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:
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).
David 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.
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 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.
The 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.
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:
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.
Farewell video: YouTube | Download
Project founder, long time leader and Haiku visionary Michael Phipps departed from the project last year. Michael's list of achievements is long: he did not just provide an overall vision for Haiku, but he also set up Haiku Inc., and over the years put in countless hours of work, keeping the development effort on track whenever it seemed to drift away from the goals, and single-handedly managing the infrastructure supporting the project. Without Michael, Haiku would most probably not be what it has become today.
Michael gave his goodbye in a moving letter to the Haiku community but, somehow, it feels as if we never reciprocated with a proper farewell. So we decided to do something special to show our heartfelt appreciation. We are thereby presenting Michael Phipps with the first ever Haiku Recognition Award. This is a very special award with a personal touch, as it has been signed by members of the community present at the recent BeGeistert 018 conference held in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is also accompanied by a farewell video.
