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Operating Systems Linux

Haiku OS Ported To Intel 64-Bit Architecture 101

Posted by Soulskill from the five-and-seven-syllables-at-a-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The BeOS-compatible Haiku OS operating system has been ported to x86_64. As part of the Google Summer of Code, a student made a 64-bit port of the kernel and user-space and it's now working. However, not all of the BeOS apps and drivers are yet working in 64-bit mode."
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Haiku OS Ported To Intel 64-Bit Architecture More

Haiku OS Ported To Intel 64-Bit Architecture

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  • Whoo Hoo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Osgeld ( 1900440 ) on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @11:14PM (#41161253)

    now I can run a text editor with more than 3.1 gigs of ram

  • AMD64 != Intel64 (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @11:25PM (#41161357)

    The correct term for x86_64 is AMD64, not "Intel 64-bit architecture". AMD developed it, and licenses the patent to Intel. Intel64 is Itanium, to which Haiku has NOT been ported.

    • x86-64 (the original name AMD gave to the architecture) is still the best name. Microsoft calls it x64 which I guess is not unreasonable. The Intel names are awful. First they called it IA-32e so people would think it was somehow inferior to Itanium I venture. Then they called it EM64T. AMD 64/Intel 64 are both horrid.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Smurf ( 7981 )

        Microsoft calls it x64 which I guess is not unreasonable.

        I disagree. x64 is a terrible name for the architecture, as it suggests that it is quite inferior to x86, a name normally associated to the 32 bit architecture that preceded it.

    • Re:AMD64 != Intel64 (Score:5, Informative)

      by Guy Harris ( 3803 ) <guy@alum.mit.edu> on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @12:06AM (#41161639)

      The correct term for x86_64 is AMD64, not "Intel 64-bit architecture". AMD developed it, and licenses the patent to Intel.

      Yes.

      Intel64 is Itanium,

      No. IA-64 was Itanium, but that architecture (which I think started out as an HP architecture) is now just called the Itanium architecture [intel.com]. "Intel64" is Intel's name for the 64-bit architecture as originally defined by AMD, modulo some differences [wikipedia.org] and modulo Intel and AMD going their own and subsequently modified by both parties with different flavors of SSE4 [wikipedia.org].

      to which Haiku has NOT been ported.

      Haiku was not ported to IA-64/Itanium. It was ported to whatever you want to call the 64-bit x86 architecture (I prefer x86-64, with my second choice being AMD64, although I guess if you want to include Intel's version of SSE4 rather than AMD's version, that's "Intel64").

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I like x86-64. I know how dumb this sounds, but when you see packages online, AMD64 makes people think, "I know mine is 64 bit but it's an Intel not an AMD".

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @01:45AM (#41162293)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re:AMD64 != Intel64 (Score:4, Funny)

          by jkflying ( 2190798 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @03:41AM (#41162995)

          Because 64 is less than 86, so 86 must be better, right?

        • Re:AMD64 != Intel64 (Score:5, Informative)

          by Jeppe Salvesen ( 101622 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @03:57AM (#41163095)

          x64 is misleading. The x86_64 still uses the underlying architecture and instruction set of the original Intel 8086. [wikipedia.org]. Changing the name to x64 would imply the instruction set is different from that of x86 - and while the instruction set has been extended it still (as far as I know) still support the instructions designed in the 70s.

          I personally find x86_64 the most descriptive designation for a 64-bit x86-processor.

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
            Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

              by Anonymous Coward

              > Anybody who knows anything about chips doesn't need to have the entire history lesson given to them because they know what X86 means, there is no point in the rest.

              This is simply not true. See at this thread itself and the confusion that arises among presumably knowledgeable geeks about AMD64, x86-64 and Itanium.

              Semantics matters, name has to mean something more than "let's all agree and use an asspulled misnomer".

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Smurf ( 7981 )

            It's worse than that, as most reasonable people who are not familiar with the history of Intel processors will believe that x64 is inferior or at least precedes x86, and that's precisely backwards.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          x64 would be correct had the old architecture been called x32.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      does the blurb somehow reference Intel64? it's only in your mind that itanium arch is x86_64. how the hell could it be?

  • Misleading Headline (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Summary got it wrong, think the correct term is AMD64.

  • Could become the 'Desktop Linux' (Score:5, Insightful)

    by buchner.johannes ( 1139593 ) on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @11:30PM (#41161397) Homepage Journal

    If only the community of software developers could conquer a community of designers and graphics people to collaborate without charge on a free operating system.

    • What makes this any more of candidate for a free desktop system than Linux?

      I did a quick search and found that it has the whole consistency thing. Is that what is the key to the desktop, apparently?

      • Linux, while it started out as a desktop kernel, is these days more of a server kernel. This makes it unsuitable for a desktop operating system as it has different priorities when it comes to scheduling. The Haiku kernel was designed for the desktop and makes UI responsiveness a priority with lots of threading.

        Linux distributions are collections of programs that don't work well together. In contrast, Haiku integrates everything nicely with each other and there is one way to do each thing so there's no segre

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      Oddly enough the desktop environment that Rob Malda was writing themes and applications for before he started Slashdot fit that description. It's called enlightenment, and the 1997 version looks a bit like MS Windows7 in many ways (snapshot icons etc). Efforts to try to get true transparency (like aero implemented a decade later!) meant a full and very ambitious rewrite that is still in progress but is still more complete than some other desktop environments.

  • I want to be happy about this (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ThorGod ( 456163 ) on Tuesday August 28, 2012 @11:34PM (#41161435) Journal

    ...but, I can't be. Yeah, BeOS *was* awesome and I really *wanted* to see BeOS 5 (I remember one of the versions had a nifty menu system where the selector followed your selections as you drilled down).

    But, come on, it's 2012. Maybe it's time to call it a day.

    Actually, I take that back. I think this is just some Google summer of code project. Great for the student who ported the kernel! Not really big news outside of that, though...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by norpy ( 1277318 )

      It's not a port, it is a binary compatible cleanroom reimplementation of the kernel

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by norpy ( 1277318 )

        I kinda take my previous statement back.
        I guess you were talkign about TFA, and I was talking about Haiku in general.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The last version of BeOS came after XP was already out. Since that time we've had two versions of Windows, Linux 2.4 to 3.2, and several point releases of Mac OS X. What have they brought that makes working on a modernized version of a 2001 OS so ridiculous?

  • AMD 64.. not Intel 64. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    x86_64 == AMD64 == AMD extension to the 32 bit Intel arch
    Intel 64 == IA64 == Itanium

    • Intel 64 == IA64 == Itanium

      IA-64 == Itanium. Intel64 [intel.com] != {IA-64,Itanium}; Intel64 == Intel's flavor of 64-bit x86 as licensed from AMD.

  • Watch this.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt.nerdflat@com> on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @12:01AM (#41161609) Journal
    Just wait. Now we'll see
    Everyone posting haikus
    Typical Slashdot.

  • I adored BeOS back in the day. Although I've long since taken refuge [birdhouse.org] with Mac OS X, I'd love to build a box specifically to run Haiku on native hardware. While Haiku is usable in a VM, it loses the snappiness that only bare metal can bring.

    I'd love to relegate my Mac for work-only, and build a Haiku box for fun/the rest of life/as a hobby/to hack on/to help the Haiku Project. There's more than enough software [bebits.com] out there to get by on, and new stuff hits all [haikuware.com] the [iscomputeron.com] time [haiku-os.org]. I'm just sick of being stuck in a VM!

    I wis

    • and build a Haiku box for fun/the rest of life/as a hobby/to hack on/to help the Haiku Project.

      Acch, that's damn hard to read! You tend to see it as "fun/the"..."life/as"..."hobby/to"..."on/to" pairs.

      How about: "and build a Haiku box for fun, the rest of life, as a hobby, to hack on, or to help the Haiku Project."

  • 64 bits sounds wrong (Score:3)

    by __aaltlg1547 ( 2541114 ) on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @01:13AM (#41162087)
    What am I missing? Sixty four bits sounds too long Seventeen sounds right
  • ... do they have a decent selection of NIC and video drivers yet?
    • Radeon HD 2xxx - Radeon HD 7xxx now supported (mode changing, no acceleration (yet)) Network card support is a *lot* better now-a-days thanks to Haiku's freebsd wireless driver wrapper.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by smash ( 1351 )
        Cheers, might need to check it out. Last time I checked it had something like only NE2000 NIC support and generic Super VGA support if that.

  • I also was a big fan of BeOS. Loved it. Used it exclusively for a couple of years. Over a decade ago. Before it died.

    But why exactly do we keep having articles about a BeOS clone operating system that is still basically in a nearly useless pre-alpha state after a decade of work? How is this useful to anyone besides the people working on Haiku? Where are all the articles every other week about how well GNU HURD is progressing? Because they are both just about equally useless at this point, until some sort of

    • Re:Why do we keep hearing about this? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29, 2012 @02:06AM (#41162427)

      It's not a near-useless state. It works. There's a decent amount of software out there. It's fun. It's a hobby.

      It gets brought up on Slashdot because it's news for nerds (not everything here is stuff that matters). It's a nice trip down memory lane for BeOS geeks.

      Haiku might not change the world, but most things don't. Sure is fun, though!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      HURD isn't dead. I hear the guy that is working on it while telling anyone else that wants to contribute to piss off until they know as much as him is making splendid progress.
      In the end the effort to make it a superior system backfired badly.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Vanders ( 110092 )
      If you genuinely believe that Haiku is in a similar state to GNU HURD, you're insane.

      News from Haiku is interesting because they're one of the few truly alternative operating systems out there that are actually progressing. That's the sort of thing that Slashdotters used to be interested in. If you're not interested in it, I'm sure there are another hundred "Your Rights Online" posts just waiting to gush out of the Firehose that you can go vote up.

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by kallisti5 ( 1321143 )

        News from Haiku is interesting because they're one of the few truly alternative operating systems out there that are actually progressing

        Very true... some of us are real men who do real men computer work... the rest of you can use your 'apps' from your 'app stores'

  • What are they doing about secure boot? Game over. Sucks.

    I wrote the LoseThos Operating System [losethos.com]. It's been 64-bit since 2007. It's a free, 100% open source, public domain, ring-0-only, idenity-mapped, multi-tasking, multi-cored, non-networked, x86_64 operating system. It includes a 64-bit kernel, 64-bit compiler, assembler, debugger, graphics library, editor, boot loaders, tools... 135,000 lines of code written entirely from scratch over the last 9 years, full-time.

    • The website of your operating system doesn't introduce it at all. All it has are a series of nearly identical videos with tons of download links. How are we supposed to know what it can do, how to install it, etc.?

      • From 2007-2011, I had 10,000 downloads, conservatively. I only got suspicious emails, like FBI. I will not be mocked. Look in the Intenet Archive for pretty website. There's documentation when you download. Just run it in VMWare if you want to explore. You can install if you like. You must at least download and try it! It's public domain.

    • For both operating systems, secure boot is a straw man -- people are going to run them in a VM, as that's the only way you can have any guarantee that your "hardware" will be supported.

  • "Haiku OS" is a misnomer. The correct name is just "Haiku".

  • If I'm not mistaken Haiku and BeOS aren't *nix, much less Linux. The article has been incorrectly tagged as Linux.
  • Really, in this day and age. why do we need separate device drivers for every device. Surely there are only a few ways in which data are transferred and parameters are updated for almost all possible devices. I can see the need for a device driver for really specialized and rarely found hardware, but almost everything else should have had standard interfaces defined for it by now, at least so far as the kernel is concerned.

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