software company based in
Menlo Park,
CA,
founded in
1990 by
Jean-Louis Gassee and
Steve Sakoman, "to
overcome the
limitations of existing
computer architectures" (Be
Press Releases). Producer of
BeIA and
BeOS.
In October 1995, Be introduced the
BeOS to the
public the first time, running on the
BeBox. Later on, they decided to leave the
hardware business and
market their
operating system for
Mac Clones. After
Apple backed out of the
cloning business in 1997, Be
ported their OS to
x86, where it's still at.
In early 2000 they performed a
focus shift, targeting "
internet appliances",
aka IPEDs, with their
BeIA. Since then, they gave away the
Personal Edition of the
BeOS for free.
As of December 31, 2001,
Jean-Louis Gassee departed from his position as CEO of Be. All intellectual property has been sold to
Palm. The domain be.com is for sale.
Before their
IPO i was
enthusiastic about the
openness with which they approached their
customers and
developers. This has changed a lot though, seemingly because they have to be
careful now that each and everybody gets access to any
information at the same time. This would mean issuing a
press release for even the most
minor piece of shit. No wonder they're dead now. Shift happens.