The BeOS-inspired Haiku open-source operating system has published their latest monthly development report. During December they worked on a number of features and fixes as well as getting a modern web browser up and running.

First up, the Iceweasel web browser that is the web browser built from Mozilla Firefox sources but without any Mozilla branding is up and running on Haiku. The Iceweasel browser with Haiku was initially quite unstable but after a lot of work in recent weeks, it's "relatively stable" for those wanting this browser option on Haiku. There is though "a lot of issues or missing features with the port itself still to resolve."

Haiku has also been making memory management changes, in part from the encounters when trying out Iceweasel on Haiku. Memory management intensive software on Haiku should ideally now better cope thanks to the memory management work.

Haiku has also seen various memory leak fixes, dropping of the legacy 2D acceleration code from app_server, the Realtek WiFi driver was updated from its FreeBSD sources, VESA BIOS patching is now enabled by default on hardware where it's known to work, and various file-system enhancements.

More details on the Haiku operating system improvements made during December 2024 via the [1]Haiku-OS.org blog .



[1] https://www.haiku-os.org/blog/waddlesplash/2025-01-13-haiku_activity_contract_report_december_2024/