Interesting development in the desktop browser world, a new web browser from some Opera folks.  I'm not exactly sold on this, and I was never a huge fan of Opera, but I do agree that I don't like this trend towards making the browser feel and look more and more invisible -- removing menubars, addressbars, statusbars, etc..

Desktop browsers have largely followed this overall trend of slipping into the background. Every new release sees them simplifying their interfaces and removing features that their data collection tools indicate are only used by a small handful. RSS icons disappear, toolbars get hidden away, the URL bar will likely disappear soon for many...

There is, however, still that five percent that actually did use the RSS icon, liked their status bar, and will most likely abandon any browser that hides away the address bar. The power users may be the minority, but they still exist. Exactly what constitutes a power user is up for debate, but looking at the recent history of Web browser "advances" one thing seems clear, the power user is not the target audience. The person who wants to be in control of their experience and customize it to their liking has been left behind by most browsers.

The power user's current solution to the simplification, arguably the infantilization, of the Web browser interface is to get all those missing features back with add-ons. This works to a degree, but it introduces a ton of extra code, some of it written by programmers far less capable than those contributing to the code of Firefox or Chromium. This inevitably means add-ons slow things down. The problem is bad enough that a future version of Firefox will even have a feature dedicated to letting you know which of your add-ons is slowing you down.

http://arstechnica.c...ser-for-power-users/

I was surprised when I installed a recent OS X update and it hi-jacked two browsers without user consent. Some looking around showed that there were others complaining about malware too. I rolled back to an older version, warned whoever I could and vowed never to trust the company again.

And today, there's this little gem on TorrentFreak:

Many users of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent are complaining about it silently installing a cryptocurrency miner with a recent update. The Epic Scale tool, which slows down host computers, is reportedly being installed without consent and for some is particularly hard to remove.

http://torrentfreak....users-report-150306/

uTorrent had two things going for it: a no-nonsense, lightweight app and street cred among people like me who have used and loved the app for years. Looks like they traded both in for some $$$.

1. Newsletter Editorial

Hello and welcome to other edition of the DonationCoder newsletter. It's been a whopping 127 days since the last newsletter, and in that time.. New threads started: 861; new posts: 8,995 (number of those deleted as spam: 242); new members who joined: 10,133; new donors: 609.

The first thing to talk about is the 2015 NANY (New Apps for the New Year) event, which wrapped up at the beginning of the year.  It's where we ask the coders who hang out on DonationCoder to create some new piece of free software and share it with the world.  We had a lot of fun as always, and there were some notable new tools created. I tried my hand coding an Android app and I'm interested in making some more -- if you have a good idea for an Android app, let me know.  Follow the link below to browse the NANY 2015 entries from this year.

The next thing to mention is a call for help from Martin Brinkmann, who runs the Ghacks software blog.  He's asking for donations to help run Ghacks.  Ghacks has always been a friend to DonationCoder, writing about our new software releases and events.  So I'm hoping you will join us in helping out a friend of small independent coders.  See the link below to read more.

Last on the agenda is a teaser for our big upcoming 10th anniversary fundraiser.  March 23, 2015 will mark the tenth year of DonationCoder (hard to believe it's been that long isn't it?).  After ten years, it's time for some real changes on the site, and we are going to need your help figuring out which direction to go in.  There's a link below to a thread for discussing the upcoming anniversary, but I'll be sending out a special mailing when the fundraiser starts, asking not just for your financial help but also your input on the future direction of the site.   I hope you'll join us while we chart our path forward.

• NANY 2015 - New Apps for the New Year Roundup
• Ghacks is dying and needs your help
• DonationCoder 10th Anniversary Brainstorming Thread

And now an announcement by Valve that the next version of their game engine, Source 2, will be free for developers:

Valve’s sudden entry into the engine race, with an official announcement of Source 2, seems to have put them right up front alongside frenzied rivals Unity and Unreal. (Poor old Crytek, eh?) Meeting with studio founder Erik Johnson today, I learned that when they say Source 2 is “free”, they mean it. Unlike Unity’s (much lowered) subscription rates (for larger teams), and Epic’s revenue cut of successful projects, Valve won’t be asking for any money at all. Well, sort of… They just require that the game be launched on Steam, along with anywhere else you might want to sell it.

That’s pretty huge. But it’s important to point out it’s also pretty smart. In real-terms, it does mean Valve are going to be getting – in fact – 30% of your revenue, as is standard for anything sold on Steam. However, and crucially, developers are going to be free to also sell their game anywhere else, which means you can also use stores that take far lower cuts. Use Source 2, put your game on Steam and take advantage of Steamworks, the community features, and so on, but direct all your customers to your Humble store where only see 5% won’t reach you.

-http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/04/source-2-is-actually-free-like-for-free/

---

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Unity has had a model of a free version vs. a Pro version where many of the nicer features of the engine were available only to folks who owned a license for the Pro version. But today Unity has announced the launch of the latest version of their engine, Unity 5, along with a new license.

The free version is now being called the Personal edition, but all Unity 5 engine features are available for free until you make over $100,000, at which point you must buy a Professional license ($75/mo subscription or $1,500 (about 1.5% of $100,000)) but never any royalties.

More details can be found here:
http://blogs.unity3d...3/03/unity-5-launch/

Unreal announced yesterday that Unreal Engine 4 is now free* for everyone. What this means is that you can download and use the software to make a game for free. The only time you have to pay them money is if you are successful, paying 5% gross if you make more than $3,000 per quarter.

Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free, and all future updates will be free!

You can download the engine and use it for everything from game development, education, architecture, and visualization to VR, film and animation. When you ship a game or application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter. It’s a simple arrangement in which we succeed only when you succeed.

This is the complete technology we use at Epic when building our own games. It scales from indie projects to high-end blockbusters; it supports all the major platforms; and it includes 100% of the C++ source code. Our goal is to give you absolutely everything, so that you can do anything and be in control of your schedule and your destiny. Whatever you require to build and ship your game, you can find it in UE4, source it in the Marketplace, or build it yourself – and then share it with others.

-https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-is-free

Read more about it here:
https://www.unrealen...com/blog/ue4-is-free