OperaJournal reviews the newly released Zeta RC2 Deluxe Edition. Screenshots included.
Zeta RC2 Deluxe Edition Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
god.. that winxp theme is awful.
other than that, zeta looks better than before.
Are you sure you know what you are talking about? The WinXP theme you are mentioning is only the window manager (and it looks fine IMO), not the widget theme. The widget theme is not themable exactly, it is the default Zeta one (and that’s the ugly one IMO).
The scrollbars changed. Is the scrollbar not a widget? The one in refraction.jpg is a blatant pull from xp and preferences.jpg shows a more traditional be look.
Yes, scrollbars are just about the only widget that is easily interchangable on Dan0/Zeta. The rest aren’t though (not without a hack at least).
I believe you are wrong. The more players there are, the better the chances are, for example, SkyOS looks very promising. Zeta, OpenBeOS, SkyOS and Linux are the only real alternatives for the x86 in my opinion that can possibly compete with MS.
I heard something about possigle (hack) support to be able to run on system with 1GB RAM. Does anyone knows it Zeta will run with 1GB RAM ? Any one from Zeta here can put some lite on this.
Thanx
blah,
More choices are always better. At the least, Windows and Linux might strive to adapt BeOS’s strong points. I just hope Zeta can earn enough $$ to make this effort worthwhile.
Notes:
The fact that it’s distributed on DVD-only has so far kept me from buying at this point. Perhaps when the final release is ready, I’ll invest in the necessary hardware.
The reviewer’s sound card is among the most generic, so it’s a little disappointing that he had difficulty.
Screenshots look fine to me. I do wonder why the DVD Player shortcut is a safety cone…
Best Wishes,
Bob
I agree with the Linux comment above. Zeta looks somewhat desperate. The team lacking the ability to modify the sources (esp. kernel sources) leaves one in doubt. Sadly, but for most Linux will be the ALT-way to go, not Zeta. Meanwhile SkyOS gains popularity slowly. Ah, cruel world.
“Screenshots look fine to me. I do wonder why the DVD Player shortcut is a safety cone…”
Probably because they decided to stick with the default icon for vlc……..
> Are you sure you know what you are talking about?
All i’m talkign about is the XP “look” of it doesnt appeal to me. In fact, I think it looks awful.
> The WinXP
> theme you are mentioning is only the window manager (and it
> looks fine IMO), not the widget theme. The widget theme is
> not themable exactly, it is the default Zeta one (and that’s
> the ugly one IMO).
The fact that the widgets aren’t themed is irrelevant to me. It looks ugly regardless.
I think won’t be distributed in a DVD since the data fits on a single CD.
I don’t like the winXP theme of the WM but I think the widget theme is very clean.
Look at the task bar in this pic.
http://www.operajournal.com/images/shots/zeta/network.jpg
Very light weight, very out of the way, very professional.
Someone here is complaining that they don’t want something that comes only on DVD, because the $20 hardware investment apparently isn’t worth it. You’d think that these small companies would see that there is no money to be made from these people. These are not the kinds of people that keep businesses afloat.
Sheesh.
Well said Joe, I don’t want to make sweeping statements but many of the people that hate Microsoft do so because they want something for nothing. It is hard to use these people as a source of revenue to build an alternate product. That definitely does not apply to everyone that on an OS other than OSX or XP, but it does apply to many.
“The more players there are, the better the chances are”
There’d be more alternatives at a useable level right now if there were less of them. Then there’s the situation with AmigaOS 4.0 and MorphOS who could be much better off without the other, people just aren’t willing to invest in the hardware required until only one remains or they decide to work together, most of their potential customers have been burnt before.
why are they releasing incomplete versions for more money than the origional BeOS, when will the RC’s end?! Other than that, I give Zeta a good review. I want a cheaper product If they want to sell RC’s
Franxico,
The preview-release is only available in dvd. Don’t know how the final release will be distributed. Seems I recall there was some problem with some BeOS apps on the CD using the DC-ROM file format – or something like that.
Joe,
Quote: “Someone here is complaining that they don’t want something that comes only on DVD, because the $20 hardware investment apparently isn’t worth it.”
I hope you weren’t referring to my post because that’s not what I said at all. Perhaps I should clarify. I don’t think it’s worthwhile to upgrade hardware in order to install a “Preview Release” of a future product. When the final is ready, I’ll re-evaluate. Eventually I’ll need a DVD player anyway…
-Bob
From the review…
“font rendering is one of the most important aspects of an OS in my opinion.”
What an idiot. That statement throws the whole review into doubt.
I think it’s important. On an LCD, un-antialiased fonts are unbearable. Most of the time spent on a computer is reading.
I can find little information on it. I see many references to BeOS, which required to be installed on Windows. Is Zeta another attempt to make a dual boot system in Windows? Seriously curious…..
The preview-release is only available in dvd.
No! The release candidate is on a CD-ROM. (I have it) BTW. as far as I know the deluxe version will be made available on DVD, the Home version on CD-ROM.
Drill Sgt:
I can find little information on it.
Some history: http://www.yellowtab.com/company/history.php
I see many references to BeOS, which required to be installed on Windows.
No, only the personal edition had to be installed in Windows or Linux (it can be modified to run standalone), but it was just installed on a Windows or Linux parition, it didn’t run under both (just on its own).
The professional version could be installed on a separate partition right away.
Yes, I definitely think it’s important, but ‘one of the most important aspects of an OS’? Suuuure, who cares about stability, who cares about application availability, font rendering is what it’s all about!
I know 1G isn’t supposed to work, but for 1 reason or another it seems fine on my system. W2K needed the upgrade so I did it, and BeOS accepted it anyway.
Perhaps its because I use graphics cards that have lower memory sizez 64M or less, or some bios setting, or because it was installed on a <1G machine and then patched & moved etc. I haven’t seen any unusual instability, so give it a try!
Haven’t tried Zeta/Dano yet but hope to soon!
*-> I think it’s important. On an LCD, un-antialiased fonts are unbearable. Most of the time spent on a computer is reading.
—
on my lcd, i prefer true bitmaps over aa-fonts, BUT the bitmaps must be perfectly crafted and displayed glitch-free. beats every blurry anti-alias-font in readability
bad aa-fonts: horrible
bad bitmaps: horrible
perfect bitmaps: perfect.
perfect hinted aa-fonts: nice
Daniel de Kok,
hmm… it seems YT should make that more clear. Here’s what their website says:
“Packaging:DVD Box with a short description how to install Zeta.”
I do see the original point made by Joe. Since other BeOS products (PE, Max, Dev., PhOS, and presumably OpenBeOS when available) are all freely distributed, it will be difficult for casual users to justify spending $108 USD for Zeta. But I’m not sure I agree. Because there are few business or professional BeOS users, casual installers are the primary user base, and I’ve read sales are doing fine.
-Bob
Is it me or were those screenshots awful? Showing how the text gets clipped. That’s makes for a favorable review. Now in the preferences he was showing, WHAT is bootman doing in there? That doesn’t belong in Zeta at all, being an x86-only distribution.
“The boot time is fast as on any BeOS so you don’t have time enough to go on toilette while your system is booting like on other operating systems.”
Why mention going to the toilette? Isn’t defacto “getting a cup of coffee”? That’s crude and doesn’t belong in a review.
“…of each application and eventually a screenshot.”
Sounds like work to find those screenshots…
Oh well…
Oh come on… how is that crude? I often have the same thought when I go to boot my machine. At first I think I have time to go pee while the machine starts up but then I remember that I have to wait around for the BeOS boot menu so that I can choose my OS and then select “Do not call BIOS” so that it starts on my new machine correctly. Yes, I know I can make both settings automatic, but I don’t want to do that just yet… 😉
Showing how the text gets clipped.
This is my pet peeve, but not only with Zeta, but every other system I’ve tried (Windows 9x, Windows NT5>, MacOSX, various Linux’s etc). The issue is very visible if you choose any non-default font size, and very few apps/OS vendors use layout libraries. I guess in the future all GUI’s should be made in a HTML (XML) type format (guess what, the next Longhorn will have this), with no strict boundaries anymore, but flexible resizable widgets.
One can only dream…
WinXP elements aside I myself think the old BeOS look for the widgets was much better than this look. BeOS used to be clean and professional looking as far as the widgets go and this no offense looks very dated to me.
I find those screenshots depressing… I simply loved the way you could work with window borders, and the way they looked so simple yet so nice (looked even nicer when you changed their color with a hack
), and it seems to me that they have taken it away, just to go the ms way of GUIs.
BTW I hate all those windows XP themes no matter where they come from…
BTW# 2: I ALWAYS do the following actions when I get home:
1) Turn on the computer
2) Go to the bathroom
3) Wash my hands (just in case anyone had a doubt)
4) Return to the computer
(currently I use FreeBSD, which boots acceptably fast, in general when I return to the computer, GDM is already waiting for me…)