There are two AROS bounties that I would like to concentrate on in this post. One is something that every member of the Amiga inspired community dreams of and one has the highest dollar amount of AROS bounties. The two bounties are "Port of MOS KHTML engine" and "Port AROS To EFIKA".

There has been some discussion about the bounty for Lynx being canceled. I have to agree with this decision. I would much rather have a better solution for web browsing. Lynx would be just a temporary solution, in my opinion. I think if the effort is going towards something like this, it might as well be a better solution. One of the solutions brought up is Sputnik. (I love the name, by the way) Sputnik is a web browser that is based on KHTML from the KDE project. As mentioned in this interview, it is more specifically based on a browser for S60 devices by Nokia. Sputnik is being developed by Marcin 'Marcik' Kwiatkowski. Right now he is working heavily on the MorphOS port. He has mentioned if the bounty for the AROS port reaches $1000, he would consider doing it. I seriously think if we want a good browser running in AROS we need to take advantage of this offer. If it takes throwing the money from the Lynx bounty into it, then I think it needs to be done. There is still plenty of time to donate to this bounty, because Marcik will be tied up awhile longer with the MorphOS port. If the bounty could be reached without using the Lynx bounty money, then it would be even better, because that means other well deserved bounties would get it. So if you have the money and you want a good browser for AROS, please donate it to the "Port of MOS KHTML engine". You can also see screenshots of Sputnik at the bottom of the interview at http://www.ppa.pl/khtml/index_en.php. The interface definitely needs an artist's touch, but I'm sure Marcik has plans for that once the browser is ready for prime time.

I wanted to mention the "Port AROS To EFIKA" bounty because of a few reasons. First, some good money is being donated to it. Second, I wanted to highlight it so more people would understand what it is. Third, I think it would make a very cool AROS machine. The EFIKA has just recently been manufactured by Genesi. They are known for bringing us the PegasosPPC. The length of the EFIKA is not much longer than a pen. It is tiny, but mighty! Even with only 128MB of RAM, it should run AROS extremely well. Heck, AROS should fly on this baby! They have just now started designing cases for the EFIKA. Check out these pictures here and here. The latter is a full solution and runs $499. It looks like the board itself is running $199 straight from Genesi. This would be an inexpensive solution for a brand new stand alone AROS computer in the future. The AROS bounty is rising on this and is the highest bounty right now. But I think it will take more funds before somebody actually starts working on this one. Only time will tell.