The BeOS company shut down. It has been spending someone elses money for far too long.
Here is what Dan Gillmor said about the matter: (Dan is one of my heroes)
This is another valley milestone, and a sad one. Be was a terrific OS. But it lived in a marketplace run by a monopolist. End of story.
Dan, there are at least half a dozen incarnations of Linux that are doing very well in a market place run by a monopolist. Granted, not making much money but having a deep impact and garnering critical installations. As a matter of fact, Linux is doing well in a market that is much tougher than the desktop, the server. I don’t think the story is over at all.
The demise of the BeOS is not the fault of Microsoft. It would not have been prevented by rigorous adherance to antitrust law. Gassee screwed up. It’s that simple. As much as you have to like the guy, he is not an infrastructure strategist.
The BeOS may have been great software–Are you using it? Did you actually buy a copy?–it takes more than great software to succeed, monopolist or no monopolist.