YellowTAB
Encyclopedia
yellowTAB was a German
software firm that produced an operating system
called "yellowTAB ZETA". While the operating system was based on BeOS
5.1.0, the company never publicly confirmed that it has the BeOS source code or what their licensing agreement with BeOS's owners PalmSource
was. The company went insolvent and ceased trading in 2006. Later, David Schlesinger, directory of Open Source technologies at ACCESS, Inc., which had meanwhile become the owner of the BeOS source code, stated that there had never been a license agreement covering yellowTAB's use of the source code and that ZETA was therefore a pirated copy.
The company's offices were in Mannheim
, and its corporate motto was Assume The Power. Following their closure, the OS was taken over by magnussoft
, who started selling it as "magnussoft ZETA".
yellowTAB has come under some criticism from the BeOS
userbase, who claim that the company did not give back what it took from the Haiku
project and other open source
BeOS projects. In many cases, open source programmers have recreated yellowTAB's extensions to BeOS, most notably their SVG
graphics extensions to OpenTracker
. However, yellowTAB's actions to date have not violated the BSD/MIT licences under which most open source BeOS projects exist.
In March 2006, yellowTAB donated their "Intel Extreme" driver to one of the Haiku
developers for integration into the Haiku
source tree where further development was to take place. Both yellowTAB and Haiku developers were to collaborate on Intel Extreme Graphics driver development, but to date this code has not yet been committed to the repository.
In April 2006, insolvency protection proceedings were filed for the company, although employees denied that it was actually filed by the company, suggesting potential malicious intent. However, the firm has transferred development and support of ZETA to a third-party, magnussoft
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
software firm that produced an operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
called "yellowTAB ZETA". While the operating system was based on BeOS
BeOS
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
5.1.0, the company never publicly confirmed that it has the BeOS source code or what their licensing agreement with BeOS's owners PalmSource
PalmSource
ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. is a subsidiary of ACCESS which develops the Palm OS PDA operating system and its successor, the Access Linux Platform, as well as BeOS...
was. The company went insolvent and ceased trading in 2006. Later, David Schlesinger, directory of Open Source technologies at ACCESS, Inc., which had meanwhile become the owner of the BeOS source code, stated that there had never been a license agreement covering yellowTAB's use of the source code and that ZETA was therefore a pirated copy.
The company's offices were in Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, and its corporate motto was Assume The Power. Following their closure, the OS was taken over by magnussoft
Magnussoft
magnussoft Deutschland GmbH is a pan-European computer game developer and publisher. The company is seated near Dresden in the eastern region of Germany...
, who started selling it as "magnussoft ZETA".
yellowTAB has come under some criticism from the BeOS
BeOS
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
userbase, who claim that the company did not give back what it took from the Haiku
Haiku (operating system)
Haiku is a free and open source operating system compatible with BeOS. Its development began in 2001, and the operating system became self-hosting in 2008, with the first alpha release in September 2009, the second in May 2010 and the third in June 2011....
project and other open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
BeOS projects. In many cases, open source programmers have recreated yellowTAB's extensions to BeOS, most notably their SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics
Scalable Vector Graphics is a family of specifications of an XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic . The SVG specification is an open standard that has been under development by the World Wide Web Consortium since 1999.SVG images and their...
graphics extensions to OpenTracker
OpenTracker
OpenTracker is the open source version of the Tracker file manager for BeOS-compatible operating systems.Be Inc. developed the original Tracker for their operating system, BeOS. In 2000, prior to selling all of their assets to Palm, Inc., Be Inc. open-sourced some of their software, including Tracker...
. However, yellowTAB's actions to date have not violated the BSD/MIT licences under which most open source BeOS projects exist.
In March 2006, yellowTAB donated their "Intel Extreme" driver to one of the Haiku
Haiku (operating system)
Haiku is a free and open source operating system compatible with BeOS. Its development began in 2001, and the operating system became self-hosting in 2008, with the first alpha release in September 2009, the second in May 2010 and the third in June 2011....
developers for integration into the Haiku
Haiku (operating system)
Haiku is a free and open source operating system compatible with BeOS. Its development began in 2001, and the operating system became self-hosting in 2008, with the first alpha release in September 2009, the second in May 2010 and the third in June 2011....
source tree where further development was to take place. Both yellowTAB and Haiku developers were to collaborate on Intel Extreme Graphics driver development, but to date this code has not yet been committed to the repository.
In April 2006, insolvency protection proceedings were filed for the company, although employees denied that it was actually filed by the company, suggesting potential malicious intent. However, the firm has transferred development and support of ZETA to a third-party, magnussoft
Magnussoft
magnussoft Deutschland GmbH is a pan-European computer game developer and publisher. The company is seated near Dresden in the eastern region of Germany...
.
External links
- yellowTAB - official site