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3/29/2000

BeOS R5 PE is beyond any shadow of a doubt a very worthy successor to BeOS R4.X. Though it must be booted from a Windows partition, it is definitely a good OS that can stand on its own merits, and they are plenty. First off it is just as fast and stable as any previous release and of course it has loads of new features like an incredible array of new device drivers and a really good media player. It also includes notable features like a basic cd burner program to allow people with compatable cd-r/rw's to burn data and audio cds.

R5 is a more modest update when it comes to the servers. The servers for those who are new to BeOS are the subsystems which provide services for the the OS and the programs. One problem that plagued many BeOS users was the networking server mishandling dns. DNS would just die after 5-10 minutes and the users affected by this problem would have to reconnect to the internet. With BeOS R5 this does not appear to be an issue anymore. This update to BeOS R5 is mainly a modest update with some new additions such as RealMedia G2 support, Firewire and better USB support.

Some users will have problems with the PE version mainly because of hardware incompatabilities and the fact that BeOS R5 PE must be booted from Windows. Some users like me had it lock up on startup and others had problems with an invisible mouse pointer. However when I used the upgrade hack my problem was solved The best recommendation that I can give is to buy a full copy of BeOS R5 when it comes out on April 15.

Though BeOS R5 PE is a good way to test out the new capabilities of BeOS, it is absolutely not a substitute for a full copy of BeOS. That is why when BeOS R5 Professional Edition is available on April 15 anyone looking to use BeOS as a regular OS or even just wanting a chance to experience BeOS in all of its glory should spend the $70 plus S&H for a copy the Pro version.

For those with a copy of BeOS R4 it is possible to upgrade to an almost full copy of BeOS R5 by using a copy of R5 PE. I won't give specifics because you really should at least buy an upgrade cd but to hack your way to an almost fully copy you must mount the disk image for PE and copy most of the folders over the folders in the BFS partition for BeOS R4. you can find the full instructions for doing this without too much effort but hopefully if you choose to do this you will be ethical enough to at the very least buy an upgrade cd, or better yet a full copy of R5.

The bottom line is that even though R5 PE is a really good test ground for people, the only way to go is the Pro version. The cost for the Pro version is around $77 including shipping and handling. For those hesitating to take the plunge, just think of it as an easy way to make an investment in a truly innovative software product.