🚀 go-pugleaf

   Despite the superficial attractions of the Windows XP environment I 
still see no reason to phase my OS/2 out.  I have an XP machine 
networked to OS/2 to do what it does best.  What the OS/2 machine does are:
* it's a completely reliable fax machine (Corporate PMFax has not been 
surpassed);
* I use a scsi HP Scanjet 5p with Copyshop/2 integrated with PMFax to be 
able to achieve a "real" virtual fax machine;
* PMMail stores and manages years of archived outgoing and incoming 
emails.  It has a "remote control" facility whereby one can control your 
mailbox on your ISP's server directly.  That way I can delete all spam 
directly on the server without using up much bandwidth first downloading 
all that trash.  This is significant because I get over 100 spams a day, 
only about 5% of the messages are real messages;
* I am used to DeScribe to do nearly all my WP work and have a large 
archive of saved documents;
* StarOffice 5.1a is still usable for reading other peoples documents 
and spreadsheets usually generated by M$ products.  I use it to produce 
files that others need to be able to edit;
* I can share read only documents by producing my own pdf files using 
Ghostview;
* I continue to use dBase 5 for Windows and Quickbooks 5 under Win-OS2;
* I make frequent use of the PIMs from IBMWorks (which came as part of 
Warp) which I loaded into my present version 4.52 MCP2 since it is no 
longer distributed;
* I can do all the image manipulation I want with PMView and Embellish. 
  I use Copyshop/2 to scan in colour as well as B/W images;
* I still like to write up web pages with direct control over the html 
and Htmlwiz suits admirably for this purpose (though I do use Hotdog 6.5 
on the Windows machine to provide quick on-line help);
* I still use Stardock's Directory Master Pro for most file management 
but I have started to use FM/2 which is object orientated;
* We can do virtually all web browsing we need with Mozilla 1.4.1.  By 
we I include my daughter who is non-technical who finds it a 
satisfactory product to view her pages with which often call for 
plugins.  There are only a few pages which demands Shockwave 6 (then 
Innotek's ver 5 is not sufficient) and M$ scripts;
* with the Safefire dialer the machine acts as a gateway to the internet 
offering a layer of protection to our Windoze machines working thru NAT 
(network address translation) on our LAN;
* due to the obscurity of OS/2 viruses make no headway with OS/2;
* OS/2 comes with a whole suite of tcpip applications, so for uploading 
web pages to our domain I just use the PM FTP program.  No need to chase 
around for Cute FTP and such like;
* non Anglo firms publish great software for OS/2!  Most notable are 
Innotek and RSJ.  With RSJ I can burn CD-ROMS.  Recently I discovered 
that Nero is also published by an European firm;
* and the latest and greatest! - VPC (Virtual PC).  If interested get an 
OS/2 host licenses from Mensys while they are still not sold out! 
Needless to say with M$ having taken over VPC (a most disastrous 
anti-competitive move that the authorities should never have allowed to 
happen - they are so ignorant, a factor which M$ exploits).  With it I 
have successfully installed Encyclopaedia Britannica on DVD 2003 onto a 
virtual NT4 machine.  Now I can look it up without going over to the 
Windoze machine and copying extracts for son's assignments are easier. 
Another VPC runs Lindows, perhaps a future Linux for the general market 
(if the paranoid, furious, legally terrorising behaviour of M$ against 
it is any indicator and are not successful see 
http://www.lindows.com/lindows_michaelsminutes.php - this is worth 
reading weekly to get amongst other things a blow by blow account of the 
M$ anti-competition machinations it is up to today).  Incidentally 
Michael Robertson is calling for US$100 contributions from people to an 
M$ fighting fund in return for a lifetime membership of Lindows.

   So that is an answer to anyone who thinks there are "no applications" 
for OS/2.

   What can't I do with OS/2?

   In brief, things that make the computer an entertainment centre.  But 
I regard these things as "flim flam".  Nevertheless my main reason for 
running XP is to run a movie production program Cyberlink's Power 
Director.  Encyclopaedia Britannica and Textbridge Pro were programs 
which I had to have a Windoze machine, but now both of these run under 
VPC sessions.  This leaves only Power Director and other multimedia flim 
flams such as iConference, Paltalk, Net2phone, Windows Media player, 
Quicktime, Real player and Radio@Net etc.  So when I want to use these 
things I just go to my Windoze machine, but when I want to watch TV I go 
to my TV set!

   Because Windoze is under so much attack it's a great chore keeping up 
with applying critical patches and keeping the anti-virus program 
up-to-date.  I think I'd need to have my head read to go over and 
completely rely on it!

   As for Lindows it has been hard to move to it because a main reason 
is that it has no fax facility up to the standard of PMFax not to say 
adjusting to whole different set of software...


-- 
My e-mail address to fox the pesky spammers is vbien at attglobal dot net

System: ASUS A7N266-VM mb, Northbridge/southbridge chipset, Duron 
1.3GHz, 1028 MB DDRAM, NVidia GEForce 2 32 MB on-board video, primary 
disk is IDE, Tekram scsi hba uses Symbios chip, 2 scsi winchester disks, 
HP 5p scanner.  MCP2 OS/2 + FP3, 14.094_W4 kernel, C: FAT16 540MB, D: 
HPFS 3.2GB, E: JFS 15.3GB, F: JFS 20 GB, always run OD 1.53, PM Fax 
3.00.05e, some PIMs, wpsaver & blackout, ftpd, Safefire with NAT, PMMail 
2.20.2382, Moz/2 ver 1.4.1, DeScribe and a couple of Win-OS2 programs. 
Runs 24h/d.