YellowTAB is currently preparing a service pack for its RC1 release. Customers who bought Zeta Deluxe 1.0-RC1, will receive their CDs within a few days and the Service Pack that was developed in the meantime will also be available for these customers via a web download (about 5 MB). Read more for the (partial) changelog and screenshots showing the new “quick launch” facility YellowTAB is introducing on their Deskbar and their SVG Tracker and preference panels.
CHANGELOG:
TimeZliner.Home
Lot of bug fixes and new features.
Using now the new IconBar with SVG Support
Added some more locale strings
Changed the Icon into SVG
BeBochs
New BIOS Versions, more USB support, better hardware support, speed improvements
copysvgicon
Tool which helps you very easy to copy SVG Icons to existing apps
e.G.: copysvgicon SVGICON APP_WHICH_SHALL_USE_THE_NEW_ICON
Gobe
Added all the missed Translators for Excel, Word, RTF…
Changed the Icon into SVG
Tracker/Deskbar
Lot of speed improvements, bug fixes, more locale support
Changed the Icon into SVG
Added SVG Icon support to the Deskbar
Removed WindowDecors from the Deskbar
About Box
Added new CPU IDs
Started to add all developers who did apps we included into Zeta
USBCommander
Shows you all plugged USB Devices
Changed the Icon into SVG
Locale_server
Speed improvements, more supported C Code for the LocaleFiles, bug fixes
rtl8139 driver
Fixed crash bugs
PersonalSettings
Cifs
Added Cifs to the new Network configuration tool
Squeezer
A Lot of bug fixes from Massimilliano
Decors
Started to remove ugly and not correct working decors.
Added new and fixed Decors
LocaleFiles
Added fixed and enhanced and new locale files
Icons
Replaced a lot of old Bitmap icons with SVG Icons
Tracker uses fully SVG
New GeForce driver supports more models
Well,
if they are trying to do something pretty, they could at least change the Zeta symbol background to match the button color…
The quick launch seems to be a nice thing..
But the question remains unsolved..
Kernel code????
Eugenia, thanks for that interesting and detailed news. Is there a source for this info?
regards,
choulth
> Is there a source for this info?
We have relations with YellowTAB as we have with every OS company and we receive news updates and press releases every now and then. This news came from YTab directly.
thx, just added this info on the news on http://www.zetajournal.org
They seem to me the same set of icons (plus some new icons) I use on Os X from McClintock (sorry if I mispelled the name)…
I plain love them 😉
Andrea “hawksmoor” Scatena
From Beyond
All good changes. Nice to see they’ve got some work in on the rt8139 driver issue, let alone all the other nice things. I’m really interested in how well they’ve integrated CIFS in their Network control panel and what that’s like to use.
I’m getting really interested in running Zeta R1. My only wish now is that it ran with decent windowing performance in VMWare or VirtualPC.
I find it strange that people continually call icons SVG icons when they are not. I cannot say for sure, but I don’t think that the majority of icons in the new Zeta tracker will be SVG. Why? I use Fat-Tracker currently, which I believe is the base for the Zeta “SVG” tracker. It does indeed support SVG icons, but the vast majority of icons it uses are 128×128 raster images, not SVG vectors. So, in fact, Fat-Tracker supports both SVG icons and raster icons – it just scales the raster icons to any size it needs – like MacOSX does. A recent bebits post claims to be an updated set of SVG icons for Fat-Tracker – but then clearly states that it is an archive of PNG files – NOT SVG.
I cannot believe that yT has hired a bunch of Vector Graphics artists to produce SVG icons when they could rip-off (meant in a good way) a ton of raster icons from all over the web. Vector icons are not in great abundance – and definitely not for BeOS related subjects.
What’s the point? Just that I think people confuse SVG with meaning “big pretty icons” when it really should be more closely equated with “Vector Graphics.” Sure, SVG Tracker may be able to handle SVG icons, but does it use them?
Never-the-less, the SVG tracker (Fat Tracker and derivitives) is one of the best things to happen to the BeOS GUI since it came out.
First i must say nice that you are using properties without permissions
Next is that we USE SVG and NO PNG, what ever you are using i dont know but i know what we are using.
It was correct that we used the Fat Tracker in an early stage but today you can say that we rewrote it to 98% or more. It is completly different from what you might using.
Btw while Eugenia wrote that article we added some more updates to the Packages which will be available in sime days.
We have updated the SVG Viewer, got a better speed in the rendering issue for the Tracker and have updated lot of fileutils like mw (which had serious bugs!), rm, rmdir…..
“A service pack to an RC is what YellowTAB prepares currently” should probably read: “YellowTAB is currently preparing a service pack for YT RC-1”.
LW.
First i must say nice that you are using properties without permissions
Will your people run around and spend your “valuable” time trying to sue him too or was that just me you were hunting?
How can a service pack be released before R1 is actually released? Isn’t that doing things in the wrong order? How would it be to spend time on making a serious release without known issues to begin with?
Sure I know we complained in the past that yT doesn’t release anything, but really, what have you done all these months?
>How can a service pack be released before R1 is actually released?
Let me explain. The service pack is just fix to RC-1. SP’s fixes are not so many and big to be called RC-2, and so it is just an additional bug fix to the customers who bought RC-1.
Come on guys let them, at YellowTab, make their point…Oh yeah we can go on and talk about icons and outlook and all that…In my personal opinion the interface is a mixture of Amiga (lines on the caption) and OsX (pill look on the controls and toolbar on the bottom) but who cares…Its the first release…I am sure they know all these things and some of them will be corrected…Its good to have a commercial version out even if its RC1 plus SPs…It happens even to the “greatest” companies.
Go for it Bernd
Those screenshots look like a big step forward for Zeta. The font rendering appears improved (not perfect, but certainly improved), the new icons look great (can the size of the icons be selected, can I make them smaller?), the new Zeta logo looks better, and best of all… the Quick Launcher! The Quick Launcher looks well thought out and very useful. I’m surprised, but I’m starting to like what’s coming from yellowTAB lately.
I can’t wait for my Zeta Deluxe Special Pack to arrive now.
is there any decent way to pay for Zeta yet. Or are they just using horrible PayPal.
this ( http://img.osnews.com/img/5022/Deskbar-SVG.png) probably is the most smooth looking beos screenshot I’ve seen, I am really impressed this time.
>this ( http://img.osnews.com/img/5022/Deskbar-SVG.png) probably is
>the most smooth looking beos screenshot I’ve seen, I am really
>impressed this time.
Jep. And it´s “real life”. No hoax, no vapor.
choulth
ohwell..
Seems to look very nice and they have done alot of work anywayz.. I think i will try it before i start nagging again..
i’d like to ask 2 things, if someone know
is possible to set the background of DockBert transparent? in all the screenshots around i’ve seen a coloured one, that is not much good because the shape of the toolbar.
and what are the “V” above the icons in the preferences window? i cant understand
More eyecandy more eyecandy more eyecandy.
ACPI support? 1gig ram? Multi user?
Can you please start addressing the real issues?
I just posted a review of Patch 1 myself on http://www.iscomputeron.com/index/modules.php?name=News&file=articl… . Ilike I also stated in the review, I feel that both Eugenia and I shed some light on different aspects and that both are definitely worth a read.
As for those commenting negatively on Zeta, I would just like to mention that about everything, no matter how good it is, there is something bad to say. No matter how good yellowTAB will do something, whether they would have or have not released a patch, you would continue to complain about the things that they haven’t or couldn’t have done right, still leaving me oblivious about what your problem is with yellowTAB. Is a commercial company releasing a newer version of BeOS threatening for you in any kind of way? Are you afraid they intend to gather some money so that they can then trample OBOS? Do you suspect them to be part of a huge complot involving aliens or Microsoft?
All I’m just asking you to do is look at the good sides some time, hoping you will see that yellowTAB is trying hard to do right what they have previously done wrong.
“Real issues” is a subjective term. Those things you listed were important to you. They’re not important to me. Perhaps this patch is intended for a different target user than in your situation. This doesn’t make the update any more or any less important.
It took many years for people to realize the sun didn’t revolve around the earth. Looks like that battle is still being waged in different scales.
Well what do you expect? It’s a small servicepack, a patch. The features you want to see entail major changes in the system’s core. YellowTab has unveiled their first release, there won’t be other big features until the next major release. It may not be all you wished for, maybe not even all you think that’s been announced, but there you are… It’s a legal Dano plus stuff (“goodies” for some, “cruft” for others). Deal with it.
The question of the extent to yt’s license and access to source code remains. But it’s moot to keep discussing it until yt decides to give the information.
BTW, I don’t like how OBOS keeps getting dragged into this as if they are yt’s opponents. Please find other arguments instead of building up fronts where there aren’t any.
yTab surely has put some efforts and the new features, like the Word & Excel Translators for Gobe, proper(?) CIFS support for networking, SVG support for Tracker and bugfixes for the rtl8139 driver will lead them into the path of some SOHO users.
If things goes right, yTab might be able to attract again commercial developers to the world of BeOS.
I for one hardly can wait to see how is gonna be their final release. Way to go, yTab.
Duh that’s the point I’m trying to make. OBOS is _not_ yellowTAB’s opponent but people keep on saying they are.
As for it being _just Dano_ I would disagree. I never heard anyone saying that R5 is _just_ R4.5 while it’s the exact same metaphor. I still have a Beta1 (= BeOS NG) lying around here, and installing it, then comparing it to RC1-patch1 makes me fall over. There has been an extensive amount of progress, but because things all went fluently, it unfortunately isn’t very noticable.
“If things goes right, yTab might be able to attract again commercial developers to the world of BeOS.”]
They already are, that makes me soooo happy =) For example, Perforce, Paragon’s Partition Manager, and companies at SYSTEMS who were interested in porting their apps. Just hoping this will grow exponentially 😉
I really want Zeta or any progeny of BeOS to succeed. But the big question (which YellowTab has to answer before I’ll send them money) is: Will Zeta get the ability to run on current/future chipsets/processors/mainboards?
Sure I can run it on my old BX440 Pentium II. But that machine already runs BeOS 5 just dandily. But as far as I can tell, Zeta won’t run on any chipset released in the last two years. e.g. None of nVidia’s NForce chipsets are on the compatibility list. I know this question is related to kernel code source access and developers who know what do with it.
So, YellowTab: Will your spiffy new OS soon be able run on the Asus KV8 or SK8N/Athlon 64 or Opteron based PC I’ll be building myself for Chrismas? If so, I’ll buy Zeta for sure. If not, sorry, but there doesn’t seem to be a point.
This might sound like a stupid question – but I’m really interested in buying ZetaOS – where can I get copy? I live in the US.
http://www.yellowtab.com. You can (pre)order a copy in the shop.
http://www.yellowtab.com/shop/details.php?item=17
To clarify you can but the RC1 and then pay for shipping when the real final is released. Seems like a deal to me. The link I posted above is to the special RC1 edition.
Pre-ordering gets you a free T-shirt =)
At the moment I do not know anyone with an X-86-64 or Opteron, but I think it’ll run in 32-bit mode. yellowTAB does not intend to make Zeta a 64-bit OS yet. At the moment there is no time or resources to do this, and there are a great deal of other (more important) things to deal with first. Besides, the switch from 32 to 64-bit is by far not as popular as the switch from 16 to 32-bit (in that aspect you should see it as: yellowTAB currently wishes to support the majority, and it would be suicide to pump great amounts of money into making Zeta either 64-bit or PPC based, as these two do require a lot of cash to get done).
ATI Radeons and nVidia TNT/GeForce technologies are supported as far as the drivers currently available on BeBits go. The Radeon cards are generally all supported thanks to the great support that ATI has delivered to the driver developer, Thomas Kurschel. nVidia is not really interested in helping out potential “opponents” to write drivers, and they are quite hard to reach. So possibly nVidia driver developer Rudolf Cornelissen will manage to get more cards supported upon being granted a specific card for several hours (to develop and test the driver), but if not I take we just have to wait till nVidia changes its ways, or till yellowTAB gets to a level to go into serious discussions with nVidia.
While seeing Zeta “out in the public” finally, and long before we see anything from OpenBeOS, to the same degree, I am only slightly excited.
Why?
Not because the progress made isn’t nice or it isn’t nice to see “BeOS” again, but because I am waiting to see a lot of software support from 3rd parties. You know, the kinda support you see over at MacNews!
Until then, my G3 B&W/350 with 640Mb of RAM and MacOS X 10.2.8 will chug along quite contentedly…
Which reminds me… where is that PPC version of OpenBeOS or Zeta or whatever? Hmm?
Luposian
The lack of support for nforce and the like may have absolutely nothing to do with kernel source. Nvidia as Eddy points out have a long history of ignoring those wishing to write drivers. Even the official licensed drivers for linux come with that retarded click here to agree business. I don’t know what they expect to happen by giving away the details to a few registers on their cards. Anyone with the facilities to rip them off could reverse engineer the whole lot anyway.
Three years back when I was trying to write a driver for my MAXI Studio ISIS I was given the run around by guillemot for six months – Call Department A,C,F,D,A,Z,X,Y – It’s quite remarkable what Zeta are accomplishing in the driver department. As Thomas gains experience in driver writing he’ll start banging them out faster and faster.
I was totally sceptical but I’m starting to have some hope that Zeta will succeed
Please read several of the comments above that answer both that there are already third parties being attracted, and also that there isn’t going to be a PPC version of Zeta for now (reasons mentioned above).
Axel Doerfler is working on a PPC port of OpenBeOS, and he has shown a small bit about it. At BeGeistert (some 2 weeks ago) he let us see that he is working hard on it and almost has the boot loader complete. The kernel is also getting somewhere. This are the main areas on which he is working. Especially since he originally initiated the port for the Pegasos computers which are slightly different from the PPC computers, which means he basically has to develop 2 different versions. This might take a little longer though.
Here is another review about the Zeta patch, by the way:
http://www.iscomputeron.com/index/modules.php?name=News&file=articl…
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find all 128×128 PNG files. There really is no reason to go all out and use true SVG if your gonna limit the size of the expanded images to 128×128.
Of course, considering that the icon set is from an SVG d00d, I’d say that they may very well be actual SVG icons. I haven’t seen the new icon set on my system, so I can’t say.
But defaults icons as images or SVG or whatnot, who cares? They still look AWESOME and are without distortion, and the system can use SVG or large images (any size) as icons.. so what more could you ask for?? 🙂
–The loon
True, paddy, mostly the reverse engineering is done anyway to create drivers for nVidia cards, but since that takes a lot of time which Rudolf Cornelissen doesn’t have, he mostly waits till someone from the Linux community is so nice to do it for him. Then he’ll peek in the driver code and base his own code upon it. He told about that in an interview I did with him, in case you’re interested: http://www.iscomputeron.com/index/modules.php?name=News&file=articl…
Thomas and Rudolf are not employed for yellowTAB, however. They both actually do work for OpenBeOS, with the driver source also being freely available. They do awesome amounts of work and rightfully gain a lot of respect from the community. They do cooperate though, also very nice blokes to talk to. Both have got some ideas of their own to improve drivers under (open)BeOS even more. Talking about active developers =)
And if I’m not mistaken I believe Bernd was chuckling of happiness when Rudolf commenced work on the Nvidia driver. I believe it was something about “let the fool work and then we can take it free of charge”. Of course it’s within their right to do so, however the attitude they have about it is hardly something to strive for.
I’m still looking forward to read that review where R5/Dan0/Zeta get’s compared thoroughly without added apps on top.
Sure dan0 is illegal but maybe it’s worth using that if it’s comparable and spend those dollars on either BeUnited (who handles Java stuff at the mo’) or OpenBeOS so people who write things like drivers (that yT will take anyway) can get their HW. Maybe if enough people donate OpenBeOS or BeUnited might be able to employ someone, that’d be great!
> …OpenBeOS so people who write things like drivers (that yT will take anyway) can get their HW….
seems like some people have forgotten WHY obos has chosen the BSD license in the first place.
>More eyecandy more eyecandy more eyecandy.
>ACPI support? 1gig ram? Multi user?
>Can you please start addressing the real issues?
Same here. ACPI qand 1 Gig of RAM would be realy nice.
I will skipp untill above are supported. I am running dual boot and I am not about to keep taking RAM to run yT.
Anyway OS looks good otherwise..
I think it isn’t smart to talk about people as if you know them better than almost anyone else. I think it’s safe for me to say I know Bernd pretty well, and what I know is that the relationship between Bernd and other people, with the exception of a few specific ones who are for the largest part to blaim this on themselves, is always of a very amical basis.
“OpenBeOS so people who write things like drivers (that yT will take anyway)”.
First of all, is it a crime for them to do so? OpenBeOS is categorized as open source, which definitely would not give anyone the right of accusing yellowTAB of breaking some kind of law or behavioural code when implementing parts of OBOS in Zeta, which at the time being is for a greater part not even possible yet because of OBOS’s current overal status.
See, the funny thing is that not even just yellowTAB, but every single person in this world can use, take, or do whatever they wish with it. And from all those people, yellowTAB would in fact have the largest benefit than anyone else in _supporting_ OBOS over just using it and dragging everything away from them.
if not, patch or no patch – it’s pointless.
Yep, pointless enough for Eugenia and me to spend time on writing about =)
> …OpenBeOS so people who write things like drivers (that yT will take anyway) can get their HW….
seems like some people have forgotten WHY obos has chosen the BSD license in the first place.
That wasn’t irony it was more meant like spending the money on OBOS which result in drivers will actually do more good for yT than to let them spend the money themselves. I’m all PRO BSD/MIT licenses so I have no problem at all with it. I just hope that whatever contribution that goes to the community results in something good, and frankly pumping cash to yT doesn’t convince me that it’ll result in something good.
Buying 3rd party apps will for sure though, such things as Refraction or TuneTracker…
What I’m trying to approach here is really the attitude “I’ll buy from yT just to support BeOS”… so get Dan0 and give the cash where they result in you actually supporting BeOS =)
Anyway… this is just the normal rant, people do whatever they want anyway…
That was well-explained, I’m glad (and admired) to see someone giving a clear and honest reason why not buying Zeta. That doesn’t happen often, I have to admit. Your reason is stable and really undisputable to some extent.
It only leaves me with one question: “But don’t you think that with more Zeta customers, more 3rd-parties will be attracted [through yellowTAB]?”
Nice to see a semi-civil discussion here.
Remember ppl, sometimes you cannot see the forest for the trees.
The big picture is that our beloved OS (BeOS) has a future again and if you think that YT cannot offer what you want then do one of two things: Either engage yourself and help OBOS or refrain from bashing YT.
In regards to the attitude of “I will buy Zeta once 3rd party software is available”: you’re not helping. A large user-base is what attracts 3rd party developers, not a whole bunch of bickering hold-outs who want the cake and eat it too.
I was at the Systems.de tradeshow for 5 days and helped present Zeta to the masses. You should have seen ppl’s jaws hit the ground, crowds of ppl watching out presentations. Most ppl do not know the history of BeOS and dont care, all they see is a product that offers a true alternative to todays choice of commercially available Operating Systems.
No matter how much bickering or criticism, I KNOW that this is an awesome product and stand 100 percent behind it.
ChaOS
(That guy from Canada)
First off, in response to Bernd’s reponse to me,
Avoding the legality issues of my old SVG tracker – if you have re-written 98% of it, and are truly using SVG throughout the system, I am incredibly happy to be wrong. Sounds really good. I don’t understand why you would use SVG icons instead of PNGs or some other Raster format, but it doesn’t really matter. I have no nits to pick with Bernd or yT, but the people that confuse SVG with big icons, as I said originally.
As for there maybe being to much focus on Eyecandy… sure, there are some system-level issues I would love to see fixed, but I cannot possibly convey how happy I was, how euphoric I was, when I first got my hands on Fat Tracker (illegal or not). My BeOS experience was revolutionized by a simple aesthetic change of having nice icons. If the eye-candy makes the experience of using the system better, I will be supportive of it. You have to work with your system through the GUI – if the GUI is unfriendly, ugly, slow, etc., then I won’t use the GUI. In BeOS, not using the GUI would really miss the point of the OS – it isn’t Linux where the CLI is the default. The OS fits the UI – Linux is best used with the CLI, and BeOS is best used with the GUI. Windows is best used with, well… no it isn’t best used with anything.
Of course, once the GUI is as slick as it ought to be (wherever that magical threshold is), the focus should shift to some other part of the system.
is there an screenshot showing the tracker windows style, I mean over the width of the screen, Im curious how the quicklaunch looks then :S
>What I’m trying to approach here is really the attitude “I’ll buy from yT just to support BeOS”… so get Dan0 and give the cash where they result in you actually supporting BeOS =)
I’m not going to comment on where you’ll spend your money, that’s your beussiness.
BUT people from now on who use Dano, should be shot (well, not literally
) I also had dano, but I deleted from it from my hdd now that I have the chance to legally BUY it. PLEASE don’t pirate alternative OSes, stick to R5 if you’ll like, that’s perfectly fine, but if you continue using you’ll do the most harm to the community in the long run.
It only leaves me with one question: “But don’t you think that with more Zeta customers, more 3rd-parties will be attracted [through yellowTAB]?”
I somehow believe that the people that my post was aimed at is not Joe User but more experienced users or current BeOS users.
For people outside the community not aware of what’s happening, sure I believe they buying from yT is a good thing. That’s why people like you and me bending bucks to our favourite organisation will result in an ideal mix.
But let’s not neglect that 3rd party apps is close but so far away. I think whoever starts developing for the “new” BeOS market will make some sort of research and neglect whether they are Zeta or R5 or Dan0 users. Therefor the attraction is to money not to germans (believe it or not ;P ).
All this could also be put in a complete different way. 3rd parties will be attracted if there are many users. Many users have different hardware. Hardware means drivers… OBOS / lonewolf devs write drivers… Zeta pick up those drivers.
Logically it all makes sense once again to spend money on OBOS or one of these lonewolf devs, such as Rudolf.
You make the decisions, I drink the beer…
I’m not going to comment on where you’ll spend your money, that’s your beussiness.
BUT people from now on who use Dano, should be shot (well, not literally
) I also had dano, but I deleted from it from my hdd now that I have the chance to legally BUY it. PLEASE don’t pirate alternative OSes, stick to R5 if you’ll like, that’s perfectly fine, but if you continue using you’ll do the most harm to the community in the long run.
I’m not gonna sit and favour Piracy software, that would be idiotic. However, in this particular case where Be Inc simply don’t exist anymore I think using whatever they left behind makes sense. I’ve been told (even though not convinced) that Zeta is soooo much better than the “current BeOS” (R5 I’d guess, but is it sooo much better than Dan0?).
What it all boils down to is whether yT is competitive. 2 Years of development should have resulted in overcoming dan0 quite a lot, so that’s the comparison that should be paid for. You pay for accomplishments….
Most ppl do not know the history of BeOS and dont care, all they see is a product that offers a true alternative to todays choice of commercially available Operating Systems.
How will these people feel when they notice the lack of software within particular groups, like for instance, not one decent instant messaging client?
I’m scared that these people will get upset when they realise there is a huge lack of software. I believe in honesty and am convinced that is what lasts. So I’d push zeta to niche markets where software exist like music industry and not push it to the masses just yet. AT LEAST wait for GoBe..
That’s my opinion though
“I’m not gonna sit and favour Piracy software, that would be idiotic. However, in this particular case where Be Inc simply don’t exist anymore I think using whatever they left behind makes sense. I’ve been told (even though not convinced) that Zeta is soooo much better than the “current BeOS” (R5 I’d guess, but is it sooo much better than Dan0?).”
Sorry, but that’s false.
yT payd Monay to use what Be ‘left behind’, you did not. The only decision to make is: Is the Money for Zeta worth tha changes, they did compared with R5? Nothing else, because Dan= is illegal (and there are a company which payd for Dan0).
Poldi123
P.S.: I know, baaaaaaad english . . .
yT payd Monay to use what Be ‘left behind’, you did not. The only decision to make is: Is the Money for Zeta worth tha changes, they did compared with R5? Nothing else, because Dan= is illegal (and there are a company which payd for Dan0).
So it can be confirmed then that Zeta = Dan0 pretty much with software added on top?