Well, its soon coming to the end of another great year of developments, hard work, and most important of all, changes to our fine community, and I thought I would take this moment to say how much we at Haiku News appreciate every single one of our readers.

Without the many readers who have contacted us in one form or another, there would be little reason for us to report the news, or stay focused on maintaining this (imho) valuable resource for all. You are great, and you help make us feel appreciated with the feedback and support you've shown to us over the years.


Ok, this sounds a little bit like a tear-jerker, and maybe so, but sometimes I get in a certain mood, and I have to write it down, if only to express how I feel. I honestly appreciate being a part of a great community. Through the years I have often remarked on how friendly many people I've met are, how open and giving they have been to not just myself, but to anyone who has needed help. Many developers that have struggled with difficult problems or needed some one small thing that they could not obtain if not for the assistance of those that have stepped forward, time and time again, have proven that there are a great number of wonderful people in our community. We should all be thankful to these generous contributors, and in turn, try to live up to the same bar of excellence they have shown.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of taking a small vacation with my mother who flew from Canada to the Netherlands to enjoy some parts of Europe for a few weeks. We took in some sights, travelled by train to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, and finally back to Rotterdam, and generally had a pretty nice adventure in doing so. It was our stay in France where I truly experienced fine generousity and friendship at its finest. I would like to thank Eric "Baldur" Jourde, for without whom we would have had a much less exciting time in France, as he allowed us three wonderful days to enjoy the "real" France in his beautiful country-side home.

Eric stepped forward when I earlier asked the community for travel and accommodation ideas, and offered his hospitality with no strings attached. We had a lovely stay, and it made me realize that through our kinship as fellow BeOS users, an opportunity to get to know each other was created, something that to this day I think will remain with me for the rest of my life. This type of connection with my fellow BeSharian (BeShare, it's what's for dinner.) is an example of the kind of vitality that is present in our community, showing that being generous in spirit is reward onto itself.

This year, the year 2004, has been a remarkable year in achievement. Below I'd like to highlight some of the stories, available in our archive, that made us smile.

• OpenBFS Chosen For SkyOS's FileSystem.
  The SkyOS Project chose to use OpenBFS as their new filesystem. Work on adopting the new filesystem was accomplished fairly quickly, according to the news update at SkyOS.org, which spoke of achieving full read/write/execute support in merely a weekend. A true testament to the high quality of OpenBFS, and the talented developers associated with OpenBFS and SkyOS.
• Memory Limitation Work-Around Achieved.
  Coming out of left field was the news that a long-held memory limitation had been worked around, despite having no real access to any source code. Euan Kirkhope and many fine developers are to thank for this nice bit o' tinkering. It goes to show that almost anything is possible given the proper motivation and time.
• WalterCon 2004 Announced.
  Certainly a remarkable event, full of surprises and announcements, such as the new Haiku name, that set the pace for the rest of the year. Taking place during the summer in Columbus, Ohio, it was an administrative challenge to find a suitable location where members of the community could travel to with not too much trouble. WalterCon was a big hit, from all accounts, and we were proud to interview several of the participants.
• First Haiku Screenshots, & HD Booting.
  Hot on the heels of the new name announcement was the public unveiling of Haiku itself booting for the first time on an actual hard drive, and not inside an emulator as had been the case till then. Axel Dörfler and his fine crew literally spent weeks till then, quietly working on this to be ready for the presentation. It was a very nice feeling to see our beloved project achieve hard drive booting for the first time.
• Haiku Legal Paperwork Complete.
  Michael Phipps reported on the Haiku website that the long overdue paperwork for the organization had finally arrived, capping almost two years of waiting, and allowing donations from the general public. This meant the many people who were non-developers but still wished to help in some way could finally make their donations to the organization, helping financially make the project a real, viable entity.

Several organizations should be mentioned as I write this, for they are also quite important to not just myself, but to everyone who wants to keep up with current events. I would like to thank the fine staff at BeUnited who have worked diligently on writing standards documents, and project management. The webmaster of Haiku-os.org has done an excellent job at re-launching the project website, and I would be remiss if I didn't point out his talented hand.

Among the many news sites I visit daily, two stand out from the rest. Not that they are more important or more deserving of praise, as any and all associated websites are equally important in my opinion, but in that the people behind them are individuals for whom I have come to respect a great deal.

Eugenia Loli-Queru of OSNews.com and Daniel "Daat" Teixeira of IsComputerOn.com are two very dedicated people who daily have contributed in their own way, embued with a passion for their craft. I've known Eugenia for a few years now, and she has never failed to surprise me with her ferocity and strong opinion. I had the pleasure of helping Daniel get started in online journalism, here when we were known as The BeOSJournal, and it made me feel proud when he left to create ICO.

To the many fine developers in our community, I thank you too. Far too many to list here, as there are many who prefer to work quietly, steadily, knowing that one day their work will make its way into the project. You know who you are.

I want to wrap this up by encouraging those that do not often come out of the woodwork to do so more often, if only for a few minutes to chat. There are quite a number of ways to be more vocal in our community, and if you will indulge me, I will list them here:

• BeShare
  Wonderful help resource for anyone who is stuck or having trouble with some code. Discussions range from politics to science fiction, music to culture, and more.


• Vision
  Or if you prefer, any regular IRC client you already use. The main IRC network and channel in use is on irc.sorcery.net in #beos.


• Haiku Mailing List
  A great list that has seen some very in-depth ideas being tossed about. Newcomers should read the archives first before posting, but any and all questions are welcome, and will be dealt with accordingly.

Once again, I thank you, the readership, and wish you well in the coming year. This year has indeed been the "Year of the code", and I only hope that 2005 will bring as many good things as well.

Merry Christmas.

-Chris Simmons