yellowTAB
| yellowTAB GmbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | Mannheim , Germany |
| Number of employees | about 30 (end of 2005) |
| Branch | software |
| Website | www.yellowtab.de |
yellowTAB GmbH was a software manufacturer based in Mannheim . The company is insolvent . YellowTAB developed and sold the ZETA operating system until May 2006 , relying particularly on partners such as RTL -Teleshop and freenet.de . At the end of 2005 the company had around 30 employees.
Products
Flagship of the company was the operating system ZETA , the successor of up to 2001 by Be Inc. distributed operating system BeOS .
In addition to ZETA, yellowTAB also worked on a company application called Faktum for financial management, order processing and inventory management and on a video editor that has been supplied with every full version of ZETA since version 1.0.
insolvency
At the beginning of April 2006 yellowTAB had to file for bankruptcy and lay off all employees. At the same time, company spokesmen assured that the development and support of the ZETA operating system would not be affected.
On May 22nd, 2006 the company announced that the Dresden software house Magnussoft was now the exclusive, worldwide distributor for the ZETA operating system produced by yellowTAB. However, in an interview with the news service Golem.de , the court-appointed insolvency administrator Patric Naumann found that yellowTAB had ceased its business activities, a circumstance that was not mentioned on the company's website. This representation was confirmed by Magnussoft spokesman René Weinert, who also stated that yellowTAB was not planning to resume business operations. The further development of ZETA should possibly be taken over by a company subsidiary of magnussoft, in which a development team should be formed for this purpose. Weinert described the role of yellowTAB founder Bernd Korz in this team as "advisory".
The insolvency proceedings "due to insolvency and over-indebtedness" were opened on June 27, 2006. Bankruptcy creditors were asked to file their claims by August 8th. The creditors' meeting was to take place on September 25, 2006. On July 21, however, the insolvency administrator reported to the Mannheim district court that there was insufficient bankruptcy estate.
Allegation of copyright infringement
Almost a year after the bankruptcy proceedings were initiated, David Schlesinger, Director of Open Source Technologies at BeOS rights holder Access , accused yellowTab of never having had a license for the BeOS source code, making ZETA practically a black copy. However, the legal action was not taken due to possible costs incurred by Access for a legal dispute.
controversy
The role of the Mannheim company is controversial among the supporters of the BeOS known as the “multimedia operating system” . After the collapse of the software house Be Incorporated , PalmSource , which had taken over both developers and source texts from BeOS, showed no interest in further developing the operating system. In this situation, numerous BeOS supporters welcomed Korz's efforts to keep the fast and stable system alive.
The relationship to alternative projects such as Haiku , a free new implementation of BeOS currently in development , was strained when Bernd Korz accused one of the main Haiku developers, Marcus Overhagen, of allegedly violating a non-disclosure agreement in August 2005 . The latter rejected the allegations outraged and also pointed out that ZETA itself contained some of the drivers that he had written as free software. Overhagen received broad support from the developer community , which was increasingly distancing itself from yellowTAB.
Long-time BeOS developer Jean-Baptiste Queru was disappointed in yellowTAB's development efforts, and he also stated that he did not trust the small Mannheim company to present a convincing product.
The company's information policy was also criticized in connection with the bankruptcy in spring 2006. While Korz continued to emphasize that development and support would continue normally, telephone support was discontinued without prior notice. Even in view of the permanent cessation of the company's activities, there was no public statement.
In addition, Golem.de expressed incomprehension about the arrears in the salary payments to employees:
“The downfall of YellowTab does not seem to have started with a third party filing for bankruptcy. According to Golem.de, the number of around 40 YellowTab employees had already shrunk significantly at the end of 2005 - in addition, according to the previously unconfirmed rumors, wages were not paid. This is a bit surprising, because YellowTab has a potent sales partner in the RTL Shop who sold by far the most Zeta packs and allegedly generated sales of several million euros. "
history
- In November 2003 yellowTAB published the first release candidate from ZETA.
- On the Cebit 2005, Version 1.0 was introduced.
- On April 4, 2006, the Mannheim District Court granted a petition for insolvency against yellowTAB .
- On April 22nd, announcement of the release of Zeta 1.2 and the product listed at the sales partner RTL Shop .
- According to a press release dated May 22, 2006, Magnussoft has been a new sales partner for ZETA since week 20.
- Since December 4th, 2009 the yellowTAB website has been operated as an independent information portal.
Web links
- yellowTAB Homepage ( Memento from February 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ yellowTAB: Magnussoft® exclusive worldwide distribution for ZETA, May 22, 2006 ( Memento from June 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Golem.de: Zeta's wild ride: YellowTab without employees, May 24, 2006
- ↑ Power-dreams.com: Zeta: Exclusive interview with Magnussoft, June 13, 2006 ( Memento from July 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ beuser.de: "Insolvency proceedings opened", June 29, 2006 ( Memento from September 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ In the insolvency proceedings over the assets of yellowTAB GmbH, represented by the managing director Bernd Korz, Sandhofer Str. 200, 68307 Mannheim, the court d. Manage. received that there is a mass inadequacy (Sections 208 to 211 InsO). Source: http://www.insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de/ (direct link to the notification not possible for technical reasons)
- ↑ golem.de : Zeta a pirated copy? April 4, 2007
- ↑ Marcus Overhagen: Threatening mail by Yellowtab ( Memento from May 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ YellowTAB Threatens BeOS / Haiku Developers?
- ↑ Osnews.com: Ex-Be Engineer Comments on YellowTAB's Zeta Beta5a
- ↑ Golem.de: Zetas wilder Ritt, p. 2
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: