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Overall, I've been extremely happy with e-Zine! 's OS/2 coverage. There seems to be a good balance between opinion articles, tricks and tips, software reviews and news. I especially like the addition of hardware reviews, and the hardware that works best with OS/2 based PCs.
Perhaps my only suggestion would be to do more thematic reviews. For instance, do comparative reviews of spreadsheets for OS/2 or a set of web publishing software, or esktop suites. Use of charts and graphs would be nice for things like performance testing and feature comparisons.
One other suggestion would be to make a regular Win-OS/2/DOS advice and or/tricks and tips column. I know that the zine is devoted mainly to things OS/2, but any cool and nifty things that will make the DOS world talk nicely to OS/2 are always appreciated as well.
How about making [the ability to suggest changes and improvements to the magazine] as part of your next survey, or in addition to the regular monthly survey?
Chris says:
So you're a user who's fed up with the circus and you want to get something safe. A computer that only breaks down maybe once or twice a year, is as easy to use as an automatic transmission and gets you to all the places you want to go. Sorry, chum, there's no such animal.Probably not. And since there isn't, the user only wants to deal with one vicious animal. The user community really wants a single standard so that they don't have to keep retraining their accountants etc., over and over again. Consistency is more important than technical superiority. For better or for worse, whichever company wins the first round wins everything. If you want to win against Microsoft, change the paradigm, not offer an incremental non-compatible improvement.
Contrary to what the OS/2ers and Linuxers think, the industry is really growing up. Because of that, the qualities that the end-users find important are winning. We techies want a superior operating system; they just want to get their jobs done, which means Office 95 (not the new 97, or even Windows 95 very often). For most end-users, Windows 95 and NT really does not crash often enough to be more annoying than to use DeScribe instead of Word.
I find it very telling that Microsoft measured end-users use of the system and found the one or two things that they do a lot. They made those couple of things very easy to do with their Office package. Quicken followed purchasers home and took notes on anything that caused trouble in installing and getting the product running, then fixed them. They are catering to the end-users, and we techies are frothing at the mouth because we poor fools don't even know what the market is.
Chris, I couldn't agree with you more. I've been a PC user since the late 70's, and an OS/2 user since the late 80's (version 1.0, before PM was added!), and I'm also really concerned about the state of the PC industry.
Looking forward to your followup column!
This is an appeal for help to any readers who've got OS/2 and Linux to co-exist:
My PC is currently running Warp 3 and DOS/Win on a dual-partition system with the Boot Manager. A recent magazine cover CD-ROM has a full distribution of Red Hat Linux 4.1, and I'd like to try installing it to get some experience with the OS.
The 1Gb disk is partitioned thus (remaining space in [angle brackets]):
Boot Manager
C: 300Mb [19Mb] - DOS, FAT formatted
D: 150Mb [41Mb] - OS/2 boot partition, HPFS formatted
E: 550Mb [311Mb] - application space, HPFS formatted
I'd be immensely grateful if there's anyone reading this who has successfully got OS/2, DOS and Linux to cohabit successfully, and could (a) pass on some useful tips, or (b) point me to an online guide of some sort. If I can get three OSes on the same PC, that'll REALLY show up the "Windows weenies" :-)
I recently visited SPG and found the old support section gone. They offered all OS/2 users to uppgrade to a Windows NT version for a special price $79 but only for 60 days. I live in Sweden and I bought this rare piece of software (Colorworks v2.0) from a special, OS/2 only, retailer. I have no chance to use their offer although I wish to.
Do You, Sirs, know anything about SPG's future plans for Colorworks for OS/2 and their others support thereof?
I sincerely hope that great 'Colorworks Tips & Tricks' doesn't become discontinued too soon.
Drop the color works as quick as they dropped the OS2 market that created and supported them!!
While we understand that there is quite a bit of user resentment towards SPG for their handling of the switch to Windows only development, we still find ColorWorks V2 to be a valuable product. We had already made the decision to switch the graphics column to a more general interest monthly article (see this month's issue) but will most likely continue to use and feature tips for ColorWorks for some time.
- editor
With all the fervor around SPG's abandonment of OS/2, there has been a lot of discussion on the Internet about graphics apps for OS/2, and there seem to be quite a few options available. I would love to see comparison of all the major paint/image editing/image viewing apps out there.
A cool way to handle this would be to create a giant chart that lists all the features of all the apps, and you could start with two apps (CW2 vs. Photo>Graphics Pro 2.0 would be a great start), and then each month or so review a couple more and add them to the chart.
You could take this one step further and create a section on your web site on product comparisons. Products would be grouped by category, and as each new issue describes a new product, its comparison would be added to the chart for that category. As time goes by, more apps will be added, and users can not only see what's good today, but also see how apps compare to their previous versions, which would help them decide whether the upgrade (e.g. Is it worth another $99 for version 2.0? Let me check OS/2 e-Zine! and see what their comparison chart says).
A great idea. In fact we are planning such a graphics review for our coming issue and the general comparison table should be part of it.
- editor
I recently purchased the upgrade version of OS2 Warp 4.0. Although I lack any real experience with the operating system, I am eager to learn about it. Currently I have a dual boot set up on my system and find myself choosing OS2 over Win 95. I certainly hope IBM gives Microsoft a run for there money in the near future, I would like to see OS2 succeed. So to all you software developers I'm waiting for all the new and exciting software.... you have my support... make it and I'll buy it!
I read what you send about the new Warp v4 com.sys drivers being able to run at 115200. I don't think they do. Everytime I put my locked baud rate to 115200 I get a lot of FCS errors. When I put it at 57600 the most of the errors go away. At 38400 they all go away. I'm about to install SIO to see if it fixes the problem all together.
Actually a local ISP has told me the same thing: that is, if you lock your comm port at too high a speed, you will get errors. However, we have never actually seen this take place (and we have our comm port locked at 115200).
- editor
Regarding your Pentium II comments... Right on! But remember, Microsoft doesn't care what's good for the "computer industry"; Microsoft cares only about Microsoft!
As a computer consultant, and one of those rare individuals (as opposed to a corporate giant) who is a staunch supporter of OS/2 Warp, I watch the trends of the industry with great concern.
In the process of building a client base, there are many decisions one must make -- one important one being the decision of what hardware will best serve the needs of the widest range of people.
I just bought a system from Indelible Blue, Inc. and had to make the agonizing decision of whether to go the route of Pentium Pro or a Pentium II processor, which at that time, had just been released. I asked the opinion of Indelible Blue's technicians, who agreed with me that at least for the time being, nothing in OS/2 Warp or any application software written for OS/2 is geared to take advantage of the Pentium II chip. So I opted for a Pentium Pro 200MHz with 64M of RAM, still quite a respectable configuration in this day and age.
With regard to Microsoft hype, I have been virtually in despair of the largely condoned monopoly this corporate giant has wrecked on the public, not only corporate level, but end user as well. It is a scandal. With all due respect for the legitimate advances they have made, they have also kept the industry in a deadlock with regard to moving forward. Heaven knows what, if anything, can break this pattern. They do, undeniably have market share. But this is one, among many cases, where competition in the industry has led not to advance, but to stalemate. One can only hope that with the advent of Java applications, some enterprise level applications will be released that will also be usable on OS/2 Warp.
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