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The truth is somewhere in between.

An editorial Opinion by the editors of the VOICE Newsletter.

Anyone following the OS/2 Usenet groups or the eComStation mail list this past month saw a firestorm erupt over a brief article that appeared on the SCOUG web site about the demo of the eComStation Release Candidate at the June SCOUG meeting. Peter Skye wrote a very definitely negative review of Kim Cheung's demonstration of the eComStation Version 1.0 Rolls Out. A different article in the same issue has a remarkably different viewpoint (all positive) on the same event - eComStation. No author is listed for that one though. Could the truth be somewhere in between?

Essentially there were 3 kinds of responses exhibited in the OS/2 fora. First those who already perceived eComStation as some sort of destructive/divisive force for the OS/2 community, felt vindicated in their low and negative opinion of it. Another group who have been supportive of Serenity's project felt bushwhacked by the article and has raised a mighty hue and cry about it. A third group just looks at the first two groups in utter amazement at the capacity of the OS/2 community to self-destruct.

Was the article correct in it's complete panning of the demonstration? I wasn't there, but I have been running the Preview version since the beginning, and I can honestly say I don't see the problems that the article claims. At least not to the extent documented by the author. But then I tend toward the second group, as someone happy with eCS. So maybe I'm lucky or just blind to the problems. ;-)

I have seen several suggestions that accuse Peter of some intent of malice toward eCS. I have seen others from people that know him that say it is more a matter of having made some mistaken assumptions or just plain didn't understand the presenter's real inference correctly. I can somewhat appreciate what Peter Skye must be going through at the moment, since for the most part the only time I ever receive a large amount of mail regarding this newsletter is when there is a mistake.

All I can say is remember that both of these articles are more reviews of the Kim Cheung's demonstration of eComStation for SCOUG, rather then of eCS itself. I do find it odd that out of a 6 hour meeting that the author of the one article couldn't find really anything positive to point to. So I think people should be looking at Peter's article as one piece of the puzzle; one data point; not as a complete denunciation of eComStation. There will be other articles on eComStation that will hopefully shed more light on the subject. In fact we have a couple of reviews of the eCS 1.0 Release Candidate in this issue of the VOICE Newsletter. :-)

Read Don Eitner's and Isaac Leung's articles to see how well they faired with the install of eComStation 1.0 Release Candidate. Don has written many articles for VOICE in the past, including a review of the eCS Preview in last month's issue. He is very experienced in many platforms including OS/2, BEOS and Windows. Isaac has also written several articles for VOICE and also for OS/2eZine, including a review of the OS/2 Warp 4 Merlin Convenience Pack. Neither Don nor Isaac made it to the SCOUG demo of eCS, so we'll only be able to read what they experienced with this product, and not how the demo went. :-)

VOICE Newsletter Update: We are always interested in your thoughts and views on subjects related to OS/2, and would like to see opinion/editorial pieces as well as hardware/software reviews and HowTo articles. If you can help by writing an article please contact me at editor@os2voice.org. The Guidelines for Article Submissions to the VOICE Newsletter page has been updated with the addition of some ideas for articles. Please take a look and see if you can help us with an article for an upcoming issue. Some folks find they enjoy telling about their OS/2 experiences. :-)

VOICE Server Update: We now have a secure site at https://www.os2voice.com, though it is not functional yet. The new domain was contributed to VOICE by Internet Walkabout. VOICE has purchased a Thawte SSL server authentication certificate also. We are still awaiting installation of the newly purchased hard drives (an 18Gig IBM and 36Gig Quantum SCSI drive).

The Warp Doctor site: has been given a facelift by the new web master - Jeremy Workman (Rat-Salad on IRC). Check out the new look at http://www.warpdoctor.org/. We are still looking for ideas on content for the site. Any input is appreciated. You can send your comments directly to Jeremy at rs@fyrelizard.com or better yet attend one of our Warp Doctor Team meetings, weekly on IRC in the #warpdoctor channel. The team meets ever Wednesday at 8PM EDT (00:00 GMT). For more information on attending online Warp Doctor IRC meetings please see the VOICE Meeting Information page - http://www.os2voice.org/meetinginfo.html.

VOICE Online Update: In June we had a Speakup event on June 4th, with our guests from Sundial Systems, Rollin White and Randell Flint. The event covered the unveiling of a brand new product called ClikClok as well as an update and question period on Junk Spy 2.0. You can review the transcripts of these and other VOICE IRC events at http://www.os2voice.org/transcripts.html This month we have a general meeting on Monday July 2nd and July 16th at 8PM EST (00:00GMT, 02:00 Berlin). For more information on attending online VOICE IRC meetings please see the VOICE Meeting Information page - http://www.os2voice.org/meetinginfo.html.

If you have an idea for a Speakup event, please submit it to liaison@os2voice.org, and we will try to schedule something. As always, please be sure to check out the updated VOICE Future events Calendar in this newsletter or on the VOICE website at http://www.os2voice.org/calendar.html for more details on future VOICE events.

This month we start with a review by Christian Hennecke, Cool and calm with StHWMon. Christian looks at a program that can monitor how hot your system is running (assuming you have a supported chipset).

Next up, we have two reviews of the eComStation 1.0 Release Candidate with Isaac Leung's article eComStation v1.00: First Looks and then Don Eitner's article eComStation 1.0, the Release Candidate.

Then Manfred Agne provides us with a view from a different perspective on the trusty old Impos/2 image manipulation package in ImpOS/2 revisited. ImpOS/2 is not only still supported, but has recently had new scanner drivers released.

The last article we have this month is Frank Berke's File Sharing on the Gnutella Network using LimeWire. Frank gives us information on this Napster-like file sharing client which is written in java, so you can use it on any Java supported platform, including our favorite. :-)

Finally we have the VOICE Newsletter OS/2 Tips page and the Letters, Addenda, Errata page. If you have any OS/2 or eCS tips you've uncovered, please send them to tips@os2voice.org. If you have any comments or suggestions about the newsletter or articles in it, please send them to editor@os2voice.org

That's it for this month. So far, for August, we have no articles submitted, so if you were considering writing one, now would be a great time. A couple of articles in the works is an in-depth review of Xact 7.x by Stefan Deutscher, and a review of the Artem Wireless LAN cards, by Karlheinz Schmidthaus. A date for publishing hasn't been determined yet for either article.

Mark Dodel and Christian Hennecke
Editors, VOICE Newsletter
editor@os2voice.org

Features
editor@os2voice.org
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