Be Inc. Refocuses Multimedia OS For Internet Appliances

Add Be Inc.'s BeOS to the long list of operating systems being targeted for the Internet appliance market.

Others already busy in this area include Linux, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java and Solaris, Microsoft Corp.'s Mariner version of Windows CE and Palm Computing Inc.'s popular Palm OS 96.

Be, the 10-year-old brainchild of former Apple Computer Inc. executive Jean-Louis Gasse, is trying to expand its identity from that of a multimedia operating system maker to a systems software developer for Internet devices and appliances.

To push that platform, the Menlo Park-based company said Tuesday it will offer its forthcoming BeOS 5 free over the Internet starting later this quarter, and will pursue an additional public stock offering to fund the company's efforts to expand use of the operating system.

Be, whose namesake, multimedia operating system, is designed for digital media, also recently signed deals with Compaq Computer Corp. and Qubit Technology to provide a variation of its BeOS, code-named Stinger, for Internet appliances being developed by those OEMs.

Compaq and Be, for example, plan to collaborate on future Internet appliances being developed out of the OEM's Consumer Products Division. As part of the deal, Compaq will pre-install and distribute Stinger, the forthcoming customizable operating system that incorporates a browser and video/audio streaming technologies.

In addition, Denver-based Qubit Technology will bundle the customizable Stinger on its wireless Web Tablet appliances beginning in the second quarter of 2000. The tablet, which represents the first implementation of the National Semiconductor WebPad reference design announced by Be last November, is a magazine-sized LCD display-based tablet that enables consumers to browse the Internet, read e-mail and work with other Internet applications.

While some companies such as Novell Inc. focus on single-purpose Internet appliances for caching, firewalls, Web serving and other business applications, many mainstream operating system vendors, including Microsoft, Sun, Palm and Be, are targeting a chunk of the emerging Internet appliance market for businesses and consumers.

Microsoft, for example, debuted at Comdex/Fall a new line of Web Companions based on its Windows CE and MSN network of Internet services. The companions, which are being developed by several OEMs including Compaq, allow consumers to power on as quickly as they can a television and log on to the Internet automatically using the MSN Internet Access service, connecting users to MSN.com services and the Web at large.

Last fall, Sun unveiled its Sun Ray Internet appliance, a device that lets users access any of their Windows applications and Internet data, but runs no operating system per se. Sun Ray instead connects in to a server running Sun's Solaris operating system.

The variety of Internet appliances being developed for both corporate and consumer applications compels resellers to look at alternative operating systems as new Internet devices take hold, analysts said.

However, many believe it will take some time before any operating system can displace Windows' hold in the computing world.

"The most efficient Internet appliance is a PC, but we are entering a multiplatform world, and how well the channel does it is an issue of execution. It's always an issue of execution with the channel," said Seymour Merrin, president of Merrin Information Services, Santa Fe, N.M. "Even though an appliance may have a different [operating system], it needs to be fully integrated with Windows. That's why Palm is such a success. If OEMs don't [integrate with Windows], it's not going to fly."

- CRN

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