![[Index]](../toc.gif){kind=small}
![[® Previous]](../left.gif){kind=small}
-![[Feedback]](../feedback.gif){kind=small}
Yes, I have Win-OS/2 support installed, but... only to try products for my clients. Yes, I want Win-OS/2 and Win95 support in future versions of OS/2, but for the same reason. I base all of my work on Warp... all; and I like very much its interface, it's really wonderful.
First, I'm no power-user. Sure, I can help a client resolve an IRQ or DMA conflict if the jumpers or software permit it, but I'm not a programmer. My focus for the last many years has been on helping end-users, myself included, meet the boss's deadline when the spreadsheet won't print, the graphics look like pond scum, and the network simply refuses to recognize my existence. Like many, I've learned through self-defense OJT because the companies I've worked for had no training budget - aka, "...read the manual in your spare time".
I'd watched a few sales engineers work with the early versions of OS/2 and was intrigued, but I also watched the hoops they had to jump through to get from point A to point B. It was a far easier and better-documented path to set up basic workstations under WIN 3.x. Although my own workstation was used to supervise a small NOVELL network as well as run desktop publishing, presentation, and other applications, I seldom ran into GPF problems. Just lucky, I guess. Later, after one of those 90's kind of corporate hiccups, I decided to free-lance as a consultant and set up a home system using what all of my clients were using, WIN 3.x
Warp3 did it for me. Not only did it promise to be WIN 3.x friendly (remember "Runs WINDOWS better than WINDOWS"?), but it offered to take me into the brave new world of 32-bit OS. It also complied with a cardinal rule of not buying the first version on the market.
The multi-diskette installation was really no worse than installing CorelDraw when that took 14 diskettes. Best of all, it picked up my WINDOWS environment almost perfectly and pretty much ran as I had hoped. You can hardly imagine the glee I felt when I could easily kill an ill-behaved application with a few flicks of a finger without having to restart the world.
It wasn't perfect, but so much better than before and rumors of Warp4 promised further refinements. As for the mutterings in the OS/2 community about software applications shortages and the lack of direction on the part of the OS owners - well, I used to sell the Macintosh in its early days and it sounded much the same.
Other issues I faced about moving further into the OS/2 world were more practical. My clients, mainly other small business owners with varying computer skills, were all using WIN 3.x or DOS products and would not have been receptive to the time and money expenditures needed change. In many cases, there was no comparable OS/2 application to do what they were doing with a WIN 3.x product. The fact is that for many of these people WIN 3.x represents a reasonably stable operating environment with literally thousands of application options. Their operational requirements simply don't justify a change and for many of these people learning the rudiments of File Manager was scary enough -- they're just not ready for another OS and its requirements. For the same reasons, none have converted to WIN95 despite the blandishments of the box-pushers at local office supply warehouses.
Having my own investments of time and money in a variety of WIN 3.x products, I face the same issues. Tax preparation is a major income source for part of the year and I know of no OS/2 product for that. While I don't use Quickbooks myself, I have to support it and it is only fairly recently that accounting for OS/2 has become available in a package with reasonable features. Even in products where there are equivalents, my cost/benefit analysis has seldom prompted a purchase although I wish to emphasize that I have purchased OS/2 applications through vendors and by registering shareware.
Warp4 was a major disappointment for me. Although the installation went fairly smoothly, it was apparent that continuing WIN 3.x support was not in the heart of the designers; a fact made most plain by IBM's terminating WIN32s support after 1.25. Warp4 did not pick up my established WIN/OS2 environment from the preceding Warp3 installation, ran more slowly than Warp3, and required that I reinstall any number of WIN 3.x applications before Warp4's WIN-OS/2 sessions were willing to run them. I think the general market was also saying something when I discovered that the books I used for Warp3 assistance such as the "Dummies" and "Unleashed" series were not only not available for Warp4, but didn't even appear to be in the planning stage. Although it was admittedly prettier, Warp4 is now back in its box and I'm humming along with Warp3.
In spite of Uncle Bill's lavish press parties, I know that the mass market is still rolling along on the large installed base of proven WIN 3.x applications. In my opinion, one of the greatest strengths of OS/2 as an OS is its support for multiple operating environments on a single platform - especially so as I wait for application development to produce newer and more robust native-version programs for the general market. If WIN support continues to wither, I fear that OS/2 will fade further into the background and the day will come when I must reluctantly, but necessarily, put something else on my system because my livelihood depends on it.
I know I could take a lot of flack for this letter, but I really am a loyal OS/2 user and only wish the best for the OS and those of us who've committed the time, money, and system resources to making it our OS of choice -- 'cause you betcha IBM didn't sell it pre-loaded.
Having played and liked Rogue in another life (I think I last played it on an XT!) I jumped on the Hobbes link in your OS/2 e-Zine! review of Nethack, downloaded and unpacked. I find that when I execute the thing, it whines about lack of EMX. Where do I find that? I've tried a brief FTP crawl around Hobbes and a couple of other places, but no joy...
Gary Dennis
You know, I've had both Nethack and EMX installed for so long I didn't realize it needed it. EMX can be found on hobbes.nmsu.edu as the file emxrt.zip. The simplest way to find it is to go to the hobbes web page and do a search.
Calling all you programmers out there interested in video game emulators...
After the recent reviews of OS/2 emulators (Stella, x128, etc.), I think it's safe to say we Warpers are pretty well-served in this area. One thing would make my joy complete, though. A port of the king of all emulators: MAME.
Multi Arcade Machine Emulator (its home page can be found off Dave's Video Game Classics page) is capable of running almost every arcade game from the late 70s and early 80s, and some others you either forgot or never found. I'm not talking conversions or home systems here - I mean the actual ROMs from the original cabinets. It's the ultimate nostalgia trip, and the games are great too :-)
Has anyone tried porting MAME to OS/2? The program is covered by the GNU licence, and there are already Mac, UNIX and Amiga ports. Perhaps there's a challenge for a brave programmer out there...
Thomas Ahn Kolbeck Kj‘r (the author who ported X128 to OS/2) had started to work on MAME, but ran out of time between school and a new job to keep up with it.
I'm interested in doing it, but with the weekly updates it's currently experiencing I don't have the time to add it to my list of projects for OS/2. Especially now that I'm behind my project goals due to that fight with bronchitis that took up most of June.
The next emulator I'm planning to port is Handy, an Atari Lynx emulator. The author of Handy, Keith Wilkins, did the DOS version of Stella prior to ver 0.7. He left the Stella project to work on his emulator, and asked if I'd port it to OS/2 since we've already worked together on Stella. I expect to receive the source for Handy towards the end of July or beginning of August.
If nobody else has done it by the end of August, then I'll probably take a look at it, though it would be great to get some more people porting things to OS/2. If it all gets funnelled through just a couple people it takes longer :-)
I read Chris's article and could not stop smiling.. I have been saying that for a long time now. I dont understand how the general public came to have a "good enough" attitude. Computers and cell phones represent a technology that is NOT a comsumer ready product. Consumers have taken a step backwards and companies are now sending worse and worse junk to us and watching us gleefully accepting it. Isn't that a pity.
Chris, you echo my sentiments closely. I also fear a MS future. I also shake my fist in anger at IBM for their bungling of the OS/2 option. I have my OS/2 system at home set up the way I like it, and I get done what I need to get done. My OS/2 system is also my home computer, and will probably stay this way, at least for the foreseeable future.
Have you settled on a "Colorworks Tip replacement" column? Or is it time to load NT?
The June 16th ColorWorks Powertips column mentions that as of July's issue I'd be changing from a "ColorWorks Tips" column to a more general "Graphics Tips" column which would discuss any graphics software for OS/2. There are still viable options out there, such as Embellish and TrueSpectra's Photo>Graphics, plus, ColorWorks 1+ and 2.0 will _still_ be working products with a large installed base.
We will still be publishing graphics tips, for ColorWorks or otherwise, way into the future.
I stopped using OS/2 nearly a year ago. I moved to the Wintel world of things. Well I bought a nice 3.24 IDE drive and have been installing Linux and other OS's. Then I thought hey I beta tested Merlin why not blow $153 for the upgrade! I did. And I have this to say. When I started the installation I thought I'd see a OS/2 World in ruins no apps nothing left a world dead.
Instead I saw this. I saw a OS with more app support then I could shake a stick at. Netscape/2,WordPro, a lot of "high quality apps" in the demo app CD. I'm very impressed. OS/2 is growing and to me will be making it to the mainstream finially. It now has enough high quality app support for most everyone. Even games--the thing IBM hates--are coming on very nice, a lot of Internet support.
When I think of OS/2 now I see a World of true competition and progession. I know IBM is selling OS/2 as to business's. A Networking OS that's easy to get connected with. I hope they realize this. More and more business's use the Internet. Multimedia is not just for games anymore. The Internet is multimedia to the extreme! IBM need's to improve DART and DIVE to match DirectX and or OpenGL. I love Push technology. OS/2 need's it. I work for a ISP in Indiana. Accually the 3rd largest in Indiana soon to be #2. :) I do Hardware and Software Management.
I look at OS/2 now in a different light. IBM is maturing OS/2 v4. OS/2 v4 is what OS/2 Warp v3 should have been. I just hope the good change continues, but I'm worried and glad at the same time. How is driver support going to be in the future? Is USB and AGP going to be support? These are not gaming questions. These are business. AGP support is for those OS/2 Graphic Design people. USB heck that's for everyone.
I'm very upset and angered by the Apple Quicktime issue!!!! :( IBM should just say hey we will port it! I understand the Apple situation and why they may drop it. But a promise was made to the OS/2 community.
There is a new encryption cracking challenge going on. It is the RC5 challenge. The point of the challenge is to prove to the US govt. that 56 bit encryption is not enough to ensure security. This in itself is not OS/2 related new, but the organizers of this challenge have set up a mechanism for forming teams. Colin Hildinger of the "Ulitimate OS/2 Gaming Page" has formed Team Warped. After about a week, we broke into the top 100 and now we are #4. The linux team is #1. This is a good opportunity to show the world that OS/2 is a force to be reckonned with. So, everyone that is not involved, please come and join us. The team moto is "Resistance is Futile". For mor information, visit the Team Warped Home Page at:
http://www.ionet.net/~colin/rc5.html
Come help make us #1 and beat the linux team. We already beat a rival NT team very badly.
You asked for suggestions so here are my preferences. The most helpful stuff from OS/2 e-Zine! has been software reviews, hardware reviews and general interest articles, in that order. I've enjoyed the magazine since the beginning. The quality of the writing is excellent and I've made more than a couple of buying decisions based on reviews in OS/2 e-Zine!.
My only criticism is that it is taking longer to produce the downloadable zip file of E-zine.
This is a valid complaint and one we are working to address. We have recently restructured some of the duties around here so hopefully the zipped copies will be ready almost simultaneously with the online copies in the future.
- editor
-
Copyright © 1997 - Falcon Networking