SCANDINAVIAN REPORT


Serving Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden
by Kaare Thor Olsen
Odense, Denmark
kaare@nightcall.dk
http://www.nightcall.dk/
http://www.nightcall.dk/english.htm (English version)

Danish Internet home banking will require Microsoft's Internet Explorer

According to the computer section in the daily Danish newspaper Politiken , several Danish banks, including "Den Danske Bank," "BG Bank" (respectively the largest and third largest bank in Denmark), "Lån & Spar Bank," "Spar Nord" and a number of smaller banks are currently developing Internet home banking software.

They have all decided to require Microsoft's Internet Explorer (to be specific its support for ActiveX controls). This means that OS/2 users and Internet users in general using other browsers than Internet Explorer, about half of the Internet users in Denmark, will be unable to use this service, or forced to switch operating system to Windows. The reason for choosing ActiveX instead of Java is, according to Lå & Spar Bank: security reasons. Read more (in Danish) at:

http://www.politiken.dk/computer/

"Project Magic"

You may have read about "Project Magic" elsewhere, but just a few words for those of you who don't know what it is. Last September, Opera Software, a company based in Norway and South Africa developing the Internet browser Opera for Windows, asked the Internet community on "alternative platforms" whether they would be interested in Opera for their operating system.

So far about 1500 people have responded in support for an OS/2 version. Opera Software were pleased with the support and have signed contracts with OS/2 developers who will start coding very soon.

You can read more about Opera for OS/2 (and the other platforms at):

http://www.operasoftware.com/alt_os.html

From this page you can also write an e-mail in support for Opera for OS/2 and download a small .GIF file to be placed on your home page. If you want to try Opera (Win-OS/2 version), you can download the Windows 3.1x version from the above site, version 3.00 has just been released.

Web Navigator and BootSet

Opera Software isn't the only Scandinavian company developing an Internet browser. Last month I mentioned the Danish Internet Adventurer Internet suite which includes a browser. Another Scandinavian browser is WebNavigator (based on IBM's Web Explorer) by the Swedish company JMA Software Technologies.

The company has also developed a very handy utility, BootSet, for replacing files or selecting CONFIG.SYS files at boot up.

JMA Software Technologies' home page is at:

http://www.jmast.se/

- where you can download trial versions of WebNavigator, BootSet and other applications and utilities.

OS/2 BrukerForum Norge

OS/2 BrukerForum Norge (OS/2 User Group Norway) holds it annual general meeting on February 10th. Read more (in Norwegian) at:

http://www.os2bfn.no/

Nebula stops publishing

Due to lack of time, the editor of the Nebula newsletter, Joacim Melin, has decided to stop publishing Nebula until he is joined by people who can help writing the newsletter. If you are interested please write to Joacim Melin at: nebulared@melin.pp.se

Old issues of Nebula will soon be available at:

http://nebula.swiftnet.se/

Please do not hesitate to send me any Scandinavian specific news and information you would like mentioned in this column.

- Kaare Thor Olsen

Kaare Thor Olsen is a programmer in Odense, Denmark. He has been using OS/2 since version 2.0 and is a member of Team OS/2. He is also the SysOp for the NightCall BBS at +45-63 12 10 74, +45-63 11 10 74, and +45-66 19 30 74.