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Posted at 2:04 PM PT, Mar 20, 1998
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Be Inc. has shipped Release 3, a technical, Intel-based version of its BeOS operating system, and announced plans to ship the PowerPC version on April 20.

Release 4, which is due in September, will be the first consumer release of the operating system, vice president of engineering Steve Sakoman said here at Be Inc.'s developer conference in Santa Clara, Calif.

Release 3 carries a $69.95 price tag for a limited time, then the cost will jump to $99.95.

The Intel Pentium version of the BeOS includes PartitionMagic from PowerQuest, which allows for dynamic partitioning of hard drives, and boot management support to let users run BeOS with Windows 95 or other OSes.

"With Release 3, we now run on both Intel and PowerPC platforms and naturally extend the market for our developers," Jean-Louis Gassee, Be Inc.'s CEO, said in a statement. "We believe there is value in running multiple windows of 30 frames-per-second video combined with a dozen or more CD quality audio tracks, all at the same time. Just as Linux is the specialty OS for the Internet, the BeOS is a specialty OS for digital video and audio, designed to run alongside general purpose OSes like Windows 95 and the Mac OS."

Be Inc., based in Menlo Park, Calif., can be reached at http://www.be.com.