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The BeOS
Features

 

How does the BeOS compare to Windows NT?

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The BeOS:
Features
FAQ Number:
FAQ-0323
Last Modified:
12/9/98
Keywords:
BeOS, Features, Windows NT, competition, developers
Actually, at Be we like Windows NT. We use some Windows NT systems as file and network servers interconnecting our BeOS systems, Unix systems, and even Mac OS systems.

But this points out a basic difference -- the two operating systems are designed to address two different sets of problems. Windows NT is designed to be a robust network backbone server. It was designed to compete with Novell Netware (and has been doing a good job at that), and is increasingly designed to compete with Unix on workstation-class hardware, such as Sun, SGI, and IBM RS6000 machines. New versions of Windows NT are focused on adding large numbers of network administration functions, and acting as communications hubs between clients of all types.

The BeOS, on the other hand, was designed from the ground up following a concept we call the "Media OS." It's simply not enough to start with an existing OS, add a few features, and call it a media-oriented OS. The engineering team at Be didn't start with an existing OS and transform it, they started with the Media OS concept and optimized every portion of a new OS -- the BeOS -- for handling digital media.

The BeOS is designed to meet the high-performance needs of digital content design and Internet communications, removing the limitations and complexity of the aging architectures of current mainstream operating systems. The BeOS is the first new operating system designed to unlock the door to much more powerful personal computers, and extract more performance from the systems we use today.


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