[olug] Library software request

[Cale Lewis]

I believe there are a couple that were writen for BeOS if you don't mind a 
non-*nix. It's still free and the OSS version is gaining ground. Might be 
ready in the next few month, and since it's source and almost completely 
binary compatable you won't have to hunt for software. The extensible 
attributes in the filesystem and live queries at near lightspeed mean you can 
save the hasstle of loading a database app for most things.It would just slow 
things down and not work near as good. Multimedia handleing would also be 
very handy to have.

I tried promoting it in libraries once with some support from Be Inc. and a 
few software developers and companies, but it was too late in the game for Be 
Inc to do much. They'd already taken quite a pummeling in  the marketplace 
from M$ bigwig "courtesy calls" to each and every OEM that showed interest in 
selling systems preloaded with BeOS. The only two that had any kind of nerve 
(barely) were Prius and Fujitsu I think, and even though BeOS was preloaded, 
no mention was made in the documentation other than a filecard sizedpiecethat 
told you how to make a boot floppy so you could access what was already on 
the machine, and M$ made sure there was NO mention, not even a hint, that 
came up at boot time or any other time that referenced BeOS ever!!!

It is very hard to get notice when you can't get an OEM of any size to sell 
hardware with your system preloaded since most folks would never think of 
buying, much less installing another OS in those days. Linux is damn lucky 
that things have finnally started to change for the better.

 Most folks I know that have tried BeOS for even a week or 2 suddenly find 
they waste incredible amounts of time staring at Windows little hourglass 
(BeOS doesn't even have one! 8^)) and have to reboot everytime they turn 
around. Hmmm, maybe there's a reason Gates went to such lengths and 
threatened to pull so many licenses to keep BeOS off the screens of new 
systems. 

I sincerely hope that  with  Haiku's  open source implimentation of the BeOS 
way  of doing things, that most Linux and *BSD developer and supporters will 
at least take a good look at it and consider if it might not be such a bad 
idea to have a choice of systems that handle certain areas and tasks 
extremely well while also working well with other OS'es, rather then try to 
shoehorn everything under the sun into one or 2 systems. Diversity is 
healthy. BeOS users have seen how bad the 800 lb gorrila's social skills and 
ethics were and still are when it comes to sharing and playing with others. 

They (Be Inc.) were a small company that M$ could target, not scattered and 
hard to pin down and sue, threaten, buy, bully, etc like Linux. Plus they had 
the audacity to port their system to Wintel when Steve Jobs wouldn't share 
his corner of the playground, which by the way, M$ had so magnanamously let 
him keep because it was different hardware and was their essential "token 
competition" for any legal matters. If you ever try BeOS, stop and think 
about how in Be's slightly less than 10 years it only employed over 100 
people for 2 of those, yet managed to create an SMP  hardware platform (uses 
up to 8 cpu's out of the box) on 2 different proccesors and a  solid base for 
the OS to run on them from scratch. Along the way they managed to build  in a 
64 bit journaled filesystem AND port it to x86.

I KNOW why Gates was  targeting it, it was TOO good to compete with if it 
ever got a break. Buy it or Kill it! SOP at M$. Only it's not dead yet, and 
could be a potent ally for Linux in any computing environment. The right tool 
for the job, not a Swiss Army Knife to repair your car and flip your 
pancakes.

Cale Lewis   

>> What specific capabilities are you looking for? Any incidents that
>> prompted you to investigate this sort of solution?
>
>I would like to be able to load books, CDs, DVDs, etc into the system by 
>scanning the ISBN or typing it in.  Then have the system load up all 
relevant 
>data from Amazon or the Library of Congress.
>
>Then allow users to check material in and out on their own.   This will be a 
>system in a (very small) church library, so there wouldn't be a librarian on 
>hand.  The library hasn't been used much before, but it's being expanded 
now.  
>They are using some type paper/card system for checkin/checkout currently.
>
>Tim, I saw your post about moving to Las Vegas; best of luck to you.  I 
think 
>you will be missed from the Omaha group.
>
>-Ryan in Sioux City