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Technix · Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 4:34 pm Post subject: Zeta Interview Questions.

The BeOSJournal has managed to obtain an exclusive interview with Bernd Korz, of YellowTab.

Most of you probrably already know he is developing Zeta, an independant distribution of BeOS, that is coming out shortly.

We are conducting a full review, comprised of 9 people, including myself, that are testing it on hardware platforms ranging from a lowly pentium 200 to a high end machine(s) like AMD Athlon XP and Pentium 4.

We would at this time ask you for your questions, comments, and concerns about this issue, as to incorporate your thoughts into our interview with Bernd.

Please post what you would like here, and we'll weed through the posts during the next couple of days.

The interview will be conducted 1-2 days after we finish our review.

Thank you, and good luck.
_________________
-Chris Simmons,
Avid BeOS User.
BeOSJournal Admin...

h_ank · Pencil Pusher Joined: 16 Jun 2002 Posts: 21

When will orders be accepted? I would certainly pre-order my copy today if I had the ability.

nathan_callender · NewBe Joined: 19 Dec 2002 Posts: 2

I would like to know specifically what license/s the distribution is released under and what use is permitted. Also, would like to know how much is old BeOS/Palm code, open-source code, new major/minor feature list. Is it just another distro like PE edition, MAX edition ... or does it have substantially updated parts (ie, the network stack, new translators, audio/video codecs, new USB 2.0/Firewire stack)? How much has been re-implemented? What new features/classes have been added to the BeAPI? Does is share binary compatibility with BeOS (app space/ driver space)?

Okay, I think I asked my fair share of questions

acoromi · NewBe Joined: 19 Dec 2002 Posts: 1

Added to previous post, it would be nice to know what type of hardware OpenGL will support. A great support for games will make BeOS extensible to more people.

koki · NewBe Joined: 08 Dec 2002 Posts: 8

A few things come to mind:

- Availability of final product (of course)
- Is it binary compatible with R5?
- Has the network stack been improved?
- Specifically, what apps are bundled?
- Does it have scanner support? What is it based on? BeSANE?
- Has USB support been improved?

Koki

krashid · NewBe Gender: Joined: 19 Dec 2002 Posts: 1

Are there any plans for Power PC processor support for future releases of Zeta?

humungus · Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 6:29 pm Post subject:

Hi Bernd, hUMUNGUs from BeShare in da house.

Questions for you:

1. What decors are included in Zeta?
2. Can one easily make new decors in Zeta? How?
3. Do we have "sliding tabs" ?
4. Tell us whats new with Tracker
5. Can you tell about third party developers? what about commercial companies ?
6. What about 3D / Animation / Modelling applications? Now that we get OpenGL, have you spoken with anyone concerning it ? (i know that's really not department)

I have LOTS more to ask, but i'll stop now.

Roger Andre Lassen
hUMUNGUs

scottmc · Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 9:00 pm Post subject:

Bernd, not everyone understands how many years you've been involved or how deeply committed you've been, both in time and money wise in BeOS. Can you give everyone a brief history?

Also have you tested the recently released SB Audigy driver to see if it works with Zeta?

-Scottmc
www.bedrivers.com

optikwhite · NewBe Joined: 19 Dec 2002 Posts: 1 Location: TN, USA

Is there any work being done to add some of the functionality from the videolan project into the default media player? Will there be DVD playback(encrypted or unencrypted). Does the media player use system wide codecs or are they hardwired into the player as is the case with videolan. Has any consideration be given to supporting possible standards such as uci(http://uci.sourceforge.net/) or matroska(http://matroska.sourceforge.net/)?

If I wanted to get a SFF system such as an SS25 or SS40, how capable would it be of handling current media formats such as ogg(containing both video and audio), mpeg4(audio or video). If not immediately available, is there a timeframe when such support might become agailable?

Zaranthos

Does it run things like TuneTracker and Communigate Pro? In the case of Communigate Pro even though it works with BONE it's not completely stable (Communigate has to be restarted every few weeks or it stops delivering mail but clients don't get errors checking). If they'll compile a new version for Zeta I'll buy it for them :^)