Since the package management feature branch was merged into HAIKU's
master repository, numerous issues were uncovered. As with any large
feature, an influx of regressions and other issues should always be expected.
Most of the issues revolved around not being able to install or even
run certain software, which for an operating system is a big deal.
Luckily, with any actively developed software such as Haiku, bug fixes
continue to happen. This article will go into some of those issues, what
has been done to fix them, and what other improvements are in the pipeline.
The allure of crowdsourcing is appealing. Notions of being able to
reach out to countless new people, who may become interested in HAIKU
and what it represents have and continue to captivate my attention. Over
the past month, we at Haiku, Inc. have researched, discussed, and
discussed some more, two crowdsourcing alternatives --
Kickstarter
and Indiegogo.
In a third installment of donation infrastructure updates, Bitcoin is now accepted! As you may know, bitcoin is a digital currency, which can be “mined” or traded online for cash and various goods and services. Donation buttons are listed on Haiku, Inc.’s donation page. For those who prefer, our bitcoin address is 1CvgfZCz9Scw3711zU1SN59Q8rvas3FgU1.
Another development in Haiku’s donation infrastructure has been implemented! This time it’s Flattr - Social microdonations. Flattr is a way for you to set a monthly donation budget, which then automatically gets divided into equal pieces and donated to people you choose to “Flattr”. You can read more about How Flattr Works.
In time, we expect Flattr buttons to be added elsewhere, including haiku-files.org and even within individual postings on the website.
Last month on the [haiku-inc] mailing list, Arman “Kulluminatii” Chahal suggested adding Haiku to Goodsearch. “What is Goodsearch?”, you may ask. It’s a Yahoo! powered search engine that will donate money (about a penny) to your favorite non-profit or school. They provide other ways to help earn money – shopping online, participating in online surveys, completing special offers and more! This past week, the registration process completed and Haiku is now a participating non profit!
An unexpected change has necessitated a delay to the start of the package management contracts. Ingo recently posted the update to the [haiku-inc] mailing list. To sum it up, the parts he is responsible for need to be updated to match changes by the customer. At this time, the delay could be anywhere from a few days of work or could be several weeks. The current plan is for Ingo and Oliver to start at the same time.
As you may recall during August, Ingo Weinhold and Oliver Tappe were each accepted for two-month development contracts relating to package management[1]. Originally, their start dates were slated for sometime around November or December. Due to their current contractual obligations with other employers, they will not be able to begin as early as planned. The revised start date is now around February or March.
Friday, August 24th marked the end of
Google Summer of Code 2012.
This was the sixth year that the Haiku project participated
and was one of 180 fellow mentoring organizations.
This year, five of 1,212 students were mentored by Haiku.
To give a frame of reference to the competitiveness in Google Summer of Code,
over 400 mentoring organizations and over 4,000 students applied to participate.
For both mentoring organizations (and students), it is an honor and pleasure
to be selected in Google Summer of Code.
For those not in the know, Google Summer of Code is "a global program
that offers student developers stipends to write code for various
open source software projects". In other words, simply by being one
of the mentoring organizations, many youthful computer-savvy students
may learn about HAIKU for the first time. For a carefully selected few,
they have the opportunity to receive priority from our mentors in
teaching them how to develop software for Haiku. This is a unique opportunity,
as there is no other outreach effort of this magnitude available to the Haiku project.
With the announcement of Ingo and Oliver’s contracts for package management, it is worthwhile to revisit how package management will function. When reading, keep in mind that this explanation will be condensed, simplified, and partially incomplete. Nonetheless, it will provide a general overview on how things will work.
Over the weekend, Google processed the results for the midterm evaluations for Google Summer of Code 2012. I’m pleased to announce that all five students passed their midterm evaluations! As you may have seen, the students have been posting details on their progress and future plans on their blogs. Last month, two students even gained commit access. Alex Smith received it for Haiku’s repository and Hamish Morrison received access to OpenJDK.
