PowerPC to be supported in next release
By Scot Hacker - Thursday, January 6th 2000 at
1:52am
Be has contacted BeNews with a statement on post-Y2K support for the BeBox and
for PowerPC hardware in general. We now know that currently supported PowerPC
machines will be supported in the next release of BeOS, and that loyal BeBox
owners will continue to receive support where possible (but without promises).
Be's Dave Brown writes:
There has been significant discussion in the Be community of Be's plans and
motives in relation to BeOS PowerPC support and its future, especially in light
of previous statements regarding support until the end of 1999.
We regret that we no longer have components to repair or replace BeBoxes. When
we stopped production of the BeBox, we stated that they would be supported
until January 1, 2000, which we have fulfilled to the best of our ability.
After January 1, 2000, we will do what we can to support our loyal early
adopters, but we can no longer promise to be able to support BeBox hardware.
Even though our obligation for support is technically over, we intend to
continue to support PowerPC BeOS in the next major release of BeOS and any
updates for that release. If there is sufficient market demand we will continue
to support the PowerPC version in future releases after the next major release.
We are monitoring the development of other PowerPC based systems and if there
is sufficient market demand and a strong market leader selling these systems,
we will evaluate what level of support we can provide.
Intel has never requested that we not support another processor. Apple made a
decision to close their architecture, and with that decision went the technical
information and developer support at the level we would need to develop a
commercial quality operating system for their hardware.
Dave Brown
Be, Inc.
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