IBrowse FAQ

[futaura]

I would suggest you delay your evaluation until IBrowse 2.3 + feature list has been released, and you'll see for yourself that's it's not all that bad.  It's not as if the developers have been sitting there twiddling their thumbs for 2 years - a lot of hard work has been put into IBrowse since 2.2 was released.  What isn't mentioned in the FAQ is the improved Javascript support ("improved" being a bit of an understatement).

As for PPC support - that will come in IB3.0.  IB2.3 is too late in the development cycle to start worrying about changing the source code so that it works with GCC and OS4/PPC.  The FAQ also mentions that postscript printing has been improved, so it's untrue to say there's no printing capability.

[futaura]

Quote:

But then I dont understand why the Aos4 version is not a full version. If the reason is not for the individual user to buy a full version then please enlighten me

Hyperion are probably paying Stefan a small fee to include a restricted version with the OS, and that fee fits inside Hyperion's budget for OS4 based on the retail price.  Now, I'm sure if Hyperion were prepared to pay Stefan somewhere near the full retail price of IBrowse per copy of OS4 sold, then the full version could be included.  But, that would of course mean the price of OS4 would have to go up to accomodate for the IBrowse costs.  Obviously, there are many more serious reasons why it would not be a good idea to include a full version, like competition issues, for example.

In summary, you get what you pay for - you can't expect a moreorless free fully-featured copy of IBrowse to be supplied with OS4 - you're paying for OS4, not IBrowse.  But, the fact that Hyperion a presumably paying Stefan a small fee, is reflected by the fact that the OEM version won't be as restricted as the demo version (SSL is disabled in the demo, but won't be in the OS4 OEM version, for example).

[futaura]

Quote:

2.They said themselves that the specs of ver 2.3 where downsized in order to release it with aos 4. So whats the point in downsizing it FURTHER by making a limitid version, when its obvious that the real goodies will be shipped with ver3.0 of IBrowse

Where did it say that?  For starters, IBrowse 2.3 will be released before OS4, so the feature set has absolutely nothing to do with OS4 issues.  If you're referring to the plugin API comments - in no way have 2.3 specs been "downsized".  How can features in 2.3 be "downsized" if they have never actually existed or been completed?  In fact, the actual IBrowse 2.3 specs are far higher than originally planned.