SOUND OFF!
The purpose of this section is to provide a forum for our readers to voice
their opinions and thoughts on issues related to OS/2. If you have an
observation, concern, gripe or compliment regarding something, please feel
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The opinions expressed in this section are those of the individual writer
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of OS/2 CONNECT. NOTE: Letters may be edited for inappropriate or
offensive language or clarity.
CAUGHT YOU!
I was reading your very interesting OS/2 Connect editorial
and came across one sentence that surprised me a little:
"...IBM's "Microchannel Architecture" had a devastating effect
on the sale of early releases of OS/2 until IBM opened it up
to ISA standards."
What surprised me that I know for a fact that OS/2 ran on AT
bus from the very beginning, including IBM OS/2. There was
a very simple reason - it had to run on IBM's own AT machines.
I recently verified this by installing genuine IBM OS/2 1.0
on an AT clone 286 machine (10 MHz 286, 9 MB RAM, 160M ESDI
drive, Hercules graphics) and it worked rather well.
So what did you mean by "devastating effect on the sale of
early releases of OS/2"? Just curious...
- Michal Necasek
January 28, 2002
EDITOR's NOTE: You are quite right, I was indeed
in error. I was actually referring to the PS/2 and not OS/2. Sorry
for the typo; it has been corrected.
WHY?
Why doesn't IBM install OS/2 on it's own desktop & laptop computers for
sale? Also, why doesn't IBM make a 64-bit desktop computer using AMD's
Claw & Sledgehammer chips?
- Ramon Sanchez
January 24, 2002
WIN-MONEY
Once again, I am in agreement with you regarding your December Editorial. XP
is being rolled out on one of my Client Sites. And it's not all it's cracked up to be.
The sad part is, we just finished creating the Win2k images to work with OS/2 Warp
Server for e-Business. Of course they want to totally kill OS/2 even though it is
working with less hardware, and is more stable then Win-Anything. The plan is to
replace at least two for one (one OS/2 Server for two Win Servers). The answer seems
rather stupid to be frank. Why would a company spend the additional monies to replace
one Server running OS/2 WSeB with Two New Servers, twice the memory, and three times
the Hard Drive space, less functional, running Windows. And, Yes, this is a realistic
statement. Not only is one OS/2 WSeB Server running a number of processes for the
customer, they are also running on the range of equipment from PC Server 330's to the
new Netfinity e-Business Server. The 330's although old, run at least "Fifteen
Processes/Functions" for the customer. There is normally only one server per Client
site, and there are over 8600 client sites. That is just the Server Count. Not to
include the client count....
Do you smell Win-Money....
I do.
This proves the statement, "If it makes sense, we won't do it."
The true fact is....
As long as OS/2 & eCS lack the device support like USB, Firewire, DVD Video
Playing, and Updated Multimedia, we are hurting. Windows has hailed itself as the
"Gaming OS" that is being sold to Businesses. And frankly it's not all that great
to play games on either.
Yet the truth still stands.....
The dumb and blind are leading us for their personal gain....
- Charles Jefferson II
TRSS Consulting
San Fransico, CA, USA
November 12, 2001
COME ON NICK, TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY THINK
Regarding your September Editorial; What do I think of
Java? If it died and we buried it today it would be forgotten by tomorrow. Why
do I feel this way?
- Very little of the promise has come to pass. The Java apps that I have tried
to run on OS/2 over the last few years are terribly difficult to set up. The lack
of an easy, cross platform standard for installing Java apps is a major oversight
that has caused me to give up looking at anything that is written in Java.
- The few Java apps I have been able to install look and feel different than the
environment they are running in. For me to feel comfortable running an application
on OS/2-eCS the application needs to have the same look, feel and standard functions
as the operating system it is running on. Either Java should be able to inherit the
style of OS/2-eCS or the look, feel and function of OS/2-eCS should be changed to be
in line with Java.
- Java app performance is not on par with apps written in many other languages such
as C or Pascal.
- Many Java apps are poorly written and are buggy.
- Sun's handling of Java has been poor. I do not develop with Java myself and the
primary reason I don't consider it is because I don't see Sun as any better than MS in
the ethics and business practices department.
I suspect I'm not the only one that feels this way. I've seen numerous messages saying
that the only two Java applets in OS/2-eCS need to be replaced as a top priority (TCPIP
Config and LVMGui).
What do I suggest? The same thing I have advocated for over 10 years: Given an easy
road to develope native applications, native applications will come to pass. For eCS
to be successful in the long run I feel the following minimum needs to be included on
the distribution CD's:
- Toolkit (the OS/2 toolkit is included in eCS. It could use enhancement).
- Assembler (the OS/2 toolkit includes an assembler).
- C/C++ compiler that is full featured (OpenWatcom appears to be the best bet here).
- Rexx RAD environment (this is a problem).
- Device driver kit (it could be included as far as I know).
- Programming information and guidelines (some info is included in the OS/2 toolkit but
could be enhanced).
- Additional utilities such as lxLite.
- Nick Morrow
August 23, 2001
OS/2 WARP v 4.5.1
IBM just shipped OS/2 Warp version 4.5.1
"Convenience Pack" to its Business/Development
Partners. It seems to install smoothly on most
Intel boxes and understands most graphics cards. It
still has trouble recognizing some sound cards,
but IBM has made separate drivers available for
nearly all of those.
I understand a major Australian bank, who at
this time shall remain nameless, has decided to
kick out M$ and go back to IBM and OS/2. More
on this story as it develops.
- Richard A. Marschall, Ph.D.
Marschall Acoustics Instruments P/L
Penrith, NSW, Australia
August 23, 2001
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