TyCom Systems BeOS Personal Edition

BeOS 5 Personal Edition
free for personal, non-commercial use.
Check the BeOS Ready List for information on what hardware BeOS 5 supports. Find out what's new in BeOS 5 in the Latest Release Features.
Thanks to innovative new technology from Be, you can download BeOS 5 Personal Edition via a Web browser and store it as a file within Windows. No repartitioning is necessary, and launching BeOS 5 is as simple as double-clicking an icon on your desktop.
Before downloading and installing BeOS 5 Personal Edition, please read the Readme file for important information.
Download BeOS 5 Personal Edition here.
BeOS Personal Edition on CD
As an alternative to downloading BeOS 5 Personal Edition, some third parties are making it available on CD. Included with BeOS 5 Personal Edition are demos, third-party applications and other goodies (contents will vary from CD to CD - check the website of the third party offering the CD for a list of exact contents and pricing).
Le Buzz: BuzzCD

Free BeOS 5 FAQ:
Q: Does this mean BeOS is available to anyone free for any use?
A: No. We will offer free BeOS 5 licenses to individuals for personal, non-commercial use only. Commercial uses of BeOS 5 require a separate license from Be.
Q: Does BeOS 5 Personal Edition contain everything in the current release?
A: Not everything, no, but it's fully functional and isn't a demonstration version -- it really works. BeOS 5 Pro Edition is offered for sale, which is bundled with additional applications and services for advanced functionality that truly take advantage of the power of BeOS.
Q: Will BeOS 5 Personal Edition include development tools?
A: Due to space and bandwidth considerations, the development tools are available as a separate download. Yes, they are still free.
Q: Will Be continue to update BeOS?
A: Yes, BeOS is now owned by Palm Inc. They have not stated that they have not tentative plan to continue to develop and release new versions of BeOS. On the other hand, Open BeOS IS being actively developed and Updated
Q: How will Be distribute BeOS 5 Pro Edition? Through what channels?
A: BeOS is sold through various vendors:

TyCom Systems
GoBe Software

Q: Will BeOS 5 Personal Edition work on my Intel-compatible personal computer?
A: The chances are good, especially if it was manufactured recently. Check the BeOS Ready List for compatibility details.
Q: How large is BeOS 5 Personal Edition? How long will it take to download?
A: The download for BeOS 5 Personal Edition is just over 40 MB. This translates to a download time of about one and a half hours over a 56K dialup connection, or a few minutes over a DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) or T1 connection.
Q: Will I have to repartition my hard drive to install BeOS 5 Personal Edition?
A: No. If you're currently using Windows (currently Windows 98 or Windows 95), you'll be able to download BeOS 5 via a Web browser and store it as a file within the Windows file system. Downloading BeOS 5 Personal Edition will be no different than downloading any application or utility. No repartitioning will be necessary, and launching BeOS 5 will be as simple as double-clicking an icon on the desktop. If you decide to delete BeOS 5 Personal Edition -- though we hope you don't -- doing so will be as simple as uninstalling any typical Windows application.
Q: Does this mean BeOS 5 Personal Edition runs "under" Windows?
A: No. Although you can launch BeOS via a file within Windows, BeOS does not run as a Windows application. Double-clicking the file will exit Windows and boot BeOS from a large file in the FAT file system which contains within it a BFS volume.

NOTE: The BeOS launcher icon was disabled by Microsoft in Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. You WILL have to use a boot floppy to start the OS from these versions of Windows.
Q: If I install BeOS 5 Personal Edition within Windows, will I still have the advantages of the Be File System (BFS)?
A: Yes.
Q: How large of a BFS partition will I get?
A: The 40MB download decompresses to a 500MB file in your Windows partition, into which the Be File System and BeOS is installed. Because BeOS 5 Personal Edition must reside on your C: drive, you'll need at least 600MB free on C:
Q: If I install BeOS 5 Personal Edition within Windows, will performance suffer compared to the stand-alone version?
A: Assuming your Windows partition is not highly fragmented, in most cases you probably won't notice a difference in performance between installation methods.

Order BeOS 5 Pro
Updates
Experimental Items
Sample Media
Development Tools
Japanese Support