[Am-info] Re: O/S 2 support - slightly off topic (my apologies) (Jeff Wasel)

[Marcus de Geus]

In reply to a message from "Jeff Wasel" <jeff@wasel.com> dated 2002-03-15
00:51:43 -0800 (Fri):

> My question to all you O/S folks is: what other applications are available
and from what sources?

How about a WWW search? You'd be surprised. Anyway, my contention is that in
many cases OS/2 (or eCS) itself is most of the software you need.

If you want to get a feel of what's available, look at the Hobbes software
repository (shareware and freeware) at <http://hobbes.nmsu.edu>, or
subscribe to OS/2 Voice News at <majormajor@os2voice.org> by sending a
message:

    subscribe news
    end

> Also, to what level is IBM supporting O/S 2?

As noted by others, although IBM is still fully supporting OS/2 (FixPak 16
for Warp 4 has just been released), direct IBM support is no longer
essential. Serenity is doing a pretty good job so far with eComStation. I
have just installed version 1.0 on my new laptop computer, and although the
installation procedure -- still leaning heavily as it does on some quirky
IBM installer software -- is far from perfect, the manual that came with it
makes it a breeze (provided you read it, of course). I had a fully
operational 1024*768*16M system with complete TCP/IP and NetBIOS connections
through an EtherJet CardBus adapter within half an hour of popping in the
first CD-ROM -- and this is the first laptop computer I've ever owned or
installed.

Note that my laptop system is an IBM Thinkpad 600E, a 1999 Pentium 2/366
model that currently sells factory fresh at less than half the price you'd
pay for a far less sophisticated, more power-hungry, no-brand model with the
specs you'd need to run Windows -- with far less satisfying results. Come to
think of it, now I know why installation took so long -- the 600E only has a
24-speed CD-ROM drive!

My two production systems are still running 1996-vintage OS/2 Warp 4
installations, but I may upgrade them to eCS as soon as I can justify the
expense -- they need to earn their keep and my living, after all.

As for John's remarks:

> Extended Attributes are nice too, but I don't think they have ever been
fully exploited by users or developers
>
> the WorkPlace Shell is still a marvellous user interface even though it
came out ten years ago.

You could look at <http://www.degeus.com/rexx/rexxmail_english.html> (the
RexxMail Tutorial in particular) to see what the combined might of the WPS,
extended attributes, and a few thousand (currently 5506) lines of REXX code
can do -- stuff that monolithic-applications-centred Windows (and, let's
face it, Linux/OS-X) users can only dream of. Note that even with the full
RexxMail set of "windows" -- actually they're simply folders -- open and
working on the desktop, there is not a single byte of code being executed or
kept in memory other than what is always there: the OS/2 WPS.

Yep, I probably love the WPS to the point of insanity and I am probably
boring the pants off you extolling its virtues, but then I like to think
that someone has to keep alive the memory of the sheer vision and elegance
of thought that went into its creation over a decade ago. The only thing
that may have come, not close but in the right direction, was BeOS. Enough,
I will bore myself to death if I'm not careful.

On the other hand, as I've noted before, if people want to play games, they
should go for something else -- like a PlayStation box.

Regards,

Marcus de Geus
--
marcus@degeus.com
http://www.degeus.com