[Sarlug] New Zeta Review from beosjournal.org

[Paul Galashin]

http://www.beosjournal.org/index.php?ct=r&ru=2003-06-03-zetab5

Hello everyone, and welcome to BeOSJournal's Zeta Beta 5a preview. Why a preview and not a review you ask? Because Zeta is still in it's beta stages, once we get RC (and we will get it), then and only then will a review be made and published. These are my impressions of 3 days of running Zeta, so bear with me.

First of all, let me give you the specs of the machine where I installed Zeta:

CPU: AMD XP 1800
RAM: 512MB
HDD: IBM 80GB (hasn't crashed yet... knock on wood)
Screen: Samsung Syncmaster 151S (TFT 15", 1024x768x60 max)
GFX: ATI Radeon 8500
Sound: Creative Labs Audigy
ODD: Plextor CD-RW and Samsung DVD (boot drive)

Installation: I had a bit of a problem burning Zeta's img to a CD, but of course it wasn't Zeta's fault (since it wasn't even installed yet). So I copied all the files into the (pre-ready) partition and booted into it. I ran the installer, told it to install from that partition onto... that very same partition. I chose which apps to install (although it comes with pre-defined installations if you prefer), told it to start and it took about 10mns. It asked if I wanted to run bootman at the end, which i said no to, since it was already configured, so I rebooted. Boot time is a bit longer than R5, and the startup sound is partly to blame, so... I just went to Menu/Preferences/Sounds and chose "none" for Startup sound... easy.

I do agree that DriveSetup should be updated, to allow for example the resizing of existing partitions. Would be a nice addition to an already nice app.

New Stuff: The most obvious and the one you notice first is the new Tracker. And it's SVG support. It really is nice and gives you some nice possibilities, like for example, having your pictures folder (if you have one) in "preview" mode. Icons can go up to 128x128 without any loss of quality. It crashed once here, bug was reported, so that will get fixed.

Updater. While still under construction, Zeta will feature an automatic updater, which will update your copy of Zeta with the latest patches and features. (worry not, there won't be any spy ware)

Decors: Zeta comes with a few new ones, maybe it will come with more in the final version. I tried them all and I'm really fond of the Gonx one, very nicely done.

Locale Kit: This one is quite nice. Go to Personal Settings (under the menu Preferences) and chose your language and all of the OS changes into it. There are some quirks with it, some strings not getting updated (happened with a context menu), or remaining in German, but, since each language file is just a text file, right under the same Personal Settings, you can simply select a string, click Change, and write in the new word. There are strings for not only the Tracker but also for several apps, and you can create new ones.

New drivers. Believe it or not, they are in there. And more will follow. One of the biggest requests concerning hardware support is vid cards. I can't reveal much, but I will say this: if what they're planning works out (as we're hoping it will), Zeta won't have to worry about that anymore.

And then, there's new stuff under the hood so to speak. New USB stack for example, with support for both Intel's and VIA's "protocols" and also USB2 (in the works for the R1 release). ODBC support which I'm sure many will welcome and also updated Media Kit, and a new scripting language. They have turned Javascript into a Zeta's scripting language, which you can even use, for example, together with Hey, among other features.

Using It: To those who have been using BeOS in the past, there's nothing to it of course. To everyone else... well, BeOS has always been easy to the new user, and Zeta will have no other impact on that, newcomers shouldn't have a problem using it and in time, we'll learn to make the most of it. While it keeps R5's known usability pluses, like browsing through the folders with a right-click menu among others, it does lose one important one, one feature many will miss (myself included): the sliding tabs. Yes, due to some changes (including theming support), Zeta does not feature the sliding tabs. Big loss? It's a loss, how big depends on each user.

The Tracker, most likely due to its SVG support, is slower. Not much, nowhere near to Window's Explorer or the likes, just slightly slower than R5's (or OpenTracker), which is understandable. Zeta does come with Dockbert, a Dock look-a-like, which I, to be honest, never liked (sorry Hugo and Harvest). But, and thankfully, it is optional, you can launch it by going to the Zeta Menu, under Deskbar preferences.
ncluded Apps: There are a few apps coded by YellowTab themselves. You have Zedit (which I'm using to write this preview), ToDoIT, a scheduling app, FaxIT, a nice Fax utility which includes a Tracker add-on, BeEAR, a personal accounting app (needs to be fully translated to english) and BeTunes, an app to manage your playlists.

Other included apps are well known to the BeOS world, like Helios, DVDRip (a very nice app, fast too), BEAM and BeShare are there as well. A plus is the inclusion of SoundPlay (I just copied my key file from my other BeOS partition), which here, hasn't crashed once actually. For your browsing pleasure, it comes with the lightweight (and out of date unfortunately) Net+ and also Mozilla and Phoenix. During the installation I chose to only install Phoenix, well, really it's Firebird, since it's version 0.6, and let me tell you, it just rocks! Firebird was for a long time my prefered browser in Windows (overtaken by Opera 7.11 at the moment) and it's great to see it up-to-date in Zeta. Maybe my machine's a bit above today's average, but its speed is quite good, loading and rendering.

Getting online with it was not a problem, went to Boneyard, selected my NIC, enabled DHCP and saved the changes. I'm on cable, so I can't test dial-up, sorry guys. Boneyard crashed if I went to Interfaces tab, did my changes and Saved. I was told to just click another tab before and that avoided the crash. It has been reported as well, so it's on the "Fix IT" list. Also, although not present in this Beta, SMB support will be included, so I'm told, in the final version, and for those who buy the Deluxe Edition, BeServed will be included.

In addition to the applications I already mentioned, I brought a couple from my other BeOS partition, namely Jabber (for my IM needs) and Pineapple News (news reader), and has was expected, both worked without a problem. One thing I did, with those two and also Vision (excellent IRC client), was to import (copy) the settings from the existing BeOS partition onto Zeta, which of course, also worked without a hitch.

Conclusion: Since I received the Beta, I've been using Zeta as my main OS, so let me tell you my thoughts on it.

What do I like about it? It's BeOS, it's a new release of BeOS. I like the Tracker, I like what's coming, full USB and USB2 support and some other things that I can't reveal, sorry (but you will like them too). I'm no UI guru, but I like it, I especially like the "Gonx" and the "OBOS UI" decor I really like the Locale Kit and especially how easy it is to add, remove and change strings to a translation.

What I don't like about it? Some crashes that shouldn't have been there to begin with, I've mentioned them here already. Another one is already fixed (just got word from a member of the team). I don't like it that's it isn't the final version yet (just teasing). Don't like it that the USB stack isn't here already for me to try it out. Don't like the lack of 3D support (but I know that, if all goes well, it is coming, so this one is actually a "half-don't-like").

What  else  to  say... It's a Beta as you all know, so this all is somewhat
relative,  remember  I called it preview in the beginning? In general, do I
like it? Yes. Was I expecting more? Yes. Will they deliver? I believe so...
I hope so. As someone pointed out, this version doesn't even fill a full CD, so (and has YellowTab themselves have said) there are things missing. Items that will be in the final version. So, for now, this version is somewhat lacking in... substance, if I can use that term. It needs an extra push to really become what we're all expecting it to be. Can they do it? Once again, I believe so... I hope so. But remember, this is just a Beta, and from the 3 days of using it, I like it. Welcome back BeOS, you've been missed.

-- 
wbr, Bleys≥                        
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