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HaikuOS https://www.haiku-os.org/ is a free and open source rewrite of BeOS using APIs it can run BeOS code and has had a lot of apps portered to it. It needs less memory than Linux and is more like ReactOS https://reactos.org/ when they add in the WINE porting to run WIN32 and WIN64 apps.

BETA3 is stable enough to use a web browser and email program to get things done. It can be installed on old retro legacy PCs to make better use of them.

Run it in a virtual machine first.

2 comments

nitpicking, but the OS is called just "haiku", not haikuos.

Beta 3 won't boot on my Zen 3 desktop. Should I try the latest nightly, report a bug, or only run it on older hardware?

(Haiku developer here.) It works on my Zen 2 machine and I'm pretty sure one other developer runs it on Zen 3. Note that you have to use the EFI loader (only on x86_64) and you might need to use the fail-safe video driver if you get a black screen after the splash. If that doesn't work, yes, file a ticket.

> Note that you have to use the EFI loader (only on x86_64)

Does that mean booting into my flash drive using EFI boot rather than MBR? In EFI boot, Haiku reboots itself after lighting up 0 tiles, and in MBR boot, Haiku hangs at 0 tiles lit. And one time when I hit power, my motherboard didn't power down, but remained on with a black screen, and I smelled magic smoke. My computer still works... for now.

> use the fail-safe video driver if you get a black screen after the splash

If I hold Shift and/or Space during boot, the same thing happens. Note that I have a Nvidia GT 730 GPU salvaged from an older machine. I suppose I'll file a ticket.

EDIT: I can boot nightly 55756 if I hold Shift while restarting Windows, or run `efibootmgr -n ....`, but run into the same self-reboot issue if I press F12 from my motherboard.

EDIT2: https://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/17515

I'd recommend older hardware or in a VM.