Welcome to BeOS!

We're not finished with you yet! We want to give you the absolute latest and greatest technologies for you to use in BeOS, including developer tools. All you need to do is come to the Be web site and download them.

We'll also make bug fixes and other updates available on our web site, so it's very important that you visit from time to time to keep your BeOS software up-to-date. To download your updates to BeOS, visit our Software Updates page (after you configure your network settings, see next item):

http://www.be.com/support/updates/

Congratulations on installing BeOS! Before you do too much with BeOS, you will probably want to take a few minutes to configure a few essential settings. Doing this now will make things go much more smoothly later.

Configure your network settings.

Many of the links in this and other documentation files are to sites on the Internet, and so require you to have a working connection to the Internet. You can find instructions for connecting BeOS 5 to a network in the Networking chapter of the BeOS User's Guide.

Configure your screen settings.

The default screen resolution for BeOS is 640 by 480 pixels and the default screen refresh rate is 60 Hz. You may find that these screen settings are very fatiguing to your eyes. Information about how to change the settings for your screen can be found in the Screen Preferences section of the BeOS User's Guide.

Configure your time and timezone settings.

While the hardware clock in your computer is probably set to the correct time, the default timezone for BeOS is Abidjan, Africa. Unless you live there you'll want to change this setting. Information about how to change your time and timezone settings can also be found in the Time Preferences section of the BeOS User's Guide.

Be wants to make sure you have the best possible experience while using BeOS. For that reason, we want to be able to tell you about on-line updates, upgrades, and other important BeOS news. When you register your copy of BeOS, we'll start sending you our bulletins via e-mail (you can also request no e-mail -- but we promise to keep the e-mail interesting and low-volume).

To sign in with your copy of BeOS, visit the Be web site:

http://free.beos.com/register/

We've created a special area of the Be web site dedicated to customer technical support. We have frequently asked questions and their answers (FAQs), troubleshooting guides, and contact information for those problems not solved by our on-line resources. This is the first, best place to stop for solutions to your BeOS problems.

BeBits.com hosts an extensive collection of BeOS software. Make the most of your BeOS system, by getting the software you need to be more productive. The catalog is divided into sections with detailed descriptions of each software package. Check it out at http://www.bebits.com/

BeDepot is also a great source for commercial BeOS software. You can browse their catalog, and purchase and download your software immediately. How's that for instant BeOS software gratification!

The primary location for information about BeOS and the Be community is the Be website:

http://www.be.com/

Here are some direct URLs to particularly useful pages on the Be site, and to some other BeOS resources:

• Be, Inc. mailing lists -- Be maintains several electronic mailing lists, including ones for Be programmers and users. See http://www.be.com/aboutbe/mailinglists.html for more info.

• Internet Newsgroups -- There are several newsgroups (comp.sys.be.advocacy, comp.sys.be.announce, comp.sys.be.help, comp.sys.be.misc, comp.sys.be.programmer) devoted to BeOS-related topics.

• Third-party Be oriented websites. See The World of Be for a listing of links to BeOS news, communities, software and more.

The BeOS makes use of open source software in portions of the operating system, including copylefted source code. This source code can be found on our ftp site, at:

ftp://ftp.be.com/pub/gnu/

Sometimes after using BeOS, people get so excited that they want to come and work for us. Some of our best employees started off as customers, so we love that reaction! Be is growing and we're looking for quality people in engineering, marketing, and other parts of the company. If you think you'd like to work for Be, take a look at these job listings!