Happy New Year and welcome back!

Before you ask (because everyone has been), let me assure you that the recent change in our publication dates from the 1st of each month to the 16th is not an indication of anything negative (hey, we're still here aren't we?). Everyone at Haligonian Media remains as committed to OS/2 and OS/2 e-Zine! as we have always been. Nothing sinister is going on in our back rooms, no dallying in the forbidden arts of Win32, no visits from Redmond executives with suitcases full of money, no dimming of the torch.

We intend to continue what we started way back in 1995: publishing the absolute best OS/2 reading anywhere, once a month, every month.

If you are worried that new issues coming out on the 16th might be harder for you to keep track of than when they appeared at the beginning of each month, why not take advantage of our free subscription service. We'll be happy to keep you notified every time a new issue of OS/2 e-Zine! is released. Past subscribers to this service were among the first to hear news of our surprise Christmas Special late last month -- our way of saying thanks to you, our readers, by the way -- so don't delay! Be the first on your block! Sign up now and receive a free automated reply message!

Ahem. Sorry about that.

Remember, regardless of whether you decide to register with our notification service, you will always be able to find and read every issue of OS/2 e-Zine! right here on the WWW, free of charge. We have built our publication on the old fashioned Internet belief of free access to information for users. Our publication dates may change but that will not.

Moving right along, if you are using Netscape Navigator, you may also notice that our magazine is beginning to take advantage of some of the features of that browser such as animated GIFs to name but one. In fact, this is the very first issue that we tested primarily in Navigator instead of WebEx. But we tested it extensively in WebExplorer too.

Because many of our readers have written with concerns that we will forsake good old WebExplorer, let me reassure you all that we will not. While frames and Java are certainly exciting features to work with, we still believe that the purpose of our magazine is to provide readers with content, not force readers to switch browsers. Even if you choose to use WebExplorer you may still see some of the many improvements we have been making to e-Zine! lately. More importantly, none of the Netscape-centric "improvements" will actually degrade e-Zine! 's appearance in WebEx.

Many people seem to think that just adding frames and a dancing mascot to their web page somehow makes it better. We will continue to focus on content first, then tasteful and backwards compatible use of Navigator features second. As long as a significant portion of our readers are using WebEx or a similar browser we will not forsake them.

So what are we doing to improve our content? Plenty!

A new year brings exciting new opportunities to expand the world's favourite electronic OS/2 publication and we're eager to get going! First, as you will notice from our table of contents this month, we have listened to what is probably our readers' most common suggestion and expanded our reviews to cover hardware as well as software! Throughout this year we will be taking a look at computers, tape backups and many other toys and tools that are OS/2 compatible.

You will also notice from our table of contents, a link to the voting form for our first annual OS/2 e-Zine! Readers' Choice Awards. All year you've sat at the other end of this electronic connection and listened to us rant and rave about various products. This is your chance to let us know what you thought about those applications. The Readers' Choice Awards are just that -- your opinions on what OS/2 products deserves special recognition for outstanding achievement.

Please take a minute to fill in the ballot and make sure you tell every OS/2 user you know that we want their opinion. Of course, the voting results will be published in our very next issue, so get your vote in now before it's too late! (Please, one vote per person per category.)

See you next month...

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