Haiku (operating system)

Haiku, Inc.

Company type	Nonprofit organization
Industry	Software / Operating systems
Founded	2003
Headquarters	Rochester, New York , United States
Website	www.haiku-inc.org

Haiku, initially known as OpenBeOS, is a free, open-source operating system designed for personal computers. It serves as a community-led continuation of BeOS, striving to maintain binary compatibility while extensively reimplementing the system, except for certain elements like the Deskbar. The initiative started in 2001 under the guidance of the nonprofit organization Haiku Inc., and the operating system continues to be in beta status.

History and project

Development of BeOS ceased when Palm, Inc. acquired Be, Inc. on August 17, 2001. The following day, Michael Phipps initiated the OpenBeOS project to develop an open-source, backward-compatible alternative to BeOS. Since Palm did not permit licensing of BeOS code to external parties, OpenBeOS had to rely on reverse engineering. In 2003, Phipps established Haiku, Inc., a nonprofit based in Rochester, New York, to provide financial backing for the project.

In 2004, the team organized its inaugural North American developer conference named WalterCon, and subsequently rebranded OpenBeOS as Haiku to circumvent trademark conflicts with Palm. The nonprofit organization BeUnited.org, which advocates for open standards among BeOS-compatible operating systems, recognized Haiku as its "reference platform." In February 2007, a Tech Talk at the Googleplex featured endorsements from former Be engineers and Jean-Louis Gassée. Moreover, the annual BeGeistert conference in Germany has been supporting the Haiku community since 1998.

Development

Aside from the graphical user interface components such as Tracker and Deskbar—both open sourced with BeOS 5—Haiku consists primarily of newly developed software. Thanks to BeOS’s modular architecture, individual Haiku components could be developed independently, often serving as replacements for existing BeOS modules ahead of completing the full OS.

The initial effort of OpenBeOS was a community-driven update for BeOS version 5.0.3 released in 2002, delivering open-source substitutes for various elements. That same year, the kernel from NewOS, compatible with x86, SuperH, and PowerPC platforms, was forked and became the foundation for Haiku’s kernel. The app_server window manager reached completion in 2005. In 2006, developer Stephan Aßmus contributed Icon-O-Matic, an icon editor utilizing HVIF format storage and a rendering engine based on Anti-Grain Geometry. The PackageInstaller tool emerged during the 2007 Google Summer of Code.

Support for Java, ported by a BeUnited team familiar with BeOS integration, was added alongside WLAN capabilities derived from the FreeBSD networking stack. After transitioning to GCC4, Haiku’s first alpha version was released in 2009 following seven years of development effort. While originally emphasizing full compatibility with BeOS 5, community feedback led to a strategic pivot focusing on modern hardware support, contemporary protocols, web standards compliance, and integration with FLOSS libraries. On October 27, 2009, support for Qt4 was introduced.

The browser WebPositive launched with Alpha2 as a successor to BeZillaBrowser. Subsequent development emphasized establishing a comprehensive package management infrastructure that officially debuted in September 2013. The Beta1 release arrived in 2018 featuring PackageFS and enabling package installation through HaikuDepot and pkgman—representing the first official version incorporating complete package management functionality.

In 2022, Wine was ported to Haiku for the first time.

Release history

Version	Release date	Operating System	Architecture
Template:Version	2009-09-14	hrev33109	IA-32
Template:Version	2010-05-10	hrev36769
Template:Version	2011-06-20	hrev42211
Template:Version	2012-11-11	hrev44702	IA-32, X86-64
Template:Version	2018-09-28	hrev52295
Template:Version	2020-06-09	hrev54154
Template:Version	2021-07-26	hrev55182
Template:Version	2022-12-23	hrev56578
Template:Version	2024-09-13	hrev57937
Template:Version

Architecture

Haiku is developed in C++ using an object-oriented API, similar to BeOS. Its modular hybrid kernel is a derivative of NewOS, originally created by Travis Geiselbrecht, a former Be Inc. engineer. Notable components include a virtual file system (VFS) layer and support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP). The operating system runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit x86 CPUs, with recent progress extending support to RISC-V, while ARM compatibility remains under development and less advanced.

The API architecture reflects BeOS's structure, organized into "kits" that group related classes together. In 2007, Access Co Ltd, the holders of Be Inc.'s intellectual property rights, published the API documentation (known as the BeBook) under a Creative Commons license. Haiku's boot loader is designed to be independent of filesystem types and can chainload alternative boot managers such as GRUB, LILO, and NTLDR.

Starting from Beta1, Haiku’s memory management incorporates security mechanisms like ASLR, DEP, and SMAP. The app_server protocol manages graphics and windowing functions, with VESA serving as a fallback option for video output. Haiku ensures POSIX compliance and provides translation layers for both X11 and Wayland display servers.

User interface

The graphical user interface features Tracker, a comprehensive file manager, alongside the Deskbar, a persistent taskbar positioned in the upper right corner that includes a menu, system tray, and list of active applications. Tracker originated from OpenTracker, which was initially distributed with limitations related to Be Inc.’s Trademark rights. Additionally, OpenTracker was adapted by Zeta for its own platform.

Haiku uses distinctive icons called stippi, created by Stephan Aßmus. He also developed the Haiku Vector Icon Format (HVIF), a vector-based icon format optimized for rapid rendering and minimal file size.

Software

Package management in Haiku is facilitated through the graphical HaikuDepot application as well as the command-line utility pkgman. Software packages can be installed either from online repositories or by placing them into a specified packages folder. Once activated, these packages are mounted over the read-only system directory. Dependency handling is managed by libsolv, a library originating from the openSUSE project.

The operating system includes several pre-installed applications such as WebPositive—a browser built on WebKit—BePDF document viewer, PoorMan web server, text editors Pe and StyledEdit, Vision IRC client, and Terminal, a Bash-based terminal emulator.

Compatibility with BeOS

Haiku R1 aims to maintain compatibility with BeOS 5 at both the source code and binary execution levels, allowing applications created and compiled for BeOS to operate on Haiku without requiring changes. Nevertheless, the 64-bit edition of Haiku does not support binary compatibility, although its API remains unchanged. This restriction also extends to other architectures beyond IA-32, such as RISC-V. Haiku utilizes the PackageInstaller tool to handle installations of software packaged in the PKG format.

Reception

Following the release of Haiku Alpha 4 in 2013, Ars Technica recognized its impressive speed but suggested it might primarily attract a specialized audience of enthusiasts. In 2023, ZDNET described Haiku Beta 4 as especially appealing to users acquainted with older platforms like NeXT or AfterStep, emphasizing its "retro" ambiance combined with enhanced performance. The review praised Haiku's kernel architecture, file system, and its object-oriented API framework.

By 2018, the Free Software Foundation categorized Haiku among operating systems it does not endorse due to the presence of non-modifiable software elements and proprietary firmware components.

See also

• Comparison of operating systems
• List of BeOS applications
• ZETA
• Syllable Desktop

External links

• Haiku Inc. company website
• Hardware List, listing hardware compatible with Haiku (hosted at Besly)