Magnussoft ZETA

Infobox_OS_2
name = magnussoft ZETA


caption = The desktop running on Zeta RC2
developer = yellowTAB / magnussoft
family = BeOS
source_model = Closed source
working_state = Dismissed
kernel_type = Modular Microkernel
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.zeta-os.com/ magnussoft ZETA]

magnussoft ZETA, previously yellowTAB ZETA, was an operating system formerly developed by yellowTAB of Germany based on the BeOS operating system developed by Be Inc.; because of yellowTAB's insolvency, ZETA was later being developed by an independent team of which little was known, and distributed by magnussoft. As of February 28, 2007 the current version of ZETA is 1.5. On March 28, 2007, magnussoft announced that it has discontinued funding the development of ZETA by March 16, because the sales figures had fallen far short of the company's expectations, so that the project was no longer economically viable.ZETA-os.com: " [http://www.zeta-os.com/cms/news.php?extend.49 Continuity of magnussoft Zeta] ", March 26 2007] A few days later, the company also stopped the distribution of ZETA in reaction to allegations that ZETA constituted a pirated copy of BeOS. ZETA-OS.com: " [http://www.zeta-os.com/cms/news.php?extend.50 Magnussoft cease distribution of Zeta] ", April 5 2007]

ZETA was an effort to bring BeOS up to date, adding support for newer hardware, and features that had been introduced in other operating systems in the years since Be Incorporated ceased development in 2001. Among the new features were USB 2.0 support, SATA support, samba support, a new media player, and enhanced localization of system components. Unlike Haiku and other open source efforts to recreate some or all of BeOS's functionality from scratch, ZETA was based on the actual BeOS code base, and it is closed source.

ZETA contributed to an increase in activity in the BeOS commercial software market, with a number of new products for both ZETA and the earlier BeOS being released.

However, some critics point to a list of goals for the first release that do not appear to have been met (including Java 1.4.2 and ODBC support). Other reviewers point to bugs that still exist from BeOS, and question whether yellowTAB has the complete access to the source code they would need to make significant updates.

The system also came under heavy criticism from BeOS developers for undocumented changes in the system messaging system. These changes could break compilation of code, and in some cases (most notably Mozilla), break the actual application if any code optimizations are applied, resulting in much slower builds. [http://www.livejournal.com/community/bezilla/64711.html bezilla: Is O3 too much? or where is Zeta users feedback? ] ]

Additional controversy has come from their bundling of Gobe Productive in a licensing deal which Gobe had disputed.Fact|date=March 2007

YellowTAB promoted ZETA mainly in the German market, where it used to be sold through infomercials and on RTL Shop, and in Japan. Prior to Magnussoft stopping the distribution of ZETA, it was mainly distributed directly by magnussoft.

Versions

Criticism

ZETA and yellowTAB have been surrounded by controversy. Critics of yellowTAB questioned for a long time the legality of ZETA, and whether yellowTAB had legal access to the sources of BeOS; [ [http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=4734&limit=no#150413 YellowTAB Zeta RC1 Review at ZetaNews > Comments ] ] [ [http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/5496/44/#comments Bits of News - Zeta Officially a Dead Fish ] ] it is now known that yellowTAB could not have developed ZETA to the extent that they did without access to the source code, but doubts remain as to whether yellowTAB actually had legal access to the code or not.

Furthermore, critics did not see ZETA as real advancement of BeOS, but rather as an unfinished and buggy operating system loaded with third party applications that were either obsolete, unsupported, or non-functional. This was particularly true in the initial releases of ZETA, and it was in clear conflict with the attention to detail that BeOS used to stand for, disappointing the BeOS community who at one point had high expectations for ZETA. While yellowTAB did clean up the selection of bundled applications in following versions, ZETA remains somewhat unstable when compared to other modern desktop operating systems.

But perhaps the most criticized practice by yellowTAB was its tendency to make claims that turned out to be either half truths or vague enough that they could not be confirmed. Not only did yellowTAB announce certain developments that never materialized (such as Java, and ODBC among others), but it would also support certain capabilities beyond what ZETA was actually capable of (e.g., compatibility with MS Office). According to sources close to yellowTAB, this is believed to have lead to a high return rate from customers that bought ZETA from the German RTL TV shopping channel, and the reason for which RTL eventually stopped selling the product.

Another issue that has been brought up by the BeOS community is the fact that magnussoft has never released any free-of-charge versions of Zeta. Be Inc. used to offer BeOS Personal Edition free of charge, which was of great help to those who wanted to test BeOS. The lack of a trial version saw Zeta seriously confined to the limits of the older BeOS community. Nevertheless, there is a Students Edition which can be obtained, at the price of 49 Euro, from [http://www.zeta-os.com Zeta-OS.com] .

Cease of distribution

A cease of distribution letter was posted by Magnussoft at 5 April 2007.

ee also

*Comparison of operating systems
*Zebuntu

External links

* [http://www.zeta-os.com/ magnussoft ZETA] – Official product website
* [http://www.zetanews.com/ ZetaNews]
* [http://www.osnews.com/story.php/17518/Review-Zeta-1.5/page1/ ZETA 1.5 Review] - Reviewed by Thom Holwerda for OSNews
* [http://members.shaw.ca/guis/zeta.html ZETA 1.21 Live CD screenshot gallery]

References