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Category: Software

The last written OS/2 VOICE update about the new web browser for OS/2 and ArcaOS on https://articles.os2voice.org was published on the 13th of February 2022. The illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February and war that followed has sadly delayed the development of the new browser by months.

The development of the Otter browser port has been delayed by months for the time being because the developer Dmitriy Kuminov from Bitwise Works GmbH lived in Russia. Dmitriy opposes the illegal invasion and the war by Russia in Ukraine. Like other Russians Dmitriy has decided to leave Russia as soon as possible after the war started. Over the last couple of months Dmitriy moved to another country outside the E.U. for the short term.  And now moved to a country inside the EU. This has all taken a lot of time. This made it mostly impossible to work on the Otter or Dooble Browser.

In April OS/2 VOICE and BWW released the Dooble browser preview as an RPM file you can install via ANPM (Arca Noae Package Manager). For more information visit this page:
https://www.os2world.com/cms/index.php/past-news/80-news/software/23292-dooble-browser-preview-version-rpm

It was orginally promised that the Otter Browser port would be used. We however put this on hold because we wanted to release something sooner (with the limited human resources we had). It was unknown how long Dmitriy would be busy moving to the European Union. The Dooble browser was also picked because it was faster at loading pages then the Otter Browser port. We also found it to be more stable then the Otter Browser port. BTW a big thanks is extended to Elbert Pol, Stevene Levine and Gregg Young for helping Dmitriy getting the Dooble browse out in an RPM package.

Writing this update on the 5th of August, Dmitriy will get settled in an appartement in the European Union in the coming days. So the development of the new browser port will resume. We also there for want to receive donations from you:
Please make your donation via https://donation.os2voice.org

The plan is to resolve the most frequent crashes and issue's with the Webkit browser engine. The Dooble browser will be used for this.
This is currently *expected* to take 1 month to 6 weeks of development.

After the Dooble browser works stable enough the plan is to return to Otter Browse port as this browser support more features.

Best regards,

Roderick Klein
President OS/2 VOICE