🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 22:53:06 UTC, Victor Bien <me@privacy.net> wrote:

>    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.

I have never touched XP but I do have W2K installed for things that I 
really can't do on OS/2.

>  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;

I use my scanner for different purposes and I take it on the road, 
including on trips to Australia.  I needed a very lightweight scanner 
and that mandated my choice of a USB-powered Canon N1220U.  
Unfortunately, even with all the active development on USB and 
scanners, OS/2 cannot drive the Canon so for making images of coins 
and documents I have to boot native Windows 2000.

> * 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;

The ISP interaction is neat but I have other techniques for keeping 
myself out of the spammers' databases so I only get about 5% spam (and
that is steadily decreasing).

> * 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 have to learn how to do that.

> * 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;

That was actually a pretty neat little set of applications which was 
unfairly maligned by users.

> * I can do all the image manipulation I want with PMView and Embellish. 

Those work for me too but sometimes I need to use Colorworks.

>   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'm a bit lazier and I use Home Page Publisher for all my (admittedly 
simple) web pages.

> * I still use Stardock's Directory Master Pro for most file management 
> but I have started to use FM/2 which is object orientated;

I've never found any file manager as flexible as a text-mode session 
coupled with a few tools from the UNIX world.

> * 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;

The only OS/2 browser which works for my Westpac online banking is 
Netscape 4.6.  For everything else I use Mozilla or Firebird.  
Firebird is pretty good at stopping annoying popups.  The only thing I
don't like about it is the fact that it doesn't maintains the history 
as a flat set of URLs rather than as a stack.

> * 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;

I use a hardware NAT router to my DSL with default settings (i.e. 
nothing exposed) and although I see 10-20 probes per day, none has 
ever gotten through.

> * due to the obscurity of OS/2 viruses make no headway with OS/2;

Yes.  I have never *seen* a virus, let alone have had my machines 
infected.

> * 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;

HPP does this "out of the box".

> * 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;

Europeans are not as impressed by fame and wealth as some other 
cultures and tend to make purchasing and usage decisions based on 
technological and functional advantages.

> * 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.

A truly wonderful product.

I write software for a living, mostly in C++.  My client base is 
mostly UNIX with some OS/2 and Windows.  I service some sites remotely
and the virtual private network (VPN) software that I need to use is 
Windows only.  Now all my software is developed and tested on OS/2.  
Using the Gnu compiler colleciton I have 100% source code portability 
over all three platforms so when it is time to compile (on UNIX) or 
deliver and install my software, the VPN comes into play.  Prior to 
Virtual PC (VPC) I had to zip up my source to a FAT32 partition and 
reboot to Windows 2000 to connect to the client gateway.  Now VPC 
handles the client connection and can access the source code directly 
from my JFS partition.  No rebooting necessary.  And if there is 
something that I forgot then I no longer have to close the connection,
reboot to OS/2, copy over the missing piece, reboot to Windows and 
re-establish the connection.  What a joy!

And although it is not officially supported, I have sound enabled on 
my VPC sessions so that I can even listen to streaming audio programs 
such as "The Science Show" and "Star Stuff" from Radio National.  It 
isn't *quite* as smooth as doing the same in native Windows but it is 
pretty good.  The unofficial sound support in the OS/2 version of VPC 
is just as good as the official support in the Windows host version.

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

OS/2 has a more comprehensive set of TCP/IP tools than Windows.  (NFS 
host and client, for example).

OS/2 seems to multitask better than any version of Windows (don't know
about XP).

This is very subjective but to me Windows installations seem to become
flaky after a year or two.  Of course upgrading to the latest and 
greatest cures all the problems but I often wonder if that is just 
because the entire system has been re-installed from scratch.  I've 
had to reload Windows 2000 twice on my laptop in the past three years 
just because it became unstable.

> 
>    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!

Multimedia and games.  This reflects the target market for Windows.  
It turned out to be a sound strategy.  Get the operating system onto 
all the home computers and it would be accepted in the corporate 
marketplace.

>    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!

I simply never put a Windows system on-line for any length of time and
then just for browsing.

>    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...

I know nothing about Lindows.  I run Gentoo linux as a VPC client.

In summary, like you, Victor, I have found no compelling reason to 
abandon OS/2.  It works for me.

--
Reply to: field is bogus.  Respond to
Jon Saxton <triton /at/ triton /dot/ vg> Software developer for UNIX, 
OS/2 & Windows
U.S. Agent for Triton Technologies International Ltd.
http://www.triton.vg