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NetSurf 1.0 is worth millions on paper Published: 28th May 2007, 11:43:37 | Permalink | PrintableFirst stable release unveiled and online  NetSurf is a multi-million pound project according to a popular cost analysis program. The estimated cost of the project was calculated during the run up to the first stable release of the RISC OS open source web browser, version 1.0. The milestone build was unveiled at this month's Wakefield 2007 show, and the team are now concentrating on future features; this may include JavaScript support, although internal code reorganisation and increased reliability are likely to be early focus areas.
According to the team, the main features of NS include: quick rendering, friendly user interface, support for most of CSS 2, page zoom, drawfile export, thumbanil history view, hotlist and cookie management, ad blocking, and search-as-you-type. US based coder James Bursa said of version 1.0: "This release is the result of over five years of development by 22 developers and contributors. Thanks also to our testers and bug reporters."
Although the software is available for free download, the group managed to sell nearly 100 mini-CDs of the web browser at a fiver each; along with other donations and after paying off costs for the show, the project netted a tidy 461 quid. It's hoped a bank account can be formally set up for the NetSurf project to fund further development, future show costs, and pay for website bandwidth charges - traffic to the site has been gradually rising.
Coder Daniel Silverstone, who was part of the NS stand at Wakefield, said: "We managed to make and sell 95 individually numbered CDs of 1.0, and one kind soul went and bought himself a blank CD when we had run out and we burned that for him also.
"As such, I have currently got quite a bit of cash in a cashbox which has been locked and marked for official NetSurf disbursements such as the domain registration, bandwidth and hosting costs, travel to shows and show-stand rental, etc."
Meanwhile, figures generated by David A. Wheeler's SLOCCount software estimate that if NetSurf was produced in a commercial environment, rather than in the spare time of its contributors, it would cost $2.47 million to develop - or £1.24 million in real money. The program is made up of 72494 lines of C code, 648 lines of perl, and 120 lines of ARM assembler code. The software has also been ported to the GTK desktop platform since its debut in 2002.
Links
NetSurf website - download for version 1.0 now available
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