Best of 2006 awards results Published: 31st Dec 2006, 12:23:30 | Permalink | PrintableHere's to 2007 As 2006 finally draws to a close, it's time to reveal who was hot and who was not in the RISC OS world this year. The Best of 2006 results are in, and here are the winners and runners-up chosen by drobe.co.uk readers.
Every developer, bug hunter, article writer, mailing list poster, and user who found a way to contribute to their favourite software and platform, is worth their weight in gold. The results shine a spotlight on people who communicate well with their fellow users, and blow a raspberry at those who think silence is golden. The voting also showed how important the Internet is to RISC OS users, and how open source software is vital for the progression of the platform. And without further ado:
The winners
The best commercial product of 2006, according to drobe readers, is the AdvantageSix A9home. Officially released in time for the Wakefield show in May, this diminutive RISC OS 4-powered computer uses a 400MHz system-on-a-chip Samsung ARM9 processor and a Silicon Motion SM501 graphics chip in an attempt to offer an affordable RISC OS desktop machine. In a close second place comes R-Comp's email and Usenet client Messenger Pro, which gained numerous features this year including HTML email support.
In the best non-commercial software category, in first place is the run away success story NetSurf. The open source application continues to be developed by an informal team of young programmers who are gradually working towards a version 1.0 milestone. In second place is Peter Naulls's RISC OS port of Firefox, which saw version 2 released later this year.
The best RISC OS event of 2006 goes to the Wakefield show, as organised by the WROCC. Close behind in second place was SASAUG's South East show in Guildford.
Although they've yet to release any source code or decide upon a licence, RISC OS Open impressed enough readers to win the best ingenious project category. The organisation, with the help of Castle, are hoping to reveal the blueprints of RISC OS 5 so everyone can get stuck into improving the operating system. ROS Open's Steve Revill and Castle's Jack Lillingston are set to present their efforts so far to punters in London in January. In second place, is Martin Wuerthner and John Tytgat's plans to develop a PostScript 3 printer driver.
The prize of top own goal of 2006 goes to Qercus editor John Cartmell and his AWOL magazine. The 'monthly' publication appears to be on the straight and narrow again, with three issues in the post since October, although the new 6-week publishing cycle isn't exactly what the 'thousands' of subscribers paid their 50 quid a year for. In second place is Peter "never explain, never apologise" Naulls, mainly for his initially Iyonix-only Firefox that used ARMv5 specific instructions to shave thousandths of a second off web page rendering.
And finally, in the category of best overall contribution to the platform in 2006, the winner has worked on several commercial and non-commercial software packages, from graphic design to printing to word processors. First place this year goes to Martin Wuerthner. Second place goes to the NetSurf development team for their work and spin-offs from the browser project.
Thanks to readers who voted, congratulations to the winners, and a pat on the back to everyone to contributed to the platform in 2006 - have a happy new year.
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