Bernd from YellowTab sent us a number of screenshots of their upcoming Zeta operating system which is based on BeOS R5 and Dano versions. First screenshot, second. And here are a shot of ToDoIt application for Zeta (still under heavy development), which is a personal organizer and more.Additionally, Zeta is to support via a shell script the building of your applications for different versions of BeOS (R4, R5, Bone, Dano etc etc) and even for OpenBeOS. Other new features to be found on Zeta is the FaxIt Tracker Add-on, the new Deskbar (the drop-down taskbar entries on Deskbar feature was added to OpenTracker’s CVS last month), a highly modified Dockbert, new drivers and lots more. We should be having more news on YellowTab’s Zeta in the near future.
Check YellowTab’s New Zeta Screenshots
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Zeta is for sure a new Version of R5.
No complete rewrite of the code (why – it’s still one of the most perfect OS’ses), only a bunch of Features – including THEMING, what some guys here didn’t realize. Anyway.
It’s something new there for everyone some gcc 3.25 Compiler here some updated Adaptec U160 SCSI Driver there, the universal mplayer from unix, GeForce 4 Support Hardware OpneGL support for ATI Radeon series (up to Radeon 9500), optimized Mozilla for you, and a great DVD Burning App (Deluxe Edition) – boyee that’s it!
Very smooth & chic.
But: a bit more shading would be great – that put’s the Luna / KDE smell out & puts the OS X touch in.
But: keep in mind that SVG is just a trend.
The ability to switch & use a ‘classic’ (and often far more exact/sharply drawn) GUI should be integrated – in case of SVG’ing starts sucking people 😉
Viagra Transistor,
You can say all those things, and I’d like to believe you. But, saying there is OpenGL support and saying there is mplayer is not the same is allowing the independent media to BETA test the product.
That is good! You go ahed and contact Yellowtab right away, that is how I want Zeta to look like!
I think you have hit the nail on the head. The way to improve on the look of BeOS V5 is not to wreak the tab/border design but to add some nice effects to it whilst maintaining simplicity which was the nicest thing about the BeOS 5 GUI. Your work is great and I would strongly reccomend you get in contact with the Zeta guys and submit your work. Very nice and very clean.
Go get them.
(-:
Especially the V’s and X’s. The simple rule should be, if it’s below 14 (or whatever) points, no AA! Clear fonts are needed.
BTW, stop making cartoons out of tabs and make them useful, dockable, and square.
JLS, not bad. A little fuzzy looking is all.
it is like whining about Henry Ford’s first car ‘Hey, there’s no radials on this thing!’ ‘If satellite radio’s not available, I’m walkin!’
No. Satellite radio wasn’t around then, good looking window decors are around now.
Can ANYONE post for me the name of ANY OS that had EVERYTHING everyone wanted the WAY everyone wanted it and oh, yes, got it right in the very first release?
I do not consider Zeta to be the first release of an OS. It’s not. It’s a new version. Not a new OS.
The fact that it’s the first BeOS under the Zeta name does not excuse the fact that they changed the default decor from awesome to unusable.
Why are you expecting perfection from Zeta
I’m not. However, I am expecting for it to look better than rather than looking worse.
In the Zeta screenshots the “Close Window” and other buttons are tiny. Are they really that small, or could it be the screen resolution?
They are tiny.
I don’t think Be would release the MacOS X skin included in dano0 for example (if they didn’t plan to get sued by Apple)
They included a MacOS 9(or was it 8?) skin in BeOS 5 and earlier, I don’t see why they wouldn’t include a OSX skin.
I urge ‘Yellowtab’ to act a littel bit more pro.
I urge you to act a little more pro. You point may be valid, but because of the way you worded your post it looks like a 10 year old typed it.
Remember that Zeta is still in development, Its not like it will be released tommrow. and this is the final thing.
As for people complaining about Open Source software being used in Zeta, The Deskbar, Desktop, File Tracker, and some other Apps, were released by Be Inc. themselves. and the Mail Daemon comes from yet another Open Source project, OpenBeOS projects are not exclusivly for OpenBeOS, they can be used in PE, Pro, R5 with Bone, Pro PPC. the Open Sourceing of system componets is what has allowed BeOS to survive the past couple of years and allowed our OS to stay current. OpenBeOS was founded out of that.
One of BeOS’s philosiphys is to not have reinvent the wheel but come up with a common solution that works
for everyone. This is the simple elegence lacking in every
other OS on the map. And it shines through, and its only
going to get better.
As for eyecandy, it comes second.
wow, that GUI is really starting to look less professional than most DOS GUIs out there! it is quite shockingly bad, even Dano looked better than that!
i wonder if these guys will come up with anything worth using at the end of it all.
Yes!
Well I hope “YELLOWTAB” IS READING THIS and get an understanding, AND HIRE SOME REAL PRO PEOPLE to create the GUI, Graphic and the homepage and everything!
I always hated BeOS because it was plain old bad on my Machine (probably poor hardware support) it was ugly (monochrome) and a bit crashy…
But I think I’ll buy this one, but I’m a bit worried about the price tag on the developers verison (I assume that buying that one is the only way to get a decent IDE) I would like some information on the licensing, I mean if I buy one can I install it on all my PCs (meaning a few machines.. 3 atm) – what are the terms..
I would LOVE to try this out, the window decorations are absolutely beatiful, it looks very friendly… I hope it keeps up with all the things I’ve heard about the responsiveness of BeOS.
This would make a fun OS to test, maybe I can get the Linux Lab at my school to buy a few copies when it comes out, so we can test it…. mmmmm… cool.
Btw. the terminal in the high res. shots looks very nice…
ROCK ON YELLOW TAB !!!
Wow…how many times does it have to be said that “Zeta supports Window decors as seen in BeOS R5 and more extensively in Dano. This means you can choose from a number of styles INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL BEOS STYLE”.
Yes, the default one used in the offical screenshots is lacking, but the BeOS R5 one is perfectly fine, I’m also SURE that we will see some better decors coming out.
Some people just feel the need to post unconstructive criticism dont they. :
Are you offering to pay th salaries of these professional programmers you want so bad?
I don’t think you have the right to tell yellowtab how to spend their money.
Put up or SHUT UP!
They are doing fine without your opinion.
BeOS is the *BEST* OS for me! It starts in a few seconds, it scales my two CPU’s better than Windoze AND I can do (not really)all with it I need…
Zeta even looks better than BeOSR5.03 and IS faster than that! (I know from Dano as this one is faster too)
So I’ll give them my money.
If they just would come to an release 😉
-A
Keep UP the great work, and be careful. MS is watching you!
Im not talking about the programmers, Im talking about the graphic artists, and it doesnt cost too much to get a more decent graphic profile.
I think the product itself will kick ass!!! I really belive that the programming is superb!
Right you are, Kev. Zeta isn’t a new OS, it an OS built on the foundation of Be R5. See what getting carried away on that soapbox does? 🙂
Gee, Kev, the ‘satellite radio’ bit was just to point up (yes, point up – same difference as ‘point out’)the futility of everybody wanting everything plus the kitchen sink in an RC or Beta. Henry Ford is famous for his quote about the Model T’s colors:”They [people] can have them in any color so long as it’s black.” We all frickin’ know that Thomas Edison invented satellite radio right after he invented Chicago-style deep dish pizza…
Yes, I hope this won’t be the default theme.
BeOS 5 theme is cool.
Zeta theme is HELL UGLY.
Never let a programmer do the graphics 😉
You make a point!