BeOS PowerPC Software and GoBe Productive

[Phipli]

As people know, BeOS was originally been developed internally for the AT&T Hobbit processor, then switched to the PowerPC and ran on Be's own BeBox, then transitioned to running on a select few Macs... Before gaining an x86 version and ultimately collapsing in the early 2000s.

The Be retro community (the bits of it that I can find with Google and Facebook) seem to be mostly running x86 versions. BeBoxes are rare - off the top of my head, only like 2000 sold total. Combined with what I believe was a disagreement a good few years ago which resulted in a large online archive of software being pulled offline... There is almost no PowerPC software available archived.

Does anyone have any BeOS software for PowerPC?

First and foremost - do you have a copy (a CD if possible) of GoBe Productive? The ClarisWorks like productivity application suite? I have the trial, but not the full program.

Do you have any other software?

I'm running BeOS 5.0.3 which is the newest I've been able to get (I believe there may be one later unofficial version?) for PPC.

I'll have a rummage and work out what software I have found, things like SheepShaver, CL-Amp, a cut down CodeWarrior and a few other things, mostly utility sized applications.

 

[Snial]

As people know, BeOS was originally been developed internally for the AT&T Hobbit processor, then switched to the PowerPC and ran on Be's own BeBox, then transitioned to running on a select few Macs... Before gaining an x86 version and ultimately collapsing in the early 2000s.

I'm running BeOS 5.0.3 which is the newest I've been able to get (I believe there may be one later unofficial version?) for PPC.

It needs a PCI Mac, so I guess that cuts my PB1400 out, though I suspect that @mihai will get it running on InfiniteMac.org at some point!

 

[Phipli]

It needs a PCI Mac, so I guess that cuts my PB1400 out, though I suspect that @mihai will get it running on InfiniteMac.org at some point!

It's even more specific than that, effectively a whitelist of machines, although with some issues, it will run on the 5500/6500/TAM.

Basically, your best bet is a PowerSurge of some type, but avoid the Kansas 8600/9600. So... 7300/7500/7600/8500/8600/9500/9600, as long as the stock processor was less than 250MHz, and you can't use a 601 (so have to upgrade your 7500 to a 604).

Apparently you can't install on a G3/G4 upgraded machine (I've not verified), but I have run my machine with both G3 and G4 processors installed and it works fine, even knows what to call the processor some of the time.

 

[MindWalker]

Hah, nice to see this thread, just as during the last two weeks or abouts, I've been experimenting for the first time (for me) with BeOS on x86. After some struggle with finding a compatible GPU and then drivers for my sound card, it's now running nicely on my Pentium I 233Mhz with 64MB of RAM. I've been seriously impressed with the OS, having been running Win98 on the same hardware.

I did attempt at one point to boot the BeOS install disc on my PowerComputing PowerCenter 132 (I think my only compatible PPC machine) but it failed, now I really want to go back and try it again! Then I can join here about whether there was any software to be found!

Feels like finding BeOS software even for the x86 is somewhat of a struggle, it's mostly a bunch of mirrors of gone-by FTPs and links to dead sites!

 

[Phipli]

I did attempt at one point to boot the BeOS install disc on my PowerComputing PowerCenter 132 (I think my only compatible PPC machine) but it failed, now I really want to go back and try it again! Then I can join here about whether there was any software to be found!

Things to check...
What video card are you using? I can confirm that the ixmicro TwinTurbos work well.
Make sure you don't have too much RAM. I forget what the upper limit is, but I run my machine with about 130MB
The BeOS launcher does not work with later versions of the classic Mac OS. I use a copy of 7.6.1 to jumpstart BeOS.

I haven't looked up the compatibility of your specific hardware, but if it is compatible, the above should help you on your way

 

[Skate323k137]

All the BeOS archives including ppc I know of are here

PulkoMandy's BeOS software archive

BeOS software archive

pulkomandy.tk

He hosts it from his home; I hosts the 'mirror' subdomain on a real server. Using the search function just for ppc should give you a food start, and use the 'mirror' links for the actual files to avoid any limits.

 

[MindWalker]

Thanks for the link Skate!

Things to check...
What video card are you using? I can confirm that the ixmicro TwinTurbos work well.
Make sure you don't have too much RAM. I forget what the upper limit is, but I run my machine with about 130MB
The BeOS launcher does not work with later versions of the classic Mac OS. I use a copy of 7.6.1 to jumpstart BeOS.

I haven't looked up the compatibility of your specific hardware, but if it is compatible, the above should help you on your way

Thanks, good points!

I found this sentence "All 603- and 604-based Power Computing models are supported" so I am somewhat hopeful... I think I was at the time using the built-in graphics the machine has. I now have a Matrox Millenium II (mac-rom flashed) in it too and at least in x86-BeOS that's supported out of the box so perhaps a good thing for testing that too. I have 96MB or RAM in and I believe I was running Mac OS 8.1 at the time so that's one thing to test then!

I *think* I was able to boot from the CD but it would freeze at/after the BeOS logo, don't think I ever made it to drive partitioning.

 

[Phipli]

Thanks for the link Skate!



Thanks, good points!

I found this sentence "All 603- and 604-based Power Computing models are supported" so I am somewhat hopeful... I think I was at the time using the built-in graphics the machine has. I now have a Matrox Millenium II (mac-rom flashed) in it too and at least in x86-BeOS that's supported out of the box so perhaps a good thing for testing that too. I have 96MB or RAM in and I believe I was running Mac OS 8.1 at the time so that's one thing to test then!

I *think* I was able to boot from the CD but it would freeze at/after the BeOS logo, don't think I ever made it to drive partitioning.

Another thing is that there are some bad disk images about online.

I've just verified this bin / cue pair are valid and boot my computer :

BeOS Pro Edition 5.0 Version 5.0.3 Intel & PPC : Be : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org

Note, you must download the ".bin" and the ".cue" file. A good CD burning application will let you open the .cue file and burn a CD. Do not rename the files, or it will confuse things.

.iso files have issues with multi-media type CDs (containing more than one type of data, such as a BeFS partition, FAT and a HFS partition) so make sure you burn from the bin/cue and don't convert it to an iso.

 

[Skate323k137]

Thanks for the link Skate!

No problem, I used a bunch of it with my powermac 7500 + Sonnet CPU. Hopefully others find some things of use.

 

[Phipli]

Just bringing things back around a little, does anybody have an original copy of GoBe Productive? A CD that could be imaged would be the ideal, but a PowerPC installer, or even the PowerPC application itself (I believe it might be possible to swap the full application into the trial installer).

 

[lolo799]

Just bringing things back around a little, does anybody have an original copy of GoBe Productive? A CD that could be imaged would be the ideal, but a PowerPC installer, or even the PowerPC application itself (I believe it might be possible to swap the full application into the trial installer).

I have the boxed last version of Gobe Productive, 2.0something, I'll dump the disc this week.

I have almost all the BeSpecific freeware and shareware discs published by Adamation, older ones have software for DR7 and DR8, last one is up to R3 or R4, but the most interesting thing they contain is the full BeDevTalk and comp.sys.be archives.
I will put them on archive.org at some point, they're on mega for now, I'll post the links if someone is interested.

BeOS compatibility list is available at for people wondering on what machines can run it:

BeOS Ready List - PowerPC

 

[Phipli]

I have the boxed last version of Gobe Productive, 2.0something, I'll dump the disc this week.

I have almost all the BeSpecific freeware and shareware discs published by Adamation, older ones have software for DR7 and DR8, last one is up to R3 or R4, but the most interesting thing they contain is the full BeDevTalk and comp.sys.be archives.
I will put them on archive.org at some point, they're on mega for now, I'll post the links if someone is interested.

Thank you!

 

[Phipli]

I have the boxed last version of Gobe Productive, 2.0something, I'll dump the disc this week.

I have almost all the BeSpecific freeware and shareware discs published by Adamation, older ones have software for DR7 and DR8, last one is up to R3 or R4, but the most interesting thing they contain is the full BeDevTalk and comp.sys.be archives.
I will put them on archive.org at some point, they're on mega for now, I'll post the links if someone is interested.

BeOS compatibility list is available at for people wondering on what machines can run it:

BeOS Ready List - PowerPC

Just a heads up - the GoBe CD will be a multi format CD that you need to take care when ripping. Please make a bin cue style image of it as it is one of the only ways to get a fully copy of the contents (a .iso isn't enough )

What operating system do you use? I can try to give you instructions if needed.

 

[MindWalker]

+1 for the archival efforts, thanks! I'd be happy to test it too, although I can't access my PPC-BeOS machine too often.

Was the GoBe Productive suite released for PPC or was there an Intel version as well?

(Also to note: my PowerCenter 132 is now running BeOS succesfully; I had issues with both flaky CD-ROM drive (used a ZuluSCSI with a pre-made BeOS image) and display issues due to the two graphic cards and an LCD display that wouldn't display all modes. The boot selector extension also works with OS 8.1)

 

[Phipli]

Was the GoBe Productive suite released for PPC or was there an Intel version as well?

It was available for both, and also Windows and Linux I think, certainly Windows. A n intel BeOS version is already online I believe.

 

[lolo799]

Just a heads up - the GoBe CD will be a multi format CD that you need to take care when ripping. Please make a bin cue style image of it as it is one of the only ways to get a fully copy of the contents (a .iso isn't enough )

What operating system do you use? I can try to give you instructions if needed.

Yes it has two bfs tracks, a 100MB little endian and a 25MB big endian, the disc is mostly empty.

Gobe Productive 2.01 : Gobe Software, Inc. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Complete office suite for BeOS 4.5.x from the company Gobe Software, Inc. (american distributor of BeOS 5.0).

archive.org

I uploaded this as well:

Adamation studioBuilder for BeOS : Adamation, Attila Mezei : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

studioBuilder is a valuable collection of essential applications and tools to construct rich digital media applications for the BeOS and add-ons for...

archive.org

 

[Phipli]

Yes it has two bfs tracks, a 100MB little endian and a 25MB big endian, the disc is mostly empty.

Gobe Productive 2.01 : Gobe Software, Inc. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Complete office suite for BeOS 4.5.x from the company Gobe Software, Inc. (american distributor of BeOS 5.0).

archive.org

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much!

Is a serial needed or anything? Just about to start it downloading and I'll stick it on a CD.

 

[lolo799]

No serial needed, it's only for the registration card.
i did upload the contents of each track as well as the 7zipped cue/bin, for ease of use.

 

[Phipli]

No serial needed, I did upload the contents of each track as well the 7zipped cue/bin, for ease of use.

Yeah, I grabbed the bin cue. Just booting my 9600 now.

 

[Phipli]

No serial needed, it's only for the registration card.
i did upload the contents of each track as well as the 7zipped cue/bin, for ease of use.