I heared last year about this new OS project. So now I decided to give it a try. I downloaded a virtual image of it from here and started testing it. The version I tested is the alpha 1.2, so it’s not so feature-rich, but it was an interesting experience.
Haiku is based on BeOS and as you might notice it works pretty fast (with only 512 MB of RAM) – it boots fast, loads applications fast and not so important but I appreciate, that it needs only 700 MB of your hard disk. This version also has a plethora of applications and demos. They say it’s a desktop-oriented OS, so what I tried to see is if I can do some basic things like: navigate on the internet, play an mp3, play a movie etc.
Well, I could navigate on the internet, and if I would have a newer version of Flash Player maybe I could watch some videos. I noticed the browser is fast – but that’s not enough for a full web experience.
MP3 works! Well, at least it plays in the player, but no sound coming out. I know maybe it would been a wise idea to search for a siutable sound driver and then … . But let’s not forget that this OS is only in Alpha 2 stage, so I choosed not to do it.
Well then about movies, I downloaded an AVI, guess MP4 encoded. It did’t played. Course it did’nt had the suitable codec – but seems it does not has yet a suitable video player already installed.
As a conclusion, I’ll say so far it’s a good job, but as an experiment and not as a featured OS. If you are an adventurer and love trying new things it could be an experience for you – as it was for me. But I would not recommend using it on your PC. I am waiting for a better version, Alpha 3 or new release to make my day!
