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Oregano 2 goes public

By Chris Williams. Published: 6th Mar 2003, 21:32:42 | Permalink | Printable

Web browser on sale now. Demo finally out [Updated 20:49 7/3/2003]


We've received unofficial word that Oregano 2, the follow up to the original Oregano 1 web browser developed by Oregan and published by Castle, is now available online to the end user public. An upgrade from Oregano 1 to Oregano 2 looks like it'll cost 58 quid inc. VAT - more details from Castle's software page.

Already drobe.co.uk reader Grahame Parish has informed us that he's ordered an O1 to O2 upgrade via the Castle website and is awaiting a CD to be posted, how exciting. Iyonix users have already been issued with an Oregano 2 upgrade, we're awaiting an official statement from Castle, as usual, to announce the release of the next major version of their web browser for RISC OS.

Update
The Oregano 2 demo is now available online, you can download it and test drive it yourself, as we have. The browser demo from our first few minutes of surfing with it seems competent enough. A number of users are claiming Castle originally said that the upgrade path for Oregano 1 to Oregano 2 would be free to existing users and are upset at the upgrade cost. riscos.org come to the rescue here, shedding light on the suitation having contacted Castle directly.

"We have been in touch with Jack Lillingston [managing director of Castle - Ed], who tells us that Oregan were going to do the upgrade free of charge, but a change of policy meant that Castle had to pay a considerable sum for the new version", writer Andrew Harmsworth states in the riscos.org coverage of Oregano 2. "The new version has been ported from Oregan's Interactor code and does mean that further enhancements will drop off the line relativly easily, as Oregano keeps track with Interactor."

Links


Oregano 2 feature list Castle

Previous: Artworks 2 rescheduled for Wakefield 2003
Next: drobe.co.uk updates

Discussion

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Full version is £99, help ma boab!

At least there's demo out soon, so we can decide for ourselves if it's worth it.

is a RISC OS Userthegman on 6/3/03 9:54PM
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I have ordered a uppgrade !

is a RISC OS Usermicken on 6/3/03 10:05PM
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Or get it when you buy an Iyonix ;-)

-- Peter, drobe.co.uk

is a RISC OS Usermrchocky on 6/3/03 10:24PM
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How annoying, when I purchased Oregano 1 (back when it was first released), I was assured that the upgrade to O2 was imiment and would be free to existing customers. Being somewhat cynical I asked repeatedly and always recieved the same answer -free to O1 users, something I based my decision to purchase on - and now 58 quid! An almost ironic 1ukp less than the original purchase cost! The demo had better be bloody good if they're to get any more money from me. -- Ryan Hitch, Cottingham

is a RISC OS Userdrjones69 on 6/3/03 10:42PM
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£58 to upgrade?

Funny sort of "free", that. There'll be a lot of people very pleased about that, I'm sure. When you get told you'll get a free upgrade to Oregano2 if you have Oregano1, you don't expect to fork out the original price all over again. -- Michael Stubbs, Leeds

is a RISC OS Userarenaman on 6/3/03 11:33PM
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I never thought (but was wishing...) that the upgrade will be free, except for the very first user perhaps. So i calculated something about 10 or 20 GBP.

But now it comes almost three times that much. O2 must be very very much better then O1. For this price it at least must be equal to current Gecko-based browsers...

Sincerely Hauke

is a RISC OS UserVLIW on 6/3/03 11:42PM
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Whilst I'm not over the moon about its price, I take a look at the alternatives and I see that it's quite good value after all. Shame they can't afford to develop it for free, but that's the RISC OS market. If you want it, you have to pay for it.

is a RISC OS Userjonix on 7/3/03 12:57AM
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Cue long and angry thread on comp.sys.acorn.long-and-angry-threads

However O2 *is* a very nice browser.

-- S Williams,

is a RISC OS Userblahsnr on 7/3/03 9:47AM
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Ryan, if one of the reasons you purchased Oregano1 was the cost of the upgrade path and that reason has changed significantly then you probably have reasons to claim that you were sold Oregano1 unfairly i.e. Castle are in breach of trading standards and you could get your money back. If you have the evidence/correspondance then confront them with this.

Malcolm

is a RISC OS Usermripley on 7/3/03 9:59AM
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Browsing on a SA200 RiscPC is just too slow compared to say Linux and Opera on an Athlon 1700 PC. Opera was less than £35 for a dual Linux/Windoze licence (the kidz use it on Windoze, not me!), so £58 would be a waste of money on a RiscPC. When I can afford a third computer (Iyonix or Omega), maybe, but even then it will look a bit steep.

is a RISC OS Uservorgykof on 7/3/03 10:23AM
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Had I had my iPaq back then (or even a basic dictaphone), I'd have a recording of it - alas I guess I'll just have look annoyed, growl lots and then do nothing :-)

I guess I'll just have to continue turning that monitor switch on my desk and using IE on Windows - the PC it's running on cost less than O1 + O2 upgrade!

-- Ryan Hitch, Cottingham

is a RISC OS Userdrjones69 on 7/3/03 10:30AM
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I agree with Dr Jones. I bought O1 on the understanding that O2 was imminent, and would be FREE.

There's no mention of a cache either!!

I can't help but be annoyed at this. -- Andrew Harmsworth, Cambridge. www.gcse.com owner and author

is a RISC OS Userharmsy on 7/3/03 10:31AM
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It is free! (If you buy an Iyonix, but you were going to do that anyway ;-).

It burns my ties!

-- Peter, drobe.co.uk

is a RISC OS Usermrchocky on 7/3/03 10:41AM
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It is a tad more expensive than I was expecting and the full version makes for a very expensive web browser. The choice of whether to buy it or not is simple. Either do or don't. I hope it's not priced too high for it to sell well. If it is, well....lets just hope it isn't. Cheers!

is a RISC OS UserThe Doctor on 7/3/03 11:27AM
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chocky : So, buy forking out over a grand on a new machine, you get a 100 quid piece of software thrown in...

Hmmm, yes it is free, but it is the bloody expensive sort...

is a RISC OS UserNodoid on 7/3/03 11:40AM
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harmsy: There is a memory cache of recent files, but not a filesystem cache

is a RISC OS Userflibble on 7/3/03 11:43AM
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Nod: ...and once again you fail to finish whatever blabbering point you were trying to make.

-- Peter, drobe.co.uk

is a RISC OS Usermrchocky on 7/3/03 11:47AM
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drjones69: when oregano1 was first released, there would have been no idea that Oregano2 was in the pipeline, are you sure they didn't mean the various updates that made it into 1.10?

is a RISC OS Userflibble on 7/3/03 11:57AM
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The demo can be downloaded now, alongside various !System and Toolbox updates... will be nice to free my RiscStation from WebsterXL for a couple of weeks... -- Govind Kharbanda, Edinburgh

is a RISC OS Usergovind on 7/3/03 12:09PM
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dude. This browser is cool. Seems to log me into drobe.co.uk alright.

Main niggle is the scrolling - youch. Other huge pickle is the price man - yoauch! I can't afford to pay that kind of money - I'm only a poor student living off bread and butter! (And a meagre portion of Caffine) Looks like I'll be saving up all summer to get a PC instead of this RISC OS box. I hear that browsers are free the other side?

is a RISC OS UserSnig on 7/3/03 12:43PM
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So are viruses, bloat and constant

[snip mangled comment, maybe you should use Oregano 2 instead? ;-) - chris, 13:26 7/3/2003]

is a RISC OS UserThe Doctor on 7/3/03 1:17PM
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'Oh dear me' would be a highly censored version of what just passed my lips. Ok, so WXL isn't perfect and I can't be bothered to retype it all. If someone could just delete both comments when you get time please. Cheers!

is a RISC OS UserThe Doctor on 7/3/03 1:20PM
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Anybody who thinks RISC OS is immune to, or has no viruses is a fool, though.

And what is 'bloat'? The adding of features that aren't actually useful, but are pretty? Sounds like a lot of things in Select, to me.

is a RISC OS Usernunfetishist on 7/3/03 1:22PM
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Sure, whatever you say Rob/nunfetishist. Whatever you say.

Chris, drobe.co.uk

is a RISC OS Userdiomus on 7/3/03 1:32PM
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Could the high price be a cunning marketing ploy? Iyonix with free O2, versus Omega + £100 extra? Would that help tip the balance for the undecided? {/cynical}

is a RISC OS Usermonkeyson on 7/3/03 1:55PM
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Monkeyson has a point, but at least this might encourage R-Comp to improve WXL, they could charge £50 and it would seem like a bargain (assuming it is suitably improved).

MD could be smart and reduce the price of the Omega by £100, well, I say 'reduce' I meant 'set the price and let us buy them'.

is a RISC OS Userthegman on 7/3/03 2:03PM
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Or you can use NetSurf for free. Well, when we get it finished you can. :)

is a RISC OS Usermonkeyson on 7/3/03 2:06PM
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Might have to return to WXL ... getting 'String not found' error when unpacking the archive and 'FileCore in Use' over and over again (haven't seen that in years) when I tried to view the default page. Postmortem displayed nothing intelligible to me. Nice splash screen though.

Govind Kharbanda, Edinburgh

is a RISC OS Usergovind on 7/3/03 4:01PM
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Chris, in your screenshot it looks like O2 is using O1's fonts. You might try moving O1's resources out of !Boot temporarily because the fonts have been changed a little to make them clearer (Typewriter looks a lot better). [posting from O2!] -- Simon Wilson, Boulder, Colorado

is a RISC OS Userksattic on 7/3/03 4:04PM
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I contacted Castle about the reason for charging, and have put their respoonse on riscos.org. :-) -- Andrew Harmsworth, Cambridge. www.gcse.com owner and author

is a RISC OS Userharmsy on 7/3/03 5:20PM
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Twice! :)

is a RISC OS Usermonkeyson on 7/3/03 5:25PM
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Yes. Yes. It went up twice because O1 is very slow at submission, and I got impatient.

Writing this in O2. It is very fast, compared to O1, even over Broadband. It is a little buggy. Its rendering speed is impressive, possibly faster than Fresco. Probably worth the money, once the scroll bar is sorted out. -- Andrew Harmsworth, Cambridge. www.gcse.com owner and author

is a RISC OS Userharmsy on 7/3/03 5:49PM
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Just got the O2 demo, by far the best browser I've used on RISC OS, unfortunatly the scrollbar issue is pain and it can't do the two important work related sites I use a lot. Shows great promise though, and pretty fast.

is a RISC OS Userthegman on 7/3/03 6:32PM
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Can someone please check:

[link]

And see whether you get a three column display, or not? I want to check whether floats are supported :-)

is a RISC OS Usermoss on 7/3/03 6:52PM
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Whats all this about omega? does no one remember that ages ago MD were talking about it shipping with their "Lybx internet suite" whatever that is...

is a RISC OS Userrobert79 on 7/3/03 7:29PM
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I think the fact that MD have not said (TTBOMK) that the Lynx suite includes a browser, means that it probably does not, or at least not a new/very good one.

is a RISC OS Userthegman on 7/3/03 10:08PM
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moss: Nope, it doesn't do floats.

I've run through the W3's CSS test suite (at [link] ) and although it's improved over O1, there's still a way to go yet to reach CSS1 :|

O2 does almost all of the basic colour stuff (for text, background etc), and a fair amount of the font options (size, family, style etc).

It does not do any of the layout related bits (margin, padding, border, height, width and so on).

Still, the stuff that is implemented seems stable.

is a RISC OS Userbarti on 7/3/03 11:33PM
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Cheers for that, barti.

is a RISC OS Usermoss on 8/3/03 9:14AM
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WXL, on the other hand, doesn't manage to display anything on any of the tests I tried. Utter failure! Wow! :|

-- Sendu Bala,

is a RISC OS Usersenduran on 8/3/03 2:48PM
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chocky : If you can't see the point, then perhaps you're not looking.

is a RISC OS UserNodoid on 8/3/03 10:13PM
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Nodoid: I think that chocky is hinting just a bit that you ought to say what you mean, rather than making wee hinty things with ellipses at the end.

As far as it goes, O2 seems okay, but well flaky. (look, ma, I'm using it now!) I'm being irritated by some things, but I guess I'll make a list and mail to John Ballance. Seems more sensible than bitching, really.

is a RISC OS Usermikeg on 8/3/03 10:18PM
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Wee hinty things with ellipses at the end? Hmmm...

is a RISC OS Usermoss on 9/3/03 11:18AM
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mikeg : Chocky says to get O2 free, buy an Iyonix. That means that you're forking out 1300 UKP for a 100 UKP piece of software. While he is correct (O2 is part of the Iyonix bundle), you can't exactly say that it is free as you need 1300UKP to get it!

Is that clear enough?

is a RISC OS UserNodoid on 9/3/03 4:14PM
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Nodoid: See? You can use a full stop, or an exclamation mark, or a question mark to end a sentence. You don't have to trail off into the dust with an ellipsis. moss: Hmmm indeed...

is a RISC OS Usermikeg on 9/3/03 5:12PM
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I'd just like to say...

is a RISC OS User[mentat] on 9/3/03 9:25PM
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In the end it all comes down to one point. The risc os platform will (eventually) die because the market these bozo's are aiming at don't have the bucks (anymore) to sustain it.

is a RISC OS UserEPDM on 9/3/03 10:28PM
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The market they are aiming at does have money, they just don't want to spend it.

is a RISC OS Userjonix on 10/3/03 12:48PM
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*Plays with ArcWeb.... What?*

is a RISC OS UserNoMercy on 11/3/03 12:39PM
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I have been using O2, and it working Ok, and I did not mind the upgrade charge, because I do not want to go down the windows path..Chris -- Chris@epsaber.co.uk

is a RISC OS UserChrise on 11/3/03 8:01PM
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So what's happened to drobe? O2 just can't cope. First load is just text, every subsequent reload is differently broken...

is a RISC OS Usermikeg on 11/3/03 9:51PM
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Sorry, it's not drobe (I think). It's everything. The top of each page isn't being read, and relaoding doesn't entirely fix it.

is a RISC OS Usermikeg on 11/3/03 9:56PM
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What sort of comparison is O2 to other types of Browser (dare I say it...IE).

Would O2 be able to bring the RISC OS platform into the 21st Century?

How much of the Web is still closed off to us (especially Java 2 (Java 1.4))?

And the BIG question is it worth the 99 Pounds?

is a RISC OS Userem2ac on 13/3/03 12:32AM
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