Top 11 ways the world would be different

2003-04-08 21:30:42 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.os2world.com, martini]

This list contains top 11 ways the world would be different if OS/2 had won the desktop war in 90th. (From: Jim Arnold as posted on the OS/2 User mail list, Edited By Bradley F. Shimmin and David Joachim)

Warpstock 2003 - San Francisco, California

2003-04-08 12:28:30 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [VOICENWS]

The Warpstock Inc. board of directors is very pleased to announce that Warpstock 2003 will be held this year in the beautiful state of California. The BayWarp OS/2 User group has assembled an excellent package. There are still a few details to be determined, but so far I can tell you the date for the event will be the weekend of October 18-19, 2003.

Hopefully by the end of this week the actual hosting facility will be announced. All three under consideration are in the general San Francisco/San Jose area and are convenient to either San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland airports. No prices are as yet available, but it appears that room rates will be more favourable then last years event in Austin, Texas.

The BayWarp event team is still looking for a publicity coordinator. This position can be handled by someone not local to the SF area. This person will be responsible for drafting/sending announcements to keep the OS/2-eCS community informed of the Warpstock event news. If you want to help, please contact Warpstock 2003 Event Chair - Samuel Little

Everblue: GIMP for OS/2 PM beta release!

2003-04-08 12:05:04 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [VOICENWS, Adrian Gschwend]

netlabs.org is proud to anounce the first PM version of GIMP for OS/2! Gimp is the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, often called the free "Photoshop".

It is available for a long time already for XFree86/OS2, now you can finaly run it without XFree86/OS2 installed! This is done with Everblue, the XLib implementation on OS/2 PM which is included in the WarpIN package we now provide.

Check everblue homepage for information and download of this Gimp package!

Thanks a lot to Sebastian Wittmeier, Brian Smith and the former GIMP porters for their support!

Please *read the readme carefully*, you will find important information in there.

Hibernation mode survey

2003-04-03 19:16:27 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.os2world.com]

The Big poll at www.os2world.com is asking if you using Hibernation mode (Fn + F12) on recent Thinkpad models with a Convenience Pack.

VOICE Newsletter available

2003-04-03 19:12:46 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [VOICENWS, Christian Hennecke]

The April issue of the VOICE Newsletter is now online.

• Let's chat! -- by Mark Dodel
• DrDialog, or: How I learned to stop worrying and love REXX - Part 7 -- by Thomas Klein
• The IBM Thinkpad A30p - eCS power on the Road -- by Mark Szkolnicki
• Nice-OS/2 Enhancer v 5.0 -- by Sergey Posokhov
• An Adventure with LVM, a Multi-boot System, and Cloning the Operating Partitions -- by Peter Hinckley
• Installing XFree86/OS2 4.3.0 -- by Christian Hennecke
• And of course letters, addenda, tips and a compilation of news of the previous month!

REXX/OS operating system project reaches first milestone

2003-04-01 16:48:08 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [os2.org, Christian Langanke]

The netlabs.org develpers community proudly announces a new project called REXX/OS, intended as the brand new incarnation of the IBM operating system OS/2, being completely realized using the widely known and proven REXX scripting language. As Adrian Gschwend, founder of netlabs.org states, the project has already reached its first milestone. The kernel, currently hosted in a virtual OS/2 session, successfully boots and basic device drivers are available. A first public preview is available for download from the netlabs.org website. Considering the potential of this revolutionary design for the OS/2 community, netlabs.org is prepared to handle the expected several dozen downloads of this preview. Several screenshots have also been posted.

Agreement between SciTech and Intel

2003-04-01 16:25:42 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.os2world.com, martini]

SciTech Software, Inc. has reached an agreement with Intel(R) Corporation which will allow SciTech to provide future support for Intel Chipsets for enterprise and business customers worldwide running IBM's OS/2 operating system. The agreement effectively transitions all OS/2 graphics driver development, validation, and support for Intel integrated graphics chipsets from Intel to SciTech as of January 1, 2003. As part of the agreement between the two companies, SciTech will make their latest device driver technology, SciTech SNAP Graphics, available for licensing directly to OS/2 customers of Intel's integrated graphics chipsets. SciTech will also offer full support for customers using SciTech SNAP Graphics on Intel integrated graphics platforms running OS/2.

Happy birthday

2003-03-30 15:35:56 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

We celebrate the birthday of OS2.Spb.Ru (5 years) and OS2World.com (3 years).

The forum of OS2.Spb.Ru is in full swing, while the site itself became the arena of battle between Alex-G (who buries OS/2) and OS/2 users (who send new reports about OS/2 compatible hardware).

The mission of OS2World.com deffers:

"Launched in March 2000 by Kim Haverblad, the site is now the best source for news about OS/2 & eCS. As an international collaborative community the site also gives the OS/2 & eCS community a common platform to interact with each other.

The OS2World.com original mission was to provide free web hosting for OS/2 related pages. Now it has growed and adecuated daily updated News, Webmail, Users Forums and a Link system. All this without charging the users for this services.

As of March 2003, OS2 World has achieved over 2 million page impressions and attracts an audience of more than 20.000 unique visitors per month. Having grown from humble origins into a powerful resource for OS/2 & eCS, it is now one of the major OS/2 & eCS sites available."

We had set up a topic on the forum about the OS2World.com birthday, you can add your comments there.

WarpDoctor Mtg

2003-03-30 15:35:42 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [VOICENWS, W F Metcalf]

There is a WarpDoctor chat meeting this Sunday, 30 March 2003 at 3:00 ET (20:00 GMT). Visit this page for timezone help.

Many of supporters of Webbnet have been working hard and long, and have rebuilt the network. To find the current list of Webbnet servers you, go to this server.

#warpdoctor can be found on any of these servers.

You can use any of those server addresses to initialize your IRC client, or alternatively, click on the link at the bottom of the page, and load a Java IRC applet. I have tried this applet, and it is remarkably quick, and simple to use.

If you are unfamiliar with the procedure of visiting a chatroom, there is a set of detailed instructions.

Please read the agenda at so you will be ready for the meeting.

APeCS report

2003-03-29 13:27:35 -- APeCS Bot [eComStation.Ru]

Latest changes in APeCS database (27 programs updated) :

• CommuniGate Pro by Stalker Software Inc. is updated to 4.0.6
  The leading high-end Internet Messaging platform, CommuniGate Pro has set a new industry standard in scalability and reliability . . .

• BackAgain/2000 by CDS, Inc. is updated to 4.0
  Back Again/2000 Workstation - Data protection software for OS/2 Warp and Warp Server Entry systems . . .

• Mozilla (release) by Mozilla Team is updated to 1.3
  Warpzilla is an OS/2 port of most powerfull multiplatform internet suite . . .

• Tame/2 by Goran Ivankovic is updated to 0.9.6
  Tame/2 should keep the promise of easy scanner access so it consists of a database with the specific settings for the scanners supported by SANE . . .

• PM Downloader by Eugene Romanenko is updated to 0.8.2
  PM Downloader is interactive multithreaded network retriever for OS/2 Presentation Manager which supports HTTP and FTP protocols for downloading files . . .

• MR/2 ICE by Sander Nyman is updated to 2.36
  Mr/2 ICE is an email client for OS/2 PM. . . .

• SmartPack for Mesa/2 by - is updated to 1.0
  SmartPack for Mesa/2 is a collection of little tools to use with the spread sheet application Mesa/2 by Sundial Systems . . .

• Mesa 2 by Sundial systems is updated to 2.3
  Mesa 2 is the OS/2 spreadsheet that gives you everything you expect.. . . .

• ePDF by Frank Wochatz is updated to 2.00 beta 6.1
  ePDF (former PS2PDF) is a PM tool for PostScript to PDF conversion . . .

• ThirdEye by eCo Software is updated to 2.20
  Native OS/2 software for photos collectors . . .

• Lotus SmartSuite by Lotus is updated to 1.7.1
  Powerful eComStation office suite . . .

• RAR by Eugene Roshal is updated to 3.20 beta 2
  RAR Archiver . . .

• Guiffy by Bill Ritcher is updated to 5.0
  Guiffy is a visual source file/folder, compare/merge, utility/component . . .

• AiR-BOOT by Martin Kiewitz is updated to 1.01
  AiR-BOOT is a Multi-Boot partition loader with some extra features built in . . .

• Dialer/2 by Deniska is updated to 2.0 alpha7
  Dialer/2 - is a voice dialing program with large amount of features, which can help you to automate your calls . . .

• pwICQ2 by - is updated to test build
  This is a famous ICQ clone for OS/2. . . .

• CooLFM by eCo Software is updated to 2.0 beta 5
  USB, PCI, ISA fm-tuners driver, events manager, transmissions recorder . . .

• Aspirout by Paul Ratcliffe is updated to 1.1 beta 7
  This is an updated version of Daniel Dorau's Aspi Router device driver . . .

• NewView by Aaron Lawrence is updated to 2.2.28
  NewView is a replacement for View.exe, the original OS/2 help viewer . . .

• NetDrive (NDFS) by Blueprint Software Works is updated to 2.2 beta 2
  NetDrive for OS/2 is a virtual file system which allows seamless access to various recources . . .

• DFSee by Jan van Wijk is updated to 5.16
  Display File Systems (DFSee) is a generic partition and filesystem browser/analyser . . .

• Security/2 by nickk is updated to 0.0.8 alpha
  Multiuser support for OS/2 . . .

• Zip Control by RPF Software is updated to 2.7.1
  Zip Control is an OS/2 "point and click" front end to the freeware Info-ZIP archive utilities Zip.exe and UnZip.exe and to PKWARE's PKZIP for OS/2 (version 2.50+) . . .

• Simplicity by - is updated to 2.0
  Whether you've had plenty of experience with Java technology or not much at all, you'll find that our 100% Pure Java Rapid Application Development tool can serve your needs . . .

• SNAP by SciTech is updated to 2.1.4
  SciTech SNAP (System Neutral Access Protocol) will change the way you look at device support forever . . .

• ZOC by EmTec is updated to 4.11
  Zap-O-Comm (ZOC) is a high power terminal client for telnet, SSH, modem, ISDN, and more. . . .

• JJSCDROM by Takayuki 'January June' Suwa is updated to JJ20030328
  JJSCDROM.DMD is a modified version of OS/2 CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVDs device manager driver (OS2CDROM.DMD), based on the latest OS/2 DDK on-line source code (DDK_020517) . . .

Goldencode has started Java 1.4 Beta test

2003-03-28 23:02:55 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [VOICENWS, JВrg Sievers]

Goldencode has started the first beta test of their JVM 1.4 for OS/2. It is a 'private' (or better named 'closed'?) beta. Only beta testers known by Goldencode receiving the JVM, updates and information.

Read The J2SE 1.4.1 for OS/2 FAQ for details about the product.

New sites

2003-03-22 17:16:01 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The new eComStation Website has been launched today! The all new look offers better useability and professionalism for our users. It is ready for release of eComStation 1.1 now!

New site dedicated to eComStation is opened for american market - eComStation.Biz.

New ThinkPad T40

2003-03-18 00:34:48 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.os2world.com, Jan Waliszewski]

IBM released new ThinkPad T40 which is declared to be compatible with OS/2 (4.51,4.52) with some minor limitations (lack of support for suspend/hibernation mode).

The March 2002 OS/2 eZine is out

2003-03-17 02:27:52 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.os2ezine.com]

In this issue:

From The Editor -- Robert Basler talks about coming eComStation 1.1 release.

Editorial

• The Life of Virtual PC for OS/2 - Brilliant but Short? -- Douglas Clark speculates on the future.

Reviews

• Electronic Teller -- John Bijnens reviews this financial package.
• DrawIt 3.5 -- Isaac Leung explores a comprehensive vector drawing tool.

Articles

• Rexx: The King is Alive and Well -- Douglas Clark offers an overview of this powerful programming tool.
• OS/2 is Boring Part 8 -- Bas Heijermans talks about firewalls, NFS and more.
• Does OS/2 have to be Ugly? -- Isaac Leung tells us how he made his desktop look the way it does.

The Art Department

• Cool desktops for you.

Forums

• Ask John & Rob -- John Bijnens and Robert Basler answer your OS/2 questions in this ongoing forum.
• March Forums -- Questions for the authors? Disagree with us? Take it to the forums.

APeCS report

2003-03-13 19:44:47 -- APeCS Bot [eComStation.Ru]

Latest changes in APeCS database (26 programs updated) :

• EMT4PM by Daniel Valot is updated to 4.31
  EMT4PM (former DSK4PM) can build diskette images, write diskettes from diskette images, build ARDI self restorable images, convert existing images to ARDI self restorable images . . .

• XFree86/2 by - is updated to 4.3.0
  This is the OS/2 port of XFree86, the free and optimized X11R6 . . .

• Mesa3D by Evgen is updated to 1.4
  OS/2 PM port of mesa3d library - open source implementation of OpenGL. . . .

• Slovar2 by Evgen is updated to -
  Open source engine for dictionaries with open formats. . . .

• Night Vision by - is updated to 2.5
  Night Vision is a "planetarium" program for OS/2, and will display the heavens from any location on earth . . .

• ClipView by Dave Saville is updated to 2.2
  The ClipView Suite of Clipboard utilities for OS/2 Warp. . . .

• SysInfo/2 by Alexey Smirnov is updated to Beta 0.8.20
  SysInfo.exe - OS/2 PM System Information utility, a ground-up clone of the Symantec NU for Win 95/NT SysInfo concept. . . .

• BTTV-Project by Stefan Milcke is updated to Build level 1710
  New BT8X8 driver for TV-Cards . . .

• LXAPI32 by Stefan Milcke is updated to Build level 2467
  Linux API support layer driver . . .

• NewView by Aaron Lawrence is updated to 2.2.19
  NewView is a replacement for View.exe, the original OS/2 help viewer . . .

• ProNews/2 by Trevor Hemsley is updated to 1.53
  Pronews/2 is multithreaded newsreader for OS/2 . . .

• RAR by Eugene Roshal is updated to 3.20 beta 1
  RAR Archiver . . .

• Mah Jongg by Daniel Valot is updated to 1.14
  MAH JONGG solitaire for Windows and OS/2 . . .

• Shisen-Sho by Daniel Valot is updated to 1.14
  Shisen Sho game . . .

• Lame by - is updated to 3.93.1
  Fast and very high quality mp3 encoder . . .

• GCC Compiler Suite by GNU.Org is updated to 3.2.1-r2
  Complete compiler suite for OS/2. . . .

• DFSee by Jan van Wijk is updated to 5.15
  Display File Systems (DFSee) is a generic partition and filesystem browser/analyser . . .

• LaBela by Kim Foder is updated to 1.00 beta 2
  LaBela is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get (nearly) ;o) label designer / printer, based on my C-Side CD-Label designer, but redesigned specifically for square labels (and business cards). . . .

• NFTP by Sergey V. Ayukov is updated to 1.72.b2
  NFTP is a text-mode ftp client for (in alphabetical order): BeOS (Intel R4 and up), Digital Unix (Alpha), FreeBSD (Intel), Linux (Intel, SPARC), OS/2, Solaris (SPARC and Intel), Windows 95/NT . . .

• PHP by PHP Development Group is updated to 4.3.1
  PHP is a popular scripting language most commonly used with a web server to produce dynamically generated web page . . .

• PM123 by Samuel Audet is updated to 1.1 beta 4
  PM123 is mainly a native OS/2 PM application for playing audio MPEG 1.0, 2.0 and 2.5 Layer I, II, and III . . .

• CD2MP3 by Samuel Audet is updated to 1.14
  CD2MP3 PM is the fastest CD grabbing utility that will let you use any grabbing and encoding utility of your choice. . . .

• BackTalk by Samuel Audet is updated to 2.01
  BackTalk is free Speech System for OS/2 . . .

• Hot Scroll by Samuel Audet is updated to 1.1
  Hot Scroll does about the same thing as Microsoft IntelliMouse (and FlyWheel), Logitech FirstMouse+/MouseMan+, Mouse Systems ProAgios/ScrollMouse, Kinsington Internet Mouse, Fellowes Browser, Genius EasyScroll/NetScroll/NetMouse, and IBM ScrollPoint, but instead of using a second roller or button, it uses the mouse movement itself requiring no special hardware . . .

• Hot Corners by Samuel Audet is updated to 2.2
  Hot Corners allows you to bring any windows found in the Window List foreground by bringing the mouse pointer to a specified screen corners and borders, and while holding a certain key combination down . . .

• PM Downloader by ErOs2 is updated to 0.8.1
  PM Downloader is interactive multithreaded network retriever for OS/2 Presentation Manager which supports HTTP and FTP protocols for downloading files . . .

The 3rd Annual OS2 World Awards Event

2003-03-10 15:06:41 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [OS2 World forum, kimh]

It's soon time to kick off the 3rd annual OS2 World award event, but before doing so we would like to figure out if there should be some updates regarding the Nomination Categories. Should we remove or change any of the current categories or even add a new one ?

Here is the list of categories from last event:

• Best Supporting OS/2 Company
• Best Commercial Software of the Year
• Best Individual Software of the Year
• Honor Award for Individuals
• Best OS/2 Site of the Year

Post your opinions so we can start the nominations for the 3rd event as soon as possible. The Award Section will also be updated with the latest news.