Haiku - The new BeOS

Haiku is an open-source operating system currently in development designed from the ground up for desktop computing. It is inspired by the BeOS and trying to be compatible with it (clone it). Haiku aims to provide users of all levels with a personal computing experience that is simple yet powerful, and free of any unnecessary complexities.

BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. Unlike some other operating systems of the time, BeOS was written to take advantage of modern hardware. Optimized for digital media work, BeOS made full use of multiprocessor systems by utilizing modular I/O bandwidth, pervasive multithreading, preemptive multitasking and a custom 64-bit journaling file system known as BFS. The BeOS GUI was developed on the principles of clarity and a clean, uncluttered design.

Unfortunately BeOS never became a mainstream operating system, so in 2001 the development stopped. Although, it's users still continued to use it. It's community wanted BeOS to be open source, so they would be able to continue the development (an OpenBeOS). That didn't happen, so a new project started, the Haiku.

Right now Haiku is a very useful and steady operating system. It still needs lots of work and cannot replace Windows or Linux. But still, you can try it on a virtual machine or on an empty partition in your pc.

You can find information about it or download it at the official website.