Oregano 3 was today canned, ending all hope of a release of the promising web browser for RISC OS. Earlier today, GeneSys, the company expected to distribute Oregano 3, announced it had instead cancelled the product. Company boss Richard Brown, pictured, added the beta-builds often seen demonstrated at shows are not suitable for a public release.It's believed Richard was unwilling to commit to paying a five-figure sum for a RISC OS version of Oregan's web browser as it was unclear when issues with the ROS port could be addressed - this includes the speed of redrawing a desktop browser window if it is resized. Oregan, who developed Oregano 1 and 2 and supplied the web browser to the Sony Playstation 2 as well as other gadgets, have been concentrating on larger clients to pay their bills. However, RISC OS builds were being circulated to GeneSys's testers right up until the Oregano 3 project was binned, and it's thought the application was mostly complete.
The news broke after drobe.co.uk learnt that a press release announcing the termination of the project had been secretly drafted, and GeneSys were contacted for comment late last week. The finalised draft of the annoucement confirming the end of Oregano was emailed to various RISC OS magazine editors in the early hours of Monday.
In the statement, Richard said: "GeneSys Developments Ltd announced today the cancellation of the web browser project known as Oregano v3. This decision has been taken after much discussion within the company and with our business partners. The main business focus for GeneSys will now be on other projects.
"It should be noted that the launch of Oregano 2, over 4 years ago, was made possible by the financial involvement of GeneSys. At that stage there was a real anticipation that it would be possible to deliver subsequent improved versions of Oregano - version 3, etc.
"The present [Oregano 3] beta has much improved capabilities over Oregano 2 but the version is not considered suitable for deployment to the public."
Links
Castle still selling Oregano 2 on iyonix.com
GeneSys website