The State of Haiku OS (Opinion)

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Summary

What is the state of Haiku OS? What is it missing? What does it need to do, to be a viable daily driver, as a lot of Linux Distributions have become, as an alternative Desktop OS, that’s not Windows, MacOS or Linux.

The Media OS

Originally, BeOS (the forerunner to Haiku OS), was known and marketed as “The Media OS”. It handled audio, video, graphics (both 2D and 3D), flawlessly. Mostly based on the “pervasive multi-threaded” design of the OS and Apps written for it (at least the ones written by Be, Inc.).

At this time, Beta5 (and daily build versions), don’t “seem” to handle media as well as BeOS did. Mostly, this is a perception based on the fact that the browser is a main focus for most users in 2025. And WebPositive, an otherwise very mature and useful browser, doesn’t handle Media (Audio and Video) at all, as the developers have basically turned off the switch to do these things, as the connection code to the underlying media system is broken. 

Quote by one of the developers, on a related bug report:

Fixing this piece, would be a great boon to the OS, since there is so much focus in the browser, these days. Essentially, full support of HTML5 would move the needle, an amazing amount.

There are other browser “ports” out there, including several “forks” of “Firefox” (with various names, like “IceWeisel”, etc.) that use these broken pieces of code and it shows. They work…sort of…audio/video syncing is tenuous at best and usually eventually crashes. I’m guessing this is mostly do to the same issue mentioned by the developer, “nephele”, above.

Core Daily Driver Apps

Office Apps

At this point, there are no known (to me) active developments of “native” Haiku OS apps that handle Office type features, like Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentations, Drawing, Database, Math Formula Editor, Charts, etc.

The last “native” product was Gobe Productive, which essentially went out of business shortly after Be, Inc. did. As the platform was no longer commercially viable. This product took full advantage of the “pervasively multi-threaded” features of the OS (BeOS).

The most viable product, that is currently under continuing development, is “LibreOffice”, which is a fork of the original “OpenOffice.org” project. On the LibreOffice website, they provide ports for macOS/Windows/Linux. 

To get a version built for Haiku OS, you must go to the HaikuDepot app in Haiku OS, to get the package. This is located in the “HaikuPorts” repository. I’m not sure who actually is responsible for updating this port, but it is a little behind the current version. The Haiku version is currently 24.8.1.1.1, while the current version on the libreoffice.org website, for macOS/Windows/Linux is 25.2.4. 

Internet Apps

When I speak of internet apps, the main one I’m thinking about (other than WebPositive) is a good e-mail client. Currently, Haiku OS just doesn’t have one, that’s “native”. There are a few “ports” available that work well enough.

Unfortunately, the built in services for email are currently broken. This is the email service that uses the file system to group emails.

Another issue with the built-in mail services, is that the email viewer app does not know how to display an HTML part. I assume this would be added to it, once a WebView control is officially added (from the work on WebPositive). I’ve heard that it’s on the list, but much lower on the priority list (obviously). I don’t think the original BeOS implementation supported the HTML part either.

Not sure if POP or other protocols have this issue, but I find most people are using IMAP.

Alternatively, a webmail client can work for you. For instance, I have RoundCube installed on my mail server and can use that to access my main email account and it works just fine with WebPositive.

If you need file transfer, there is a simple, decent graphical FTP tool called FtpPositive that is not really being developed further, but is being “maintained” by one of the main Haiku developers.

Media Applications

On the positive side, MediaPlayer, included with Haiku OS, seem to work well, as far as I’ve tested. Both audio and Video with Audio play correctly, in my simple testing.

Streaming media outside of WebPositive, like with MediaPlayer, seems to function properly.

So, it’s just media inside the browser that seems, less than ideal, for daily use.

Conclusion

So, what does Haiku need to be a viable daily driver, as a lot of Linux Distributions have become, as an alternative Desktop OS, that’s not Windows, MacOS or Linux?

Mainly, it needs to have a fully working media system supporting the HTML5 specification in WebPositive.

The other issues, like not having a “native” solution for Office Apps are not that important and not very likely to happen anyway.

Having a native e-mail client would be a plus. Or, just have the built-in email features working again (does not retrieve email, only sends) and HTML part display.

Final Thoughts

Haiku OS, overall, is really awesome. It’s amazing what a small group of developers have been able to put together, from the ashes of BeOS. 

Kudo’s to them all. I think I speak for most, if not all, of the Haiku OS enthusiasts, that we really appreciate your commitment.

Hey @Elon…if you have a some spare change laying around, it sure would be cool to get this project some full time development cycles. Not sure what the business model would be, but I just think more choices are good. 🙂