yellowTab Announces Complete BeOS/Zeta Systems 195
Allman writes "The return of the BeOS? Seems like Bernd Korz is delivering what he had promised (and more). After all these years it seems that yellowTab ("the new BeOS company") is finally ready to release and sell new BeOS-based products. Surprisingly, they're not only selling software, but in some way following the footsteps of Be Inc. by also selling hardware - will these things eventually become the new Be Box-es? Hehe.. who knows? From their website: yellowTab is proud to announce the "Complete Zeta Solution". Both in laptop and desktop forms, yellowTab will sell, to Europe only, complete and compatible systems. All systems come with a 2 year Warranty included.""
BeOS FAQ (Score:5, Informative)
Davak
Tech-Recipes.com [tech-recipes.com]
Re:BeOS FAQ (Score:1, Informative)
Re:BeOS FAQ (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:BeOS FAQ (Score:2, Insightful)
Google Cache (Score:5, Informative)
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:YaXZiyaAKTQJ
Re:Google Cache (Score:1)
Nope, not PoorMan (Score:1)
Apache/1.3.27 (Unix)
Where is the market? (Score:5, Interesting)
So, is there a market, or not?
Re:Where is the market? (Score:5, Informative)
An operating system taylored around just AV file system and hardware access concerns is not a bad thing. Windows is too generic, MAC too resource intensive, Linux lacking but catching up in the AV realm.
But the problem with this a company such as Yellow Tab needs to take the BeOS product and have it sit on modern hardware and software improvements it can not just be BeOS 5 professional released on modern hardware.
As the page is dead will not complain about the new product until I read the specs but is there a market yes there is, is it a large market no, should Microsoft be worried no, should Apple yes and the sad thing about Be being killed by MS OEM scare tactics was MS saved Apple's market share more than their own.
Re:Where is the market? (Score:5, Insightful)
An operating system taylored around just AV file system and hardware access concerns is not a bad thing. Windows is too generic, MAC too resource intensive, Linux lacking but catching up in the AV realm.
But will this solution really be cheaper than a more powerful machine running Windows/OS X and suitable audio software?
Also: Can you get Logic/Cubase/Cakewalk/Reason/Sound Forge/[comparable product here] for BeOS?
I'd suspect the budget-concious consumer would end up opting for Linux, at least after 2.6 is with us (major realtime app speedups I've understood).
Re:Where is the market? (Score:1)
Re:Where is the market? (Score:2)
Cool Edit happens to be my editor of choice, but I suspect mainstream software availablilty to be more essential than the availability of less widespread software.
Even though the solutions might exist a large enough mass needs to want the product for the cashflow to sustain the business. Critical mass is seldom achieved unless there is a clear market niche, and AV software in general is not really a niche anymore.
And I don't see av getting it in Linux the same a
Re:Where is the market? (Score:2)
But you are right. For multimedia purposes, BeOS is really well suited. It's one of the few OS'es I know that can smoothly play 8 (probably more) avi's at the same time on modest hardware :)
Also, nice to see something Europe-centric on slashdot :) (Guess what, I'm European, woohoo). Guess I gotta have a look-see and maybe exersize the ole creditcard for one.
Re:Where is the market? (Score:1)
Judging by the volunteer efforts to restore BeOS and to port applications over to it that we have seen since its demise, even if there isn't much of an initial market, there is still a developed niche of people who will purchase this, and as you know from the gaming and Linux communities, they can be quite vocal about it.
If I remember correctly, the original BeOS was suppose to be a highly multithreaded OS designed to excel in multimedia applications. It actually didn't do too poorly considering the stran
Re:Where is the market? (Score:2)
To explore it or not, that's the question. People want new things, filled with coloured stuff and bla bla bla's but they want their work done. They also wanna see ads and people saying "Hey, I use BeOS" and then, they'll be convinced it's worth using it.
When I first saw the BeOS a few years ago I was so impressed that I immediatelly purchased it. I never regreted it. It's an awesome system even for today's standards. I love it and use it till today.
The problem, as I see it, i
Re:Where is the market? (Score:1)
Not taking a stab here, and not trying to elicit abuse: Can you give some examples?
I'm curious about the AV aspects specifically, I've just built a 3.06G/1G/4x200GB machine to run Cubase and video editing software, and I was going to use XP on it. My wife has to be able to use the machine, and I'd prefer it not require a PHd to configure.
Re:Where is the market? (Score:1)
Re:Where is the market? (Score:2, Informative)
There is already a niche market for BeOS, with the TuneTracker radio automation system, the one that runs http://BeOSRadio.com
Check it at http://www.tunetrackersystems.com/ !
Re:Where is the market? (Score:1)
I think they've got a good idea there. BeOS shines on older hardware, and it looks like yellowTab is trying to supply a more rounded solution (software-wise) than picking up older copies of Windows and having to purchase additional software to make it
Complete Zeta Solution? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, hang on...
Re:Complete Zeta Solution? (Score:2)
don't worry about the down mod. It's a tough room tonight.
Re:Complete Zeta Solution? (Score:2)
Between him, and her baby
Maestro3 support? (Score:1)
(more fyi, than anything - i'll be getting in touch with the guys who're working on this once i get this record out of the way).
~A
Re:Maestro3 support? (Score:1)
yellowTab is a commercial venture designed to produce the next BeOS. (I don't know what they used as a basis for the code.)
BeOS Max Edition is a free (as in beer) project done by BeOS fans that is based on the old BeOS R5 Personal Edition.
Slashdotted Already? (Score:4, Funny)
Great for highbandwidth stuff. Right.
Somewhere, somehow... (Score:5, Funny)
"Richard learns to quit being sarcastic"
Marketing/Sales meeting - yellowTab corporate offices:
"So, any idea on how we're going to increase sales and save this company?"
"Anyone?"
"Richards? What's your idea?"
"We could sell....BeOS systems....I guess"
*snickers*
"Great idea, Richards. Lets get started this!"
"Sir, I was just..."
"You were just saving this company! You're going to go places here! I like your style!"
Re:Somewhere, somehow... (Score:1)
and in other news...
Theo de Raadt & Linus Torvalds have both left their pet projects to start coding for Plan 9, another great operating system that never was.
Re:Somewhere, somehow... (Score:2)
Theo de Raadt & Linus Torvalds have both left their pet projects to start coding for Plan 9, another great operating system that never was.
Maybe the OS never was, but they had one hell of a mascot! [bell-labs.com] :)
Re:Somewhere, somehow... (Score:2)
Re:Somewhere, somehow... (Score:2)
Man, I'd never admit that to anyone, ever.
Re:Somewhere, somehow... (Score:2)
__ __
+--O--O--+
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|-_____- |
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Audio (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Audio (Score:1, Informative)
Hell, the default install came with a audio editor that let you do 3D sound.
Re:Audio (Score:2)
Cubase was first created on Atari ST more than a decade ago, long before BeOS even existed...
Comparing the default tools of BeOS to Cubase is like comparing notepad and (Emacs/vi), since they both edit text...
Re:Audio (Score:2)
vi should come before Emacs because it's a superior editor.
And both are far more fully-featured (and easier to use) than notepad.
Europe only? (Score:2)
Eliminating markets outside of Europe is a pretty large number of possible consumers to alienate.
Re:Europe only? (Score:2)
Re:Europe only? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Europe only? (Score:2)
I wonder what things would've been like if BeBoxen had actually hit the market, Apple adopted BeOS instead of OSX, etc. Back in the day, the BeBox looked pretty tight, but looking back now, they aren't that cool after all. Times have changed.
Re:Europe only? (Score:2)
Eliminating customers outside of America is an even larger number of possible customers to alienate. Doesn't stop most US tech companies from NOT delivering outside the US.
Maybe you'kk get used to it. We [in euerope] do.
Why Europe ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes! (Score:5, Interesting)
As an aside, I've installed BeOS on every laptop I've run across (to me, the ability for an OS to run successfully on a laptop is the ultimate test of the capability of the OS) and I've found far *fewer* laptops that BeOS *cannot* run on, than I have found in regards to *nix. Yes, I was surprised, but very pleased. Nothing looks cooler than firing up BeOS on a laptop.
Looking forward to an ultra-modern laptop with YellowTab.
Re:Yes! (Score:2)
When I tried it, BeOS didn't even support my Nvidia GeForce 256 card in anything but black and white low resolution mode. That was probably 3 or 4 years ago with the BeOS 5 personal edition. I obviously never took another look at i
Re:Yes! (Score:1)
BTW, BeOS probably wasn't being actively developed at the time you tried the GeFORCE. I think that was about the time when Be Inc. started circling the drain.
Jaysyn
Re:Yes! (Score:1)
Hands off!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hands off!! (Score:2)
Re:Yes! (Score:2)
Re:Yes! (Score:2)
Sorry, but I don't get the comparison at all
Re:Yes! (Score:2)
You need to get out more dude, seriously.
"Come look, son, an aurora borealis with flying spacemonkeys!"
"Not now, mom, i'm firing up BeOS on a laptop!"
Nice thought (Score:1)
This might keep the pressure oin the major OSs to improve.
Quite a pity that the site is
Re:Nice thought (Score:2)
I think it would have been a pity if it hadn't been slashdotted, that would mean nobody could give a toss. Just be patient and visit in a day or two or read the google cache link already posted :-)
Re:Nice thought (Score:1)
Review of Zeta Beta 5 on beosjournal.com (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Review of Zeta Beta 5 on beosjournal.com (Score:2)
Cripes, folks: we're even slashdotting secondary links now. How long before /. is reclassified as a DOS attack? :)
Re:Review of Zeta Beta 5 on beosjournal.com (Score:2)
Thanks go to Daniel "Daat" Teixeira for doing the preview when he worked for us. He now runs IsComputerOn [iscomputeron.com] and is expected to deliver a review of the upcoming retail version of Zeta.
BeOS and VMWare (Score:2)
Re:BeOS and VMWare (Score:3, Informative)
Jaysyn
Re:BeOS and VMWare (Score:1)
(yeah I wrote that stuff
bias (Score:1, Troll)
Re:bias (Score:2)
BeOS is "good enough" for most users if appearance isn't important to you, but for MacHeads (the guy with OS8/9 flashbacks above), it doesn't cut it. OS X has spoiled them ro
Re:bias (Score:2)
But transparency?
Beos (Score:2, Interesting)
"Latest BeOS Software,
xstarfish
Pulse
GTKBeEngine
Office Vorlagen fur GobeProductive2
FreeCraft-1.18"
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Freecraft project recieved a "cease and desist letter" from Blizzard and was shut down. What does this say about yellowTAB, as they are publicly announcing they have binary packages of Freecraft on their servers for BeOS?
Re:Beos (Score:1)
BeOS on a laptop, Centrino and more.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, the systems are only for sale in Europe. Too bad for us Canadians. Well, maybe I'll have to give the new BeOS a spin. It's been ages.
BTW, I have an old NEC Versa LX that I've tried to run BeOS on. I can't find drivers for my DWL-650 wireless NIC, and the keyboard won't work unless I upgrade to Dano. Any reasons for this? I'd rather run straight 5.0 Pro (which I purchases) but find it rather challenging to use an OS with no keyboard.
Re:BeOS on a laptop, Centrino and more.... (Score:1)
But it's high on the todo list.
Closed source (Score:3, Informative)
Due to the design of the Centrino chipset, Intel asserts they are unable to release the specs for the chip, or source for drivers for the chip, and maintain FCC type certification. For part 15 certification, the device cannot operate outside specified limits on frequency and power. For a closed source driver, Intel is able to insure that is the case. For open source drivers, the user could alter frequency and power out
Re:Closed source (Score:2)
"This was always the case for BeOS - it could play files, access hardware, and in general do more than a free system could, because Be could sign NDAs and the Free development community could not."
That sounds a lot like revisionist history to me. Even compared to Linux at the time I wouldn't say beos could do more than a free OS could. In fact Beos was specifically notable in that it couldn't access certain files an
Re:Closed source (Score:2)
And read my post again. Yes, Linux *can* use closed source drivers, but tends not to, because of the problems with linking them against the kernel.
Re:Closed source (Score:2)
Intel was a major BeOS shareholder (Score:2)
That may have helped.
I think Yellowtap may have purchased axcess to the BeOS source from Palm or something, which maybe means axcess to Intel's contributions such as drivers 'n patches (mmx, etc?).
finally... (Score:1)
/. lags (Score:2, Informative)
Feels good to be
Interface widgets (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Interface widgets (Score:2)
I wonder what the impetus for BeOS is; I perfectly understand the *hobbiest* drive, it's what keeps interest in Amiga alive... but is there a business demand for BeOS?
I bought BeOS twice (Score:2)
I think it's nice to see alternatives to the mainstream, but this ranks alongside Kontiki as a sheer folly, in the Victorian sense.
Operating systems have become entirely commoditized, and now serve only as platforms for running applications, more than ever in the past.
The future operating system is invisible, boots onto whatever hardware you happen to have lying around, and lets yo
Europe? (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Europe? (Score:2)
Laden or unladen?
Re:Europe? (Score:1)
My Cat (Score:1)
Some thoughts (Score:1)
BeOS has some POSIX compliance but it's not as if I can use an autoconfigure script to go and compile something that would work on a Linux or a BSD system, which are much more compatible with eachother.
In any case, I'm a
Re:Some thoughts (Score:1)
Why not ?
The problem is not autotools, but the bad assumptions programmers make, thinking autotools will solve all portability probs.
The simplest example is libm. BeOS doesn't have that, it's included in libroot, which is linked to by default.
That doesn't stop me from porting stuff. I already ported (in no particular order) giFT (though the current cvs is broken), ffmpeg (which is used in VLC, which has been ported too and has
inequal competition ! (Score:1)
Hey, what's this [clapcrest.free.fr] ??? How can
[/troll]
How it came to be. (Score:5, Informative)
yellowTAB
Bernd Korz first appeared in the BeOS community when he released a magazine named InsideBeOS. Only one or two issues were translated into english from the native German of the magazine (I purchased the first english edition!). This magazine stopped publication sometime around when Be flopped and as far as I saw, Bernd sort of disappeared again. When Be filed for bankruptcy, there were many outcries from the community for the source to BeOS so that it's legacy could continue. There were several formal proposals from people to purchase the source as well. Then came the announcement that Palm had purchased Be's intellectual propert(IP)... and were not going to continue development of BeOS. Luckily (in my opinion), Bernd was smart enough apparently to ask for a license to the source and not to purchase it. So, before Be sold their IP to Palm, they gave some sort of full license to yellowTAB to release new products based on the source code. Presumably that license just transferred to Palm's ownership with everything else.
So, here we are today, yellowTAB is about to release their new OS named Zeta (sort of BeOS R6) which contains unreleased code from Be plus new stuff and bug fixes that they have added. The article does not make it very clear, but yellowTAB is actually selling RC1 (Release Candidate 1) of Zeta now to the world. The R1 (Release 1) will be available to people who purchase RC1 for 10 Euros.
BeOS rewrites
There are a number of projects that are aiming their sights on rewriting the BeOS. Some totally opensource from conception, others planning on releasing their source after they have a public binary release under their belts. The main contenders that are around at the moment are OpenBeOS [openbeos.org] (soon to have a name change), BlueEyedOS [blueeyedos.com] , and Cosmoe [cosmoe.com]
OpenBeOS is taking the approach of totally rewriting the entire system. New kernel, new appkit, new interface kit, new storage kit... everything. They're not changing the basic structure of the system, in fact, they're attempting to completely duplicate the system even down to binary compatibility. As a basis for their project, they have used Be's old header files, and written API documentation. They are hosted at source forge and are using the MIT license for all their source.
BlueEyedOS is taking the approach that they perceive the Linux kernel and XFree86 as suitable for building less traditional system on top of them. They are using the Linux kernel as their Be kernel, and X windows as their display. They've released a demo CD so far that is quite interesting and appears very promising. Their code is not available to anyone but their developers at the moment because they've chosen to start their project closed. I've believe that I've heard though that they are planning for a source release later on. The demo CD can still be downloaded from their website.
Cosmoe is a primarily one man show that has taken the Syllable (was Atheos) source code and altered it to run on top of Linux and X. It's author's primary goal seems to be to give the Unix, Linux community a new user interface and the Be API. Code for this system is occasionally released under GPL and LGPL.
Hard to sell anything... (Score:2)
Specs and pricing? (Score:2)
Re:Specs and pricing? (Score:2)
The hardware choices that come bundled with Zeta Deluxe Edition RC1 are two desktop systems, and a laptop offering.
faet VX notebook (EUR 1,491.47)
- Intel Pentium M 1.3 through 1.7 GHz CPU (all 400 MHz FSB)
- 256, 512, or 768 MB DDR RAM (all 333 MHz)
- 30, 40, 60 or 80 gig drive
- 8/24 DVD/CD, or 24/10/8 CDR/CDRW/CD, or 2/1/16/10/8/24 DVDR/DVDRW/CDR/DVD/CD
- Intel 802.11b Wireless LAN or none
- Home Edition, or Developer Edition, or Deluxe Edition
Zeta PC Power (EUR 549.00)
Midi Tower; Lan;
I wonder (Score:2)
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is a screenshot, because if it is, then BeOS has changed a lot since I last used him:)
But my thinking says that BeOS died somewhere along the way. And dead Software is better to stay dead, although it was a beatiful dr
Re:I wonder (Score:2)
bochs? (Score:2)
btw, i've been unimpressed with Be. I couldn't even get it to stop being monochrome.
The Amiga syndrome (Score:2)
The Amiga was always very popular in Germany and the company hoped to capitalise on that. sadly, the PC had caught up in the mean time and the company dies.
I am afraid
Re:whut? no comments yet? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:whut? no comments yet? (Score:2, Redundant)
-dk
Re:whut? no comments yet? (Score:1)
-dk
Re:whut? no comments yet? (Score:1)
Once you read the article, your comments are disregarded.
I guess you really are new here =P
Re:well it it true (Score:1)
There are also other projects to "clone" the BeOS: BlueEyedOS [blueeyedos.com] (BeAPI on top of Linux), BeFree [berlios.de], a fork of the former, and other AtheOS derivatives, but IMO none are close enough to the spirit of the BeOS. OpenBeOS ch
Re:Where is Jean-Louise Gassee? (Score:2)
Here. [liberation.fr] He writes chronicles about the computer industry in french newspaper Liberation. [liberation.fr]
Re:is BeOS Linux? (Score:1)
Re:But? (Score:2)
Re:To un-US centric (Score:2)
I mean what could they do:
Us citizen: Could i have a BeOS please?
yellowTab: No! Go away Capitalistic scum! We do this for the honor!