ZETA comes standard with a bundle of applications that should get any new user to start and work with them. Some of the app's are a bit outdated but they prove to be still good and are still nice to have around in the system.

The Office app Gobe 2.01 is a few years old but is until today the only office that is worth having in BeOS/ZETA at the moment, it doesn't have the fancy stuff other office suites have but you can still make good documents in it.

I'm not a programmer myself, I just try to keep up on certain svn builds witch I compile here myself, but the BeIDE and Pe seem to be programs a developer can't live without (a friend of mine was even able to compile the Haiku tree on ZETA what is nice to hear).
As an Media OS you would expect some media app's and even there you will find some nice tools. The new media player handles most music and video files quiet well (and for those not supported you can always use the dvd(vlc) player. Tools to edit sound and video are included to with SampleStudio and the new VideoEditor, I try'd the last and it is easy to create and work in there ... in real time you can edit the video add sound/ pictures etc. To edit video in VideoEditor you simply have to drag and drop the appropriate files to their place, place them on the timeline and drag the levers to adjust the scene's. Pretty straightforward and easy to make a video. yellowTAB also included several radio stations that are opened with the mediaplayer by default. The Belgian stations didn't make it into 1.0 but in the link section you will find a download for those files. (I especially like the 'nostalgie/nostalgic' radio - unzip the file to /boot).
Networking was not so difficult to setup as we saw earlier so now we need some app's to run over the Internet, the default app's are not to bad, although FireFox has issues and I replaced it with the one currently on BeBits. Vision is still one of the best if not 'the' best IRC client atm, for instant messaging I mostly use the im_kit that can handle the 5 most common protocols (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Jabber and Yahoo). I even mad a small tutorial that explains how to install and setup the im_kit. this should get you started on the net.  
I was pleased to see the fixed cifsmounter that comes in with a new name now (WindowsNetworks) and it's working now. Hooking up with Windows shares is done in an instant (providing you have the correct connection info) and playing mp3 and even video didn't crash the Tracker here. The app even remembers the settings if they were succesfull.
ZETA is bundled with a new cd writing app JABA from Das_Jott, completely written in yab from TEAM maui, this app is capable of writing cue, iso and img files, future support is in progress for scvd/dvd writing. It was the first app that was able to burn with my external dvd burner (Lite-On dual layer usb 2.0). I still use the app to burn my cd's here. As a tester I am fortunate to meet with Das_Jott on the net and get to test run the new versions as shown below. We all do our best to make the application better.
Another great application is PhotoGrabber from Jixt, with PhotoGrabber you will be able to hook up your digital camera and get your pictures, the program handles different kind of plugins to support your camera so there is a very good chance that you will be able to use it. You can even generate html pages from the images on the camera. Still a very young application and there is still some work done .. like drag and drop support etc...