BeCool from Ed Brooks (who brought you the “Cool Copland Collection”) -- An Icon Set designed for the Mac using elements of the “BeOS Look”. Most of the icons are made by combining different elements from the BeOS. This collection uses more of the 3-D people and other icons from Be and less of the Standard Apple MacOS icons than most of the collections and extensions available. BeCool contains all the system resources you need to tweak your Mac.
What’s the BeOS – The operating system of the BeBox – a new computer that utilizes multiple PowerPC processors built by Jean-Louis Gassée and the folks at Be, Inc..
What’s BeCool – BeCool is a set of resources that allows you to make the MacOS look like the BeOS. This happens to be the exact opposite of what I’d really like to see – the BeOS architecture with a Macintosh interface.
What’s so cool about the BeBox & BeOS – Apple System 7.5.x is the result of 10 years of working to make all the new advances of the Mac backwards compatible (trying not to “break” old programs). New advances are often delayed by the work necessary to ensure backwards compatibility. The folks at Be decided to start fresh and not worry about old programs – they just wanted to make a system that would scream. The BeOS includes such dreamed of features as protected memory and preemptive multitasking. In the process they came up with a look and feel that was both business-like and fun. This set of icons attempts to capture some of that feeling and make it ready for the Mac – today.
What’s the future for the BeOS & the Mac – Be ran the BeOS on a Power Computing machine at MacWorld Expo and promises a commercial version of the OS in early ‘97 that will run on any PowerPC processor Mac-compatible. Of course the big rumor is that Apple will buy Be and turn the BeOS into System 8 now that the “Copland” system as we knew it is dead. This might require Apple to rethink backwards compatibility - so of course everyone is up in arms.
How to use the BeCool Icons – Use ResEdit to paste the resources into a copy of your system, or a copy of Aaron, Kaleidoscope or BeView from Greg Landwebber. IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE RESEDIT DON’T MESS AROUND. ResEdit is can screw you up bad if you are not familiar with it and very careful.
A note about BeView – BeView from Greg Landwebber is an extension that does an excellent job of giving your Macintosh the windows, buttons, font, etc. that are used in the BeOS. The icons – for the most part – paste the standard Mac printer or users and groups heads onto a Be folder. BeCool takes this a step further by creating an icon using as many elements from the Be interface and as few from the Mac as possible. If you use BeView with or without the BeCool resources make sure that you pay your shareware fees!
The Fine Print – Use at your own risk – there is no express or implied Warranty. All ownership and copyrights remain with their original owners and designers. Most of the icons combine different elements of the BeOS into a new fusion.
On the Web – Find out more about the BeOS at http://www.be.com and more about BeView at http://greg.math.harvard.edu.
