Welcome 0033!
Stephen B. - March 27th, 2007
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Archive for 2007 A new editor / poster has joined BeOSNews today: please give a big welcome to Mr. 0033, of Studio-33 fame. We had discussed teaming up for a while now – and with the new version of the site launched, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Studio-33 has consistently been one of the best sources for BeOS-related news and I’m delighted to have 0033 aboard!
Last Friday Stephen reported here that Magnussoft and the Zeta development team are parting, news that got out after a blog post by Bernd Korz, the Zeta team lead. Following the discussion this caused on the various websites and forums Magnussoft made an official statement in which they clarify the relation between them and Zeta at least a little bit. After the demise of yellowTab last year Magnussoft started funding the Zeta team to ensure it’s continuation. At the same time they started working on games for the Zeta platform and later they adopted the Wonderbrush application. Because the sales figures of Zeta are not what they had expected them to be Magnussoft is no longer able to keep funding the development team. Apart from being the main investor in Zeta, Magnussoft was also the exclusive distributer, which they will remain at least until the end of 2007. Magnussoft states that they are still interested in the Zeta platform, and they intend to keep developing and distributing the software titles they carry for the platform. Also, they are looking for other investors. Looking at the troublesome and short history of Zeta investors probably don’t queue in line to take over the funding of the team, and although I hope not this might mean that the Zeta project is coming to an end. I don’t know the exact number of people that are currently working for Bernd, and I’m sure that they are very committed, but they won’t work without being payed, neither would I. Read the statement from Magnussoft on zeta-os. Something totally different now, as you might have noticed I’m new here! Some people will know me from Studio-33, or from BeShare. After a lot of begging, Stephen allowed me to post here, so together with a new design there is also a new editor. You can reach me by email, or comment on my posts if there is anything you want to let me know. I hope everyone will enjoy the things I write here and if you don’t you know where to find me…
After announcing the redesign of BeOSNews last week, I’m finally ready to launch the new WordPress-based version of site – and bid farewell to the old, BBlog-based version (hence the schizophrenic quote in the title). If you’re still seeing the old site, give it a few hours for the DNS to update. Not all of the old content has been imported yet, but the old site has been left online so that links and search engine results should continue to work – the archives page is probably the best starting point if you’re looking for a specific older post. Now that the new site is live, there are several additional tweaks and new sections/features that I have planned over the next few weeks – keep an eye out! Also, if anyone has any suggestions – or if you spot any problems with the new site – please post in the comments or drop me an EMail. If the comment is that I’m an idiot for using a table-based layout, I’m afraid I’m already aware of that – but in my defense, it is partly-intentional as I hope to get the site looking half-decent in Net+ someday (it seems sort of blasphemous otherwise).
I’ll stay the summer through But I am telling you I must beeeeee…. gooooooo-ing -Groucho Marx
There was a rather surprising announcement from Bernd Korz today: as ICO, Studio-33, and OSNews have already reported, the latest post on Bernd’s blog mentions that he (along with the rest of the ZETA development team) will no longer be associated with Magnussoft. A planned update is still scheduled to be releaesd in the near future, however, and ZETA development will reportedly continue uninterrupted (many, many thanks to Studio-33 for providing a rough translation en Anglais). And now, an annoying (but brief – I promise) editorial interlude: in the past, I’ve tried to avoid the “let’s bash Bernd” bandwagon – I don’t think that joining in a dogpile/feeding-frenzy is the most constructive way to express criticism. That said. it’s starting to get ridiculous how frequently major, unexpected changes are announced regarding the ZETA OS. Especially considering that the previous relationship between ZETA and Magnussoft was never made entirely clear. I realize there may be valid reasons for the changes, but without any clear communication, we in the BeOS / ZETA community haven’t been given any reliable indications one way or the other. I think that that situation ultimately leads to confusion/uncrertainty regarding the ZETA OS – and that’s the sort of thing that makes prospective customers think: “So if I buy this OS, will it still be supported / in active development 6 months from now?”
There was a rather surprising announcement from Bernd Korz today: as ICO, Studio-33, and OSNews have already reported, the latest post on Bernd’s blog mentions that he (along with the rest of the ZETA development team) will no longer be associated with Magnussoft. A planned update is still scheduled to be releaesd in the near future, however, and ZETA development will reportedly continue uninterrupted (many, many thanks to Studio-33 for providing a rough translation en Anglais). And now, an annoying (but brief – I promise) editorial interlude: in the past, I’ve tried to avoid the “let’s bash Bernd” bandwagon – I don’t think that joining in a dogpile/feeding-frenzy is the most constructive way to express criticism. That said. it’s starting to get ridiculous how frequently major, unexpected changes are announced regarding the ZETA OS. Especially considering that the previous relationship between ZETA and Magnussoft was never made entirely clear. I realize there may be valid reasons for the changes, but without any clear communication, we in the BeOS / ZETA community haven’t been given any reliable indications one way or the other. I think that that situation ultimately leads to confusion/uncrertainty regarding the ZETA OS – and that’s the sort of thing that makes prospective customers think: “So if I buy this OS, will it still be supported / in active development 6 months from now?”
With all the focus on Haiku and ZETA lately, it was a pleasant surprise to spot a recent post on OSNews about the release of a new version of the BeOS PE Max Edition (also spotted by Studio-33). The updated release is a beta of version 4 of the BeOS Max distribution; release notes have been posted for the beta, but they currently appear to be offline (ditto BeOSMax.org and BeOSMaxFiles.org). It appears that users can still download the v4 beta from the BeBits entry, however. Not only is it a great distro, it also saved my bacon a few months back. BeOS MAX: it’s the OS that all the cool kids are talking about (I should know – I heard them talking about it).
With all the focus on Haiku and ZETA lately, it was a pleasant surprise to spot a recent post on OSNews about the release of a new version of the BeOS PE Max Edition (also spotted by Studio-33). The updated release is a beta of version 4 of the BeOS Max distribution; release notes have been posted for the beta, but they currently appear to be offline (ditto BeOSMax.org and BeOSMaxFiles.org). It appears that users can still download the v4 beta from the BeBits entry, however. Not only is it a great distro, it also saved my bacon a few months back. BeOS MAX: it’s the OS that all the cool kids are talking about (I should know – I heard them talking about it).
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