Magnussoft has just announced that they are delaying the release of ZETA 1.5 Professional from 10 to 15 days in order to add a port of the AbiWord open source word processor, a native PCL6 printer driver and a Radeon x-series video driver. The addition of AbiWord is seen as a move to eventually replace the word processor component of GoBe Productive, a third party lightweight office suite currently bundled with ZETA that is no longer in development. Since AbiWord is released under the GPL, the port is expected to eventually benefit Haiku as well.
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Member since:2005-12-31
Zeta is like having BeOS 5.5 (just to note that original BeOS only goes up to 5.1). Zeta is just a modified, somewhat more updated version of BeOS 5, which runs a little quicker & has a newer look & feel to it with some new drivers & programs.
Zeta & Haiku OS would benefit from going to gcc 4.x. It'd make updating & porting applications easier. One less thing to worry about. When gcc 4.x is used, then it'll be a little better. This is a real hold up (slowing down progress), but Zeta/Haiku will lose some (or half?) gcc 2.95 programs if they switched over.(Haiku was said to be going gcc 2.95 for Version 1.0).
3d hardware acceleration requires OpenGL. Can't make OpenGL drivers because need to sign NDA with Nvidia & ATI to get specifics for the video cards (only done with mainstream OSes) OR get Nvidia/ATI to provide 3d video drivers. Adobe Flash is closed source. Would require Adobe to provide it for Zeta, otherwise have to use "GNU's Gnash" until then (port is in the works for Gnash).
Open source applications can be updated for Zeta. Ie: Firefox, but either isn't because it works OK or may have been altered/workaround to compile with gcc 2.95? Most newer programs ask for gcc 3.0.4 or newer to compile - so, a few applications which can be "directly" ported over are not, because would require rewriting code to make it gcc 2.95 compliant. Going to gcc 4.x will be a "Big Step" & probably happen in 2008/2009.
When Haiku becomes more mainsteam, then it'll attract more developers. More developers means, more drivers & more Linux/BSD ports, plus additional BeOS applications developed. OpenGL (3D) & Adobe Flash won't happen for quite awhile though.
Member since:2006-03-16
Firefox compiles with gcc2.95, although all other platforms use newer compilers. The Bezilla team is working very hard to make sure that it will continue to compile with gcc2.95.
It seems gcc.295 is more strict about syntax than newer compilers, but hasn't needed any code changes except making a few innner classes friends and making sure static variables are declared. We might eventually hit an obstacle that will not be easily solved with gcc2.95 so Haiku built on gcc4 would be nice.
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces."But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance."According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Member since:
2006-02-09
I used every version of Zeta until 1.21. The OS itself has come along nicely and is very responsive. Otherwise, not so great. I don't see driver support getting much better. A driver here a driver there... The audio driver situation is really not very good. Still no 3d hardware acceleration. Firefox is nice but it is clearly not a native app and it shows. Lack of Flash, not to mention many of the audio/video codecs are older versions that really need updating. Lack of apps and it doesn't appear that many professional apps are going to see the light of day. I think that Zeta had a chance and missed it. I decided to give up on it. It is responsive and I think it is nice looking. But, you simply can' get much done with it, and don't try to web surf...that will about drive you crazy with all the websites most people go to on a daily basis that simply will not work.