"There is an x86_64 port, NFSv4 module, BFS resizing support, power management and even an OpenJDK port -- all progressing nicely," Aßmus says. However, package management remains stalled, although this "may change at any time".

"It may take at least another year, probably more, before package management is ready. Maybe if one or two of our capable GSoC students sticks around and dig into that field, it could go a lot faster."

The team behind Haiku have tentative plans that look beyond R1, however: While R1 will replicate the functionality of BeOS R5 (albeit with modern hardware support and a stack of extra features) Haiku R2 is intended to take the BeOS philosophy even further.

"One big challenge [with R2] will be to extend and shape the features that are already there, and adopt them more towards the use cases of actual users," Aßmus says.

"For example, Haiku does not realise the full potential of file system queries, which is mostly a matter of how search results are presented to the user, and how queries are integrated or used within applications. There is a lot of potential there.