This Story Posted:
March 5th

 
 

[3:58 PM]
Apple Not Entirely To Blame For No Be For G3
In our story entitled "Former Apple Exec Joins Be Board," we said in our Mac Observer Spin that Apple had not shared code related to the G3 that Be needed to make BeOS work on the G3. Observer Scott Prive tells us that there is more to it than that and it is not all Apple's fault. Scott's letter in full:

"Hello,

I'm a former BeOS user, and a current Mac/Win/Linux user. To put my comments in perspective, I'm not a "fanatical" about any platform (although I would be everything on the future of GNU/Linux-BSD UNIX).

Be's decision to leave PowerPC stranded has more to do with being snubbed by the "Be or NEXT" deal, and investments by Intel. If you browse the Be website you will see Intel logo's *everywhere*, and even their "cheap recommended systems" are all Intel-only. Not a mention of AMD or Cyrix systems anywhere.

Be: "We need more work on the powerPC version to run with G3's"
Intel: "No you don't... here's some cash"
Be: "Thanks... I guess we don't need PowerPC"
Intel: "No you don't. Be sure to blame Apple some more"

The Linux PowerPC group has *excellent* Linux stability on the new G3's, and this done with no help from Apple. The source code is free so Be is welcome to study it, and run on G3's regardless if Apple will provide B with "technical support". I've heard (heresy) on Slashdot some coders have OFFERED Be free code to get G3 support, and they've either been ignored or turned away.

Apple even runs a story on their website regarding how a webteam wanted Linux + Apache, but others insisted on Apple hardware. So they deleted MacOS and installed this non-Apple OS called PowerPC Linux. This is a clear sign Apple is not against non-Apple OS's running on their hardware (since this is where they really make money).

Scott Prive"

Thanks for your thoughts Scott, you make some great points!

Be - Apple