Back in the mid 90's (so long ago), BeOS was all the rave. I bought and used a copy of the OS (yes, my nerdiness extends back awhile) and liked it very much. However, there were few software and drivers available and eventually the company went under.

Be Inc got disbanded (I think the intellectual properties went to 3M or Palm, Inc, not sure) and there were little activity on the OS for about 10 years. I always wondered if anyone else thought BeOS was cool enough to be kept alive...

Yes! The guys at Haiku Inc seems to think so and have been supporting a project called Haiku OS for about 6 yrs (who knew). Now, it seems that Google Inc is interested in the small project. It's described as a binary-compatible reverse-engineered OS (smells litigious you may say, but I think Google will just buy the remainder of the IP from its owners).

Among its many aspirations, Google is missing an OS of its own. It would be nice to see GoogleOS comes out of this effort. I mean, it only makes sense if Google will compete againstMS and eventually Apple. As a user and lover of technology, I am all for an OS that will energize the community based on its technical merit (not just overblown hypes).

Check it out :
http://haiku-os.org/ - Site link.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=236331448076587879 - Google Talk: Haiku
http://haiku-os.org/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=1288 - Haiku at Google