December, 2007

Until very recently, the community of Haiku testers and developers, as well as those curious geeks who wanted to give Haiku a spin, relied on the services of HaikuHost.com to download nightly builds of hard disk raw and VMware images. This site, which was operated by Jonathan Freeman, has recently closed its doors, so we felt we needed a replacement. Let me introduce you to Haiku Files.

For a Haikuware Bounty, Ryan Leavengood set out to port WebKit, a framework to render modern web contents. Actually, from the start it was supposed to be a first shot to get the basics to compile for Haiku, as a complete port is a huge endeavour that keeps a skilled team busy for many months.

The deadline for the bounty has recently been reached and the set goal has been achieved more or less. Read Ryan's summary at Haikuware for the details.

Now that the first step is taken, everyone's invited to help further develop and later on optimize and streamline the code. Marcus Jacob and Andrea Anzani have already stepped up to give Ryan a hand.

The plan is to have the port hosted directly in the official WebKit repository. Before that can happen a few more basics need to be implemented, which should happen within the next few weeks.

Ryan has provided a developer's document with detailed build instructions for those who wish to work on the port. Check it out.

Many Haiku fans have been eagerly waiting for the next BeGeistert, and the official word is out now: BeGeistert 018 -- Phoenix is coming back to Düsseldorf, where it will be held on January 12 and 13, 2008. But the good news does not end here: as a prelude to BeGeistert, a coding asylum event with the expected presence of many Haiku core developers has been organized on the same week and at the sample place.

The results of the second Haikuware.com Thank You Award are in, and with a mere two votes lead, the Thank You Award went to Ingo Weinhold. Congratulations!

If a contribution within the next two months strikes you as especially noteworthy, contact me with the details to get that person's name up for consideration.