I'm a huge BeOS fan (my BeBox still works) and in my opinion the one thing that Be, Inc. could have done to stay alive, and the only thing, is this: focus on making innovative hardware.
They didn't - the decided that hardware is too hard, and JLG lost the momentum - but if they'd made a BeBox that people actually wanted, they would definitely have survived in my opinion. A Laptop-format BeBox, for example, would have had an opportunity to really dominate the field video world, in those days.
I also have a working BeBox (dual 133 MHz 603e, 32 MB RAM), but I’m a bit concerned about the IDE drive (640MB). The CD-ROM drive doesn’t work very reliably anymore either, unfortunately. I even have some peripherals I soldered together for the GeekPort way back in 1997-1999.
Beautiful machine. Wonderful operating system. Pity they were so inept commercially. That said, I was also a NeXT user, and I’m convinced that Apple wouldn’t have returned to the forefront if they had chosen “Plan Be” instead of the Steve Jobs option.
They didn't - the decided that hardware is too hard, and JLG lost the momentum - but if they'd made a BeBox that people actually wanted, they would definitely have survived in my opinion. A Laptop-format BeBox, for example, would have had an opportunity to really dominate the field video world, in those days.
But, its all history now.