Why no updates for OWB on AmigaOS 4.1

[cgutjahr]

I'm sure I've read some 'history' about this, but I can't find the full story again, but why hasn't there been any updates after 1.9, while MorphOS is up to 1.18, Why nothing past 2010?

A while ago, kas1e  cited lack of time and said that he wanted to open a bounty before he tackles an update.. He's been assigned the VPDF bounty in July, which should have been finished in December but looks like it was abandoned. kas1e is now waiting for amigabounty.net to open another MUIOWB bounty for him.

And guys, please don't mention MorphOS in this thread. It might draw tmhgm's attention.

[takemehomegrandma]

And guys, please don't mention MorphOS in this thread. It might draw tmhgm's attention.

That would be bad!

:lol:

[Duce]

OWB never ran worth a **** on my OS4 machine, if it ran at all.  Sorry.

I'll stick with Timberwolf, it'll actually handle the Google cloud apps just fine where as OWB on OS4 barfed left and right.

[Matt_H]

@danwood

Since 5 Sep 2011 the browser's name is "Odyssey", before that it simply was "OWB". Never has the official name of the browser been "MUI-OWB" AFAIK, that's just some OS4 community make-up name to separate Fab's browser from completely unrelated ones with similar names, but again - since 5 Sep 2011 there hasn't been any *need* for make-up names, since no web browser for AmigaOS has a similar name as Odyssey, so there is no reason not to use its *proper* name!

Come on, there's no need to be pedantic about it. "MUI-OWB" came about to differentiate it from the original OS4 port. Everyone knows what it means and it helps to prevent confusion between the multiple forks.

And yes, even though the official name is now Odyssey, it doesn't seem to have caught on much. I for one still call it OWB on my MorphOS box. It takes a long time to break old naming habits.

[takemehomegrandma]

Come on, there's no need to be pedantic about it. "MUI-OWB" came about to differentiate it from the original OS4 port. Everyone knows what it means and it helps to prevent confusion between the multiple forks.

Well since 5 Sep 2011 the browser is officially named (and known as) Odyssey, and one of the reasons for the new name was to prevent confusions, so why not call it by its real name?

:confused:

It has (according to Fab) practically nothing to do with "Origyn Web Browser" anymore, since quite some time before the name change already (which was one of the reasons to the name change in the first place), and to still call it "MUI-OWB" today is to suggest it would merely be some recompile of "Origyn", only with a different GUI engine (like: "MUI instead of Reaction").

Which of course couldn't be further from the truth! It's not a "fork" at all! :evil:

It was only some month ago I saw some post at AW.net that confused/mixed up Odyssey with some OS4 "Origyn" (OWB) compilation, most certainly because of the poor MUI-OWB "name", which IMHO is to *belittle* Fab's effort quite gravely, since Odyssey is a uniquely developed (and maintained) browser based on Webkit, with huge amounts of efforts put into it over these years, and nothing like the various ports of "Origyn" at all. And here *you* are, talking about "preventing confusion between different forks"! "Original OS4 port"?! Come on! You are making my case!

There is nothing "pedantic" about this, Odyssey is a unique Amiga development. It's probably the single most important application developed for Amiga in modern times (relatively speaking), a lot of *real* development efforts (as opposed to the "quick porting" efforts we are used to today) was put into it, and it deserves to be called by its *proper* name (a name that has been here for a *very* long time by now), and not to be confused with some cheap "Origyn" port (suggesting it's a "fork" of some kind).

The fact that "Odyssey Web Browser" gets shortened the same way is not the point, that part was probably even a bit of a joke anyway. But to avoid all kinds of confusion, while still paying proper amount of respect to it, just call it Odyssey! It's as simple as that! Not difficult at all!

[MicroStrand]

Here we can see some new interesting comments about the situation from kas1e at the Hyperion Entertainment Message Board! It seems some users are now really pissed off. :nervous:

(Content has been cowardly removed by S. Solie.)

[OlafS3]

Here we can see some new interesting comments about the situation from kas1e at the Hyperion Entertainment Message Board! It seems some users are now really pissed off. :nervous:

Besides that the word "pissed" is a little too often for my taste... There are some fundamental questions... who does it? The number of volunteers in the amiga-community (with enough knowledge) is very limited (or better not-existing). The most who have experience already have their projects. So he (the user) does a good job to "piss-off kas1e". Who organizes it then? This user? I would predict that he does not do it (just requesting/expecting). Then there are other related problems. I read a discussion on amigans where kas1e explained some of the problems. OWB is "opensource" but somehow not. The sources are in development in a closed area where noone else can commit. That means that every sourcechange (for AROS/AmigaOS) has to be redone every time a new version is ported. People tend to forget so basically it all has to be redone every time (a lot of wasted time and energy). The second problem is important components like HTML5 player are not part of OWB but closed source components of MorphOS. Of course the GUI is MUI4 and that is closed source too. So every port of OWB is not only older than the actual/newest one, it is also worse. Someone discussed with me that he would prefer a Ambient port to Magellan for AROS. Here would the same happen as now with OWB.

For people interested to read: http://www.amigans.net/modules/xforum/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5978&forum=29&post_id=80156#forumpost80156

[MicroStrand]

I personally am completely neutral towards things, but these delaying tactics is quite unfair towards all the users without there being the slightest progress. Since it would be better to close a project quite immediately, rather than constantly raise false expectations. And the subsequent censorship by Steven Solie does not change anything!

[vox]

Besides that the word "pissed" is a little too often for my taste... There are some fundamental questions... who does it? The number of volunteers in the amiga-community (with enough knowledge) is very limited (or better not-existing). The most who have experience already have their projects. So he (the user) does a good job to "piss-off kas1e". Who organizes it then? This user? I would predict that he does not do it (just requesting/expecting). Then there are other related problems. I read a discussion on amigans where kas1e explained some of the problems. OWB is "opensource" but somehow not. The sources are in development in a closed area where noone else can commit. That means that every sourcechange (for AROS/AmigaOS) has to be redone every time a new version is ported. People tend to forget so basically it all has to be redone every time (a lot of wasted time and energy). The second problem is important components like HTML5 player are not part of OWB but closed source components of MorphOS. Of course the GUI is MUI4 and that is closed source too. So every port of OWB is not only older than the actual/newest one, it is also worse. Someone discussed with me that he would prefer a Ambient port to Magellan for AROS. Here would the same happen as now with OWB.

For people interested to read: http://www.amigans.net/modules/xforum/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5978&forum=29&post_id=80156#forumpost80156

We ll I ve tried to setup Power2People bounty on matter and got a simple answer that current OWB MorphOS is not suitable since its NOT completely open source. Surely, this longer exponations of it being closely tied to MorphOS explain it.

Well, currently one has to admit - MorphOS has better browsing experience. That with hungry and unstable TW make matters for OS4 users worse (not only in comparison to MOS)

Browsers, beside office, being critical points of OS usability and MOS and OS4 developers at some point could even have a need to halt OS development to resolve the matter. Without those, great OS itself is quite unsuitable for anything but fun. :juggler: