What is Haiku?

HAIKU is an open source operating system currently in development. Specifically targeting personal computing, Haiku is a fast, efficient, simple to use, easy to learn, and yet very powerful system for computer users of all levels. Additionally, Haiku offers something over other open source platforms which is quite unique: The project consists of a single team writing everything from the kernel, drivers, userland services, tool kit, and graphics stack to the included desktop applications and preflets. While numerous open source projects are utilized in Haiku, they are integrated seamlessly. This allows Haiku to achieve a level of consistency that provides many conveniences, and is truly enjoyable to use by both end-users and developers alike.

What’s so good about Haiku anyway?

The key highlights that distinguish Haiku from other operating systems include:

Specific focus on personal computing

Custom kernel designed for responsiveness

Fully threaded design for great efficiency with multi-processor/core CPUs

Rich object-oriented API for faster development

Database-like file system (BFS) with support for indexed metadata

Unified, cohesive interface

Why Haiku?

The Be Operating System introduced progressive concepts and technologies that we believe represent the ideal means to simple and efficient personal computing. Haiku is the realization of those concepts and technologies in the form of an operating system that is open source and free.

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Who is behind Haiku?

Haiku is developed by a growing community of volunteer developers from all around the world. Additionally, Haiku also exists thanks to the dedicated support of a fervent and friendly community, and that of Haiku, Inc., a non-profit organization founded by former project leader Michael Phipps with the purpose of supporting the development of Haiku as well as the growth of both the community and the Haiku platform.