So, hopefully by now you've seen Part I of the Ars Uber-Review of BeOS R4, Installing the BeOS on the Intel Platform.  This is Part II in the series.  Enjoy.

Let's turn our attention to the Graphical User Interface (GUI).  What's a GUI? Well, that depends on who you talk to, but for the purpose of this review I can refer you to the What-Is dictionary entry on GUI (http://www.whatis.com/gui.htm):

A GUI (usually pronounced GOO-ee) is a graphical (rather than purely textual) user interface to a computer… A GUI sometimes uses one or more metaphors for objects familiar in real life, such as the desktop, the view through a window, or the physical layout in a building.

So, basically, if you're reading this, you know what a GUI is, more or less (unless you're using something crazy like Lynx or sumptin').  Anyway, a good or bad GUI can make or break an OS in the eyes of many users.  In fact, I would argue that it's Apple's GUI for the Mac OS, not the Mac OS's performance or stability that has made fanatics out of most Mac users.  Such is what I am told by certain Mac aficionados, at least.

Regardless, the GUI is an integral piece to the happy OS user puzzle.  And, thanks to all of you who wrote in encouraging me to talk Be-GUI, I'll do just that.  I am immensely pleased that so many Windows users have expressed interest in knowing more!   As a result, I plan on writing this review primarily from the Windows GUI user's point of view.  I can't cover everything, obviously, so I am going to stick to two main topics: the way task switching is handled (and presented), and the basic anatomy of a (remarkably cool) BeOS R4 window. 

Engage!

The Deskbar, not the Tracker (as so many people confusingly call the Deskbar), is where the action is. Akin to the Windows 95 Taskbar, the Deskbar gives you a glimpse of what programs you have running in user mode. By default, your Deskbar lives in the upper right hand of the screen and looks like what you see over on the right (the Deskbar is nomadic; more on that in a second). Functionally, the Deskbar differs from the Taskbar of Windows fame.  If you've used Windows since the 95 shell went gangbusters, you know that each open window has a place on the task bar (or system tray, in some cases).  So, when running Windows 9x, for example, if I have 3 Netscape windows, 4 folders and Word open, I'll see 8 items on the taskbar.  BeOS's Deskbar works a little differently.  It attempts to alleviate clutter by only representing running applications.  In that same example under Be I would only have 3 applications listed.  Looking at the Deskbar screenshot above, you can see that I'm running 3 applications in addition to the Tracker (which tracks folders).  What you don't know is that I have, for example, three NetPositive web browsing windows open.   But if I click on NetPositive, I see:

Can I get an Amen?  When you click on an application's tab, you'll see a list of all the windows open under that application. One highly cool ramification of this is the ability to close, hide, or show all the windows of a related app at once. Whereas five instances of Netscape requires 5 "right click and closes" under Windows, you can accomplish the same thing on the tracker with two clicks.