BeOS

Background

BeOS is an operating system for personal computers developed by Be Inc. The OS was marketed as a multimedia enthusiast platform with close similarities to Mac OS and Windows. It initially released in October 1995 bundled with BeBox hardware. The OS had little market share on the market and Be Inc. was bought out by Palm Inc. in 2001. Multiple continuations and Linux clones of BeOS had emerged since then, the most successful being Haiku, an open-source OS backwards compatible with original BeOS programs.

BeOS R5 PE/Pro

Maui (March 2000-November 2001)

Visuals: On a black background is a purple rectangular border at the top-left, with the text "BeOS" separated by a line. Next to it there's another separated line with "BE OPERATING SYSTEM" in 3 lines. Below the logo there are seven circles in purple with borders, containing icons on each: an atomic particle, an expansion card, a lightning bolt, a computer monitor, two floppy disks with a device, a magnifier, and a computer tower. Below the screen is the Be logo, a red rounded square containing the logomark of the company and the blue "Be".

Technique: A sprite-based graphic.

Sounds: There are nine total startup sounds for the system.

12StrStart: A strum at the beginning, segued by a long, spacy synth pad.
BeStartUp: A low whoosh, followed by a shimmering synth pad.
DarkStart: A synth pad with 2 low notes.
FlangArrivalStart: A flanged synthesizer, with 4 string notes in the middle.
GoodVibesStart: An atmospheric synthesizer/bell theme with a cymbal noise.
NuWorld3: An extended version of the BeStartUp sound.
RisingStart: A held synth note which rises in the middle.
SynthWailStart: Another rising synth note.
WahGtrStart: A held guitar note with a slight "wah" effect.

Sounds Trivia: 12StrStart was once thought to be the shutdown sound to the beta builds of Windows XP, Microsoft Whistler, but this fact was later debunked.

Availability: Seen when booting up version R5 of BeOS. Being the final release of the OS, it is the most widely available version.