In July 2005, OSNews reviewed the 1.0 version of what was then YellowTAB Zeta. I concluded: "I have a clear-cut impression of what Zeta R1 is: it is by far the best 'distribution' of BeOS currently available. The hardware support is, when compared to r5, significantly better. Stability-wise, Zeta R1 is a huge leap forward when compared to older versions. Some areas still need work; but they are mostly minor things, nothing that will stop you from using this operating system as your full-time, primary system." A lot has changed over the past 15 months; YellowTAB went belly-up, Magnussoft took over the development of Zeta, and to top it off, Zeta went multiuser. Not too long ago, Mangussoft released Zeta 1.5; here is my review.
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Member since:2007-03-20
Waiting for Walter?
Well, the wait will be long. I've been following Zeta since its release, but even leveraging the Dano codebase it hasn't gone very far. Overpriced, badly managed. Berndt at least communicates with the Haiku folks, but it comes off as an attempt to tread water.
Glad to see the original Be code alive in some form, but I still wish some “benevolent force” (read: wealthly geek!) like Shuttleworth would purchase the Be IP rights back from Access (and Zeta from Magnussen) and turn it over to the Haiku Foundation. Someone needs to keep funding Axel (and a few others); adding the Zeta developers would certainly help R1 see release form before the end of the decade.
With hardly any commentary on this article (where else is Zeta routinely discussed?) and practically zero buzz about Zeta, I wonder what the value of this particular venture is in real currency anymore.
BTW, I’ve read a top ReactOS kernel dev is getting picked up by Google, MS or Apple. How long until a key Haiku dev or two are paid what they’re worth in the free market?
/gripe off. It’s been nearly 10 years since we first saw BeOS. Think about that. 
Member since:2007-03-12
Can't say I'm impressed by Zeta's management or the IP ownership claims. So far, the whole thing just looks like a money pit to me. Positioning Haiku as an ARB could help attract more vendor interest, as a way of routing around Windows and Linux issues.
In any case, the big problem of Microsoft's vendor contracts still exists. Banning them from lock-in, discounting, and advertising sponsership looks like the way ahead, but that requires action at a regulatory level.
I'm surprised Sony never picked up BeOS for the Playstation 3. Haiku and the Playstation 3 would go well together, and getting a company with their clout and resources behind Haiku would be useful.
Member since:2006-03-16
Member since:
2007-03-12
I remain committed to seeing Haiku succeed and become the standard for carrying on where BeOS left off. If Haiku could shape itself into an ARB and their code be viewed as a reference implementation, I'd be pretty happy with that. It would allow proprietary solutions to thrive on the "added value" of Windows, navigate past the elitism of OS X, and nuke the ego fragmentation of Linux. Win-win-win.