Haiku OS runs on M1 Macs now

77 points by edwardloveall

m_eiman

I really hope they get this usable, because a MacBook Air would be a perfect match for Haiku.

bitshift

What about Haiku would make it a match for the Air? I don't know much about the OS or how it would compare to something like Asahi Linux.
- m_eiman
  
  BeOS (which is what Haiku started as a clone of) is the nicest, most personal OS I've used. Probably partly due me being of an impressionable age at the time, but also because it was a modern OS with lots of building blocks that could be composed into solutions to your specific needs and wants.
  
  I've had a quick look for videos that demonstrate what it was like to use, but haven't found what I'm looking for yet. If I had the time and mental energy for it I would like to make one myself, but that'll have to wait…
  
  One of my favourite building blocks was BeFS and its indexed meta data queries. It opened up a lot of pleasant features. I wrote (the first version of) the IM Kit that leveraged this to integrate instant messaging into the file browser by adding additional meta data to contact files. It really would be best described in a video, but I found a little manual I frankps wrote at the time that has some screenshots: https://www.eiman.tv/imkit/use.html (apparently written during the Zeta phase of BeOS history).
  - bitshift
    
    Gotcha. I was curious if there was something specific about the MacBook Air hardware that would make it an unusually good fit ("Haiku is better on small screens" for a made-up example)—versus a general preference for BeOS/Haiku and maybe wanting a chance to use it again on hardware you already own.
    
    I missed out on BeOS but I'm fascinated by the "dead ends" that maybe still have some life in them!
- multiplegeorges
  
  Haiku is my favourite OS that I'll never run on my computer. I love the community and team that keeps it going.
  
  BeOS R5 was such a formative time for me and learning about computers.
  - david_chisnall
    
    'Does it support Haiku' is a surprisingly good litmus test for quality of libraries.
- duncan_bayne
  There are only two (hmm, actually 3) reasons I haven't already switched to Haiku as my daily driver:
  
  I'm heavily invested in FreeBSD (but I was previously heavily invested in Linux; this isn't a blocker).
  
  Haiku doesn't have mDNS (so e.g. no uPNP; also not a blocker as it's just a SMOP).
  
  Haiku is heavily opinionated about window and desktop management in a way that doesn't suit my preference for keyboard driven, tiling, WMs (this is the actual blocker, as it's a conscious policy).
  
  I've used it a fair bit and it's lovely, especially on newer faster hardware.
  
  If I had my time over I'd probably have used it on my kids' laptops instead of Linux Mint.
  
  Edit: the mDNS thing came up because I had installed Haiku on an Atom NUC to use as a media PC, and only then discovered it couldn't do uPNP playback through VNC. So, so, close.
  - waddlesplash
    
    only then discovered it couldn't do uPNP playback through VNC.
    
    Does this need OS support, or does our VLC port just not build with the needed library? The latter should be an easy fix (file an issue at HaikuPorts if you'd like); the former will be trickier, but people have been experimenting with that recently...
    
    in a way that doesn't suit my preference for keyboard driven, tiling, WMs (this is the actual blocker, as it's a conscious policy).
    
    The defaults aren't likely to change, but there's no reason Haiku couldn't have a tiling WM system. There are already some third-party tools that can be bound to global shortcuts to get part of the way there (e.g. WindowTailor). A more advanced third-party solution could be written; but I at least wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a base system feature that could be enabled via an option, too (but I'm not the only one who would have a say in this, and any UI/UX change or addition to the base system will get heavily bikeshedded, of course :P)
    
    duncan_bayne
    
    Thanks, I'll check out WindowTailor! That's similar to utilities I've used on macOS to get closer to a tiling WM experience there.
    
    Re. uPNP, I misremembered. It's not that Haiku doesn't support mDNS, it's that libupnp was deadlocking (maybe because of network stack issues), so it was disabled in VLC:
    
    https://discuss.haiku-os.org/t/watch-dlna-upnp/12947
    
    waddlesplash
    
    I just checked, and apparently libupnp was re-enabled for VLC builds back in 2024. (There were a lot of network stack and other related fixes earlier in 2024 that might've affected things, if that was indeed the problem.) So, maybe it would "just work" now?
    
    white-star
    
    it couldn't do uPNP playback through VNC
    
    What does this mean? Can't input an IP address or create a hosts, router entry?
    
    the-lazy-guy
    
    What makes you love Haiku if not their gui and wm?
    
    madhadron
    
    It's been a long time since I used BeOS, but the innards were pretty great. At the time there was nothing on commodity hardware with anything like the sound layer it had, and it would live mix sound while rendering OpenGL, all of it smoothly, on hardware that would stutter along under Windows or Linux at the time. Other people have already mentioned the filesystem.
    
    duncan_bayne
    
    Speed, simplicity, consistency, aesthetics (including the GUI / WM; I just don't care for using the mouse anywhere near as much as the default experience involves).