I know you use pmmail, but try mr2ice 1.27c. Nick Knight's labour of love. He will put into his product, anything that seems reasonable. In our message forum, the spam facility is already being addressed. So.. please contact him.
Cool down, Chris. You're gonna blow an artery and end up in an early grave! Do you PAY for phone service? Have you ever gotten an unsolicited call from a stranger who wants you to buy their product/service?? That is WORSE than all the junk E-mail in the world -- especially if they call during dinner. Do you PAY for a Post Office box? Have you ever received junk mail in it??
Until you outlaw the above situations you have NO RIGHT to expect that you will be able to stop junk e-mail senders. What you're looking for is something like Caller-ID for the telephone or the quick scan-and-throw-away-unopened procedure you use on snail-mail. Software like that would be able, at the ISP, to purge stuff you don't want to download for review. We'll be waiting for YOU to come up with such a program and let us all know about it.
I'd like to ask some of your readers to donate CPU time to a contest spnsered by RSA. They are offereing $10,000 to any group that cracks something they have encrypted. see http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/g639/mill0440/rc5/ for OS/2 clients, and links to more information.
Several things can be done as far as the $10000, the orginaizers are keeping a small amount of it, but at least $8000 will go to whatever e-mail address breaks the code. Instead of taking the money for myself, I'm working with EFnet IRC, and they intend to donate the money to the gutenburg project. Anyone wishing to join this team should use crackerz@best.net for their e-mail address
The purpose of this contest to protest current US goverment policy on encryption. If a loosely orginised group of Internet people can break the code -- and we will -- then any goverment with the reasources they have can do it in much less time.
Are the 4 people on OS/2 2.x the same 4 with greater than 256MB? I can't help but wonder what kind of system they are running.
Just to let you know, at my work (Automatic Data Processing, We do payroll. Maybe even yours.) we have about 400 OS/2 workstations. Varying from OS/2 2.0 on a 386 w/8MB all the way to our newest, Warp 4 on P200's w/32MB. And some servers too. I just installed (today!) a 704 with PP200 and 256MB & 16GB of DASD. What a humper!
I liked your article in OS/2 e-Zine!. Like you, I do not like that IBM seems to have abandoned the OS/2 home user; However I think that this has for them become the only choice if they are to continue with the development and enhancement of OS/2. IBM has tried to market OS/2 as a home user operating system (with the release of Warp 3), but failed in the shadow of Microsoft's huge advertising campaigning for Win95. I, along with a few people I know purchased Warp 3 when it was released (mainly because I recommended it). I am the only one still using it.
The two main reasons that the others discontinued to use OS/2 are:
1) Most home users get support from friends and family, of which most are running a Microsoft OS.
2) Most people tend to use OS's and Applications that they use at Work.
I think that by targeting the corporate sector of the market IBM will automatically begin to gain many home users. I have had a few people ask me about OS/2 because that is the platform that they use at work (Mostly in the Banking industry). Once this starts to happen then the average home user would be able to get support from other people in the same situation, and they would already have support and training from their office.
I am disappointed at the discontinuing of the Full Screen Dive support. I think that once more companies start to use OS/2, more home users will follow and then IBM will be more encouraged to continue development of home and game features in OS/2.
I was reading Kel Brown's article from this April issue and just wanted to be sure that I mentioned the latest news comming out of IBM through the leaks to such places as the Un-Official Warp 5 Page, and the likes, indeed show that IBM has not killed the projects, and may not want to support the home user. However, their use of the technologies is the key issue. IBM must get programmer and developer support or they will have included the latest technological software support for nothing.
In the past, business is what ultimately caused the rise of the MS Windows operating system to its current status. The business users found good applications to use at work, and took thier work home with them. When the users found that they could not only do work at home, but that they could play games, etc., they wanted more. MS then rallied the developers and handed out incentives and today we are flooded with MS compatible software. Notice the shelves are now 96% full of Win95 software, not NT or Win 3.1! Again, this shows that it is the developers that are what is needed, and these whose businesses are driven by sales.
Right now, most of the OS/2 community is getting software via shareware or from places like Indelible Blue, Inc. If there is not a huge proliferation of developing to satisfy the needs of users (home and business) for new Technology in Warp 4, Warp 5, and Warp 6, there will be a migration to other platforms. This is ultimately where IBM must enter the picture, and has on a few occasions. Otherwise, the users themselves will have to rally to development and support for the OS they love so much (a-la Linux).
Here Here.... I agree with you. I have been using OS/2 since version 2.0 (running on a 386) at home. I use a MAC at work. I am considering going to Win95 because it seems that IBM is abandoning the home user. I only hope that the next version is affordable or I may have to switch.
About the only time I have to boot to Win3.1 is to use my Mustek scanner I wish it would work from win-os2 but it uses a virtual driver which Win-OS2 does not support. Now all I need is the native apps from Lotus to become available. In late 1995 Lotus offered Smartsuite 95 for win 3.1 with the promise that when the OS/2 version became available in mid 96 I could upgrade at no cost..... Well its almost mid 97 and they still have not released the complete Smartsuite for OS/2. I am normally patient but this is rediculous!!!
Hi there.
I just wanted to endorse you with my gratitude for this great ezine! The new surveys are just about the greatest thing since the invention of the spoon (of course that one came after the fork and soup :) ).
Keep going as the de facto best OS/2 magazine in existence.
You and your page have successfully distracted me from my task of finding another site for the last 1,5 hrs. Thank you. I seem to have found a site that seems is as committed to OS/2 as I. You will be visited again. Thank you for the effort to maintain the site. Now may I get back to work?
I was reading some of your feedbacks and felt so good on some of the things I read and so bad for others that I felt compelled to write you.
I too instaled NT 4.0 because I got tired of Win95 crashing and giving me those Illegal Exceptions errors that just closed my apps. I currently have NT 4.0 with boot manager instaled, and am happy to say that now that I have tried it, I like OS/2 much more. Why? Because I noticed with NT 4.0 the things I take for granted on OS/2, after using OS/2 for about 3 years now, you just know how to do certain things on OS/2. Another thing on NT. 4.0 is that it's just horrible on DOS programs, As I just wrote, you take for granted being able to adjust your VDM's settings for the DOS sessions. For you people who are thinking of switching or trying NT 4.0 take it from me, save your money.
I'm so sorry for the miopic decision on SAMS publishing for cutting OS/2 4.0 Unleashed. I was just about to buy it but can't find it!! Now I know why!!
I have e-mailed Lotus two times to ask for the timetable on the 123 for OS/2 launch... no response. Do you know something on the matter? I currently have 123 for OS/2 and I'm thinking of getting MESA/2 as a spreadsheet, but rather wait because of compatibility issues with 123 for Windows
I'm currently on the certification path for OS/2 and Lan Server, I picked WarpServer over NT because people don't know for file server and print server purposes Lan Server or Warp Server is much much better than NT or Netware. I just want to point out that one of the problems I am faced with when trying to sell OS/2 is ignorance on part of the user, so I have to knock on a few heads from time to time.
Why do I say this? Because if you wan't publicity the best kind is if you read the word, somehow I have the feeling that IBM knows that and they stopped all marketing on OS/2 because they felt they were wasting money on a product that sells by itself, hey it's been almost a year since IBM stopped pouring money into OS/2's marketing, and it keeps selling!!!
With the surveys, please include optional "any other comments' field.
Regarding the current survey: how long will I continue using os/2:
I'll continue using OS/2 at least till I can find *better* applications for my needs: better fax-email software than PMfax/FaxWorks-CopyShop/2-PostRoadMailer "combo" better CD mastering than Unite CD Maker
I have searched high and low, and OS/2 applications above are way superior to any other platform.
(Did I mention I like OS/2 anyway?)
I'm sorry about the lack of a comments field. The thing is, we can't
possibly read everyone's comments so we don't want to encourage people
to make them, at least, not on the survey form. We received almost
3000 entries in the survey last month and in the first 5 days of this
month, we received almost 2000. With that kind of volume, it is
necessary to keep all the answers in the survey to 'pre selected'
options.
- editor
I would be interested in finding out your readers opinions on the following: How many believe that Microsoft's contracts with retailers disallows promotion of other operating systems?
An interesting idea Marty. We'll definitely consider it!
- editor
Please do not reinforce the myth that Windows word processors were, at any time, the best ones available for OS/2. I have used DeScribe for a few years and find it, even in its orphaned state today, superior to MS Word for Win95. My comparisons are based on both word processors running in their native operating system on the same hardware. I am forced to use Word/95 on a WinNT station at work for a client; much prettier than DeScribe but not as powerful or fast. I am a programmer who writes big reports -- mainframe Script to DOS/Win WordPerfect to WinWord & DeScribe -- and I still find DeScribe the best of the lot.
Ever since NS OS/2 was released, I thought something was missing on my Desktop. There was no Netscape folder icon. There's one for WebEex, so I thought, "Why not one for Netscape as well?" A few hours later, I made one! :) If you think it is of any interest to OS/2 users you can link to it or offer it on your site.
Thanks Sean!
- editor
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