“When looking for an alternative to Windows most people think of either Apple’s OS X or Linux. Of course, these are both viable alternatives but they are not the only options. One way to go is with yellowTAB’s ZETA operating system. Though it is not yet very popular, ZETA is the successor to BeOS, the highly regarded OS from Be, Inc. This is a very interesting and beautiful operating system which may not presently be a threat to Linux but it does have more than a few things going for it.”
Even if this system was free i will not run it, sorry.!
Try it, hate it , running OSX now.!!
pics: http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=223&slide=1
Let me make this simple for you. I’d say the worst possible and ugliest GUIs have one thing in common. They’re all based on X one way or the other.
Zeta / BeOS / OSBOS is BTW skinnable, so you can do whatever you want with it.
One thing is for sure though, it is FAAAAST which is something you can hardly say for <insert any X GUI here>
“which may not presently be a threat to Linux”….nor will it ever be a threat to Linux. Linux is not a commercial entity, it cannot be threatened by any OS.
OTOH, IBM, Novell, and Red Hat won’t likely be threatened by Zeta OS.
“The retail version of ZETA sells for about the same price as commercial version of Linux with the same feature set”
Zeta targets the BeOs nostalgia fan, commercial RedHat targets corporate entities who want support on an official level that is beyond their in-house employed administrators.
I suspect that Zeta users are desktop users at home or office, much like your typical “free” linux distro users might be. Why would these Linux users even contemplate Zeta OS? They won’t.
> …Zeta targets the BeOs nostalgia fan…
It is definitely not the commercial strategy of YellowTab. I saw hier in Germany Zeta RC1 on one of this Teleshopping channels (QVC), so the target group I think is something more like “normal” users who needs to edit documents, surf in internet and do some multimedia stuff (watch DVDs, play music and so on). So I think Zeta is (conceptually) something like Mac OS X or NEXTSTEP. YellowTab should probably try to move into the pre-installed OS market segment.
Just my $0,02
Let it die. Please.
My take on the Zeta project is that they’re doing a commendable job, but they’re fighting a losing battle. I don’t think their company has the resources to do what the average comsumer expects from an OS.
The above Anonymous pos(t)ers, in their usual vapid statements, have pointed out that the graphical display is a tad dated. No transparency, no fancy gradients, etc. Knowing BeOS, I’m sure the GUI is fast and responsive – but for the average user (see: Screencaps from the recent WindowBlinds story), that doesn’t mean much.
Essentially, YellowTab is banking on their being enough serious users who relish responsiveness and speed and don’t care about the GUI features/garbage. There are some – and there are also the BeOS browncoats (or would that be red and blue coats?
– but I am not certain there are enough to keep the company afloat. They need a hook, something that no one else can offer, and they don’t have that yet. In my opinion.
If they choose to compete on graphics and GUI, it would be like trying to sell a car that has a ferrari engine, but a Hyundai Pony exterior. If they choose to compete on cutting-edge speed and features, it would be nigh impossible to keep up. If they choose to compete on specialized applications, something that truly takes advantage of some of BeOS’s features, then we might see something positive happen. See: LCS Audio.
hmm, i spoke too soon. One of the anonymous posters was not vapid.
You know, it’s still BeOS, a light, well designed, simple yet powerfull Multimidia O.S. Whomever who had used Be will, if they get the chance, try to play with Zeta. No doubt man.
I tried Zeta 1-RC..something on a Thinkpad T21 and guess what? once again the “drivers” dilemma.. No video, no sound.. just as with Linux back in the day. So what happened since that era? well.. plain simple, ” $$$ money” 🙂
So I wish all the best to the Zeta crew, props to them, we all know it’s a hard battle.
ubuntu is free for dl
ubuntu is up to date
ubuntu ships free
ubuntu supports many platforms
ubuntu has a good driver support
ubuntu has a pretty ui
etc etc
so why should i use zeta ?
btw : beos was great at its time , but its def. dead now
Not being a big fan of yT but of OSBOS, I’ll give you the following
Zeta/BeOS is fast.
Zeta/BeOS is lightweight
Zeta/BeOS is commercially supported (somehow)
Zeta/BeOS is brilliant for handling radiostations with Tunetracker
Zeta/BeOS has a prettier UI
Zeta/BeOS gives a different experience than X
Zeta/BeOS is alternative
Zeta/BeOS has a VERY friendly community
Zeta/BeOS is not GPL
Zeta/BeOS utilizes BFS (Live Queries… mmmm)
Zeta/BeOS offers A way, the Be Way, like Apple offers the OSX way… which is a way some people love.
Need more? Figure out that it’s ALL about personal preference and you may not like it, but many DO enjoy BeOS or did enjoy. I for one DO believe there is a good deal of potential in haiku / yT (I say yT here as I think they’ll go for apps in the long run and leave the actual OS).
The reason for my belief in the future is because I don’t feel comfortable with any of the Linuces, Windows, OSX nor BSDs…. but I DO feel comfortable whenever I boot my BeOS partition. That’s a unique selling point.
all you say is subjective, give us facts
I just thought I’d inject some of your advocacy with a small dose of reality. I’ve got no problem with people running Zeta, it’s just that it seems to be sold to people as a Windows/OSX substitute. Isn’t that how YT advertised it on the German shopping channel? Obviously Germany has very relaxed laws regarding fraud & advertising standards.
Zeta/BeOS is fast – So is Windows 95 on modern hardware. Better hardware & software support too.
Zeta/BeOS is lightweight – Because it doesn’t really do very much.
Zeta/BeOS is commercially supported (somehow) – Needs no further comment.
Zeta/BeOS is brilliant for handling radiostations with Tunetracker – That will get the users flocking back.
Zeta/BeOS has a prettier UI – Originally a simple elegant design now a bit of a train wreck.
Zeta/BeOS gives a different experience than X – X sucks, it doesn’t even do AA fonts. That’s what my friend who tried Redhat 6.1 told me.
Zeta/BeOS is alternative – So is bestiality.
Zeta/BeOS has a VERY friendly community – Misery loves company.
Zeta/BeOS is not GPL – So when YT go bust in 6 months you’re screwed (again).
Zeta/BeOS utilizes BFS (Live Queries… mmmm) – This is great. I spend at least 90% of my life searching for my files on account of being retarded.
Zeta/BeOS offers A way, the Be Way, like Apple offers the OSX way… which is a way some people love. – The Be way? Didn’t Be go bust a long time ago?
Which further illustrates the point that people have different needs and different priorities. One could just as easily come up with as many reasons or more to not use ubuntu…
Win XP comes on virtually any computer you can buy
XP supports more desktop hardware
XP has a couple orders of magnitude more software
XP looks fine (most people aren’t trying to replace it)
XP has tons of support
Gaming.
No compiling!
etc.
or…
BeOS boots faster
BeOS is much more responsive
BeOS is lightweight
BeOS doesn’t require that you use the command prompt
BeOS has BeFS (and actually uses metadata)
BeOS looks nice (SVG icons, window decor, etc.)
90% or more of the software is indexed by one site
BeOS multitasks extremely well
I have both XP & BeOS (PhOS, similar to Zeta, but free) and run BeOS most of the time and use XP for the 5% or 10% of the stuff I can’t use anything else for, so why would I want to run Ubuntu?
Would rather wait for haiku
I would never pay for it!
apple bought next. today we have mac os x
palm bought be
what is palm doing with beos??!!
TO continue your thought – Palm bought Be, was going to use it’s engineers to make POS6 (pun intended), POS6 never materialized, then they also bought a mobile linux company – then PalmSource got bought out by Access – the buck stops there –
hmm, I know several guys over at YellowTab (personally) and they are doing its job very good. Having a look inside and not only on those releases you can’t even imagine how much work they do on daily basis. And it seems that they have a base which is enough to run YellowTab at least on +-0. I think that they are doing a very good job.
No doubt, Zeta is nothing for servers and the lack of Office Suites makes it uncapable to be used on corporate desktops. But once you overtake the desktop share, applications are developed.
Don’t believe me? Check Linux – there exists a bunch of commercial applications for it(most recent: NeroL). That means that the market is valuable.
And why Haiku is good for them (and Zeta is good for Haiku)? Same as Linux is good for RedHat, IBM and others – in the end you need to develop less code and concentrate yourself on support. And Zeta is good for haiku because of the code contrib.
me/gentoo user
“And Zeta is good for haiku because of the code contrib.”
What code contrib you insensitive clod?
Yes, it looks like a nice alternative. But personally I never want to be locked into any commercial enterprise for my OS. They all screw up sooner or later and leave you in the lurch. The GPL world is now big enough to be free of having to be dependent on some company that might or might not be here next year. Or worse – one day you might wake up to find they’re now directed by a new bunch of totally incompetent idiots – a la Borland.
>But personally I never want to be locked into any commercial enterprise for my OS.
Locked in to YellowTab? hardly. But hey, you are free to not pay for Linux, not contribute anything, and still complain.
The comforting look of the KDE desktop???
What kind of thing is that to say about an OS with a non X windows based GUI????
Zeta has its own BEOS based GUI, X applications wont run with the additional installation of an X server.
Linux and Zeta are not remotely comparable I am afraid.
Yes, BeOS is significantly different: its aim was to give a TUE (Total User Experience) in much the same thought process of Apple and their products. Linux? No, consistency is very much not their reason for existing, and thus you have an incredible number of choices that are mutually incompatible with each other, all on the same OS base that isn’t integrated.
Well, the BeOS kernel isn’t integrated with the GUI, either, but there’s a great advantage to having a single target to develop for, and to support.
Hi,
Few years back, I have decided to try alternative OSs…
I was fed up with my Win98 hanging all the time (BSOD lovers.. 🙂 ) so i tried Linux.
My first Linux was a Mandrake 6.1 or something like that. Since I’m not a computer ingieneer or software coder, it was for me a hard time. I gave up.
Few weeks later, Be released for free BeOS R5, and was free with PC expert magazine.
Waow, it was amazing… I bought the pro version and i was really happy with it. I even bought a licence for opera…
One year later, the dream came to an end…
So few more years with win 2000 and win xp.
In the meantime, i tried again Linux with Mandrake 8.2 for my server and so on up to the actual Mandriva 10.2, which is now running my desktop ! I have taken a membership to the Mandriva Club.
So, now a Zeta BeOS like ? Well, Nostalgia will certainly brinh me to try it, but, well, i’m not sure that I’ll be ready to pay for it (80 USD) just for a try… I’m not sure at all that I wish to buy it to use it as main OS, cause I already have my Mandriva which i’m supporting, and still my XP licence for the rare cases where I can do things with my Linux OS..
I think that, even being a BeOS nostalgic and fan, the market is now narrowed for Zeta since Linux, for free and with a huge support, has a position to be used by non-coders users…
I think that the future of Zeta is with the musicians who need the resopinsiveness of Be..; but it’s a very small portion of the comuter community…
But I promise, i’ll try Zeta, who knows…
My first Linux was a Mandrake 6.1 or something like that. Since I’m not a computer ingieneer or software coder, it was for me a hard time. I gave up.
Please don’t tell me you’re a spelling teacher 😛 (just joking btw…engineer is the word you’re looking for).
This is a very limited OS with few novel features than other OSs. Add to this that I can call it an alpha stage OS due to the many crashes of the Browser(tracker), network tools, burning software (JABA), and the non-vector based GUI which cannot scale fonts correctely without interfering them.
Zeta is lagging behind todays technology by a few years. Yellowtab doesn’t have the manpower to even stop the gap from increasing. The size of the community is too small to bring a steady stream of new applications or even to keep old ones reasonably up to date.
It’s Amiga all over once again, kicking the dead horse.
I think, eventually, Zeta will be a good OS for multimedia, but at the present time it has too many compatibility problems and lack of the most basic support.
For a media OS to be attractive to users it needs to recognize Video, sounds and media devices (sound recording, video capture, scanner) easily. Zeta doesn’t even install easily on a wide range of hardware, let alone recognize devices.
Here some Screens: http://www.mittilgart.de/besly/galerie/screenshots.html
holy sh#t! looks awesome! and it seems to have everything i need. thanx for the screens, i’m gonna give it a try. p.s. how about java?