[Please note: this is a text only version of the on-line magazine, OS/2 e-Zine!.  OS/2 e-Zine! is a graphical, WWW OS/2 publication and, if possible, should be viewed in its HTML format available on-line at http://www.os2ezine.com/ or zipped for off-line reading.  Some graphically oriented articles have been removed from this document.]

OS/2 e-Zine!		December 1, 1998	volume 3, number 19
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1998		Falcon Networking	ISSN 1203-5696

	"Over Three Quarters of a Million Satisfied Visitors!"


OPINIONS:

  Chris Wenham 
  Getting it Wrong Again 

REVIEWS:

Video Cards in OS/2

  The Hard Stuff: Video Cards in OS/2 - Craig Miller
  Diamond Stealth 2500
  ATi All-in-Wonder PCI
  Matrox G200 AGP

  Entrepreneur 1.5 - Dirk Terrell
  First Looks: Warp Server for e-business, Beta - Lief Clennon

ARTICLES:

  Vanity In The Workplace (Shell), Part II - Chris Wenham
  Make your desktop the envy of all your friends and learn a few of the tricks you will need to win in our exclusive OS/2 e-Zine! screenshot contest.
  The OS/2 e-Zine! Screenshot Contest! - OS/2 e-Zine! Staff
  Create the most droolacious OS/2 desktop and enter it to be eligible to win a $50 Indelible Blue gift certificate!


ADMINISTRIVIA:

* How to Subscribe to OS/2 e-Zine! for FREE.
* How YOU can Sponsor OS/2 e-Zine!
* The Sponsors that Make this Issue Possible


Copyright 1998   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696

***********************************

Chris' Rant		-Chris Wenham

The Truth, The Whole Truth, and nothing but The Truth

Summary: It's not how you think it is, the media got it all wrong. This is what really happened in PC history's last decade...

Not long after Steve Jobs had sold his ideas on the GUI to Microsoft, IBM entered into a deal with the Redmond based company for them to produce an operating system that IBM would label with their own brand and re-sell. Called "OS/2", it featured many of the new technologies that Microsoft had invented in their research labs and wanted to proof-test in the real world. Technologies such as pre-emptive multitasking that performed better than the co-operative design Microsoft was forced to use to maintain compatibility with early Intel chips, the object oriented user interface, and the concept of SOM - the object model that allowed programmers to write libraries of code in any language and have it link to application code on the fly, even over a network.

This deal was to eventually turn sour, as IBM demanded too much money from Microsoft and also refused them the right to sell another version of OS/2 under their own name. Microsoft backed out of the deal, and left IBM with a handful of unfinished code that still embodied a lot of Microsoft's best innovations.

As it would turn out, one of these innovations was the roots for a unique user interface that would integrate web browsing capabilities into the overall experience. Microsoft would have to wait 8 more years before the contract with IBM would expire and they could use their own ideas in their own products.

It was this contract-expiring waiting period that bought time for an ex-Microsoft employee called Marc Andreessen to sell the ideas for a graphical based web browser to a couple of guys called Clark and Barksdale. A few minutes later in Internet time and the trio had set up shop in Mountain View, California under the name "Netscape". With a group of programmers experienced in "code paraphrasing" (or the re-arrangement of algorithms to achieve the functional equivalent without actually being instruction-for-instruction copies - useful to work around copyrighted material) they created a browser called Navigator. By giving it away for free on the internet, they created the illusion that this was now the only possible way to do business in a world where Microsoft controlled the shelf space on every major retail outlet.

Needless to say, giving away the browser for free was a massive hit. Experiments with this distribution model, called "Shareware" had been experimented with unsuccessfully on the arcane dial-up Bulletin Board Systems, but in a sweeping case of chutzpah Netscape stole the whole idea out from everybody's nose. They would later do the same for the open-source software model, "embracing and extending" it with Mozilla.

With Navigator now so popular, Microsoft was appearing to play catch-up no matter what they did. In what could probably be considered an illegal act, but one necessary to deal with the rapidly changing landscape of computing, Microsoft created a company called "SpyGlass" (notice the use of bitter humor in the name itself) that was carefully made to look as if it was an independent Silicon Valley startup. SpyGlass wrote a new browser from scratch and "licensed" it to Microsoft, thus circumventing the contract problem with IBM. The new browser that Microsoft had effectively licensed to itself would be named "Internet Explorer" as another example of bitter humor directed at IBM and their "Web Explorer".

Meanwhile, Netscape had successfully managed to divide the community of people who created content for the web. Arguments flared over whether it was correct to use <CENTER> or <P ALIGN=CENTER>, whether or not to put in the WIDTH and HEIGHT tags of an image (which, incidentally, became illegal after Unisys started charging royalties on .GIF files,) and other trivial HTML related matters. The goal was to sabotage the World Wide Web consortium before it even got started, thus making it impossible for Microsoft to create a standards-compatible browser that would actually read any page on the web at all.

There were decreasing numbers of options left, Microsoft simply had to wrestle control of HTML back into the hands of the standards committees. They did it by releasing FrontPage - another program developed by ex-Microsoft employees still faithful to the mother. By selling both a "pro" version, and a free scaled down edition in their operating systems, they set web content creation back on the up-and-up.

Meanwhile, IBM was now shipping OS/2 with their Web Explorer browser bundled. It featured several of the desktop integration technologies that Microsoft had been experimenting with, such as drag-n-drop URLs and images and web page shortcuts. With a heavy advertising budget (due only because IBM had let Microsoft spend all the money on OS/2's core development), OS/2 was set to take over the world as the premiere 32 bit operating system of choice.

There was no other choice for the Redmond company than to meekly try and match it, to the point where it nearly bankrupted them. They paid a fortune for an old Rolling Stones song, dumped millions into television commercials and galas and publicity events all around the world. But when it finally came to a head, IBM backed out at the last minute and only ran a couple of 30 second spots featuring nuns and beepers. For Microsoft, the money was already spent, and if they didn't use it, it'd be the end of them. Hence the disproportionately extravagant Windows 95 rollout.

After that everything went downhill for Microsoft. Being on the receiving end of a nasty smear campaign organized by Sun and Netscape, Microsoft found itself with the manufactured reputation of an evil corporate conglomerate, bent on assimilating hapless companies left and right under its umbrella.

Which brings us to today. Microsoft has been hauled into court by a good hearted but hopelessly misled Department Of Justice while Sun strategically weakens their legal defensive capabilities with a powerful Java logo suit. We ask that this case be dismissed while there's still time for my client to recoup its losses in the market.

And that's the whole truth, Your Honor.

"Are you sure?"

Yep.

"Even the part about Marc Andreessen being an ex Microsoft employee?"

It's on our books, right there in the red crayon.

"I see. Well I guess if it says so on paper. Case dismissed."

[Sound of the gavel falling...]


Is the jury out on this one? Need to see exhibit B again? The (http://www.os2ezine.com/forums/get/forums/rant/dec1-1998.html) jury room (interactive forum) is available for haggling on your view of current Revisionist History.

 
(editor@os2ezine.com) Chris Wenham is the Editor-In-Chief of OS/2 e-Zine! -- a promotion from Senior Editor which means he now takes all the blame.

***********************************

Corporate Sponsors

[(http://www.blueskyinnovations.com/) BlueSky Innovations]
[(http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro]
[(http://www.ChipChat.com/os2ezine/) ChipChat]
[(http://www.indelible-blue.com/) Indelible Blue]
[(http://www.modulardreams.com/) Modular Dreams Inc.]
[(http://www.prominic.com/) Prominic Technologies]
[(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance]

(http://www.blueskyinnovations.com/) BlueSky Innovations
Whether you want to boot multiple Operating Systems or from an Iomega Zip disk, we have a solution for you.

(http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro
Your complete source for over 175 of the best OS/2 shareware applications available.  Drop by today and check out our WWW catalog or download the .INF version.

(http://www.ChipChat.com/os2ezine/) ChipChat Technology Group
ChipChat produces excellent 32-bit OS/2 software for wireless text paging and state-of-the-art multimedia Sound Cards for Micro Channel PS/2 computers.

(http://www.indelible-blue.com/) Indelible Blue
Indelible Blue, a mail order company, provides OS/2 software and hardware solutions to customers worldwide.

(http://www.modulardreams.com/) Modular Dreams Inc.
A growing selection of graphics utilities and applications for OS/2 Warp and Java.

(http://www.prominic.com/) Prominic Technologies, Inc.
On-line sales & solutions for VisualAge, DB2, OS/2 Warp, Workspace on Demand, Notes/Domino, AIX Firewall, and Net.Commerce (design/hosting).  The best deals on IBM and Lotus software and hardware (PCs, Servers, and RS/6000s) -- with OS/2 preloads!

(http://www.rsj.de/) RSJ Software
The successful software CD-Writer for OS/2 by RSJ. CD-Writer is suitable for backup, data filing, creating Audio CDs etc. and is compatible with most CD-Recorders.

(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance, Inc.
Dramatically improve performance on your OS/2 system now with the patented priority scanning logic and visual priority identification of Priority Master II.
 
***********************************

Getting it Wrong Again		-Pete Grubbs

Summary: Sometimes people aren't content with making the same mistake twice.

Stephen H. Wildstrom's "Technology & You" editorial in the November 9th edition of Business Week sounded the death knell for the home PC. ZDNet AnchorDesk editor Jesse Berst's November 30th "Berst Alert" proclaims, "(http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_2816.html) KISS YOUR SWEET PC GOOD-BYE: THE END OF THE PC ERA." It's too convoluted. It's too complex. It does too many things. People don't want the power to surf the Web, balance their checkbooks, play games, send and receive e-mail, write standard mail and faxes, do homework or business reports, create tee-shirts and business cards, track income and expenses, and another gazillion little tasks, wrapped up in a single, relatively inexpensive package. Wildstrom agrees with IBM's Paul Horn, a senior vice-president for research, whom he quotes as saying the standard desktop personal computer is "too complicated" for most users who are more likely to want individualized contraptions for the different jobs that they're presently accomplishing on their PCs. This means we'll soon see a surge in single-use devices, "appliances," to use Horn's term, as well as a sudden blossoming of that long-awaited PC killer, the Networked Computer. So, chuck out your sparkly new Pentium 400s, Cyrix or AMD-based machines and get ready for the new wave of individual, single-use appliances which are destined to take their place. The revolution is right around the corner and nothing can stop it.

Nope. Nothing.

Nothing at all, unless, of course, you consider something the pundits and Big Blue seem to have in remarkably short supply: a few pounds of common sense.

Taking It by the Numbers

There are at least five compelling reasons to look at the NC/Computing Appliance vision as simply the latest installment in IBM's popular technology series, The Next Big Idea That Failed:

* User Convenience  	
* User Control  	
* User Inertia  	
* Network Infrastructure
* User Expense  	

Any one of these issues alone would pose a considerable challenge to this purported new wave of computer technology. The five combined will be difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.

User Convenience

To begin, let's explore this idea of the "computer as appliance" for a few minutes to see where it leads. I suspect that many of us associate the word 'appliance' with the word 'kitchen' since we seem to load our kitchens up with the damn things. And, unless I'm mistaken, most of our kitchens are areas devoted to the preparation of food, hence the gadgets which live there are most commonly designed for food preparation and service. Our silverware, food processors, blenders, mixers, microwave ovens, bowls, plates, salad shooters, refrigerators and ranges dominate this space. We could further look at these various implements, dividing them into those which store ingredients and prepared dishes (refrigerators, baggies and cupboards) from those which prepare them for cooking (food processors, paring knives, graters, etc.) to those which  cook or re-heat them (ranges, waffle irons, microwaves, convection ovens and grills). Of these, the range-top oven is most like today's fat-client PC. You can heat soup or fry bacon on it, cook a casserole in it or use it to grill up steaks and burgers. You can also use it to thaw frozen foods or home process the tomatoes in your garden. While it's probably one of the most expensive appliances in the kitchen both in terms of initial cost and required storage space, it does a number of jobs well. There are other appliances on the market that can replace it, but they aren't very convenient. You can buy an electric grill for your steaks and burgers, but you have to find space on the countertop to use it and cupboard space to store it in when you're done. Convection ovens cook meat faster, but they generate a ton of heat. Microwave ovens are great for heating up soup or thawing frozen foods, but it's damn difficult to get crisp bacon or nicely-browned cookies out of one. In short, the standard range is a remarkably flexible device when it comes to cooking food. All a cook needs to set up shop is a few sauce pans, a skillet or two and a griddle.

Consider, now, the Personal Computer. It deals with information. We use it to create, modify, transfer and store information in much the same way that we use our ranges to fry, boil, bake or cook food. That is to say, we use our applications (browsers, e-mail clients, word processors, spreadsheets and databases) with our computers the same way a cook uses her pots and pans; toss the data in, stir gently, out comes a letter, inventory report or web page. Most importantly, it deals with any information. Most modern  machines can crunch numbers, reproduce sounds, create text or edit images with ease. All the user needs to set up shop is a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics program and database. The NC/appliance combo that Wildstrom and Horn are talking about will only be able to accomplish this same level of flexibility by having a number of appliances which will take the place of the one we're currently using. One appliance to surf the Web. One to write a report and print it. (Gee, could this be a dedicated word processor like those ever-popular, fast-selling models that Brother and Smith-Corona are devouring the market with?) Another to do e-mail, and so on. If you want to surf the Web and pull an image from it into the spreadsheet you're working on, you'll have to have your appliances networked together. You won't be able to deal with that information with just one piece of hardware. In other words, if you want soup with your burger, you'll have to get out a hot pot and an electric grill instead of just pulling out a skillet and a saucepan. Does that sound convenient to you?

While few of us don't have occasional gripes with our machines, we have come to appreciate the fact that we can share a wide variety of information on them with very little effort. We can import and export files or cut and paste data from wildly different sources with a few mouse clicks or keystrokes. If we find an image on the Web that would look good in a homework project for the kids, an e-mail for Aunt Sally, wallpaper for our desktop or the cover for a business project, we can easily import it into an e-mail client, word processor or spreadsheet and, bingo! we're in business. If we need to print out last year's income report for the IRS or get a copy of our latest checking account reconciliation to sort out a mess with the bank, it's right at our fingertips. If that income report needs a letter to explain it, we can create the letter while the report is printing without moving from the chair. That's convenience and I doubt that many users will gladly relinquish it so they can fill their offices or living rooms with 6 or 8 gadgets to take the place of one PC.

User Control

We can find another blind spot in the computer appliance/Network Computer vision when we consider the lack of personal control for data that's part and parcel of a network system. If NCs have only enough RAM and storage to log onto the network, there won't be any place for users to store data in their homes. They'll have to rely upon the network to provide it. While the physical problems this represents are far from overwhelming, there's a dump truck full of other problems that have somehow escaped the notice of the NC proponents: How secure will the data stored on these systems be? Who will guarantee that security? What mechanisms will be in place to compensate the home user when the network is hacked (which it will be) and sensitive personal material is vandalized, i.e., it is senselessly destroyed or gets posted on the Web for all the world to see? I can envision the day when a talented kid, sucked in by the irresistible lure of all that personal data, hacks a home NC directory and discovers some "romantic" e-mail, complete with names, dates and explicit actions. Remember when the New York   Times got hacked a few months ago? Instead of generic porn, imagine the effect if the hackers had posted some lovers' e-mail? What happens if one of those lovers happens to be married to someone else? With PCs and their data scattered across the world, any hacker trying to zero in on some juicy e-mail has to deal with a highly fragmented, moving target, files that only live on mail servers for a few hours or days. What happens when those files are stored in a user-directory for weeks or months? They become much easier to track down when they live on the same networked server and the overall security of the medium takes a colossal hit.

We can identify another control issue if we consider the lack of options that end users on a network have. Want to demo a game? Fiddle with your desktop? Load a piece of shareware? You'd better check it with the Systems Administrator first. While we (sporadically and grudgingly) accept this situation in the business world, how many of us want this kind of outside control in our homes? Of course, the network will make sure that all of the most popular games are available, but what happens when you want to try out a new e-mail client, browser or graphics program? Will your network provider allow you to load up something that might take the whole network down, inconveniencing several thousand other customers? I doubt it.

For that matter, what happens to the shareware industry as a whole? As many OS/2 users know, shareware titles often represent some of the most convenient, efficient code in the world. I've been using Small Editor, Commander and SIO, to name a few, for years. They are excellent products with a proven track record but they don't have the clout that many of their less-elegant mainstream competitors have. If the world goes NC, you can bet that most, if not all, of these authors and products will disappear, leaving us with fewer and poorer choices. Even if they are successful in making the switch from coding for PCs to NCs, there's very little chance that they'll ever get their product loaded onto the network. The "try before you buy" initiative, something that has been a great opportunity and benefit for the computer consumer, will die a tragic, undeserved death. That alone should be reason enough for any thinking person to object to Wildstrom's suggestions.

Network Infrastructure

As I mentioned above, the information appliances of the future, according to Wildstrom and Horn, will require a network to be fully effective. Wildstrom remarks that a combination of hardware and software should be ready by the end of the year "to turn your existing telephone wiring into an inexpensive Ethernet network of the sort currently used to link up PCs." Better yet, Wildstrom reports that Intel is leading a consortium which is working on a wireless networking system that will automatically link up any devices in its area. While I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a networking guru, my experience with networks as an end user makes me very suspicious. Like most of you, I've seen how productivity grinds to a halt for everyone when the network is down, and while Wildstrom doesn't mention operating systems in particular, you can bet your last nickel that he isn't planning to standardize this system on Linux or OS/2. How's that for a comforting thought? A whole gaggle of wireless, single-use devices hooked up to a Windows server in your basement. Yarg!

Speaking of the network, who will maintain these computer-appliance or NC LANs? If home users can't deal with one, fairly simple machine with links to the Internet and a local printer, are they really likely to learn the ins and outs of each appliance and the home server? I doubt it. This sounds like another opportunity for Microsoft (or someone) to come into your home and charge an outrageous monthly maintenance fee for a service that doesn't exist and isn't needed in the PC world.

What about home NCs? We do have the technology to make them and move them, but we don't have an infrastructure that will support them, not in the kind of numbers it would take to replace every PC in every home or office in the world. Good lord, can you imagine the nightmare that would be? Can you imagine the hue and cry when the network goes down at 11:00 p.m. on April 14, when millions of users are trying to finish up their taxes? What happens when they miss the deadline? How many nuisance lawsuits will be filed against the network by tardy taxpayers who blame the crash for penalties and interest they have to pay instead of their own lack of organization. For that matter, can you imagine the thousands of lawsuits annually that could result from a nationwide network of home users? In a nation that has the world's highest per capita ratio of lawyers to real people, what happens when the network loses your homework? your checking account records? your rough draft of The Great American Novel? The mind boggles. And for those of you who doubt the probability of a disaster like that happening, check America Online's track record. Look at how many times it's sluggish or unavailable, even though it has a small percentage of the traffic that a fully networked United States would represent. Bump that by a factor of 3 or 5 and you've got a reasonable understanding of the mess the NC 'revolution' really offers.

User Inertia

As an educator, I've seen the shift in emphasis on computer skills climb geometrically every year. My own small branch of the Pennsylvania State University overhauled our computer labs in '97 to make sure that our students had more convenient access to the machines. My school-aged kids have taken basic computer intro. courses at the local high school and have two here at home to work on. Around the country, we see more and more children growing up in wired households, surfing the 'net, playing computer games, using word processors. After introducing this generation to the PC, are they likely to dump it in favor of a pile of appliances that have little or no resemblance to the machines they started out with? Quite simply, no. These kids have become accustomed to working in a particular fashion. They're used to the convenience that the conventional PC embodies and they'll show little interest in chucking out everything they've already learned just to start over with a bunch of under-powered gadgets. Their personal inertia will keep them moving on the PC path we've defined.

For that matter, can you seriously imagine any enterprise which will cheerfully chuck its collection of PCs, peripherals and trained support staff, writing off those millions of dollars and man-hours already invested in favor of the appliances Wildstrom and Horn envision? Even though Wildstrom's concern is the home user, he's made the same mistake that IBM continues to make: He's separated home users from business users as though the former never work and the latter never go home. Can you see someone who is accustomed to having the power and convenience of a personal computer at his desk in the office come home and willingly do without it, substituting a host of dedicated, single-purpose machines in its place? I can't.

Of course, the NC doesn't suffer from this particular flaw. It will look just like a PC. The interface will be standardized across the network and, in some ways, this will make learning easier. Schools will tie into the network and their desktops will look like everyone else's desktops. Businesses could do the same. But there's a subtle flaw in this reasoning that has everything to do with the way we perceive our world. I wish I could take credit for discovering it, but I can't. I am indebted to Dilbert creator Scott Adams who analyzes the situation in his latest book, The Dilbert Future:  Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century (HarperBusiness). With regards to the NC, Adams notes that its proponents believe, "Many people will prefer a low-cost solution, even if it means giving up some functionality and prestige." His counter-argument? "One word: Yugo," and he's right. We identify those machines in our lives that are bigger, faster and more powerful as markers for people who are larger-than-life, more powerful, and more successful. Our political leaders and captains of industry don't drive Geo Metros, even if they should. In the computer world, we brag about the amount of RAM we have installed, the speed of our processors, the size of our hard drives. Can you imagine anyone bragging up an NC? It's about as sexy as my grandmother's housecoat and, considering the current market for teal, quilted housecoats, it will sell just about as well, especially among those kids who are currently learning how to use PCs and becoming members of the online community. The very culture which gave rise to the PC judges technology by its power. Machines which aren't powerful don't cut it. After all, are you driving a Yugo?

The PC is the world's first general information/communications device. Before its creation, we didn't have a single piece of hardware which could process, store and transport information quickly and easily. We relied upon the combination of pencils, pens, typewriters, pads, books, letters, and various means of transportation to do what the PC does today. While these methods met with varying degrees of success, they weren't an integrated solution. For centuries, the speed of communication was exactly equal to the highest speed of transportation. This changed remarkably with the invention of the telegraph. Universal telephone service further changed the landscape and the broadcast media added their own particular features, but until the advent of the PC, the Internet and the World Wide Web, there was a huge information vacuum that separated text from image from voice. That vacuum has been very adequately filled by PCs with Internet connections. It's going to take a lot of digging to open that hole back up and I suspect that the expense on both sides of the equation, for computer consumers and computer-appliance/NC vendors, will be too great to make the project economically feasible.

User Expense

As I mentioned above, the lack of expertise that most end users will have with their new computer appliances and/or their new NCs, will require more maintenance to be performed, not by the user, but by a professional. Legal liability will be another justification for this expense. After all, if you're upgrading your PC's memory and you mess up your SIMM sockets, if you flash your BIOS with the latest version and your machine promptly does a convincing imitation of a $2000 paper weight, no one is inconvenienced but you. If you were to try something similar on your NC, you could take down a whole section of the network, thus, the network provider will make sure that your machine is in working order and will replace your defective SIMMs or faulty hard drive for a fee, making sure, in theory at least, that the work is done by a trained, certified professional. For that matter, the NOS will have to be either remotely installed or have a technician on site to supervise the installation.

You won't be able to do that yourself because of the possibility that the network might go down. The added cost of said professional's salary, health care, pension plan and vacation will be passed along to you. Remember those security issues we talked about? Well, if you've got the bucks, maybe you could upgrade your security status. For an extra, say, $5 each month, your provider will back up your directory and store the media on site (You can't use it, remember? You don't have a drive to read it with. Of course, now you've got to wonder who's making sure the backups are secure.). For another $10, you can get hacker insurance. An additional $15 will get you a faster connection or more bandwidth, maybe greater storage. And so it goes. By the time the service contracts are completed, all of the initial savings that NC proponents tout as a major selling point will be eaten up but the user will still have a monthly connect fee as well as all of these other charges that I've touched on, and probably another dozen I can't imagine. For companies, it's a bonanza, a never-ending flow of revenue that's only limited by their ability to dream up unneeded maintenance or services for their helpless victims. For the customer, it's a never-ending nightmare of charges and fees and the uncertainty of not knowing for sure if the money spent is actually purchasing anything of value.

Tell me again: How is this an improvement over the Personal Computer? An improvement for the end user, not corporate  America. I'm afraid I just don't see it.

It's The User, Stupid

As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm looking at this from a user-oriented perspective. That's because I'm convinced that users really do drive the computer industry. While we've seen a number of industry giants (IBM and Microsoft come to mind) who have tried to dictate to the user, we see proof every business day that their control is far from complete. Look at Linux. How many years did this OS remain in the closet, quietly gaining support and respectability while the "experts" weren't even aware of its existence? Now it has gained sufficient momentum that even Microsoft has to take it as a serious threat. Look at OS/2. If certain sections of IBM had their way, it would be as dead as all of the pundits and journalists say it is. But it remains a viable MS alternative because of users like us. Events like Warpstock, publications such as this one, groups like POSSI and SCOUG are all impediments to IBM's grand NC plan. One of the greatest problems IBM faces, however, comes from within. And, for once, their own inept marketing benefits us. After all, if they can't sell a superior product like OS/2 which works within the present, successful business paradigm, how are they ever going to sell something like a Java NC that turns it over and tosses it out?

As for Stephen Wildstrom, his dissatisfaction with the PC has a much simpler, more immediate cure. As he closed his editorial, he posed, what he must have felt to be, a question that most of his readers could closely identify with. And I believe that he was probably right. In fact, I'd bet a sack full of Oreos (one of my favorite vices) that the vast majority of his readers did nod their heads in sympathy and the solution to their dissatisfaction is the same as Wildstrom's. His question? "Wouldn't you love to type a letter or browse the Web without being told you have performed an illegal operation?" We already do that, Stephen. You can, too, without sacrificing the convenience and security of a full-blown PC. Get Warped, Stephen. Get Warped.

- * -

Excese me, ma'am, but would you like to buy an Information Appliance? See what other satisfied Network Computer users have said in our (http://www.os2ezine.com/forums/get/forums/grubbs/dec1-1998.html) interactive forum.

Pete Grubbs can be reached at (peg5@psu.edu) peg5@psu.edu

***********************************

The Rexx Files		-Dirk Terrell

Summary: Learn how to generate a report of disk space usage per directory, with subdirectories recursively scanned and added to the totals too.

This month I broke down and wrote a little routine I needed and I thought that it might be of interest to others. Here I sit with 10 gigs of disk space and I am always hitting the limit. Invariably this problem arises because I install stuff all the time and then forget to delete it or I create temporary files outside of the \TEMP directory and forget them too. If you've used any form of Unix, you probably know about the "du" command which tells you how much space is taken up in each directory below the current one. I have an OS/2 port of "du", but it doesn't seem to like network drives and du gives the total for all subdirectories recursively. What I usually want to know is the usage total for each subdirectory of the current directory without listing all the subdirectories under each subdirectory.

Perhaps an example will clarify what I mean. Suppose you are at a command prompt in the F:\OS2APPS directory. That directory has a number of subdirectories like F:\OS2APPS\LOTUS, F:\OS2APPS\DESCRIBE, F:\OS2APPS\PMMAIL, F:\OS2APPS\PMVIEW, and so on. What I usually want is a report that tells me how much space is used by all files underneath each directory. I don't care that there are 14 megs used in F:\OS2APPS\LOTUS\123, 30 megs used in F:\OS2APPS\LOTUS\WORDPRO, and so on. I just want to know that underneath F:\OS2APPS\LOTUS 165 megs are used.

This is actually a pretty simple thing to accomplish in Rexx using the RexxUtil library that comes with OS/2 Rexx. The first step is to determine what directory we are currently in using the Directory() function:


/* Register REXXLIB functions */
call rxfuncadd 'SysLoadFuncs','RexxUtil','SysLoadFuncs'
call sysloadfuncs

/* Get the directory we are currently in */
RootDir=Directory()

 Then we use the SysFileTree() function to get a list of the subdirectories in our current directory. The call looks like this:

rc=SysFileTree("*","Dirs.","DO")

 The first parameter is the search mask and we use "*" to find all possibilities. The second parameter is a stem variable to store the results in. The third parameter tells the function to search only for directories (the D) and report only the fully qualified pathnames for the directories (the O). (The default is to report other information like date and size in addition to the pathname.) We want to include the space used by files in the current directory so we have to do a little extra work. Once we have all the subdirectories, we need to do another search, this time for files and we do want size information. So, we use SysFileTree() again:

rc=SysFileTree("*","Files.","FS")

 The third parameter tells the function that we want files only (the F) and to scan recursively through any subdirectories (the S). Note the lack of an O in the third parameter, so the results that come back will have extra information like the file size which we need. To pick out the file size and accumulate a sum, we use a loop like this:

Sum=0
Do i=1 to Files.0
   Parse Var Files.i Date Time Size .
   Sum=Sum+Size
end /* do */

 To organize our code and make it easier to use, we can put these two pieces of code together into a function called DirSize that we can call:

DirSize: Procedure Expose RootDir
Parse Arg Dir
rc=Directory(Dir)
If Dir=RootDir then
   rc=SysFileTree("*","Files.","F")
else
   rc=SysFileTree("*","Files.","FS")
Sum=0
Do i=1 to Files.0
   Parse Var Files.i Date Time Size .
   Sum=Sum+Size
end /* do */
Return Sum

 Note the IF/THEN structure that determines whether or not we are getting size information in a subdirectory or in the current directory. We want to search subdirectories recursively for files, but we don't want to do that for the current directory. Once the sum has been computed, it is returned to the caller.
Once we have called DirSize for the current directory and all of the subdirectories, all we have to do is format the output and present it to the user. To make the output easy to read, we will want to have the sizes in columns that line up. We should also print out the sizes printed in bytes, kilobytes (units 1024 bytes), and megabytes (units of 1024x1024 bytes).
Formatting the numbers is easy. We just use the RIGHT() function like this:

Right(Total,11)

 where Total is the variable that contains the total number of bytes used and the 11 means that we want a field eleven characters wide, padded with spaces on the left if necessary. For the kilobyte and megabyte columns, we use the FORMAT() function:

Format(Total/1024,8,1)    /* Total usage in kilobytes */
Format(Total/1048576,5,1) /* Total usage in megabytes */

 where the 8 in the kilobyte calculation means we want an 8 character field to the left of the decimal point and the 1 means we want one digit after the decimal point.
To handle the directory names we have to do a little more work. To keep all the columns lined up when we print out the results, the name column has to have a constant length. If we just print out the name of each directory, they will have different sizes. The way to do it is to ensure that the longest name fits in the allotted space and pad the shorter ones with spaces on the right if the name column is printed first. When we do our search for the subdirectories, we keep track of which one has the largest name by comparing the size of the current subdirectory name with the size of the largest one so far. If we store the size of the largest subdirectory name in variable NMax, then we can use the LEFT() function to print out the names:

Left(SubDir,NMax)

 where SubDir is a variable that contains the subdirectory name.

The <a href="diskuse.cmd) sample code (.CMD, 4K) will implement the above functions and return a report on the disk space used in the current directory and in each of its subdirectories. Just copy it to a directory in your PATH statement and then at a command line you can type diskuse to generate a report for the current directory. With last month's sorting routine, it is a simple matter to sort the results by size so that it is easy to see where your disk space has gone, and the sample code does this.
 

(http://www.gnv.com/HTMLWizard/) Dr. Dirk Terrell is an astronomer at the University of Florida specializing in interacting binary stars.  His hobbies include cave diving, martial arts, painting and writing OS/2 software such as HTML Wizard.

***********************************

The Hard Stuff: Video Cards in OS/2		-Craig Miller

Summary: Craig investigates video card options under OS/2, looking at three of the popular mainstream models and how well they're being supported for Warp users.

Video Cards

The video card, which is inevitable in each computer system, is responsible to process the special video data received from the CPU into a format that a monitor can understand to make a restored picture on the screen out of it. More or less the monitor screen is still THE output device of a computer system, it's the most important port through which we humans get data transferred from the computer. Therefore the Video Card is one of the most important parts of our computer and we should take very good care of it. For OS/2 users, sometimes it can be painful to find the right video card with good drivers, so keep reading.

Nowadays, video cards are sold as 2D, 3D, and 2D/3D cards. A persons screen is always being refreshed so speed is VERY important. There are pros and cons of each but first we need to know what the difference between 2D and 3D are.

* 2D performance, also called GUI performance. It determines how fast your office applications perform, e.g. how fast you can scroll text/graphics or how fast you can open and close new windows. Since the days of the Matrox Millennium 2D and Diamond Stealth, performance of graphic cards got pretty close to the limit and nowadays the latest graphic cards don't differ much in 2D performance anymore, most of them are pretty fast, faster than the old standard of the Diamond cards. In OS/2, most everything is 2D, so it's important to get a good 2D card.

* 3D performance is the most important topic to distinguish between different graphic cards today. Cards without 3D acceleration will soon disappear from the market and Matrox had to learn this the hard way when releasing the Millennium II with hardly any 3D features. They lost their market leader position in an instant. S3 used to be a big player in the graphic chip market, but the mediocre 3D performance of their chip put them almost completely out of business. Similar things were happening to Cirrus Logic and others. The major player is 3Dfx which Diamond and Sound Blaster both place on their dedicated 3D cards. OpenGL is going to be OS/2's only savior for 3D support. More games are starting to use OpenGL, like Quake 2.  Let's hope the trend continues.

Two very important things to remember about video cards is the amount of memory it contains and the chipset. Memory is responsible for the color resolution in combination with the screen resolution in 2D and 3D, which is getting more and more important. The amount of local card memory is also determining the maximum 3D resolution as 3D needs much more local memory than 2D for the same resolution. This is due to the fact that 3D needs a front, a back and a Z-buffer. The front buffer holds what you see, the back buffer holds the next picture while it's being processed and the Z-buffer holds the 3rd dimension value (z-value, as x and y make two dimensions, z holds the third). That is the reason why a card with 4 MB local memory can offer a resolution of 1600x1200 at high color (16 bit) in 2D, because it needs 1600x1200x2 byte = 3.7 MB. However games that are using z-buffer information (and the good ones do, offering you real 3D) can only run at 800x600 x 16 bit color x 16 bit z-buffer, 800x600x6 byte (2 byte color front buffer, 2 byte color back buffer, 2 byte 16 bit z-buffer) = 2.74 MB. 3D at 1024x768 would require 4.5 MB and can't be displayed by a 4 MB 3D card.

The chipset is responsible for all performance aspects of the video card. This is where the speed is set. A lot of people have this idea that if they upgrade their video card from 2 to 4 megs of ram they will see a performance jump in speed. This is not the case, the chipset dictates speed, so when you buy that video card your stuck with it's speed unless the company comes out with a software upgrade (drivers) or you go out and buy a new card. However we shouldn't forget that the bus system (PCI/VL/ISA/EISA/MCA/NuBus) and also the main board and the main board chipset are responsible for how fast the data reaches the video card. AGP, the Advanced Graphic Port, can offer much higher transfer bandwidth than PCI.

The last item to talk about before we look at the reviews is PCI versus AGP. All main boards with slot 1 and 2, and some very new socket 7 boards, have AGP slots. The slot 1 and 2 boards are reliable but you will need to be a little wary about the socket 7 main boards as there have been bugs. The AGP specification is based on the 66 MHz PCI specification rev. 2.1, which isn't in much use currently, since all current PCI cards are still only able to use the 33 MHz PCI bus speed. However, AGP is adding three special extensions via so called 'side band' signals, provided by some special lines added to the PCI specs. These three extensions are:

* Pipelined memory read/write operations

* Demultiplexing of address and data on the bus

* Timing for data transfer rate as if clocked with 133 MHz

Now what does this mean in laymen terms?

First of all AGP offers a much higher throughput over the AGP bus than PCI. PCI, is currently clocked at 33 MHz and can transport 133 megabytes per second at peak rates over its 32 bit data bus (33,000,000 * 4 byte * sec-1). AGP is clocked with 66 MHz, which enables a peak rate of 266 MB/s (66,000,000 * 4 byte * sec-1) at the classic so called 'x1' mode. But by using the 'x2' mode, which transports data on both the rising and the falling edges of the 66 MHz clock, it can transport up to 532 MB/s at peak rate (please note that it is up to the graphic accelerator's vendor if  'x2' mode is supported). With this trick it can achieve data transfer rates like that of a '133 MHz' bus, but without actually being clocked at 133 MHz at all! Now in the real world AGP is able to transfer closer to the hypothetical peak values due to some extra signal wires which enable pipelining and queuing of requests. Once again, watch out for companies saying that their product is the fastest, since there are ways to fudge tests and still look "legitimate". If you have a PCI card right now and it's working for you, then leave it. If you were going to upgrade and your current motherboard can support it, get a AGP card.  AGP has only five benefits to PCI but they add up:


* Higher bandwidth than PCI, up to 4 times as high
* No sharing of bandwidth with other components like in the case of PCI
* DIME, direct memory execution of textures
* CPU accesses to system RAM can proceed concurrently with the graphics chip's AGP RAM reads
* Allowing the CPU to write directly to shared system AGP memory when it needs to provide graphics data, such as commands or animated textures. Generally the CPU can access main memory more quickly than it can graphics local memory via AGP, and certainly faster than via the PCI bus.


Obviously it doesn't take a Pentium II to provide the needs for an AGP system. This is why Socket 7 systems with AGP will do just the same as the AGP provided by the 440LX chipset for Pentium II platforms.

Ok, now that we're done with that, let's get into the reviews:

* Matrox G200 AGP with 8 megs of ram (MGA Ver.)

* ATI all in wonder PCI with 4 megs of ram

* Diamond Stealth 2500 Series with 2 Megs of Ram (PCI)

All reviews are on Warp 4, Fixpack 9. I'm using only drivers given by the company, GRADD drivers will be in another review. Sorry right now if I didn't cover your card here but I was looking into the fastest cards with good OS/2 drivers.

I hope this will clear some of the smoke away from OS/2 dealing with Video Cards and their drivers. In the months that come I will be writing on Hard Drives, Ram, CPU's, and everything else. If you want something discussed please E-mail me at (craig@os2ezine.com>) craig@os2ezine.com.

 
Craig D. Miller can be reached at (craig@os2ezine.com) craig@os2ezine.com

***********************************

Diamond Stealth 2500

Summary: A popular maker of multimedia cards, but currently with lousy support and no future plans for OS/2.

My very first video card in my very first PC was a Diamond. I had no idea what video card was the best or if I really knew what a video card was. My brother was much more knowledgeable at it then I was at the time so I took his word on the matter. I found that it was a very fast card but the drivers were flaky in some of the DOS games I played. I stayed with Diamond for my first 3 years, then the first video card I had with OS/2 was the Stealth SE (2 meg). I do have to say that I didn't have too much of a problem, except with a Full screen windows session.

The Diamond Stealth 2500  offers 64-bit graphics technology for optimum system performance. Full screen, smooth video playback of Indeo, Cinepak and MPEG. Support for 24-bit "True Color" in OS/2 for photo-realistic images. Plus a Flicker-Free Refresh of up to 120Hz.

This card is for entry level computers. I was able to find it on the net for around 50 dollars. The drivers are at v1.07 for the Stealth Video 2500 OS/2 driver. This driver also supports OS/2 WARP 4 (updated on November of '96). The install has 12 steps and is not as bad as the ATI Card. I did not have any real problems with the card and its chipset had quite a lot of pep. But as I went on Diamond's site I found most of their newer cards coming out had no drivers for OS/2. This was quite disheartening because their newer cards are very fast (Their fusion card is awesome). I E-mailed Diamond and asked them about OS/2 and never got a response from them, not surprising because their phone support stunk also.

Diamond WAS a very good choice for OS/2 two years ago but as time has gone by they have dropped a lot of support, more than just OS/2 support too. Once again I called them and was always on hold or put to a voice mail. I left messages and never got a reply back. Personally, I would take your money elsewhere.

                         - * -

Stealth 2500 Series
by (http://www.diamondmm.com) Diamond Multimedia
MSRP: N/A
 
***********************************

ATi All-in-Wonder PCI

Summary: A good card for OS/2, but with some annoying font problems and a complex driver installation procedure.

ATi was the first company that I went to when I stopped using Diamond. I liked ATi because their cards try to do everything for a decent price. I was reading about OS/2 drivers and how they are actively writing them. You need to remember that whatever the company, you need to ask them if they have drivers for the card you are using and if  they are working on new drivers.

Installing the ATI card was physically easy, just open the case, find a open PCI slot, shove it in, close the case, and wala. It's physically installed. Remember when you put a new video card in OS/2 you might want to go to a OS/2 command prompt right before you shutdown and install the new card. At the prompt type X:\setvga. This will reset your video back to default video drivers so you can install the new video card drivers with little hassle. The ATI software install was a 12 step process with 7 sub processes. It wasn't as bad as it sounds but it could be easier (The setup for win95 was around 3 steps!) After I rebooted, the first thing I noticed was all my fonts were not the default Warpsans anymore. It was Roman and it was big. I couldn't even use Warpsans. I would never figure out why and even my e-mail to them would go unnoticed.

The performance of the card was great in terms of speed. I at a resolution of 1024x768 at 16-bit color, never a flicker.  This is because the card uses 64-bit acceleration and 100MHz SGRAM memory. The All-in-Wonder is upgrade able to 8MB of memory that will bring high resolution graphics up to 1600x1200 and images at refresh rates up to 200Hz.  The chipset is the ATI 3D RAGE PRO TURBO, a high performance 64bit graphics accelerator with support for 3D, 2D and motion video; includes integrated setup engine, on-chip texture cache, hardware assisted MPEG-2 acceleration and scaling, and integrated 230MHz DAC (Digital to Analog Converter - turns a digital signal into an Analog one that drives your monitor).

The ATI All-in-Wonder is a good all around card. I used this Card for around a year, If it wasn't for that darn Font problem I might still have the ATI card. It's the small things that get to me though, The Font problem and no true software to use with ATI's drivers were the killing decision for me. If you considering the ATI brand, it is a very good card, but for OS/2, there is better.

                         - * -

All-in-Wonder PCI
by (http://www.atitech.com/) ATi Technologies, Inc.
MSRP: $169 (with 8 megs)
 
***********************************

Matrox G200 AGP

Summary: Possibly the best video card for OS/2. It's inexpensive and has some of the best support and dedication to OS/2 around.

The G100 is a 128-bit DualBus card that employs two independent 64-bit buses that operate in parallel inside the graphics engine to effectively double the raw performance of almost every operation. Additionally, the 128-bit DualBus architecture uses Dual Command Pipelining which permits read and write phases of two consecutive commands to be overlapped and executed simultaneously. It came with 8 megs of SDRAM (upgradable to 16 megs).

This is the new card I just purchased after a month of tough research. One of the main reasons was the tech support I received from Matrox. They were more then happy to help me over the phone and the guy that helped me even knew about OS/2! We talked about the best card for 2D, after 10 minutes of debating we decided that the G200 was the best choice. I don't use the 3D because OS/2 doesn't use it and when I'm playing games in Win98 I use Duel Monster II cards. Although, I have read the 3D scores were healthy, so if your looking for a good 2D/3D card, this one is good. However, I was looking for the best 2D card out there and all the tests I ran showed the G200 heads above the rest. Oh ya, did I tell you it only cost me 95 dollars for the OEM version?

Also I e-mailed the Matrox tech support on OS/2 drivers and asked the same question I asked the rest of the companies I dealt with in this review. I got back single line saying they were committed to OS/2 for the long haul. This from everything else made me feel the best about Matrox. Not only is the G200 one of the best 2D cards, it has 3D also and ongoing tech support. I've read in OS/2 news groups that Matrox video cards were flaky with some OS/2 games, I don't know if it's because I'm using the G200 and the newest drivers but I've never had a problem. Installation was also a snap. With only a few small steps I was done with both the hardware and the drivers. This is the card I use right now and I'm very happy with it.

                         - * -

Millenium G200 AGP
by (http://www.matrox.com) Matrox
MSRP: $149
 
***********************************

Entrepreneur 1.5		-Dirk Terrell

Summary: Armchair CEOs now have their chance to prove that it if only guys like Lou G. and Ray Noorda would just listen to them, Microsoft wouldn't stand a chance. Here we look at Entrepreneur 1.5 from Stardock, the corporate warfare strategy game for OS/2.

Most real time strategy (RTS) games have a military theme to them. Build up an army and go thrash your opponents. Personally, I prefer RTS games to first person, shoot 'em up games. RTS games make you think and plan your moves very carefully, but there is the pressure of having to make decisions in real time. The opponent is always plotting what to do to you. So you get the adrenalin rush of fending off a furious attack, but it is more than just picking up the biggest waepon you can find. Entrepreneur 1.5 is a very good RTS game, but the battlefield is the corporate market and your weapons are salesmen and marketing rather than soldiers and machine guns. Entrepreneur is fabulously (but not overly) complex game that will keep you occupied for quite a while, and new maps and market modules keep the game fresh and interesting. It sports quite simply the best AI (artificial intelligence) engine I have ever seen in a game, the same design used in the very popular Galactic Civilizations.

Installation

I tested the online commerce server version that you can purchase and download online. The zip file is about 17.5 megs so you need either a fast connection or some patience. Installation amounts to unzipping the file and then running the ent.exe file. I was a little surprised that there wasn't at least a Rexx script to create a program object.

Gameplay

When you start Entrepreneur, you will see the main menu screen. From there you can start a game against computer opponents or you can start/join a game over the network against human players. Network games can be played by connecting to a machine hosting a game (by entering the machine's IP address) or by connecting to Stardock.Net and meeting up with other players.

Most RTS games have rather lame AI engines and are pretty easy to beat once you play them a few times. The only thing that saves them is having the ability to play games against human opponents across the network. Entrepreneur (like Galactic Civilizations before it) is definitely not one of those games. In most RTS games, there is a point once you amass enough power that you will always win the game, by attrition if nothing else. With Entrepreneur, you constantly have to be on your toes. There is no coasting to victory. Computer opponents will challenge you to the very end. When I first started playing, I had several games locked up, only to watch my opponent come roaring back and chase me right out of town.

The basic goal in Entrepreneur is to develop a product and have it achieve monopoly status in the market. The percentage of the market that you have to control depends on the number of opponents you have. To achieve this, there are five major areas you have to take care of: market research, sales, manufacturing, marketing, and product research. When the game starts, you have one salesman in one region of the map. The first step is to research other areas of the map so that you can target them with your sales people. The market research tells you what characteristics of the product the consumers hold important, such as performance versus efficiency if you are in the automobile market.

At this point, if you click on the "Produce" button you will see the screen that shows you how much product you are producing, how much is desired, and what the selling price is. If you hope to win, this is a screen that you have to check very frequently to make sure that the price you have set for you product matches the market desires, otherwise you may end up making too much product or not enough to meet demand.

When you start, you have one corporate site with a Garage for manufacturing. The site page allows you to control the hiring and firing of workers and to build new buildings to increase your ability to manufacture, market, and research your product. More capable buildings cost more and take longer to build, so you have to carefully consider where you will invest your money. Will you get a better return by investing in a marketing campaign or should you spend that money on research to improve your product so that it has the qualities desired by your potential customers? Decisions, decisions. Entrepreneur is full of them.

Time ticks off in weekly intervals and you can change the speed of the game. At the end of the year you see a report of your performance during the previous year and if your sales have grown enough, you will get a new salesperson so that you can expand into new territories. And there is another decision: should you move into territory unoccupied by your opponents and try to strengthen your own standing, or should you go after the heart of your competition's sales? Every single action in this game has a rich set of possibilities that you must consider if you hope to reach monopoly status.

The primary reason why you cannot ever let your guard down is the use of Direct Action Cards (DACs). These bring a stochastic element to the game that make the game more realistic without making it hopelessly complex. At the beginning you have three DACs and each year you get another one (although you can only hold seven at any given time). DACs perform such actions as steal a salesperson from an opponent, give you a temporary boost in research capability, cause a labor strike against an opponent, and so on. Played strategically, DACs can completely reverse the momentum of a game.

Final Thoughts

Entrepreneur is not the most visually striking game around, although the graphics have improved greatly since the first release. But this not a game about flashy graphics. This is definitely a thinking person's game. And the AI engine will challenge you even if you play the game every day for several months.

For some reason, the version I downloaded did not have the documentation with it. Well, it had a couple of little text files to help you get started, but the main documentation (in Adobe Acrobat format) must be downloaded from the (http://www.stardock.com/products/ent/entdocs.pdf) Stardock web site (.PDF). The documentation can be freely downloaded and reading through it will give you a good feeling for how the game plays.

Entrepreneur is every bit as challenging and fun as Galactic Civilizations. Even if you think you wouldn't like this game because it's about economic warfare rather than space warfare, (http://www.stardock.com/products/ent/entdemo.html) take a look at it and I guarantee you that you will find yourself sitting on the edge of your chair trying to counter a Mitrosoft FUD campaign long past your usual bedtime.

                         - * -

Entrepreneur 1.5
by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems, Inc.
MSRP: $29.95

 
(http://www.gnv.com/HTMLWizard/) Dr. Dirk Terrell is an astronomer at the University of Florida specializing in interacting binary stars.  His hobbies include cave diving, martial arts, painting and writing OS/2 software such as HTML Wizard.

***********************************

First Looks: Warp Server for e-business, Beta		-Lief Clennon

Summary: Many are wishfully thinking that Aurora might perform just as well on a client machine as it does on the servers it was designed for. In this first look at the Warp Server for e-business beta (codenamed Aurora), we examine it from the client user's point of view.

I'm writing this in tedit on the OS/2 Warp Server for e-business beta version 4.5. This is a miracle in and of itself, as I am apparently the only OS/2 e-Zine! staff member who has successfully installed Aurora, and it took me three tries to do that. Of course, beta is beta, and the documentation is quite adamant about this package not being suitable for a production environment. Needless to say it has been quite disappointing so far, considering the usual quality of OS/2 betas.

Enough griping, what's new?

To be honest, very little has changed, especially on the surface. Since I don't have a LAN I can't investigate the administration tools; and on the client side it's just Warp 4 with a few tune-ups under the hood. In fact, typing 'ver' on the command line reports "OS/2 version 4.50", rather than a "version 5."

There have been a few modifications to the install procedure. The "fonts" option now only allows you to select Unicode and/or several special native-language fonts (Japanese, Arabic, etc.), while Helvetica, Times, and Courier are installed no matter what. One note of interest there, is that the TrueType fonts installed for WinOS/2 (Arial, etc.) are now automatically available to OS/2 sessions as well. Other than that, the main difference is that installation of networking features is a good deal smoother, and Netscape Communicator is installed transparently as part of the main TCP/IP setup.

Differences in the interface are few and far between. You'll note the lack of screenshots accompanying this review; PM and WPS are entirely unchanged since Warp 4 and the only real visual change is the startup screen seen during boot.

Some of the tabs in the "Properties" dialogs have been moved around, and a notable tab has been added to the end of the list for program objects: "Language" allows you to select an individual locale and codepage for each program. Other than that... well, the WarpCenter defaults to being on the bottom of the screen now, Win95-style. (I rapidly moved it back to the top.) Also, and I sincerely hope this is an aspect of the beta and not of the finished product, the Scheme Palette is gone and there's no replacement that I've found.

LVM, JFS and more Alphabet Soup

The one really big addition is the Logical Volume Manager, and it's quite possibly the saving grace that makes this upgrade worthwhile. To understand LVM, the first thing you have to do is recognize the difference between a partition (a section of your hard drive, or often the entire disk) and a volume (a filesystem structure with a drive letter). For Unix users this is not a problem; LVM is essentially an implementation of the Unix filesystem concept under OS/2.

LVM allows you to create a volume that is completely independent of partitions; If your SCSI chain has five 3-gigabyte hard drives, you're perfectly capable of creating a single C: volume, with 15 gigabytes of storage. Alternately, a single one of those hard drives can have three 1G volumes, without partitioning it: the advantage here is that when you want to move things around, you don't have to repartition and destroy data.

Furthermore, you don't even have to have a C:, since LVM allows you to assign your own drive letters. This capability extends to 'compatibility' volumes, which follow the DOS-style "partition = volume" formula and include any volume that existed before you installed Aurora. Non-fixed-disk drive letters are still assigned in the old fashion, with A: and B: being dedicated to floppies and anything else being tacked on wherever it fits. You can still control their placement to an extent, though; by creating volumes H: and I: for Aurora, I was able to keep my CD-ROM on G: as it is for my regular copy of Warp 4.

I mentioned earlier that all your existing partitions will be 'compatibility' partitions in LVM's eye. Unfortunately, so will one of your new ones: IBM has not yet added the capability to boot from an LVM volume. I'm not entirely sure why not; it would be a trivial modification to the Boot Manager to make it work like a Unix loader. But they didn't, and since the slick new JFS filesystem can only be used on LVM volumes, you'll still be using HPFS (or FAT) to boot from.

As for the JFS or Journaling Filesystem itself, my observations show that it is currently not faster than HPFS for regular tasks. In fact, in the few tests I've performed, it's significantly slower, although of course not nearly as bad as FAT*. The advantage of JFS lies entirely in crash-recovery, which is far faster and far more reliable than other filesystems. It's so fast, in fact, that at boot time OS/2 runs a full CHKDSK on every JFS volume, which goes faster than the cursory check run on HPFS volumes to see if they need to have CHKDSK run.

The Journaling filesystem works by keeping a record of every write to the hard drive and theoretically should perform faster than HPFS. It keeps the read/write head physically hovering over a dedicated journal track. When the data to be written to the disk is sent to the drive, the head is already positioned to immediately<span style="font-style: normal)       write a journal entry, followed by the actual data. The written data is then moved to a more permanent location during idle time. If the system crashes before it completes this job, the data is still written, still intact, and a journal of the pre-crash activity is available for the filesystem to consult and pick-up where it left off. This is where it gets its rapid and powerful crash-recovery traits from.</span>

* Editor's note: While we had planned to have a complete benchmark analysis of the JFS filesystem for this issue, Aurora was found to be too unstable at this time to produce any reliable results.

Final thoughts

All in all, my opinions are very mixed. Aurora does not look as if it will be a good choice for the client. After all, it issupposed to be a server, and it's only the geek-appeal of its LVM, JFS and support for Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) that makes us yern to put it to use on a client machine. From what I've seen of the more upscale features, though, this is quite an impressive server package; I only wish I could test those features myself. However, I'm taking solace in the fact that the version number is 4.5: if they do put out a version 5, we can probably expect some major improvements. LVM, which warranted the half-a-version increase, is in and of itself a far larger change than the entire Win95-to-Win98 "upgrade." I can only speculate that a final "5.0" release of OS/2, server or client, will be considerably better improved.

 
(liefc@os2ezine.com) Lief Clennon is a computer hobbyist and Team OS/2 member currently residing in Albuquerque, NM. He can usually be found badgering his friends on IRC.

***********************************

Results from our November 16th Survey		-Chris Wenham

Summary: The results of our November 16th survey show what we probably already knew: A strong lean towards power and reliability in an operating system.

In our last issue we ran the risk of asking a question we thought we already knew the answer to: What do you consider the most important nature of an operating system? Asking this of a group of OS/2 users gave us results that didn't surprise us, but enlightened us when we saw what their second most important value was.

For this survey we had a total of 1058 votes, with 42 spoiled entries, giving a grand total of 1016 valid entries. A vote was considered spoiled if it wasn't accompanied by a valid e-mail address, didn't answer all questions, or was a duplicate.

What is the most important nature of an operating system to you?

While we baited the survey with choices such as "Strong application support" or "ease of use", the majority of readers (56.7%) made a bee-line for reliability as their number one most important trait of an operating system. It was closely followed by Power or Flexibility (31%), creating a picture of OS/2 owners as power users, not primarily concerned with "chrome". We had thought that ease-of-use would score high too, but it was one of the lowest scoring options of all, with only 20 readers voting for it. Internet integration also scored abysmally low. A conspicuous vote against the philosophies introduced by Windows 98, we imagine.<

What is the second most important nature?

Here's where it started to get interesting. While the vote for Reliability and Power remained strong, the vote for strong application support nearly tripled as readers cast it as their choice for their second most important trait. Ease of use also jumped considerably, but still ranked as one of the lowest options.

Some conclusions that can be drawn are that application support is still dear to the minds of power users. If OS/2 draws many power users who are concerned with flexibility and reliability, but still need a lot of third party development going on, then it does more to reinforce just how important it is for a platform to have it.  Newcomers like Be and Linux may have some very desirable features in the operating systems themselves, but they mean naught without programs to run on them.

Complete November 16th Survey Results

What is the most important nature of an operating system to you?

Category			Count		Percentage
Strong application support	92		9.0%
Ease of use			20		2.0%
Power/Flexibility		315		31.0%
Reliability			577		56.7%
Internet integration		8		0.8%
Other				4		0.4%
TOTAL				1,016		99.9%

What is the second most important?

Category			Count		Percentage
Strong application support	247		24.3%
Ease of use			81		8.0%
Power/Flexibility		387		38.1%
Reliability			260		25.6%
Internet integration		39		3.8%
Other				2		0.2%
TOTAL				1,016		100.0%

 
(editor@os2ezine.com) Chris Wenham is the Editor-In-Chief of OS/2 e-Zine! -- a promotion from Senior Editor which means he now takes all the blame.

***********************************

Vanity In The Workplace (Shell), Part II		-Chris Wenham

Summary: It's all about appearances. Learn how to use the latest tools to make your OS/2 desktop look absolutely gorgeous.

Before you go any further, take a look at this screenshot* (http://www.os2ezine.com/v3n19/vanity1.gif  .GIF, 263K) of my current OS/2 desktop. Yes, that CD player at the bottom does work.

I won't speculate on what your reasons might be for creating a killer looking desktop, although I will guess that they have something to do with eliciting deep jealousy from all your friends. Fraternal rivalry and that sort of thing. A good looking desktop can also be a highly useful one too, because much of the beauty you can put into it will take functional form, as you'll soon see.

The Instant Fix

Some programs on the market for OS/2 will spruce up the operating system's looks instantly, that being anything from their secondary function (Object Desktop, Smart Windows etc.) to their sole and dedicated purpose in life (PlusPak: Themes, CandyBarz). Here's a list of some programs that you can download or purchase today that will add a little chrome to the OS/2 screen:


* Object Desktop - The latest version, 2.0, does twice as much snazzing up as its predecessors with the ability to select from several different visual themes or personalities for your standard titlebar and window controls. Its other modules such as the Control Center and Tabbed Launchpad aren't bad looking either, and it can supply cool 3D borders to the icons and titles of your WPS objects too. Commercial software.

* SmartWindows - Does even more than Object Desktop when it comes to sprucing up titlebars and controls, although you shouldn't mistake it for being a complete Object Desktop replacement. SmartWindows is a definate must-have utility, for it not only has a wider range of frame control themes to choose from (close, maximize, minimize buttons, etc.) but it also supports adding bitmaps or gradients to titlebar backgrounds too. Shareware currently in a free beta testing phase.

* CandyBarz - Its sole existence is to add the cool gradients (horizontal or vertical) to your titlebars. SmartWindows does everything that CandyBarz does and more, however, so there's little reason to use it now. Free software.

* Dialog Enhancer - Spruces up the default dialogs (such as file open, basic information and alert dialogs etc.) with replacements that not only use the WarpSans font everywhere, but also arrange things to make them easier to use. Since this utility simply replaces resource defenitions in OS/2, it has a very low RAM usage. Shareware.

* NPS WPS - This workplace shell enhancer has been around for a long time now. It brings with it 	mostly functional improvements, but one cosmetic feature that can't be beat is the drop-shadows it adds to all of your open windows, even seamless WinOS/2 sessions. Its window open-and-close animations are fun to watch too and tend to get a reaction out of anyone who hasn't seen them before. Freeware.

* PlusPak: Themes - From Stardock, this is like buying a bag of gourmet icons. In it are two basic themes: "Office" and "2000", each of which come in about half a dozen color varieties and replace all of OS/2's system icons (System Setup, default folder and URL objects, plus several of the "Program" folder icons). There's also four smaller "Mini Themes" that replace the five key desktop icons with ones based on Greek/Roman, Egyptian, Golden-Age American and "Santa Fe" cultures (The icon for the Assistance Center in the "Classic" or Greek theme is an olympic torch, for example). PlusPak:Themes includes a simple one-step procedure for applying a whole theme to your desktop, so you're not buried thick in Properties notebooks. Commercial software.


Background Inventiveness

The next most obvious technique is to use the facilities already provided by the operating system. These include setting desktop and folder backgrounds, changing the color scheme and the way object icons are presented. Most of what you see in my own desktop example is achieved this way. Those cool, anti-aliased object titles and transparent borders were not pulled off by a whiz-bang enhancement utility like the ones listed above. They were done in a graphics program, Photo>Graphics Pro to be exact. It's an example of how you can "color outside the lines", so to speak. Since you can draw anything as the background, why not use illusion to make it appear as part of the foreground?

With drawing tools I created the transparent rectangles, gave them a drop shadow and a beveled edge (so they stood out and didn't appear to be part of the background), and icon titles rendered in smooth and anti-aliased text. Rendered in .BMP format and set as the desktop background I then positioned the icons very carefully over their pre-marked spaces, opened the Properties notebook for the desktop, navigated to the "View" tab and unchecked the "Visible" option for the icon titles. The OS/2 supplied titles were now gone, the icons remained, and sat neatly in their spots next to their nice anti-aliased titles. Since the main desktop icons (OS/2 System, Assistance Center, Connections, Programs and Shredder) never move, the fact that their titles and "tiles" cannot move either is a moot point.

If I do want or need to move the icons, it's a trivial measure to open up Photo>Graphics and shift their associated decorations around too. Consider that as a tip when creating your backgrounds: use an object oriented program that lets you move images around independantly and save your work in two formats; the program's native format that keeps the objects separate and workable, and the BMP format so that OS/2 can use it as a background. Such programs you can use under OS/2 are the aforementioned (http://www.os2ss.com/select/applications/graphics/photographics.html) Photo>Graphics, (http://www.os2ss.com/select/applications/graphics/embellish.html) Embellish and StarOffice.

The Desktop Integrated CD Player

The CD player at the bottom was made in exactly the same way, but I'm not kidding when I say that it really is functional. Double click on the play, stop, forward, backward or eject buttons and the CD ROM drive will respond - if it has an audio CD in it. The controls are regular desktop Program objects, set to run tiny, minimized batch files that send commands to the real CD player that's also running minimized in the background. It responds quickly because the batch files are small and usually stay in the cache.

To do it I first I downloaded a program called "Simple CD Player". It's a character-mode program, meaning it doesn't have a Presentation Manager GUI, but that doesn't matter since it will be run minimized all the time anyway. What this CD player does that's different from all the others is accept commands through a named pipe.  A named pipe is a means of communicating between programs in OS/2, and are very easy to feed data to. You can send data to a named pipe on the command line in fact, like this:

echo play > \pipe\cdp00

Simple CD Player listens to the pipe called "cdp00". Send a standard CD player command to that pipe, and it'll do as the command says. Valid commands are: "prev", "next", "play", "stop", "eject", and "load" (closes the CD tray and door).

With the translucent magenta bars in place, as drawn in Photo>Graphics Pro and saved as the desktop background, I created a set of icons that resembled CD player controls. Each icon, used for a Program object, launched a simple batch file. In the batch files were the commands to send messages to the real CD player running minimized and in the background. So for example, the PLAY.CMD file contained the line shown above, while the BACK.CMD contained this:

echo prev > \pipe\cdp00

as its sole contents. And FORWARD.CMD contained this:

echo next > \pipe\cdp00

In the Properties for the program objects that launch these small batch files you'd make sure they were all set to launch minimized, so you don't see windows momentarily popping up every time you go forward or back a track.

If you have Object Desktop or Keyboard Plus, you might want to go another step further and assign all of these commands to keyboard shortcuts. Just open the Keyboard Launchpad (or Keyboard Plus), drag-n-drop the CD control icons into the list, and give them all a key-combination. I assign Back and Forward to Shift+Alt+Right-arrow key and Shift+Alt+Left-arrow key respectively. Play is Shift+Alt+Up, stop is Shift+Alt+Down, and Eject is Shift+Alt+Plus-key (on the numeric keypad). From any application, a web browser, a mail client or word processor, I can start and stop my CD player without having to switch to another application or take my hands off the keyboard - a feature that isn't in any other CD player for OS/2.

Beginning to see what I mean about beauty being functional too?

If at any time you want to know what track the CD is on, just choose "Simple CD Player" from the window list. The program also supports a pipe command that queries it for the current track and position, an enterprising individual could create a Rexx program that polls the CD player at regular intervals and updates an dummy icon on the desktop with the current track. This was a job that was a little bit beyond the scope of this article and my deadline, however.

More Tricks To Impress Your Friends

While adding programs and creating desktop backgrounds can be very expensive on your memory, there are other ways to improve the look of your desktop. The first place you should go to is the Scheme Palette, which gives you many more options for customizing the interface than just drag-n-dropping from the color palette. Try changing the border thickness of your windows for a start, making them thinner or even thicker than their default of 3 pixels. Also try experimenting with the 3D Highlight-Bright and 3D Highlight-Dark colors to change how titlebars are emphasized.

Last but not least, try grabbing a pack of new icons and swapping them around. You don't have to buy PlusPak:Themes to get a good looking set of themed icons, there are literally thousands you can download by FTP from the Hobbes Icon directory.

* "Crazy fox with water guns" artwork was created by and is copyright Alan Mackey.

Download a zip file (http://www.os2ezine.com/v3n19/vanity.zip, 8K) that includes my CD player icons, the batch files that control the CD player itself, plus a .GDO file for those with Photo>Graphics - just add your own background bitmap or color or fade.

                         - * -

Object Desktop 2.0
by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems, Inc.
MSRP: $99.95

Smart Windows .81 Beta
by Alessandro Cantatore
download from (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/smw081.zip) The Hobbes Archive (675K)
Registration: N/A

CandyBarz
by (http://www.netlabs.org/candybarz/index.html) Matt Wagner
download from (ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/tools/wps/cbarz1201b.zip) The OS/2 Netlabs (102K)
Registration: Free

Dialog Enhancer
by (http://www-student.lboro.ac.uk/~mcrsc/ostrans.html) Richard Castle
download from (http://www-student.lboro.ac.uk/~mcrsc/de/dl.html) the Dialog Enhancer homepage (1.1 megs)
Registration: $15

NPS WPS 1.82
by TAKASUGI Shinji
download from (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/util/wps/npswp182.zip) OS/2 Supersite (101K)
Registration: Freeware

PlusPak: Themes
by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems, Inc.
MSRP: $19.95

Simple CD Player
by Dmitry Kubov
download from (ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/cd/player/cdp2b107.zip) The Hobbes Archive (31K)
Registration: Freeware
 

(editor@os2ezine.com) Chris Wenham is the Editor-In-Chief of OS/2 e-Zine! -- a promotion from Senior Editor which means he now takes all the blame.

***********************************

The OS/2 e-Zine! Screenshot Contest!		-OS/2 e-Zine! Staff

Create The World's Coolest OS/2 Desktop And Win!

Summary: OS/2 e-Zine! is giving away a $50 Indelible Blue Gift Certificate as the prize in this month's contest!

Now that you've learned how to take advantage of tools and backgrounds and other tricks to create ultracool OS/2 desktops that are the envy of your neighborhood, it's time to put your skills to the test. OS/2 e-Zine! is holding a contest to find out who's desktop is the most gorgeous looking, and what's more, you get to vote on who the winner will be! (But you can't vote for yourself, sorry ;-)

The rules are simple:

* A panel of judges will evaluate which screenshots are eligible to proceed into 	the reader voting stage. They will judge based on the following criteria:
	
	* All screenshots must be at or below 1600x1200 in resolution and must include the whole screen.
* Entries can be submitted in .GIF or .JPG format only.
	* Entries sent by mail attachment must be less than 512K in size, for whichever format. Entries submitted by URL may be under 1 meg in size.
	* There are no restrictions on what programs or enhancement utilities can or cannot be shown. However, screenshots must not contain any objectionable material such as pornography.
	* "Doctored" screenshots will be rejected (screenshots that are processed in a photo editing program other than to reduce color depth or prepare for conversion into .GIF or .JPG format). Judges will give the contestant the chance to explain how any suspicious elements were created.
* All entries must be accompanied by a valid name and e-mail address. We will not need your postal address unless we notify you that you're the winner of our contest.
	* Only one entry per contestant will be accepted. Subsequent entries will be rejected.
	* Contest entries will be accepted until January 14<sup>th</sup>, 1999.
	* Employees of Falcon Networking, OS/2 e-Zine!, Indelible Blue or any other affiliated party are not eligible to win, although they may submit their own entries for display only. 	
	
* Voting will take place in the January 16th issue of OS/2 e-Zine! Votes will be accepted until January 28<sup>th</sup> and the winner announced in our February 1st issue.
* All entries become the property of Falcon Networking, Inc.

If you'd like to enter your desktop creation you can get your entry to us in two ways:

* Simply send your screenshot as a MIME attachment to contest@os2ezine.com. (Maximum size, 512K)
* Save your screenshot to your own web or FTP space and send an e-mail to contest@os2ezine.com with the direct URL. (Maximum size, 1 megabyte or 1024K)

Contest entries will be posted on the OS/2 e-Zine! web site as they come in      and in the order they come in, so keep checking back to get a heads-up on your competition!

Some tips you might want to keep in mind:

* You may think a big screenshot looks great, but since it'll be other readers like you voting for them, remember that not everybody will choose to download something big. Keeping it small might be a winning strategy.
* For that matter, some voters won't be viewing them with True Color (16 bit or higher) displays, so subtleties may be missed.
* Since we'll be showing screenshots in the order in which they are sent to us you might want to wait and check out your competition for a while, or get something in early for better chances of being seen by voters who won't go through the whole list.  	
* Good programs to use for taking screen captures and saving to .GIF or .JPG format are (http://www.os2ss.com/select/applications/graphics/pmview.html) PMView, (http://www.os2ss.com/select/applications/graphics/embellish.html) Embellish and (http://www.os2ss.com/select/applications/graphics/galleria.html) Galleria.
* Remember to watch dithering and other artifacts that can spoil the looks of your screenshot. The lower the color depth, the better the compression. But dithering will offset that by introducing more complexity. JPG can compress better, but will produce blurring and other artifacts the greater the compression goes.

Good luck, and may the best desktop win!


(feedback@os2ezine.com) The OS/2 e-Zine! Staff are made up of professionals involved in and around OS/2. Many have a long background as supporters of the platform, as programmers, consultants, and sometimes just users.

***********************************
 
Subscribe for FREE

If you would like to receive notification when new issues of OS/2 e-Zine! are posted or remove yourself from our notification list, use our on-line subscription form at http://www.os2ezine.com/subscrib.htm -or- send an e-mail to subscribe-request@os2ezine.com with only the word:

     subscribe 

in the body of the message. 

Please make sure your software is properly configured with your e-mail address! 

If you have problems please (feedback@os2ezine.com) e-mail us or contact us at:

Falcon Networking
4302 NW 25th Terrace
Gainesville, FL 32605

800-595-1974 (US and Canada)
352-335-9693 (elsewhere)

***********************************

Sponsor OS/2 e-Zine!

Corporate Advertisers

OS/2 e-Zine! has space for a very limited number of corporate advertisers.  A variety of affordable high impact, inline graphical advertising options are available.  Arrangements are available for multiple issue insertions.

For more information please (sales@os2ezine.com) contact us via e-mail or phone 800-595-1974 in the US and Canada or 352-335-9693 elsewhere.

Readers Can Sponsor Too!

If you feel OS/2 e-Zine! is useful, entertaining or educational, please send whatever 12 issues are worth to you.  Even sponsorship of a few dollars is appreciated.  Individuals sponsoring US$ 15 (or CDN$ 20) or more will be listed in our Sponsors Page (with an optional link to their home page).

Please (feedback@os2ezine.com) send cash, cheque or money order (International or US, made payable to Falcon Networking) along with:

o A note stating that your contribution is for OS/2 e-Zine! sponsorship
o Your name
o Your address (city, state/province & country)
o Your e-mail address
o Your web URL if applicable.</ul>

Alternatively, you may choose to sponsor OS/2 e-Zine! by credit card through (http://www.bmtmicro.com/catalog/ezine/) BMT Micro, Inc.  BMT Micro accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Diner's Club, and many other credit cards.  Just call:

(800) 414-4268 (Voice) 9:00am - 7:00pm EST
(910) 791-7052 (Voice) 9:00am - 7:00pm EST
(910) 350-2937 (Fax) 24 hours a day
(910) 350-8061 (Modem) 10 lines, all 14.4K, or
(910) 799-0923 (Modem) Direct 28.8K line

Or, use BMT's <a href="https://secure.falcon-net.net/BMT/order0261.html) Secure Order Form.  It's safe, fast and simple!</ul>

Remember, any amount is appreciated and whether you choose to sponsor or not, you will still be able to enjoy every issue of OS/2 e-Zine! on the WWW!

For more information or any other questions please (feedback@os2ezine.com) see our contact information.

***********************************

Corporate Sponsors

[(http://www.blueskyinnovations.com/) BlueSky Innovations]
[(http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro]
[(http://www.ChipChat.com/os2ezine/) ChipChat]
[(http://www.indelible-blue.com/) Indelible Blue]
[(http://www.modulardreams.com/) Modular Dreams Inc.]
[(http://www.prominic.com/) Prominic Technologies]
[(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance]

(http://www.blueskyinnovations.com/) BlueSky Innovations
Whether you want to boot multiple Operating Systems or from an Iomega Zip disk, we have a solution for you.

(http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro
Your complete source for over 175 of the best OS/2 shareware applications available.  Drop by today and check out our WWW catalog or download the .INF version.

(http://www.ChipChat.com/os2ezine/) ChipChat Technology Group
ChipChat produces excellent 32-bit OS/2 software for wireless text paging and state-of-the-art multimedia Sound Cards for Micro Channel PS/2 computers.

(http://www.indelible-blue.com/) Indelible Blue
Indelible Blue, a mail order company, provides OS/2 software and hardware solutions to customers worldwide.

(http://www.modulardreams.com/) Modular Dreams Inc.
A growing selection of graphics utilities and applications for OS/2 Warp and Java.

(http://www.prominic.com/) Prominic Technologies, Inc.
On-line sales & solutions for VisualAge, DB2, OS/2 Warp, Workspace on Demand, Notes/Domino, AIX Firewall, and Net.Commerce (design/hosting).  The best deals on IBM and Lotus software and hardware (PCs, Servers, and RS/6000s) -- with OS/2 preloads!

(http://www.rsj.de/) RSJ Software
The successful software CD-Writer for OS/2 by RSJ. CD-Writer is suitable for backup, data filing, creating Audio CDs etc. and is compatible with most CD-Recorders.

(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance, Inc.
Dramatically improve performance on your OS/2 system now with the patented priority scanning logic and visual priority identification of Priority Master II.

***********************************
Copyright 1998   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696