needs a Personal Server?. What Do You Mean, “Web Server”?. Hosting an Actual Domain. Publishing with PoorMan. Case-Sensitivity Issues. Got Bandwidth?. Remote Control. Telnet to Your BeOS Machine. Telnetting from Other Operating Systems. Accessing Other Operating Systems Remotely. Advanced Connectivity Multiple Network Configurations. Using DHCP. Editing Network Preferences Manually. Proxies, IP Forwarding, and Masquerades. DNS versus the hosts File. Serial/Terminal Communications What Is SerialConnect?. Customizing Connections with Dial-o-Rama. Security Is BeOS Secure?

Interview: Russ McMahon.


9. Preferences and Customization.
Preferences. Preferences--or Links to Preferences?. Audio. Backgrounds. ScreenSaver. Boot. Data Translations. Devices. Dial-Up Networking. DriveSetup. MacOS Trying to Mount BeOS Partitions. Disk Mount Settings. E-mail. FileTypes. Fonts. Fontology. Bitstream and Be. Japanese. Baka Baka Quiz Show. Using the Japanese Input Method: A Brief Tutorial. About Japanese Writing Systems. Joysticks. Keyboard. Keymap. Menu. About the Dvorak Keymap. Mouse. Network. Printers. Screen. Who's That in the Print Setup Dialog?. Why Some Settings Are Grayed Out. ScrollBar. Sounds. Time. Is BeOS Year 2000-Compliant?. Atomic Time. Video. Virtual Memory. Workspaces. Customization. Scripts. The Launch Alternative. About the Shutdown Scripts. Miscellaneous Settings Files. Customizing Icons. Why Some FileType Dialogs Have Blank Icon Wells. Creating BeOS Icons in Photoshop and Other Imaging Applications. Restoring System Filetypes and Icons.

Interview: Hiroshi Lockheimer.


10. System Tools and Utilities.
Installers. SoftwareValet. Fixing Corrupt Package Files. OmicronSoft's EasyInstall/EasyDeinstall. What about Orphans?. Tracker Add-Ons. System-Provided Add-Ons. Third-Party Add-Ons. Backup Tools. Bald Mountain's BeB. OmicronSoft Restorer. Benchmarking. OmicronSoft's BeRometer. Launchers. DeposIt. Hit&Run. System Monitors. SysR. freeSpace. What's Your Uptime?

Interview: Dominic Giampaolo.


11. Network Applications.
Email Clients. Adamation's Adam. BeatWare Mail-It. Getting Started with Mail-It. OmicronSoft Mail Clique. Postmaster. FTP Clients. BeatWare's Get-It. NetPenguin. Passive Connections. Usenet News Clients. BeInformed. Usenet in a Nutshell. Usenet Access from the Terminal. IRC Clients. IRC 101. Felix. Web Servers. What about Web Browsers?. Apache. Troubleshooting Apache. diner. Zorro. FTP Servers. campus. Miscellaneous Tools and Utilities. ANewsWire. Email Servers. Stamina and Charisma. BeCQ.

12. Productivity Applications.
AbiSoft's BePlan. Using BePlan. Features. BeatWare's Be Basics. The Two Applications You Need Every Day. Getting Started with Writer. Getting Started with Sum-It. Getting the Most out of Be Basics. Gobe Productive. Integrated Productivity. Working with “Environments”. Digging into the Interface. Spreadsheets. Graphics. Image Processing. Presentations. Maarten Hekkelman's Pe. The Programmer's Editor. Using Pe. Word Processors versus Text Editors. Preferences. File Options. Building Websites with Pe. About Document Encoding. Brian Tietz's Scheduler. Creating Events. What About Cron?. Working Software's Spellswell and QLAB. Spellswell. QuickLetter Address Book (QLAB).

13. Graphics Applications.
Image Manipulation and Paint Programs. ArtPaint. What about Photoshop?. About the Alpha Channel. Sum Software's Becasso. Orthogonal?. Boo. BeatWare's e-Picture. Other Image Editors. About BeatWare's FreeStyle UI. Modeling and Raytracing. MAXON's CINEMA 4D XL V5.25. Persistence of Vision (POV-Ray). Graphics Utilities. Adamation's ImageElements. NetPBM. roDesign's roColour. Thumbnail.

Interview: Pierre Raynaud-Richard.


14. Media Applications.
Audio Applications. Adamation's AudioElements. BamBam. FinalScratch. MusicWeaver. Objekt's ObjektSynth. SoundPlay. Q. Nanodot. Rack Om 1.0. The Media Art of Douglas Irving Repetto. Coming Soon. Video Applications. Adamation's personalStudio and studioA. Tebo Software's Grabbo. Coming Soon. Video Capture and Other Goodies.

Interview: Jon Watte.


15. Other Goodies.
The Kitchen Sink. Analog. Behaviour. BeStripper and Other Text Converters. Other Text-Format Converters. Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF Viewer). liblayout and PrefServer. Perl. Python. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). RC5DES. In Search of Heavenly Bodies. X-Windows Server.

Interview: Tim Martin.


16. Troubleshooting and Maintenance.
General Troubleshooting. Narrow It Down. Looking for Help. Where to Go for Help. Boot Problems. The Chicken and Egg Video Dilemma. Unsupported and Misconfigured Hardware. The IRQ Dilemma. Unsupported Hardware. Inablity to Find the Boot Partition. Building a Boot Floppy. Trapping Debug Information. The Application Debugger. Hardware Debug Output. Application Problems. Walk of the Undead (Applications That Refuse to Die). Recover Application Settings. Video Problems. Screen Size Problems. BeOS Appears in Grayscale. Sound Problems. No Sound at All. No Sound from Specific Applications. Sound Is Too Quiet. Network Problems. Keeping Up with Changing Hardware. PPP Problems. Network Interface Card Problems. Email Problems. Web Problems. Telnet Problems. Disk Problems. Backups and BeOS. Mouse Problems. x86 Mouse Problems. Macintosh Mouse Problems. Disaster Recovery. Bypassing the Bootloader. Bypassing the Bootloader and the Hard Disk. Emergency-Booting BeOS on the Mac. Recovering Your Data. Tracker, Deskbar, and Replicant Problems. Killing and Restarting the Tracker. Deskbar Problems. When Replicants Go Bad. Error Messages. Crashing Messages. Non-Crashing Messages. Appendices.

Appendix A. Keyboard Equivalencies and Shortcuts.
Standard Application Shortcuts. Keyboard Shortcuts in the Tracker. Navigation.

Appendix B. Date/Time Formats Recognized by the Query Engine.


Appendix C. Programming BeOS.
Compiling Source. CodeGetting Started with BeOS Programming. Developers' Programs. Further Reference. Index.

Appendix D. More Information on BeOS.
BooksMailing ListUsenet Websites. Primitive Volcanic Gods Choose BeOS over Windows. Glossary.

Promotional Information

Fast, elegant, and powerful, the Be operating system, like Linux, delivers workstation power on inexpensive desktop hardware. The BeOS Bible is the definitive guide to this new OS and the first book on Be written with nonprogrammers in mind. Whether you're new to the BeOS or have been using this exciting operating system since the beginning, you'll want this comprehensive reference at your side. Written especially for power users and creative professionals working with hi-res video, graphics, and audio files, The BeOS Bible covers it all, from starting up to running servers. The expert authors, all intimately involved with Be, guide you through the details with instructive explanations and graphics. In its pages, you'll find: *In-depth, detailed coverage of every feature of the BeOS--from secrets of the terminal to application shortcuts to advanced graphics, sound, and database applications *Interviews with Be engineers and founders, including Jean-LouisGassee, president and CEO of Be, Inc., that provide fascinating insight into this innovative OS *Hundreds of tips and techniques for getting the most out of the BeOS and its applications The BeOS Bible covers through release 4 (R4) on both the Inteland PowerPC platforms.

About the Author

Scot Hacker has been involved with the BeOS community since mid-1996, when he launched ZDNet's BeHive, the Web's first commercial source of BeOS analysis and commentary. Hr runs the legendary BeOS Tip Server, a massive collection of tips and suggestions for end users. His love affair with BeOS borders on obsession.