LOLPRICE

[derkom]

I mean the Be case is unusual for sure, but I expect internally it's just a PC and nothing special. I still have a boxed copy of BeOS from BITD.

It's not "just a PC", because it is a fully unique dual processor PowerPC architecture, so it certainly has collector value. I've got a dual-66 MHz one myself (fortunately acquired long before the retro craze skyrocketed prices!). They change hands quite rarely, and the last one I saw on eBay sold for something like 3000€, so they don't go cheap. But I'll be shocked if there's any interest at 10k USD.

[rubber_jonnie]

I mean the Be case is unusual for sure, but I expect internally it's just a PC and nothing special. I still have a boxed copy of BeOS from BITD.

It's not "just a PC", because it is a fully unique dual processor PowerPC architecture, so it certainly has collector value. I've got a dual-66 MHz one myself (fortunately acquired long before the retro craze skyrocketed prices!). They change hands quite rarely, and the last one I saw on eBay sold for something like 3000€, so they don't go cheap. But I'll be shocked if there's any interest at 10k USD.

Interesting, I'd forgotten it can run on PPC architecture, so quite unusual then. Like you say, $10K is really a bit too much though.

[rubber_jonnie]

@derkom

PXL_20230726_104516060.jpg (310.63 KiB) Viewed 2961 times

[derkom]

Nice little collection there! Put it on eBay for £2k.

I don't have any original media or paperwork to with mine. I got it back in the early 2000s for next to nothing, and just burnt a CDR to install the OS. I last powered it up a few months ago, and it was still working fine, even the original SCSI drive. But of course it's essentially just a curiosity at this point. It's terribly slow by modern standards, and there never was a lot of software for it.

It was a pretty neat machine for its day, though, and BeOS very nearly became MacOS X, but Jean-Louis Gassée held out for too much money, and Apple decided to acquire NeXT instead, bringing Steve Jobs back in, and the rest is history etc. We might be living in a really different world if Gassée had accepted Apple's offer.

[rubber_jonnie]

Nice little collection there! Put it on eBay for £2k.

I don't have any original media or paperwork to with mine. I got it back in the early 2000s for next to nothing, and just burnt a CDR to install the OS. I last powered it up a few months ago, and it was still working fine, even the original SCSI drive. But of course it's essentially just a curiosity at this point. It's terribly slow by modern standards, and there never was a lot of software for it.

It was a pretty neat machine for its day, though, and BeOS very nearly became MacOS X, but Jean-Louis Gassée held out for too much money, and Apple decided to acquire NeXT instead, bringing Steve Jobs back in, and the rest is history etc. We might be living in a really different world if Gassée had accepted Apple's offer.

Haha, yeah, maybe even put it up for £3k

Oddly enough, I bought my copy new from PC World of all places, I think it was something like £49.99. It was all over the magazines as being brilliant, and it was TBH, but like you say, it didn't happen and now it's a sort of a memory, at least it is for me.

Of course we now have Haiku O/S, and I did try it briefly, but it didn't stick

I did see if the CD would boot on my Powerbook G4, but nope. I suspect it may be down to the version, IIRC it was necessary to boot from floppy with the version I have.

[derkom]

I did see if the CD would boot on my Powerbook G4, but nope. I suspect it may be down to the version, IIRC it was necessary to boot from floppy with the version I have.

I could be mistaken, but I don't think PPC BeOS boots on anything other than Be's own hardware. The x86 version will boot on a wide range of commodity hardware.

[rubber_jonnie]

I did see if the CD would boot on my Powerbook G4, but nope. I suspect it may be down to the version, IIRC it was necessary to boot from floppy with the version I have.

I could be mistaken, but I don't think PPC BeOS boots on anything other than Be's own hardware. The x86 version will boot on a wide range of commodity hardware.

It's certainly possible, though the box specifically states quite a lot of hardware it 'should' work on. I do seem to recall downloading a version that did boot from CD on one of my Macs, however I could be remembering it wrong.

[Dan1975]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314736411458 ... media=COPY

Wow!

[stephen_usher]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314736411458 ... media=COPY

Wow!

It's not even old or that unusual other than the packaging. Not worth three times the new price.

[chronicthehedgehog]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314736411458 ... media=COPY

Wow!

Yep that's pricey. I really do want to buy one some day but even at RRP they're a big wedge of cash. Hard to justify when the 'big' new homebrew games (those on AtariAge at least) aren't available digitally.