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March 2000
editor@os2voice.org

February 26

Just retrieved this exchange from USENET and thought it might be of interest. FYI, I didn't write this post nor did I contribute to this thread.

Here's the response I got back today:

Dear Sun customer,

Thank you for emailing Sun Microsystems. The StarOffice 5.1 CD includes all supported platforms (Solaris SPARC/Intel, Linux, OS/2, Windows 95/98/NT) and is available in a number of languages.

Currently we have no specific plans to support operating systems such as LinuxPPC, FreeBSD, BeOS, etc.

However, Sun is committed to fully resourcing the development and evolution of the StarOffice product line. Additionally, Sun will release the StarOffice source code via Sun Community Source License so the industry can create cross-platform, open, standardized file formats for networked documents. Sun will join with other companies, groups and individuals to maintain and further evolve StarOffice using a community process similar to the Linux model and the Java Community Process. Also, Sun will make StarPortal available at no charge to end users. Please check back regularly with the StarOffice web site for the latest information:

http://sun.com/staroffice

Sincerely,
Becki Sorenson
Sun Customer Service Specialist

Editors note: This is the relevant part not the entire thread

February 26

Seems that the news from CeBIT was not "official".

- From e-mail and IRC chat with IBMer, this afternoon:

The new Warp Client has NOT been aproved or funded, yet.

IBM makes announcements through the Formal Announcement Letters.

IBM normally does NOT announce anything prior to 90 days before GA is available.

February 26

According to IBM at the Cebit 2000 Fair in Hannover Germany, The New OS/2 Warp Client (version 5) will be released on 8 September 2000. This will allegedly have all the features that can be found in Warp Server for E Bussines (codename aurora), maybe more.

Also, allegedly before the new client is released IBM will make 4 Beta versions. The first should be released about 2 weeks from now. I will update this info as soon as I can.

Editors note: Again, nothing has been announced by IBM.

February 26

BOBSAPPS is a collection of references to OS/2 applications. It is an easy way to browse the enormous range of applications available for OS/2. It is in a INF file so it is easy to search for a particular subject. The URL's noted in the reference are dynamic links which connect to an external set of scripts, which are supplied with the reference. The scripts curently enable a user to click on the URL and:
1. Start Netscape at that URL
2. Add the URL to their Web Sites folder in Connections.

I have uploaded BOBSAPPS.ZIP to Hobbes. It will arrive in

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/info/faq/bobsapps.zip

after processing.

February 26

Sorry Biscuit Software announces a new release of SysPage/2. This release supports rotating disk logs, user-specified log events, CGI command interface from other nodes, extra user-defined HTML pages, a 'production' version, and other symptoms of creeping featuritis. It's available via:

http://www.dimensional.com/~serls/sorbis.html

SysPage/2 is yet another OS/2 system monitor. It is highly configurable and emits HTML (modifiable by the user) to display the data.

February 25

At the IBM booth at CeBIT in Hannover (biggest computer fair of the world) you can see Odin live in action.

Now Germany's most important computer magazine publisher has a short article including screenshot about Odin in their CeBIT highlights:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-24.02.00-000/

(German only but easy to understand - use http://babelfish.altavista.com/cgi-bin/translate? to get a rough but understandable translation.)

This is definitely a great success!

February 25

I have ported the 3Dfx Voodoo1 Glide2 driver version 2.46 and Voodoo2 Glide2 driver version 2.53 to OS/2. Included in the port is the driver, test programs, and a demonstration application (donut).

For more information and downloads please visit:

http://www.guisoft-corp.com/3dfx

Glide is a 3D programming library for 3dfx based 3D video cards. This port supports the VooDoo1 and VooDoo2 based add-in boards only, and is based on the Linux drivers at:

http://linux.3dfx.com/

February 25

Good news for VisualAge Enterprise Edition OS/2 developers.

I had email to OTI asking for the new release of emsrv, and they told me that "EMSRV 6.24 should be on the street before the middle of March." They can't give a exact date yet.

This new version will have support for OS/2 Warp Server for e-business (Aurora).

EMsrv is the repository server for the VisualAge products. With this software the VisualAge Enterprise Edition programers can share their code repository on a TCP/IP network.

February 25

According to the German computer news service heise newsticker Sun presented StarOffice 5.2 for Windows, Linux and Solaris at the CeBit in Hannover. According to Sun there will be a version for MacOS soon, but there won't be an OS/2 version. Sun will produce patches for the existing version 5.1 for the next 3 years if necessary. Former StarDivision leader Marco Boerries said that this step was done due to the decresing importance of OS/2 among both business and SOHO users and because of the low download numbers of StarOffice 5.1 for OS/2 from Sun's servers.

The original news (in German) can be found at:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/db-24.02.00-000/

February 25

The March edition of "The Warped Perspective" has been posted at OS/2 Headquarters:

http://www.os2hq.com/

This article proves the principle that software can indeed damage hardware, and provides several real-world examples.

February 25

New Security Web Site For KeyRing/2

KeyRing/2, the OS/2 security software, has a new web page with great new descriptions of the current release.

"All day long, all I get is email, email, email about KeyRing/2" says Kevin McCoy of IDK Software. "The response since the product release last Saturday has just been phenomenal."

KeyRing/2 protects your passwords, your special phone numbers, your bank account PIN numbers, your online log-in information. See the new KeyRing/2 web site at:

http://www.idk-inc.com/kr2index.htm

"You can download the demo version from the site right now" continues McCoy. "We've had so many good comments about KeyRing/2. People obviously know they need this kind of security."

February 25

February 25, 2000 - Sundial's new anti-spam product has taken another leap forward. The first Junk Spy database update has been issued, and users everywhere have had it automatically incorporated into their Junk Spy without any necessary intervention.

Junk Spy examines your incoming mail to eliminate the junk messages before you see them. To keep it up-do-date, Sundial Systems is continually analyzing junk mail and, as necessary, encrypted updates are sent as email for automatic processing by Junk Spy.

"It was slick!" said user and reviewer Tony Butka. "I watched as Junk Spy did all the work for me."

For information about Junk Spy and links to independent product reviews, visit:

http://www.sundialsystems.com

February 25

After more than a year of development, Legato Systems (formerly Vinca) released a controlled Beta of Co-Standby Server for OS/2 Warp to IBM Global Services. IBM will use this product in their "Rapid Recovery for PC Servers" Offering. Product-announcement can be found on:

http://www.legato.com/os2/

Beta is only available to IBM Global Services, contact Oliver Mark at mark@de.ibm.comto get more information.

February 25

Xact has moved the download location of their beta/demo to:

http://scilab.de/\engl\ukdemo.htm

(Yes, there is that double-opposing slash in there)

It was previously located at;

http://scilab.de/engl/demo.htm

This is approximately beta 12 or 13 and should be getting close to release. If you are interested, you should download and test for any bugs or translation problems and feedback to them.

"Xact - Chart Publishing allows you to create professional charts and drawings in a quick and flexible way. Xact is a German product developed by SciLab GmbH in Germany since 1989 and is available for Windows 95/98/NT, OS/2 and Windows 3.1x as a single-user network version."

February 23

I have written a humble clock app that uses bitmaps that load at runtime. It ships with bitmaps that look like those on your microwave oven (L.E.D. display).

It's very small, and available at:

http://www.yesic.com/~awmg/ledclock.html

Source code (CSET++ 2.1) included.

Hope you like it!

February 23

If your have interest in the OS/2 version of mysql please either send an e-mail to mysql2-subscribe@egroups.com or surf to:

http://www.egroups.com/list/mysql2/info.html

mysql is an opensource relational database.

February 23

TiMidity++ port was updated. This one is based on TiMidity++ 2.8.2. Also the DART output part was updated to synchronize time and karaoke display with the playback.

For more information and download please visit:

http://www.podolsk.ru/~boga/OS2Programs.html

(this is a new location for my OS/2 audio programs page).

Timidity++ is an extended version of Timidity, a software MIDI synthesizer.

February 22
Warpstock, Inc. (Internet) Contact: David Ameiss, Secretary david@ameissnet.com

The bells of operating system freedom will be ringing this September as Warpstock 2000 rolls into Philadelphia. But unlike the American revolutionaries, you'll have a comfy place to stay.

The Board of Directors of Warpstock, Inc. is pleased to announced that the Holiday Inn at Independence Hall in Philadelphia has been selected as the official hotel for Warpstock 2000. Come celebrate your favorite computing platform with hundreds of other OS/2 users in downtown Philadelphia, and enjoy such amenities as cable TV and an outdoor pool.

Details can be found at the hotel's web site:

http://www.bristolhotels.com/scripts/singleinfo.asp?ChainCode=HI&PropertyNumber=864

and at the Warpstock web site:

http://www.warpstock.org

The 4th annual Warpstock conference will be held September 9-10, 2000, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is produced by Warpstock, Inc., a North Carolina non-profit corporation. The Warpstock annual conference is a gathering of OS/2 users and vendors from around the world for the purpose of education and advocacy.

February 22

In an earlier posting I asked the community if there was a need for another OS/2 site. I got well over hundred e-mails with positive reactions as well for good ideas regarding functions/service on a new site. So from that I would like to say thanks to all of you the sent me an e-mail with ideas and suggestions. I'm sorry to say that I lost all my mail a week ago; so I'm not able to make any replies to all of you.

What has been done so far then? Well, http://www.os2world.com has been registered and will be used for this project. So once again I ask people to send suggestions of what the would like to see on this site. And as well if someone has interest in joining up to build the site as well taking care of a site sections, please contact me asap!

Regards,
Kim Haverblad
Stockholm, Sweden

February 22

Dinosoft seemed to be having problems with their server hence the MIDI Station home page has been down for the past few hours but it's now up and ready for action.

You can download the latest version of MIDI Station Sequencer - Preview Edition Build 5.

MIDI Station Sequencer is the most advance MIDI/Audio Sequencer for OS/2.

The URL is:

http://www.dinosoft.it/~midistation/index.html

February 22

Alex A. Galkin, the guy that ported LICQ, has done the impossible: he ported the KDE libs and the base apps to OS/2. KDE is a popular Xfree86 Desktop environment with a big bunch of software, like its own Koffice browser, file manager with Internet browser, etc. But now he hasn't any time left to continue the work.

SO KDE/2 NEEDS A NEW PORTER.

Please mail either Alex A. Galkin kovu@parameter.spb.ru or me Christoph.Vogelbusch@bigfoot.com if your interested.

Everyone can find the Source and the BINARIES on the GNOME/2&E/2 pages under:

http://birdy.hpage.net

February 21

InetPowerServer v0.86b1 is now available from:

ftp://ftp.iq.to

The filename is ips086b1.zip.

IPS is a multiprotocol server application allowing you to create your own ftp and/or mail server using your OS/2 or Windows machine. IPS supports FTP, POP3 and SMTP protocols. If you are running a dual OS setup IPS can use the exact same configuration on both OS/2 and Windows.

The only difference between the two platform version is the missing REXX and EA support of the Windows version.

Please not that the IPS mailing list is moved to eGroups.com to signup, there is a dialog on my web page -

http://home.eunet.no/~ill/projects/

The version of IPS is a MAJOR upgrade even though the version number would not indicate so. The overall performance has been improved to 10-15 times the one of the previous v0.85b6. So, if you felt IPS was slow or used to much CPU, these times are gone.

Logged changes since the previous version includes:

2000/02/20 21:00 InetPowerServer v0.86Beta1

What's new (system wide):
Fix: NT version should work again.
Fix: Minor Timer error when going into a new year (this was not a Y2k bug).
Fix: LogIt procedure in bin\startos2.cmd wrote incorrect time values to log file.
New: Added support for better debugging.
New: History.bat or .cmd is executed from IPS itself instead of the startup script.
New: Underlying tool kit has been optimized a lot, and there are still more to come.
Fix: NT socket parameters in NT version correctly set.
Fix: Error handling (and logging) improved.
Fix: Statistics file handling improved, only write updates when needed.
Fix: Overall performance improved a lot. Everything is much faster than before.
Fix: Bad handle misuse corrected.
New: Major redesign of internals, currently for easier code maintenance, will open for more possibilities later like dynamic service/group start/stop etc.
Fix: Socket handling in NT version cleaned up a bit, this should make NT socket handling just as good as the one for the OS/2 version.

What's new (FTPd service):
Fix: SITE WHO headers was moved one column to fit the output below.
Fix: PASV now works in IPS32 also.
New: ABOR command implemented for NT version.
New: Rewritten internal handling of [ACCESS] sections.
New: Added SITE RADM CGETS and UGETS functions to retrieve sections from configuration files.
New: SITE HELP moved from REXX into IPS binary, msg\ftp.hlp file added. This makes it work on NT as well.

What's new (SMTPd service):
Fix: Message retrieve speed improved some, more to be done.
Fix: Message queue scanning activated for NT version as well.

February 21

The Jan/Feb 2000 issue of OS/2 e-Zine! is now online at:

http://www.os2ezine.com/

In this issue:

Bob St. John speculates on the future of OS/2, including the release of a new client;

Shyguy reviews Retrocade for OS/2;

Robert Fargher reviews VMWare 3 (beta), with it's support for OS/2 as a guest operating system;

The maintainers of the OS/2.org web site talk about the history of that site, and future plans;

Robert Bassler discusses DVD support on OS/2;

Simon Gronlund continues his series on Java programming.

Due to some unfortunate production problems, this issue is much smaller than originally planned.
Chris Wright wrightc@dtcweb.com
Interim Editor-in-Chief, OS/2 e-Zine!
http://www.os2ezine.com/

February 21

CDRWizard 0.99 beta5 is available at my home site at the address:

http://www.quasarbbs.com/rocco
or
http://forosoftware.freeweb.org

CDRWizard is a GUI Wizard interface to CDRECORD/2 to burn CDr / CDRW (data, audio, etc) disks, It uses VX-REXX.

February 21

RadioTrack2000 1 beta1 is available at my home site at the address:

http://www.quasarbbs.com/rocco
or
http://forosoftware.freeweb.org

RadioTrack2000 is AIMS Radio track software. It uses VX-REXX.

February 21

The security software KeyRing/2 was demonstrated and officially released by Kevin McCoy, President of IDK Software, at the heavily-attended February 19 SCOUG monthly meeting. SCOUG is the Southern California OS/2 User Group.

"Computers get hacked into, they get unauthorized visits when you're not around, they get stolen - especially laptops," warns McCoy. "You shouldn't be afraid to computerize your personal info just because of the bad guys out there."

KeyRing/2 is a security vault for all your my-eyes-only information - passwords, bank PIN numbers, software registration codes, the phone numbers for the two girls you met at the bar while your wife was at her mom's.

"I use Blowfish encryption in the licensed version of KeyRing/2" says McCoy. "It's the most powerful of the public algorithms, and stronger and faster than DES. And I've added Cypher Block Chaining on top of it so it's even more secure."

IDK is still working out the details of putting KeyRing/2 online for downloading, since the U.S. government still doesn't allow some forms of encryption software to be exposed to overseas access (a ruling last month doesn't cover the powerful security contained in KeyRing/2). For a demo copy of KeyRing/2, send an email request to

Kevin McCoy kgmccoy@idk-inc.com

and he'll rush a copy to you.

Kevin spent the morning showing KeyRing/2 screens and options. There's a lot in the program, and you can use as little or as much as you like.

"Passwords can be set up with reminders to change them after a certain number of days, the program makes sure it doesn't leave your information in the swap file or main memory when it closes, and there are dozens of other security features and options" noted Mark Abramowitz, SCOUG Program Chairman. "I especially like the way you can select a password and then have KeyRing/2 open the corresponding web site in Netscape."

"I was really surprised at the great response" adds McCoy. "I brought along a number of demo versions for anyone who wanted to try it, but after the meeting people didn't want the demo, they wanted to buy the full version then and there. I sold quite a number. Seems like there's quite a need for KeyRing/2 and its security benefits."

The program itself can't be started without a master password, so curious intruders won't even be able to see what kind of information you're protecting. It's a great master repository for all your personal id's, your online trading accounts, special phone numbers and online passwords.

The Southern California OS/2 User Group (SCOUG) is pleased to add KeyRing/2 to its list of hosted product announcements. SCOUG was the host of Warp Expo West last September.

February 21

A few weeks ago I published a short poll about OS/2 on my OS/2 Switchboard web site. It took me some time to look at the answers that were send by 322 participants, but now the results are available. It shows that IBM should be very proud about the commitment of the avarage OS/2 user! Please check out the results at:

http://os2.mensys.nl/switchboard/

Select 'Results OS/2 poll' from the pull-down menu on the first page to view the results.

February 21

According to an article at Slashdot http://slashdot.org the nic of christmas islands gives away domainnames for free:

"Nic.cx is now offering completly free domains to those with open-source projects. Check out FAQ question 2.16. CX is Christmas Island. They're running on free software and want to give back to the community. Serious inquiries only, please, don't abuse their kindness."

I've checked it out and found the information to be true. Perhaps some OS/2 opensource projects want to benefit form this.

The FAQ of nic.cx can be found at:

http://www.nic.cx/faqs.html#registration

February 21

Ordering our "Team Trier Collection" CDs is now as easy as possible with our new online ordering system. This is probably not that interesting at the moment but surely will be at the beginning of April when we release the TTC Vol. 6.

For more information about the TTC-CDROMs check out our web pages at:

http://www.teamos2.ipcon.de/

(Sorry, this news will perhaps be of interest to the German speaking readers as there is only a German version available currently. An English version will come as soon as possible.)

Included on the TTC-CDROMs are the most recent share- and freeware programs, infos, demos and beta-versions of commercial software as well as the latest FixPaks for OS/2.

Two comfortable menu-systems, an HTML interface that can be used with any web browser and a PM program, developed specially for the TTC, support you at selecting and installing the programs.

February 21

This is to let everyone know that Build 5 of MIDI Station Sequencer Preview Edition is now available.

The changes to this build are as follows:
- Fixed bug in comments window when clearing text
- Fixed nasty bug with recording
- Fixed bug with drag'n drop in audio window and piano roll
- Fixed bug where if track being recorded had events it was being played back instead of ignored
- Fixed logic error in Step Recording module

For those of you who don't know what MIDI Station Sequencer is -- it's the most advanced MIDI/Audio sequencer available for OS/2 and it uses the RTMIDI (Real-Time MIDI Subsystem).

The URL for the product is:

http://www.dinosoft.it/~midistation/index.html

February 21

I've started a mailing list for discussing the feasibility of porting JDK 1.2 to OS/2, since it will no longer be free from IBM (not to mention its extreme delay). I figure we might be able to get a lot of help from the Linux port, Blackdown. You can subscribe by sending an email to:

jdk-os2-port-subscribe@egroups.com

Alternatively, you can view messages at:

http://www.egroups.com/list/jdk-os2-port

February 21

Lots of news from two Netlabs projects!

1. WarpIN V0.9.1 has been released. This is an update to the V0.9.0 developer's release announced a few weeks ago.

WarpIN is intended to become the new universal OS/2 installer. It has full system configuration (CONFIG.SYS, WPS classes, WPS objects) and can fully undo all the changes to your system again. This new version can now do package dependencies and execute external programs for system configuration after install (aka user exits).

2. XWorkplace V0.9.1 is out also. XWorkplace is the successor to my popular XFolder utility and has become a Netlabs project now too. This version is still a developer's release (i.e. might not work on your system and has known bugs), but so many people have been asking about XFolder that I thought I'd release this for now go get some feedback.

We now have a trash can, more CONFIG.SYS settings, most of the features of WarpEnhancer, mouse-button-3 scrolling, improved WPS notebook settings pages, a much better "WPS Class List", full sound schemes support in the "Sound" object, and much more. Also, lots of XFolder bugs have been fixed also.

XWorkplace is work in progress. More things are planned. Christian Langanke will add an enhanced version of his Animated Mouse Pointers for OS/2 soon, for example.

XWorkplace is the first application to use WarpIN as its installer. So to install XWorkplace, you will need WarpIN too.

See my home page for detailed information and download addresses.

All the new versions are available from my home page:

http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444vnd/os2.htm

WarpIN and XWorkplace are Netlabs projects, released under the GNU General Public Licence. The source code is available on the Netlabs CVS server. See:

http://www.netlabs.org/nosa

for details.

We have created four mailing lists at:

http://www.egroups.com
-- warpin-user
-- warpin-dev
-- xworkplace-user
-- xworkplace-dev

for WarpIn and XWorkplace users and developers, respectively.

We'd be grateful for feedback on these mailing lists.

February 20

This is to announce the availability of RexxAutoStart Version 1.50. This release includes the following new features and bugfixes over the last published version 1.42:

- support for Object Desktop's autostart features, which in combination with other WPS enhancements are often part of a hanging WPS problem upon startup. RexxAutoStart now addresses this issue, too. Code for this feature was provided by Chuck McCinnis.

- bugfix: Only capital letters were properly recognized on some parameter switches.

- draft of a GUI front end for RexxAutoStart. However, this is still unfinished.

RexxAutoStart Version 1.50 is available at:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/rxast150.zip

and later probably at:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/rxast150.zip

For those of you who do not know what RexxAutoStart is: This program is a workaround for timing problems that lead to a WPS hang upon startup on certain OS/2 versions and fixlevels. Additionally it gives you a limited possibility to control the order of automatically started programs upon bootup and means to make any folder your startup folder.

RexxAutoStart is FREE software under the GNU GPL. Source code for RexxAutoStart is included. Source code for GUI front end upon request.

February 20

This week's edition of Focus on OS/2 is now online.

Topic: LOTUS ORGANIZER 1.5 REVIEWED

Special guest author John Edwards reviews Organizer 1.5. Read all that this program can do for you.

http://os2.about.com/compute/os2/library/weekly/uc021600a.htm

Special New Links:
IBM TO FINALLY REFRESH AND UPDATE WARP CLIENT!
From ZDNet by Esther Schindler

Beta version of Warp 4 FP #13 rumoured to eliminate 512 MB barrier

http://os2.about.com/compute/os2/msubnews.htm
OS/2 WARP 4 FIXPAK #13 WITHOUT MEMORY 512 MB LIMIT
Beta version of Warp 4 FP #13 rumoured to eliminate 512 MB barrier and to be able to start M$ Office.

http://os2.about.com/compute/os2/library/blnews.htm

Walter Metcalf
os2.guide@about.com
http://os2.about.com

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