Following the temporary hiring of core developer Axel Dörfler last winter, Haiku has now hired its second developer. A summer intern from a college near to project lead Michael Phipps, the un-named developer will spend the months of June, July and August working on the networking stack. Your donations to the project are funding this development, which is crucial in the progress towards a first release.

Phipps recently said that networking and USB were the two most important features missing from Haiku, and with Michael Lotz currently working on the USB stack, progress is being made on both fronts. Haiku had originally applied to the Google Summer of Code for these projects, and was rejected, but as an interview in the Haiku Podcast with Phipps confirmed, Haiku would make "their own" Summer of Code if required.

The news release from Haiku also confirms that they are aware of, and support the Haiku Bounties project, which has so far raised around $1,100 for various Haiku related projects.