Call to Arms: Haiku Code Drive 2008

News posted on Thu, 2008-05-15 19:27

The Haiku Community

Google assigned Haiku five student slots for the Google Summer of Code 2008, so we had to narrow down our final choice from the many high quality student applications. This was tough: many good applications had to be left out, and we really hate leaving people out, particularly those who had shown an interest in Haiku. So we started entertaining the idea of sponsoring a few of these students ourselves. Today we introduce you to the Haiku Code Drive 2008, a program designed to raise funds from the community in order to sponsor students to produce code for Haiku. This is how it's going to work.

We contacted all the GSoC students that applied for Haiku but did not make it, and asked them if they were interested in carrying out their proposed project for a $2,500 stipend each. From their response, we have created this list of students and their projects; these are the candidates for the Haiku Code Drive 2008 program. Now we are asking you, the Haiku community, to fund the program by making donations. We will then hold a public poll so that the community can influence which candidates/projects they want to sponsor. At the end of the poll/donation period, we will determine how many and which of the students will be sponsored based on the donated funds and the results of the poll. Check out all the details of the program here, including a timeline with tentative dates.

Teldar's BeServed Open Sourced, Code Merged into Haiku Repository

News posted on Sat, 2008-04-26 10:33

As recently noted by Haiku developer Axel Dörfler on the development mailing list, Teldar Corporation has open sourced their BeServed network file sharing solution for BeOS and donated the code to Haiku. We are now pleased to announce that the donated code has been merged into the Haiku repository, and is available here. The package, donated to Haiku under the MIT license, contains user management and servers for several operating systems including, Microsoft Windows® and Linux®. While Haiku already has a native networking file system that has been in the works by Ingo Weinhold, the availability of the BeServed code will allow cross-pollination between the two code bases, eventually resulting in а powerful and solid native networking solution for Haiku.

Kevin Musick of Teldar Corporation had these words for us: "I am pleased to donate BeServed in its entirety to the Haiku project. After Be, Inc.'s demise, BeServed was no longer commercially viable and the pressures of my career and a young family forced me to pursue other opportunities. However, I am encouraged to see Haiku's progress and the ongoing commitment of the community. While I no longer have the bandwidth to participate in the project, I hope that BeServed will be useful in some small way. Congratulations on your progress and best wishes for continued success!"

Haiku Gets Five Student Slots for GSoC 2008

News posted on Mon, 2008-04-21 20:42

After a quite intensive and challenging review and selection process, we are pleased to announce that Haiku has been assigned five (5) student slots for the Google Summer of Code 2008. This year, Google accepted many more mentor organizations than ever before, which made the allotment of students slots a lot more competitive. We also received applications of very high quality, which is definitely a blessing, but also made the Haiku mentor's task of narrowing down to a final selection much tougher. After thorough review of all the applications, and carefully taking into consideration factors such as immediate benefits for our project, the likelihood of getting long-term contributors, and the availability of an appropriate mentor for any given project, we have come up with the final list of students that will be coding for Haiku during the GSoC 2008 program. Here it is:

Haiku takes over Google, SoC renamed

News posted on Tue, 2008-04-01 13:17

With the help of a generous donator, Haiku, Inc. has acquired a major share of Google, Inc. and is now in the process of reorganizing Google for a major focus shift that will allow for wide distribution of Haiku R1 to OEMs. Distribution contracts have been signed with major mobile phone makers for an unprecedented availability of Phone and Handheld Integrated System Haiku (PHISH).

Also, as of this year, the Summer Of Code project is now officially renamed Summer of Assembler Poetry (SoAP).

3ivx 5.02 Brings MPEG-4 ASP Video Support to Haiku

News posted on Thu, 2008-03-27 00:50

3ivx Technologies Pty. LtdDavid McPaul, on behalf of 3ivx Technologies Pty. Ltd, has just announced on the Haiku mailing list the release of the latest version (5.02) of the 3ivx MPEG-4 ASP video decoder and encoder for the BeOS R5 platform, including an experimental 3ivx decoder for Haiku. Available on the 3ivx website, this release includes many bug fixes, frame accurate seeking, experimental support for mp4 files and aac audio, and a Haiku version of the 3ivx decoder. Haiku versions of the 3ivx decoder and aac decoder are expected to be supported in the future, and a Haiku-specific 3ivx encoder will be released once encoding support is added to the Haiku Media Kit. This is an exciting development, and hopefully just the beginning of a bright future for Haiku in the area of media format support.

BeBook and Be Newsletters Available Online

News posted on Sat, 2008-03-22 03:53

It's been almost one year since we announced our conversations with ACCESS Co. Ltd. targeted at releasing legacy BeOS related documents, and today we are happy to inform the community that this project has finally arrived to a happy conclusion: the BeBook and all the Be Newsletters are now available online. As an emerging open source project, documentation for Haiku is still hard to come by; and while our Documentation Team works on creating Haiku-specific material, the BeBook and the Be Newsletters will provide valuable reference material for all developers, new and experienced alike. We want to express our gratitude to ACCESS Co., Ltd. for supporting our project, particularly to Director of Open Source Technologies David "Lefty" Schlesinger, for personally following up on our request. Special thanks also go to community member Simon Kennedy, for nicely formatting the documents for us.

Haiku Makes it Into Google Summer of Code 2008

News posted on Mon, 2008-03-17 19:09

GSoC logoWe are very pleased to announce that, for the second straight year, Haiku has been accepted as a mentor organization for the Google Summer of Code. The student application period will start soon, so if you are a student who would like to work on a Haiku project for the GSoC 2008, please check out our List of GSoC Ideas and Students: How to Apply pages for detailed information on how to apply. If you still have any questions specific to GSoC after reading these pages, please contact the Haiku GSoC administrator (Bruno Albuquerque). If you have any general questions about Haiku and want to start familiarizing yourself with our community, which we encourage you to, please join the Haiku development mailing list and also feel free to stop by the #haiku IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. Our friendly community members will be glad to help you out in pursuing a Haiku project for the GSoC 2008 and beyond.

Haiku to Exhibit at First LugRadio Live USA

News posted on Tue, 2008-03-04 03:39

Haiku to exhibit at LugRadio Live USA 2008 at the Metreon, San FranciscoThe good news following our recent presence at the SCaLE conference and the great exposure that it resulted in continues to pour in. Haiku has now been invited to have a booth at the LugRadio Live USA 2008, the first LugRadio live event to be held in the US. Needless to say, we could not refuse the irresistible offer. The event will take place in San Francisco on the weekend of April 12 and 13, at the The Metreon entertainment center located at the heart of the city (map).

LugRadio is an event that covers a range of topics about free software, Open Source, digital rights, technology and more. Combined with a compelling list of speakers, exhibitors and birds of a feather sessions, this event is said to offer what feels like a combination of a rock concert and a computer conference. To bring this unique atmosphere to San Francisco, LugRadio Live USA 2008 USA will have around 30 speakers including Miguel de Icaza and Ian Murdock, over 20 exhibitors, an eclectic range of BOF and other sessions, and the live recording of LugRadio in front of an audience.

Haiku Inc. Transition Update

News posted on Thu, 2008-02-07 10:06

It has been several months since we announced the departure of project founder Michael Phipps from Haiku and the transition period that ensued for Haiku Inc. This is an attempt to give the community a most probably long awaited update on where we stand today, what has been done so far and what remains to be done to bring the Haiku Inc. transition to a successful conclusion.

Who we are

First, let's try to put a face to the transition team, so that you know who is behind all this. Under the initiative of Stephan (Stippi) Aßmus, a "transition team" was setup with the main goal of reorganizing Haiku Inc.. To that end, an interim board of directors (BOD) endorsed by the Haiku admins is being put in place; this BOD is only transitional and will eventually be replaced by one elected with votes from a broader representation base. The interim BOD has not been formally sworn in yet, but it is scheduled to include the following individuals:

Developer interviews in Deutschlandradio Kultur

News posted on Fri, 2008-02-01 15:35

Gerrit Stratmann has just informed me that the interviews he did with Axel Dörfler, Ingo Weinhold, Michael Lotz and myself during BeGeistert 018 will appear tomorrow, February 2nd 2008 in Deutschlandradio Kultur between 14:00 and 15:00 CET. A downloadable version will later be made available on the website of the series at www.breitband-online.de.