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KingBahamut
October 5th, 2005, 06:57 PM
When looking for an alternative to Windows most people think of either Apple's OS X or Linux. Of course, these are both viable alternatives but they are not the only options. One way to go is with yellowTAB's ZETA operating system. Though it is not yet very popular, ZETA is the successor to BeOS, the highly regarded OS from Be, Inc. This is a very interesting and beautiful operating system which may not presently be a threat to Linux but it does have more than a few things going for it.

External Link
http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=439&Itemid=2

What does it having going for it, according to this article?

The retail version of ZETA sells for about the same price as commercial version of Linux with the same feature set.

This assessment is based on the fact that you have qualified hardware under YT's specifications and the fact that you can compile already existing and ported forms of GPL software on the machine. So what would motivate me to use it then? If Im already a linux user it cant make sense for me to run YT. So Im then paying 80 dollars for what? Something I can get for free that is miles more functional and useful? Please, someone call me wrong on this.

Our test systems are both well beyond the minimum specifications for ZETA, but it should be interesting to see how well prepared the OS is for working with modern equipment. The test systems use onboard sound and the Athlon64 has a PCI Express video card as well as a newer Nvidia chipset which may be difficult for the OS to work with. If your hardware is not recognized by the operating system it can be a hassle to get it to do so.....

I suspect here that this hardware was hardware that is/was deemed as most likely to work from YT itself. My hardware setup at install was a 800mhz proc on an unamed MSI (651 whatza whosa board) motherboard. 256megs of 133 SDRAM and a Radeon VE card, integrated audio, 20 gig Maxtor drive. The Install was a failure, few bits of my hardware was found.

One major strength of the ZETA OS is the boot time. From powering on the boot took about twenty seconds on the Athlon64 and about thirty second on the Pentium 4. This quickness means less waiting, but also means that older systems should not have sluggish performance using this operating system. ZETA's "true micro kernel" is just 640 KB and it uses a "64-bit journalling filesystem" which yellowTAB says will make the OS quite speedy.

http://www.xyzcomputing.com/images/stories/reviewimages/zeta/zeta_012.jpg

When I saw the above image I felt like it should ask me....

Hello Falken, would you like to play a game?

Is it possible to have a true microkernel and 64 bit journaling? Im not questioning this, im asking?

Once the boot procedure is completed users will be greeted with ZETA's desktop. Here is looks rather strange because it is running at 800x600, not our display's native 1280x1024. The strange background image does not help much either.

I felt the exact same way as the reviewer......

ZETA's support through yellowTAB.com is limited to a disfunctional FAQ page and a phone number for their help center in Germany so the only option at the time was to do some tinkering on our own. There are forums on the site as well which do not appear to get much traffic but they do have a few very helpful threads if you are willing to dig around for them.

That and the normal odd zealot here and there stating that Zeta is God among men....but we all see those in every support forum. =)

The overall opinion of the desktop -- to large to quote in one post -- is at best summarized by the following. GUI looks nice and refreshing. There is little or no support for third party software. Users will appreciate the inclusion of FireFox, but aside from this there is not anything worth noting. Its dependency on BeBits is not good.

While ZETA has a lot going for it, in terms of a dedicated base of former BeOS users and a number of good programs, like the Gobe Productive office and Beam mail client, its spotty hardware compatibility, difficulty with updating, and lack of third party software all are major problems.

Duo
October 5th, 2005, 07:20 PM
Why anyone would pay an excessive amount for a geriatric OS is beyond me. =/ I'm much more interested in Haiku.

also, imo, the wm is really awkward.