The OpenJDK for OS/2 project has received enough funding for browser plugin support; you can still contribute by sponsoring units via Mensys. Updating to the OpenJDK 6 build b24 level is already in progress.

LibreOffice 3.5.0 was recently released for the "tier 1" platforms. After the news broke that legacy OS/2 code was removed, Mensys reported that there would be no OS/2 version, which is unfortunate. The OS/2 code is still present in Apache's OpenOffice, and there are plans to update to the latest version "fairly soon," perhaps even with some Java integration. Unfortunately, OpenOffice is largely irrelevant now, with everyone switching to LibreOffice, except for IBM, who has announced that they are discontinuing the Lotus Symphony fork in favor of Apache OpenOffice (most of the other forks joined together to form LibreOffice). Thanks to Sander Nyman for the IBM info.

SeaMonkey 2.7.2, Firefox 10.0.2, and Thunderbird 10.0.2 security updates were released a few days ago for the "tier 1" platforms. We may see OS/2 builds in the near future, but it's unlikely they will include a fix for the new OS/2-specific missing cursor/focus problems.

Odin32 version 0.8.3 has been released (2/7/2012); it is available in ZIP, WarpIn, and RPM formats. Odin32 can be used to run and/or build Win32 applications for OS/2, and is based on WINE and IBM's Open32. Recent work has been done as part of the efforts on supporting newer versions of Java; the biggest recent changes are switching compilers from VAC3 to GCC4, and improving support for Flash. From OS2World.

An unofficial build of Thunderbird version 10.0 has been released (2/5/2012). Thunderbird is a stand-alone mail/news client based on Mozilla code. See my Warpzilla Tips page for more information.

netlabs.org has published biweekly newsletter #158 to update everyone on their latest developments. Recent updates include ACPI, Dynamic Windows Library, Java, Lucide, Odin32, QT4, Samba, and more. You can sponsor netlabs.org, which helps fund development on various projects. From VOICE News.

Unofficial builds of SeaMonkey version 2.7 and Firefox version 10.0 have been released (1/30 and 1/31). The biggest change is that most addons will remain compatible by default, which has been one of the annoyances with the rapid releases. There are some important notes in the readme file concerning Java, printing, profile compatibility, and crash reporting, so be sure to read through it. Highlights include DIVE support for accelerated drawing, full-featured native printing, Exceptq can be used to log crash details, plus most of the features available on other platforms, such as WebM video playback for sites like YouTube. WebGL is one feature that is missing, due to lack of hardware support. IPC support (which offers plugin crash protection, and will protect tabs from each other in the future) is not yet available, although progress is being made in that area. SeaMonkey is a continuation of the Mozilla Suite, while Firefox is a stand-alone browser based on Mozilla code. See my Warpzilla Tips page for more information.

eComStation.Ru is running a poll asking how hard it is for you to deal with programs packaged using RPM. From VOICE News.

Les Bell has released his course material "Introduction to OS/2 Warp Programming" under the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. This course material contains the instructor guide, student guide, presentation slides and laboratory files. This material was originally used for 5 days of corporate training, and covers things such as memory management, threads, IPC, file systems, dialogs, GPI, SOM, and WPS. From VOICE News.

eComStation.Ru is collecting information about which Lenovo ThinkPads work with OS/2. From VOICE News.

Adrian Gschwend posted some thoughts on the netlabs.org blog; the gist of it is that he is happy to maintain the status quo for hosting projects using Subversion and Trac, but recommends people interested in other systems look elsewhere, such as GitHub. He also hints that the netlabs.org website may go through another change due to other projects he is working on; the last big change was a disaster for the OS/2 projects hosted there, so hopefully the ones that managed to switch to Trac will not be affected again. From VOICE News.

PHPMyAdmin version 3.4.10.1 has been released (2/18/2012). This is a set of PHP scripts to administer MySQL over the web.

KSCP version 0.1.0 has been released (2/18/2012). This is an SFTP client.

libssh2 version 1.4.0 has been ported (2/18/2012) to OS/2. This is a library implementing the SSH2 protocol.

ALVM version 0.2 has been released (2/18/2012). This is an experimental replacement for IBM's Logical Volume Manager. Discussion and bug reports are available on the forum.

QXmlEdit version 0.7.2 has been ported (2/16/2012) to OS/2. This is a tree-based XML editor, which uses the Qt4 libraries.

photo version 0.61 has been released (2/15/2012). This is a fast and simple, yet powerful and highly configurable image viewer, which uses the Qt4 libraries.

Jetty version 8.1.1 has been released (2/15/2012). This is a web server and javax.servlet container, which requires Java 1.6.

Qupzilla version 1.1.8 has been ported (2/14/2012) to OS/2; this is a Webkit-based browser, which uses the Qt4 libraries.

JMCAD version 08.117 has been released (2/13/2012). This is a Java program for the modeling and simulation of complex dynamic systems using block diagrams.

K Movie Player version 0.7.2 has been released (2/12/2012). This is a video player based on FFPlay, without SDL dependencies and support for DIVE, SNAP video overlays, and WarpOverlay.

SDLMAME version 0.145 has been ported (2/12/2012) to OS/2. This is an SDL version of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.

RSSGuard version 1.1.2a has been ported (2/12/2012) to OS/2. This is a RSS and ATOM feed reader, which uses the Qt4 libraries.

ITE CAD version 1.2.0 has been ported (2/12/2012) to OS/2. This is CAD software for the design of electric and electronic circuits, which uses the Qt4 libraries.

Which version 2.20 has been released (2/12/2012). This is a clone of the UNIX 'locate' command, allowing you to locate files.

TNEF 1.4.8 has been ported (2/12/2012) to OS/2. This is a program for unpacking MIME attachments of type "application/ms-tnef". Due to the proliferation of Microsoft Outlook and Exchange mail servers, some mail is being encapsulated into this format.

JExpress version 7.9.5 has been released (2/12/2012). This lets you create Java-based multilingual installers and auto-updaters. An easy to use Swing interface lets you design your installers quickly without requiring any programming. It can also select the exact classes your Java app uses, build your directory tree, and produce JAR files.