Haiku R1 alpha 2 review!

It’s here. The new release of Haiku. It’s released on 10 May. So, what’s different from the first alpha? Read more to find out, or get it first from http://www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku! (Oh, and it’s somewhat image-heavy, too.)

This review will be split into 4 parts.

1. Installation / What’s new?
2. Performance, stability, hardware support, bugs
3. Applications
4. Conclusion

Installation, or: Why install the new alpha anyway? What’s new?

What’s new to the new alpha, according to the release notes:

• Haiku includes a new web browser, WebPositive, which is powered by WebKit. It is not yet a mature web browser.
• WiFi via FreeBSD 8 compatibility. Non-distributable firmwares can be installed via install-wifi-firmwares.sh. A temporary & experimental application setwep can allow WEP based encryption.
• Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI) have been implemented. This helps to alleviate the lack of proper IRQ routing.
• Fixed a network bug that could result in web pages being loaded only partially.
• When partitioning a disk, DriveSetup will now install a basic boot loader into the Master Boot Record which boots the active partition.
• Locale kit for providing internationalization in programs.
• Translations for User Guide and other system provided documentation.
• Many lock contentions have been improved, leading to significantly better compilation times.
• Numerous code refactoring to kernel/VM subsystems.
• Font hinting in FreeType.
• Various vendor software has been updated, most notably bash from 2.x to 4.x.
• Introduced installoptionalpackage, a rudimentary script to alleviate the lack of a proper package management solution via PackageFS. It allows the installation of some of Haiku’s OptionalPackages.
• Vastly improved USB mass storage performance through a better page mapping strategy.
• ACPI is now enabled by default.
• HDA on nvidia chipset improvements.
• The UDF file system module has been fixed.
• Various POSIX compliance fixes.
• API/ABI Changes
  • BJoystick — fixed a BeOS compatibility issue
  • GCC 4 ABI changes that require applications to be recompiled
  • Introduced library versioning
• Haiku GCC4 can now be compiled directly on a 64bit Linux distro. GCC2 still requires the use of linux32.
• Created a new file image type, ‘anyboot’, which allows a Haiku image to be burned as an ISO or written directly to USB. To note, some burning software may try to be ‘clever’ and will incorrectly burn.
• Beefed-up Internet hosting infrastructure, thanks to our much-appreciated donors.

tl;dr: New WebKit browser WebPositive, WiFi support with WEP encryption, Locale kit for internationalization, numerous performance improvements, some kernel code rewrites, font hinting (that one used to be disabled because of the patent woes), installoptionalpackage, ACPI, and new image file type, ‘anyboot’.

So, now you have 2 installation options for installing Haiku to real hardware: Using the standard ISO images, or you can download the ‘anyboot’ image and dd it to your favorite mass storage. You can burn the ‘anyboot’ image too, but some CD burner programs are confused by the somewhat unusual layout of the ‘anyboot’ image. For Windows, I recommend using ImgBurn (it’s freeware). For Linux, well, I heard that using k3b or Brasero works.

There is a reason why the ‘anyboot’ image is experimental. In my experience, using win32diskimager and dd to write the image on my flash drive, Haiku failed to boot on my notebook. The BIOS hangs at POST, with my flash drive light flashing. It seems to be confused with the partition layout, or something. To make a bootable USB stick, I recommend using the Haiku installer to install Haiku on the flash drive itself. The ‘anyboot’ image still works when burned, through.

Also, a tip: download Haiku using bitTorrent, not HTTP. Why? Some of the server listed on the Get Haiku page has the wrong image version of Haiku (the checksum doesn’t match), causing the image you just downloaded fail to install. Also, there’s a lot of seeders for the Haiku release, so your download speed will be faster.

Now, to the installing process!

There’s nothing changed from the old alpha in the boot screen. But it’s pretty, so I re-posted it here.

After the boot screen, this is what comes up next.You can select keyboard layouts and language. On the previous alpha, there was no such option on first boot.

Let’s run the installer!

The only changes from the installer screen here is the new ‘alpha 2′ stamp, and there’s no ‘Write boot sector to x’ button.

Because I don’t have any drive to install Haiku to, I’ll exit the installer instead.

The first alpha hangs on reboot. How about the second alpha? It works!

Oh, and before you ask about the drive partitioner (DriveSetup), I think there’s no notable changes between the alphas.

Let’s go straight to the desktop instead.

I tried fiddling around with it, but it’s a major disappointment. Here’s an error screen I got after playing with it for a while. Haiku sucks! I’m totally going back to BeOSPEMax now!

Haha. hahahaha. ha. That’s not funny. I guess. Let’s get a little bit serious now.

The difference between the first alpha first boot desktop is that the desktop icons on the second alpha is a bit more cluttered. Don’t believe me? Compare it with this image here from the first alpha.

Neato! 3D acceleration! This is from the Preferences menu.

The new, shiny, WebKit browser, WebPositive. It’s still a little bit fragile, and unfinished too. Some websites doesn’t render properly, but IMHO it’s the best and most standard compliant browser for Haiku, at least for now. It’s official too!

…that covers up what’s looks new on the new Haiku alpha.

Performance, stability, hardware support, bugs

I can’t measure performance objectively with concrete evidences (sorry), but this new alpha is a night and day difference from the old one. File operations is definitely faster. Multimedia playback, too, especially audio. It’s no longer gets choppy like the last alpha. Some says the new alpha compiles code faster than the old one, but still not as fast as Linux. (but it *seems* faster! /runs)

Performance on virtual machines seems to be greatly improved too, but still, if you going to run Haiku, run it on RealHardware. It can make an old, abandoned PIII usable again. It’s great on netbooks, too, and handy as an USB stick install.

Stability? As far as testing goes, I never KDLed it. The last alpha sometimes drops me to Kernel Debugging Land, but this one is totally rock solid. It is *not* perfectly stable, through. It’s still alpha!

Hardware support is a mixed bag. Some new ethernet adapters, wi-fi (yes, wifi) adapters, and numerous other things are now supported, but some hardware refuses to boot the second alpha (like my Notebook here) but boots the first alpha. I haven’t investigated into it too much, through. If you have the same problems as me, join the mailing list, post a bug in the bug tracker or just post in the forum.

Bugs. No software is without bugs, right? I can’t notice every single bugs through, but most bugs on Haiku is either a data-destroying one, a minor bug, or somewhat hardware-related. Haiku *still* can’t run smoothly on virtual machines, and I don’t know why. It probably has something to do with its tickless kernel. Also, WebPositive is still extremely buggy, and still not usable for *heavy* net-surfing. Haiku is not fully feature-complete, too. Definitely not too usable as a production, or even heavy day-to-day use yet.

Applications

Let’s face it, BeOS is old now. The last release of BeOS was like, what, 10 years ago? Haiku is moving forward, too. Many BeOS apps relies on hacks and special versions of libraries. So, it’s not 100% compatibility, but Haiku can mostly run older BeOS application. If you’re in search for apps for Haiku, I suggest visiting http://www.bebits.com and http://www.haikuware.com.

Conclusion

Overall, the new alpha is awesome, but still: it’s an alpha. But it’s pretty damn polished for an alpha. If you want to revive the old BeOS, Hotline, GoBe, 3DMov days, this is for you. For free.

From you guys that already used R1 Alpha 1? Upgrade to this one immediately, except if your hardware can’t run it. (Try booting from the .iso image burned to a CD, through.) It’s better in every ways conceivable from Alpha 1.

+ Wi-Fi support: awesome, netbook-friendly now

+ WebPositive: let’s face it, Firefox is bloated. WebKit is more in tune with the Haiku spirit!

+ Locale kit: more users, the better it gets right?

+ More power for you: this alpha is definitely snappier and more stable than the old one

+ ACPI by default: no more turning the switch off manually again, and less power consumption!

- Some hardware don’t like it: it won’t run on some hardware. Try disabling ACPI, or something

- WebPositive: still needs more work, but it’s on the right track

- (still) not for your grandma, yet

And that’s the end of the review. Thanks for reading!