NewsForge | Zeta OS is rising from BeOS ashes BeOS was a lighweight but full-fledged operating system designed from the ground up to be a desktop OS with strong multimedia capabilities. Its claim to fame was the real-time response of its graphical interface, even on low-powered hardware. Its minimalistic approach made it easy to use even for beginners. Its database-like BFS file system with indexed attributes made file searches a breeze. All of this in a system that could boot in 10 to 15 seconds on most hardware, and that was as stable as a rock.

Zeta inherits all of the above, and also takes advantage of the enhancements that Be Inc. had slated for the next version of BeOS, which was never released, including the kernel-land BONE networking environment and a better media kit (one of the several kits that comprise the object-oriented BeOS API). Here is a good selection of Zeta screenshots for those who have never seen it.