OS/2 eZine - The Best OS/2 Reading Anywhere!

April 16, 2002

Robert Basler is the president of Aurora Systems, Inc. and has been a dedicated OS/2 user since he tired of rebooting Windows 3.1 twenty times a day. He spends what free time he can manage travelling the world. Photo was taken at Franz Josef glacier, New Zealand.

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From The Editor

Things have still been pretty busy for me this last month. I've seen some pretty cool OS/2 stuff, but I haven't had the time to write anything about them. I spent quite a bit of time with PHP, Apache and MySQL on OS/2 setting up a bug-tracking database application for a company I am contracting to. That was a useful learning experience and it is surprising what cool web-based applications you can produce with those free tools and a little bit of research. Hopefully I can share a little how-to knowledge on the topic in the near future. I also spent a few hours with Virtual PC for OS/2 (see below). If you're doing a cool OS/2 project of your own, we'd like to hear about it. Writing for the eZine is pretty easy, the details are here.

OS/2 File System Shootout

Michal Necasek has written an interesting article comparing OS/2 file systems. This is some surprising reading and well worth the time. Time to pack up those old HPFS drives.

Virtual PC for OS/2 Ships

A review copy of Virtual PC came in a few days ago and so far I quite like it. I've installed Windows XP and Office XP into it and so far so good. I'll have a full review next month, but if you want more info now, you can read about it (PDF) at InnoTek's website.

Speed Tip

I upgraded from TCP/IP 4.1 to 4.3 this morning. The difference in performance is absolutely staggering. Web pages now blink up consistently, where I used to wait........ a lot. It looks like they have greatly improved DNS lookups, but in any case, I am amazed. If you haven't taken the plunge, it is highly recommended.

Apache 2.0 for OS/2 Released

The Apache Foundation officially released Apache 2.0 on April 5th (the version is actually 2.0.35) and an OS/2 port is available. This new release reorganizes a great deal of code and makes a number of improvements in the areas of reliability and performance. Get it here and information on setting it up at the Apache for OS/2 v2.0 site.

Nethack for OS/2

If you're looking for a dungeon crawl and aren't intimidated by ASCII graphics, you might want to look at the latest Nethack version 3.4.0. Here's a Gamespot review of Nethack for the unfamiliar.

IBM Web Browser for OS/2 V1.2

IBM has upgraded their Mozilla based browser again, if you have a Software Choice subscription you can get it here.

Java Movie Database on OS/2

If you're into movies, you've probably discovered the Internet Movie Database which has reviews and information on a massive number of movies. Now you can bring that database to your OS/2 PC with a slick Java application which allows you to use that database even while offline. Check out the Java Movie Database, here's a screenshot.

Fixpack 2 for eComStation

Fixpack 2 for eComStation (same as CP2 or FP16 for Warp 4) is available at www.ecomstation.com. The complete fixpack contains 8 files and may be installed using eCS Fixtool 1.09. This update will bring your kernel to version 14.088.

Weasel 1.40

Peter Moylan has released a new version of the Weasel mail server. You can find it here or on Hobbes. This new version fixes an incompatibility with Warp 3 and makes outgoing mail much faster. I've been running it for a couple of weeks, and like previous versions, it just works, day in and day out.

Website of the Month

The website of the month is DVD Easter Eggs which has a wide variety of easter eggs from over 600 DVD titles. It tells you about bonus "easter egg" features on all your favourite DVD's. I particularly enjoyed finding out about the hidden gag reel on the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace DVD and watching two Lord of the Rings trailers hidden on Rush Hour 2.

This Issue

Doug Clark is back with a trio of articles, one on Watchcat, a very interesting feature on installable file systems, and the final installment of the ODBC series. In the "integrating platform" department, James Cannon finds some Windows 3.1 software to share with your kids and John Bijnens looks at a DOS movie player. We'd also like to welcome a new writer, Brent R. Scott, who brings us an article on Perl on OS/2.

March Issue Prizes

Thanks to our sponsors last month, Dan Eicher got a copy of Pete Grubbs' new album. Congratulations to our winning writer and thanks to our sponsor for his contribution last month.

Looking for More OS/2 eZine Content?

How about writing it? The OS/2 eZine has to be a community effort, the more writers we have to spread the work around, the better the issues will be and the easier it is for everyone. If you're working on a cool OS/2 project that you think the readership of the OS/2 eZine would find interesting, we're looking for one-off articles as well as short series and monthly columns to fill the pages of the OS/2 eZine. Trying some cool new software? How about writing a short review? It doesn't take much time and you can win some great prizes!

Please visit the OS/2 eZine Pressroom for submission guidelines and article ideas. If you have any questions, let me know by email .

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The OS/2 eZine is committed to serving the OS/2 and eCS community by providing accurate, useful, and timely information every month. We will deliver user-oriented hardware and software reviews, thoughtful editorial comment, and 'how-to' articles which will include useful tips for both the novice and the experienced OS/2 user.

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