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Feedback from Issue #5

Editorial [--Top--]

- So many people have written to say thanks and express similar opinions about my editorial this month (ouch! It hurts patting yourself on the back!) that we can't possibly print all their letters. Here are just a few.
I agree whole heartedly. I am seriously considering [not] re-subscribing to OS/2 Magizine for the simple reason that I was misled [about] Athena's demise, which wasn't true, and the general defeated attitude I am getting from them. Even Brain Proffit's reviews are getting a little too critical for me. I don't think OS/2 is Dead, nor is it dying. I think what they need to do is take a hard look at what is really going on!

Howard Coles Jr.


I agree completely with your editorial. When I read that issue of OS/2 Professional, I said to myself that I would never buy another issue of that magazine - this sure came true fast.

Mike Mah


Shame on Alan Zeichick and Ed Black!!!

I get enough of the negative crap from the Windows-centric rags. I certainly don't need it from sources that are suppose to champion OS/2.

BTW, don't forget that 'Inside OS/2' from the Cobb Group is also available in print. It may not be a "major" publication, but at least it gives the OS/2 community another information source.

Kevin


I agree with you that Alan is wrong, though it's an editor's prerogative to write a stupid editorial if he wants to. I buy OS/2 mag occasionally and was thinking of subscribing -- now I wonder whether they're getting ready to discontinue publishing, so I've decided not to send any $$.

Joe Hansen


I want to thank you for your March Editorial. I wish that the traditional press had the real-world vision that you apparently have. OS/2 and IBM absolutely need a voice of reason in the press and I believe they have found one in your publication.

As a small ISV we continue to be amazed at the number of companies who are being "managed by magazines". Rather than perform the proper analysis for their computing problems they continue following the lemmings of the world and blindly implement a solution based on what the "rest of the world" is doing. We continue to be called in by companies to help them correct and re-implement a proper solution.

I hope for your continued success and properity.

David Ashley


- thank you very much David and the sentiment is returned!
In defense of OS/2 Magazine, Athena Design in December did indeed call OS/2 Magazine's editor to let them know that starting January 1 they would no longer be developing Mesa/2 and intended to sell it.

While events may have changed where Athena continues, saying that OS/2 Magazine invented this "rumor" is unwarranted since Athena itself created the rumor and OS/2 Magazine merely reported it.

Brad Wardell
Stardock Systems, Inc.


I didn't mean to claim that OS/2 Mag started the rumour, just that they reported inaccurately. Thanks for the extra information though.

the Rave on Info-Zip [--Top--]

Enjoyed your article on Info-Zip. Yes, they are a life saver for us heavy duty hub systems running Warp, however, I'd like to point out that the latest version of RAR/2 goes several steps past where Info-Zip leaves off.

RAR/2 includes the menu driven ability to select RAR's runtime priority as well as to add the capability to add extra sleep cycles while it is running. This makes RAR/2 a VERY attractive draw for systems doing lots of processing in the back ground. An article pointing these features would most likely be very well received.

Nicky Morrow


Chris' Rant [--Top--]

For the record, I have presently running one DTC 2278 EIDE Controller card using the latest dtcide driver downloaded from DTC. On the first plug of that controller I have one Connor 450 meg HD, and one Seagate 1.2 gig HD. The secondary plug has a Mitsumi 4x CD-ROM. All this runs flawlessly with WARP Connect using the DTC driver. Of course I have the usual printer, mouse and two floppies running from that same card. And it all worked perfectly as soon as the driver was installed. I paid $32 for the card at Fryes in California. Guess I musta got a bad card!!!

Richard Atcheson


Does Windows 3.x support PnP? If I'm not mistaken, I don't think it supports PnP. I was at my local computer store looking to buy a new 28.8 modem (my ISP just began to support 28.8). All the modems (Zoom, USR, Accura) support PnP. Could there be some jumper that disables PnP? If Windows 3.x doesn't support PnP, where's all the hardware for these users too? Should I buy that USR Sportster VI 28.8 which supports PnP or look for non PnP hardware?

Brian Chapman


- Windows 3.1, as well as OS/2, does not support Plug 'n Play cards on their own. You can use some PnP hardware with OS/2 and Windows as long as the manufaturer has supplied appropriate drivers. My soundblaster came with 3-disks and a CD-ROM full of drivers to make it work under Win 3.1 or Win95. My guess is that those drivers emulate Plug n' Play as best as possible.

If you want to buy PnP hardware for a non-PnP OS, check with the manufacturer that they have drivers for your OS FIRST, before you buy the thing. I just got lucky with my experience, but some other companies may not be as good with drivers. When in doubt though, get the non-PnP cards.

In my experience, PnP cards DO NOT have a jumper to make them work in a 'non-PnP' mode.

Chris Wenham


Hey, Chris, if you've been on the bleeding edge like all other OS/2 users, you should know that unless someone else has it running fine, don't ever buy it, unless you can get all your money back and are willing to put up a fight.

And I haven't heard a whit of news about Merlin adding PNP. I think PNP is a waste of hardware. It makes it more expensive, and everyone I know who has new systems with PNP components in it have had to manually adjust the startup settings to make it pick up a different IRQ.

Paul


- The truth is that I had no intention of purchasing a soundcard or CD-ROM at the time I did. However I had a call from one of my clients saying he was going to send me a PhotoCD in a couple of days, and I realized that I'd have to get the hardware quickly or be stuck in a crunch. I did try and get some advice beforehand (as I mentioned) but not all advice is perfect.

About the addition of Plug and Play support in Merlin: I have heard rumors that it's be included (and it's just that; rumors) from both the SoundBlaster tech support lines (they reported to me that they'd heard of OS/2 PnP coming soon, and that's why they were hovering on fully-PnP OS/2 drivers) and from the UNOFFICIAL OS/2 Beta FAQ maintained by Kris Kwilas. Only IBM can confirm or deny that at this stage, but I personally think PnP is a good thing. The examples you made just show that the technology is immature, as all technologies have been at some point.

The point of PnP is to make hardware installation faster and easier. It's just ironic that in my case it was exactly the other way around. It's because I made a mistake and overlooked a detail. Hey, at least I told everyone about it so they wouldn't do the same.

Chris Wenham


As a former employee of Creative Labs, and a person who is friend of most of the people in the OS2/NT (Not NT/OS2 as Mr. Wenham refered to it) group, I'd say this to Mr. Wenham: Listen to the message at the beginning of the phone call it says, "Listen to all of the choices before making your selection." If you'd done so, you'd have know to push <5> for OS/2 and NT support. You'd then never have gotten the "what version of windoze" question, and been much happier. Also, I've set up the setup you mention several times, including on my parents computer, and haven't had a single problem with the DTC boards. I'd say you might call CLI back, listen, press <5> this time, and try the secondary port again. It should work great with either DTC's or OS/2's drivers (ibm1s506.add works great for my parents).

Colin L. Hildinger


Following your advice I tried again. First the 1-800 number does not have such and option, and after trying the LD number I noticed that it was actually option '6' and not '5' in a sub-menu off the main menu (Okay, not quite miles off :-)

But this is a toll call and I was paying by the minute for it as well as being somewhat impatient, frustrated and jumpy at the time. When the first option that sounded like it was for me came up, I pressed the button. And one other thing: YOU call their tech support number (405-742-6622) and tell me just how long you can listen to that ANNOYING man's voice! It's worse than being forced to listen to the Barney 'I wuv you' song.

Mea-culpa anyway.

Chris Wenham


Trevor's Rant [--Top--]

I don't have this envy problem. I run multiple OS's just for this purpose. My main OS is Warp, but if I want the latest toy to test or demo, the ol' boot manager sure works gooooood.

cntsoft@ibm.net


Linfield's Line [--Top--]

Thank you for your well-written report in OS/2 E-zine. I am an Mechanical Engineering student who also needs most of the programs you mentioned. I've been using OS/2 for over a year, and I didn't know most of the programs available. I found the information you provided regarding plotting/calculating was important to my studies. I didn't know about Euler or Mathmate, and I'll look into that. I wish there was a full port of Autocad R13 for OS/2. There is actually an old port ( I think it's R10 ) but it doesn't meet my needs. Again, thank you for your very informative article for OS/2 users.

Eric Novell


Desktop Topics [--Top--]

Of particular interest to me was the "Desktop Topics" suite of articles. I have been using OS/2 for over a year now, and I have always been dissatisfied with my desktop ..... but never had the time to figure out how to "fix it up". I have also remained a bit ignorant about the more useful features of the WPS. But thanks to authors Bouthillier, Little and Wenham, I'm going home tonight to a new and more productive desktop! This is the first time that I have seen so much useful information bundled together.

John Stockie


Congratulations! You've certainly done an excellent job to demonstrate what WPS can do for the rest of us in the March issue of OS/2 e-Zine!. Reading your March issue makes my OS/2 ten times more productive!

Jin S. Li


...and some Odds and Ends [--Top--]

"1,000,000 copies of OS/2 sold in December."
"OS/2 outsells Windows NT."
"OS/2 sales are up."

I continue to see statements like the above from OS/2 advocates (I'm one myself). My question is where are these copies of OS/2? If I look in OS/2 forums on the net, sure I find OS/2 users. Kinda gives ya a warm fuzzy to see all those folk just like yourself. However, when I step away from that special little world and look around, it's another story.

My question is where are these copies of OS/2 and who's using them? Looking around at our business customers and nonbusiness folk (both computer types and non-computer types), I don't see it. Don't get me wrong, I like OS/2 and will continue to use it as along as I can. I just want a little security in the fact that that is quite a while. IBM can throw all the numbers they want at me, but until I see it in my everyday life, it's meaningless.

William R. Nau


I have one minor suggestion for you to consider, and that would be to put a hotspot/button at the top of each article for moving on to the next article, so that it isn't necessary to scroll to the bottom once I realize that a particular article may not be of interest to me.

Ralph


Why has someone not designed a full screen os/2 game that does not require the WPS to play? It would seem to me that a native OS/2 game which did not require the added overhead of a not so neccesary shell could benefit from improved performance. Imagine a game which would play similar to a OS/2 compatible dos game, yet have all the advanced features that only OS/2 could give (advanced AI with multithreading).

Jim May


I am a mathematician using OS2 very happyly because OS2 has the best TeX implementation I have ever seen. It is Eberhard Mattes emtex available for free from many sites. It is the only TeX version I know with a search function in the previewer, an absolutely fantastic feature to have, but the thing that really surprised me was I can TeX almost as fast on my 486/33 with 8MB memory at home, as I can on the suns at work. I believed the reason is I have installed a good fast harddisk on my system at home, and TeX uses a lot of input/output. I use xypic a lot in TeX for drawing diagrams, which means the time it takes to TeX a document can be substantial.

A lot of people know emTeX under DOS. They really should know how much better it is under OS2 where you don't have the memory restrictions. I am also very happy with the internet access kit, and since TeX and internet is what I do most of the time, I must say I am really happy I installed OS2 on my old machine.

Erik K. Pedersen


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