Nate Stewart
September 1, 2000
If you are unfamiliar with the BeOS, it is extremely well-designed, fast, stable and provides a compelling alternative for users tired of Windows, Macintosh or Linux. But how compelling is it for the graphics pro?
First the good news...
The lack of applications for the BeOS has been greatly exaggerated. You can survive day to day life in Be. You can surf the web, email, create Word-compatible documents and much more in this little OS... it is quite capable of these things. I use it daily, both at home and at work and enjoy every second.
So what's the bad news?
Well, I use my computer for more than just what I listed above. I use Adobe Photoshop. I use my computer to scan images. I use my computer to *gasp* draw and paint!
All of which leads me to the focus of this discussion; Can I do this type of work in the BeOS? The answer is clear:
It depends.
Let's start with Photoshop. Though Adobe is a registered developer for Be, there appears to be no BeOS-native version of this application on the horizon . There are useful alternatives such as ArtPaint and BeCasso, with an especially interesting one, Pixel32, soon to come. If all you need are photo-editing capabilities, you may be surprised at what you find.
What about scanning? Check out the BeSANE initiative. BeSANE is the BeOS adaptation of the Unix-based SANE, an open source alternative to TWAIN. Head to their site and check the listings to find out if your scanner is supported. If you are one of the lucky ones, you are in business.
Lastly, we come to drawing and painting. Though no general purpose vector-based illustration application has arrived on Be, the potential for high quality pixel-based output is exemplified by Easel. Easel is a wonderful natural media program. It emulates new and old brushes, pastels and pencils. Sadly, I found it lacking in pen and ink brushes. It also imports .PSD files with layers intact. Very nice. The aforementioned ArtPaint and BeCasso also have drawing and painting capabilities, though they too lack a useful pen tool. Another drawback of these programs is the lack of anti-aliasing of their freehand pencils. Their paint brushes, thankfully, do not suffer from this defect.
If you have a serial Wacom tablet, these tools will serve you well. USB tablets, unfortunately, do not yet have fully functional drivers, though pressure sensitivity is currently supported.
So, when it is all said and done, does Be offer a compelling alternative for graphics professionals? Not yet. However, these applications do offer around 75% of what the big boys on other platforms provide and each of these programs are still in 1.x versions! Their footprints are also smaller. MUCH smaller. Becasso for example, weighs in at a sleek 3.22 megs. The prices are more than reasonable as well, with Easel taking the prize. It is freeware. Tightly-coded software that does what it is supposed to, does it well, and does not require a second mortgage. Imagine.
Do yourself a favor and try these products out.
BeOS Personal Edition from Be, Inc.
free download
http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/
Becasso from Sum Software
$39
http://www.sumware.demon.nl/
ArtPaint by Heikki Suhonen
$20
http://www.helsinki.fi/~hsuhonen/artpaint/
Easel from Human Touch, Inc.
freeware
http://www.humantouch-inc.com/
Wacom USB Driver by Olaf van Es
freeware
http://www.bebits.com/bob/4599/wacom_usb.zip
More drivers and applications can be found at http://www.bebits.com and http://www.boostsignal.com.
Minimum Hardware Requirements
A BeOS Ready processor and motherboard chipset.
(for more information, go to BeOS Ready List)
32 megabytes of RAM.
An IDE or SCSI hard disk or hard disk partition with 200 megabytes of space
(or 600 MB of disk space free on C: for BeOS 5 Personal Edition)
An IDE/ATAPI or SCSI CD-ROM drive.
A graphics card capable of VESA graphics.
USB, PS/2, or serial connected mouse and keyboard
USB or serial Wacom tablet
Copyright 2000, Nate Stewart, All Rights Reserved
