[eloisant]

Be was pretty close from being acquired by Apple instead of NeXT. It was also founded by an ex-Apple employee (Jean-Louis Gassée).

MacOSX would be really different today if it were based on BeOS instead of NeXT...

[microtonal]

Probably much worse. First because (and I say this is a BeOS fan at the time) it was a single-user system without much security. Second, because it's likely that Apple would have sunk further without Steve Jobs.

[Fuzzbit]

I strongly suspect Apple wouldn't be here had they picked Be.

What NeXT brought was exceptional developer tools, not to mention Steve Jobs.

No Steve Jobs likely would have meant no iPod, iPhone, etc.

[butlike]

The butterfly effect gets insane with that one, but it's kind of an interesting alternate future to think about.

[jbverschoor]

No beachballs