Recently, Serenity Systems released the second first release candidate of eComStation 2.0, the successor to IBM’s os/2. Mensys, the online distributor of eComStation and other os/2-related products, was so kind as to provide OSNews with a review copy of this release candidate, and since my experience with os/2 and eCS is not much more than a few failed attempts at installing Warp 4, I was eager to try it out. Read on for a short history of os/2 and eCS and a review of the release candidate.
Many of you will at least know os/2 as the operating system jointly developed by IBM and Microsoft. The two companies started their cooperation in 1985 with the Join Development Agreement, and the first version of os/2 was the first result of this agreement. The name of the operating system is derived from the new computer IBM was shipping, the ps/2 (personal system/2); I actually have an old ps/2 somewhere in the attic at my parents’ house.
The first version of os/2, released in April 1987, was a text-mode only operating system, lacking the graphical user interface (‘Presentation Manager’) due to time constraints. Despite this missing feature (and others that were missing as well), os/2 still meant a fundamental departure from the DOS era. It had many features DOS did not have, such as:
Interestingly, os/2 1.0 also supported running DOS programs. However, you could only run one DOS application at a time, due to a number of hardware constraints. The DOS program had to run in ‘real‘ mode, an operating mode for x86 processors in which software had direct access to BIOS routines and peripheral hardware; multitasking and memory protection are not supported, and there is a limit of 1MB of usable memory. Since os/2 ran in protected mode, switching between real and protected mode was needed. The DOS program could not run in the background; it had to run fullscreen. Your os/2 applications kept running in the background, though.
The Presentation Manager graphical user interface, missing from os/2 1.0, was introduced with the release of os/2 1.1 in November 1988. As with the rest of os/2 at that time, it was jointly developed by IBM and Microsoft, and you can surely see the resemblence between PM and the Program Manager later found in Windows 3.x.
In the early 1990s, the collaboration between Microsoft and IBM started to crack. Microsoft scored a tremendous hit with Windows 3.0, which came bundled with many new computers, while os/2 was an expensive stand-alone package. In addition, os/2’s hardware support was limited; for instance, only a few IBM printers were supported, no HP, no Epson, nothing. Windows’ hardware support was much better during that time, and that certainly contributed to its popularity. The popularity of Windows made Microsoft shift its focus away from os/2 and IBM to its Windows platform. Wikipedia gives a detailed overview of the reasons why the two companies parted ways.
Because of the drawbacks in os/2 during that time, Microsoft hired Dave Cutler to start working on a version of Windows, a version that would be more portable and more future proof. This version would be Windows NT, and early versions of Windows NT contained specific bits and pieces of os/2 code, such as support for os/2’s HPFS filesystem, running os/2 1.x text-mode applications, and, most notably, the os/2 LAN Manager. Up until Windows 2000, NT had an os/2 subsystem for running os/2 text-based applications.
IBM continued to develop os/2 by itself, which resulted in os/2 2.0 in 1992. os/2 2.0 Was a 16/32bit hybrid operating system, and it supported running multiple instances of DOS and Windows 3.x, thanks mostly to the virtual 8086 mode of the 386 processor. Windows 3.x applications could be run ‘seamlessly’ (as if they were os/2 applications), or on a either fullscreen or ‘windowed’ Windows 3.x desktop. os/2 2.0 Also saw the introduction of a new graphical user interface: the Workplace Shell, an object-oriented desktop shell.
1994 Saw the release of os/2 3.0, which retained its codename ‘Warp’. Warp 3 improved upon os/2 2.x in many ways; the printer/display driver models were improved, and in general, Warp 3 had a much larger driver pool than its predecessors. On top of that, multimedia support was improved. Visually, Warp 3 received an overhaul, with new icons and more pleasing colour schemes. On the network front, Warp 3 had better support for the internet, while also coming with a basic office suite, IBM Works.
In 1996, IBM released the last major release of os/2, known as os/2 Warp 4. This release added support for Java as well as speech recognition. IBM continued to feed os/2 users with point releases, and the last official IBM release was os/2 Warp 4.52, in December, 2001 (OSNews was a little late to the game). Official support for os/2 by IBM ended 31st December, 2005.
However, that was not the end for os/2. IBM allowed Serenity Systems to continue development of os/2; this version became known as eComStation (eCS for short). Its first release was on 29th September, 2000. Serenity Systems works together with IBM and several other 3rd parties to develop eCS. Even though some believe this situation is similar to that of Zeta and BeOS, this is absolutely not the case. eComStation is fully authorised by IBM, and is completely, 100% legal.
Installing eCS 2.0
As previously mentioned, I have little to no experience with installing or using os/2 or eCS, so I had no idea what to expect. eCS comes on a single .iso file, which is easily burnt to a CD-R with your favourite burning tool. Obviously, the resulting CD is bootable.
My first attempt at installing eCS was on my Inspiron 6000 laptop. This laptop has an Intel Pentium M 1.73 Ghz, 768MB of DDR2 RAM, Ati Radeon x300 with 128MB of dedicated RAM, 40GB hard drive, and a Sigmatel audio chip and Broadcom 4318 wireless chip. The installation procedure had a few kinks (more on that later), but I managed to install eCS fairly easily. However, upon completing the install, I soon gave up on using eCS on this laptop; even though it supports the Broadcom 4318 wireless chip via the GenMac win32 driver wrapper, I was unable to actually connect to my wireless network (which is an open, freely accessible network, so no advanced encryption stuff). On top of that, even though it supports an 1280×800 resolution, it did this by using something I thought was long dead and buried: an extended desktop on one screen. In other words, the desktop was larger than my actual display. Odd, and extremely annoying, and I could not fix it.
In short, despite it installing just fine, it was not an optimal experience. I decided to retry on a dedicated machine, which I ordered a few days later at a local computer store which specialises in 2nd hand computers. It is a Dell Optiplex GX110 with a PIII 667Mhz processor, 256MB of RAM, 10GB hard drive, Avance Logic audio chip, 3Com network chip, and an integrated Intel video chipset. Coincidentally, it turned out the machine used to be owned by my high school (from which I graduated four years ago). It is a small world, indeed.
With the previous experience of installing eCS on the laptop in my mind, installation went a lot smoother this time. I generally tend not to dwell for too long on installation procedures, but I would still like to make a few remarks about it.
I have to commend Serenity Systems for the excellent help messages and instruction texts throughout the installation procedure. As a complete newbie to the os/2 world, I had no problems whatsoever getting around. The procedure is entirely graphical, and pretty much self-explanatory. A few problem points remain, though.
Firstly, the partitioning tool is a bit complicated, and could do with some simplification. The help messages here are not as good as during the rest of the installation procedure, and there is no guided partitioning option (that I could find, at least). For an experienced computer user like me this was no problem, but people with less experience might get lost in the tool.
The second, deeper problem is related to hardware recognition. The installer asks you to select the proper drivers for your network card and audio chipset, but sadly, lacks any form of hardware recognition. In other words, you really need to know your system inside-out in order to know which drivers to select. To make matters even more complicated, selecting the proper driver is kind of a hit-and-miss procedure, since the list of drivers in the installer is a bit short on details (i.e. it does not list all supported revisions for a driver). The installer should try to autodetect hardware, or at least present some device_id’s it found in the system, so you can ask Google.
I spent an hour hunting down the specific revision of the 3Com network chip in the Optiplex, and another 30 minutes trying to determine the proper driver. The audio chip was a little less problematic, but interestingly, I cannot get it to work. The proper audio driver is loaded, the driver finds the device (on os/2, if you load a driver without a corresponding device, it complains it cannot find the device, during boot up), but no sound is to be heard. Sadly, my inexperience with os/2 makes it very hard to troubleshoot the situation. On top of that, there is a serious lack of decent how-to’s on the internet (but more on that later).
All my other hardware was properly detected, not a problem to be found. eCS supports USB 1.1 and 2.0, as well as ACPI. In fact, the 7 years old Optiplex goes into sleep mode perfectly fine when using eCS, something I did not expect at all. For display drivers, eCS makes use of SciTech Snap Graphics, which supports a broad array of video cards.
Experiencing eCS
eCS boots quickly, and during boot, you are warned if device drivers fail to find the devices they try to, ehm, drive. For instance, I had first chosen the wrong network chipset driver, and hence, an error message during boot alerted me to that. You need to press enter to continue booting.
The desktop eCS comes with, still the Workplace Shell, definitely shows its age. There is no support for antialiased text, and icons look quite outdated, and overall, it has a very Windows 98ish feel to it. This is certainly not automatically a downside, but more of an observation. The interface is very quick and snappy, almost BeOS-like when it comes to responsiveness (probably due to the use of multithreading). As Eugenia already noted in her review of eCS 1.0, the context menus used in WPS can be extremely confusing. A long list of options with or without expanding menus lead to a dazzling array of options.
Behaviourally, WPS works mostly like Windows’ Explorer, although there are a lot of differences as well. Most notably (and one of the first things you notice) dragging and dropping works by using the right mouse button instead of the left. Another difference is that eCS uses coloured tabs (easy for differentiation purposes), and also multiple pages per tab. This can be a bit confusing at first, but it does allow programmers to easily hide the more advanced options. In addition, the order of the titlebar widgets is a bit odd: close, minimise, maximise. Lastly, the file manager is spatial, and very reminiscent of Finder in Mac OS9.
eCS also supports multiple desktops out of the box (contrary to Explorer), and the menubar can be enriched with plugins; by default, it includes things like a performance monitor, lock/shutdown buttons, a search button, a sort of menutray which provides quick access to settings panels and drives, the inevitable clock, and of course a taskbar. An interesting feature of the taskbar is that you can tell it to not display certain windows. For instance, adding a filter named “Desk” will filter out all instances that start with “Desk”. Since eCS and WPS are very configurable, you can even tell it to do things like minimise windows to the desktop, known as iconify. A very welcome feature.
The eComStation user interface elements look, just like the icons and text, quite outdated. I really am the last person on earth to advocate the use of flashy effects and pretty colours (in fact, I consider CDE to be the pinnacle of usability, and trust me, roadkill is prettier to look at), but some beautification and pretty colours are sorely needed on eCS. WPS and eCS support themeing, but the themes are quite limited, and do not make the situation any better.
System administration is in some cases a very easy matter on eCS, but sometimes, it is quite problematic too. For instance, configuring things like themes, icons, system sounds, kernel options, screen options, etc., are all pretty easy to do. However, some things, like networking, are a bit of a mess in that there are a lot of different configuration panels, and it can be hard to determine which does what. On top of that, the most important one (where you configure your LAN card and DHCP and such) uses a different UI scheme; I suspect it is a different toolkit altogether as the application is also a lot slower to respond compared to the rest of the operating system.
Overall, eCS is a very configurable operating system, almost along the lines of KDE. Sadly, eCS does not use the concept of the multiple pages per tab to its fullest; it could be used to hide the more advanced, less-used options, and while it does do this in some places, for the most part, it does not. A missed opportunity if you ask me.
eCS comes with Firefox and Thunderbird 2.0.0.4, which work quite well on eComStation; in fact, these releases are more stable for me than the Firefox and Thunderbird versions for BeOS/Zeta. Fonts in the two ports are, contrary to the rest of the operating system, properly antialiased, making for a pleasant browsing and emailing experience.
By default, eCS does not handle .doc files. A port of OpenOffice.org is available, however, this version needs to be bought separately, so I could not test it out. Instead, I downloaded StarOffice 5.1a (from 2000), and this way, I could easily open office files. You can understand, though, that the switch from an Office 2007/Office:Mac 2004 environment to the 7 year old release of StarOffice is a bit… Odd. You are probably better off buying OpenOffice.org.
As for multimedia, my lack of a working sound card obviously hindered me a great deal in testing out the multimedia capabilities of eComStation. It supports various codecs, including the RealPLayer and w32codecs using Odin and WarpVision. WarpVision also plays DVDs, DivX files, and just about any other audio/video codec. WarpVision also integrates with Firefox/Seamonkey, and can use hardware acceleration.
Experiencing Windows 3.x and DOS
Probably the single coolest feature of eComStation is the outstanding support for Windows 3.x and MS-DOS. eCS comes with a full installation of Windows 3.x, and you can easily load an instance of this operating system. You can select to start a windowed instance, or a fullscreen instance. The same goes for DOS sessions, with the added bonus that you can run mutliple DOS sessions side-by-side. Basically, eComStation is a better DOS than DOS, and a better Windows 3.x than Windows 3.x. The instances are isolated, so crashes in the virtualised boxes do not crash eCS itself.
For me, it was all a trip back to childhood. When I first started using computers, in 1990, the first computer my parents bought was a 286 with MS-DOS installed. Hours on end I played Keen and other games on that computer, and all that gaming made me a master at using MS-DOS. I was 6 at the time, but I could easily use “all” aspects (“all” does not really mean a lot in this context) of MS-DOS, and later on, of Windows 3.x. We had a huge dot-matrix printer attached to the computer, and this way, I even printed my first school assignments back in the day. I still have all manuals and floppy disks from that era, safely tucked away in my humongous collection of manuals.
But I digress. The fact that you can so easily run DOS and Windows 3.x applications simply lowers the bar for actually doing so. I have a large collection of old DOS games, for instance (The 7th Guest! The 11th Hour! SimCity 2000! Keen! Monster Bash!), but performance of these games under i.e. DOSBox was never acceptable for me. Under eCS, however, they run just fine, and I am really happy with that.
Experiencing the stability and lack of online documentation
eCS has not let me down in the stability department. The operating system is fast, stable, and seems really robust. I have not experienced a single crash during my use of eCS; nor the OS itself, nor any of its application have crashed so far. I also have not encountered any weird bugs in this release candidate (save for the audio chip not working).
My biggest gripe with eCS is the apparent lack of decent documentation and how-tos online. When a newbie like me encounters a problem, I do not really know where to go. IRC channels were empty (save for a few bots), and the forums were sometimes outdated. This can be really aggravating if you are trying to solve a problem (for instance, my sound issues). A friend of mine noted that the lack of online documentation might be caused by the fact that os/2 used to come with a huge manual.
Conclusion
As always, giving an encompassing conclusion about such a legendary operating system is very hard. On top of that is the fact that I was a complete newbie at os/2, and hence, I probably even barely scratched the surface of what eCS can actually do. In the coming weeks and months, I plan to learn a whole lot more about eComStation and os/2.
Anyway, you are expecting a judgement. First and foremost, eCS is a good system. It is stable, relatively easy to use, and fast. It offers interesting GUI elements, and a lot of configurability. Installing applications is painless (Windows-like installers, mostly), and the excellent compatibility with Windows 3.x and MS-DOS gives major brownie points to eCS.
However, it is not all sunshine and roses. The GUI could definitely receive a beauty treatment; I am not proposing flashy effects and pointless transparency, but more things like antialiased text (a definite must for readability) and more up to date colour schemes and window decors. Widgets in general have an outdated feel, and with the current focus on pretty GUI effects, this could be a real weakness for many people.
There are also more structural problems. The installer definitely needs some form of hardware recognition, and the various system settings dialogs and applets should receive an overall treatment, making them more consistent among one another, while also doing a better job at hiding advanced features (using the interesting multiple pages per tab option).
Now, the problem with eCS for us ‘normal’ users is the price. Since eCS is aimed at professional and corporate users, the price is substantial: EUR 235,- including sales taxes. In other words, you must be a real os/2 fanatic to shell out that amount of money for eCS. But, even if you are not a fanatic, and have the money to spare, eCS is a very interesting and relatively complete (and fast, even on older hardware) operating system, despite its deficiencies.
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
Good review, but how is it relevant now? Not a flame, just interested in the uses (considering it’s price).
Edited 2007-06-29 14:04
From a hobbyist perspective, eCS represents something different that really isn’t based on Windows or UNIX, and it has an ability to run legacy DOS and Windows software that some folks might find interesting.
As a long-time OS/2 user (since 1992), I’m part of eCS’s target market, and there probably aren’t many like me left, but for us it’s a very nice way to install and run OS/2 (warts and all) on newer hardware. 🙂
I ran OS/2 2.11 and Warp back in the 90’s, and really loved it.
I’m seriously thinking about ponying up the money and buying a license when it gets released. Mostly for the hobby and nostalgia aspect though, because I’m mainly a Linux/BSD user.
Depending on how much time you’re going to spend with eCS, your preferences might be endangered.
I’m runnning 4 networked boxes (XP, fedora6, NetBSD, eCS) behind a KVM switch in my office, with eCS readily doing the job in some 75% of everyday duties.
It will go on my 4-port KVM switch, along with my Win2K, OpenBSD 4.1 and Ubuntu machines. I’m not sure it could switch my preferences, because I really love Unix/Linux and OSS, but this will give me OS/2 back once again, for the first time in over 10 years.
Corporates, vertical markets, anywhere where a core application is running under OS/2 and the cost/risk factors make change prohibitive.
Also, for anyone with an existing eCS license the upgrade is likely to be around the $70 mark, if the previous upgrades are anything to go by.
The full price is so high because of the way IBM licenses the technology to Serenity.
That, and Serenity works on the basis of small amounts of sales; I’m sure if a company approached them to purchase 10,000 licences the price will be substantially less than the ticket price listed in the article.
If I read this correctly, he states that he graduatec from H.S. 4 years ago… that would make him 21-22 today.
He states that his first experiences was with WARP 4… that would put him close to 11-14 years old. Yeah I can see failure from a 14 year old installing WARP 4.
🙂
I was 21 in 93 playing with WARP 2.1
Bill
…I installed, and used Warp 3 when I was younger than that. Its also entirely possible that he attempted to install it many years later than when it came out.
Also, some people leave high school at 18/19 in Europe, I don’t know about Holland in specific though.
I’m 22.5 years old, and graduated highschool at age 18
. I indeed tried Warp 4 later, I don’t know, say two or three years ago.
Yeah, installing vanilla Warp 4 on newer hardware can be a nightmare. Dani’s IDE drivers solve a lot of basic issues, but then you probably need Snap, network drivers from some company’s web site, sound drivers, etc.
FWIW, I was 29 when I tried OS/2 2.0 for the first time 15 years ago. 🙂
Huh, I really thought you were some grand old man of computing but you’re younger than me. My whole universe is different now.
Gotta love the internet, right?
I’m f/13/single.
Oh wait, no I’m not.
Bah. I was installing OS/2 by like 10…
I was only 12 when I started playing with OS/2. I used it cause I was running a BBS, and Windows could not multitask DOS software worth a damn. So you had two options: either dedicate your computer entirely to the BBS and not use it for anything else, or run the BBS software under OS/2 or Desqview.
So yes, the fact that he was young would not have prohibited him from installing it. Even at 12, not only could I install it, but I also understood the difference between preemptive and cooperative multitasking, and why my DOS BBS software didn’t work well running under something that only supported cooperative multitasking.
I begged my parents for a copy of OS/2 Warp 3 for christmas, and got it. And then I could run my BBS in the background while doing other things with my computer. But I learned to appreciate OS/2 for a lot of it’s other qualities as well. Like the fact that it had a true desktop instead of the Program Manager that Windows had.
Edited 2007-06-29 16:27
In Germany, the reseller Escom sold PCs with OS/2 3.0 preinstalled and preconfigured. From the few people I know who bought such a system, it was a shock to them when they moved into the “Windows” world, because they seemed to loose lots of comfort and stability.
“I was only 12 when I started playing with OS/2. I used it cause I was running a BBS, and Windows could not multitask DOS software worth a damn. So you had two options: either dedicate your computer entirely to the BBS and not use it for anything else, or run the BBS software under OS/2 or Desqview.”
Nice you mentioned Desqview! If I look upward to the storage facility above my head, I can see a Desqview/X package with manuals and disks. Next to it, there’s still an original IBM OS/2 package with manual, discs and disks. 🙂
And, yes, “Windows” wasn’t very good at multitasking these times.
“But I learned to appreciate OS/2 for a lot of it’s other qualities as well. Like the fact that it had a true desktop instead of the Program Manager that Windows had. “
While “Windows” just claimed to be object oriented, OS/2 really was. Furthermore, it had the famous REXX (NB: REXX != Kommissar Rex). =^_^=
In Germany, some banks still do use OS/2 for their automated cash dispensers. Our finance administration still uses OS/2 systems as terminal like nodes to an IBM mainframe system which is responsible for finance administration of the whole federal country. It worked for years, and it has to continue working this way, because anything else simply isn’t affordable.
“I was 21 in 93 playing with WARP 2.1 ”
<apply Dr. Evil look>Riiiiiight.</eh, disable?>
OS/2 version 2.x was NEVER called Warp but go ahead, make an ass out of yourself.
I was an OS/2 1.3x user myself.
at age 15 (’97), I had simultaneous installs of Win95 (bundled), DOS 6.22, Win 3.11, NT4.0 and OS/2 Warp 3.0 on one Olivetti machine (one of those groundbreaking “we’ll include a SCART plug and this’ll be the media center for the next generation” type thingies, in case anyone ever came across one of those), with multi-boot and all.
I only had a 420mb HD, so partitioning took some careful planning before installing it all. Applications, data, productivity? why? I did it because I could, and because I didn’t know anyone else (at the time) who did the same. I felt like a computing god.
Anyway, I digress, the point is, many youngsters are far more apt at tech than you’d imagine. I mastered DOS at age 11 because I had to, noone was there to teach me.
I’m currently mastering Linux, and it’s a whole new world to me. Gotta love it.
thanks thom!
maybe, just maybe, i would prefer ecom over vista 😉 but sticking at winxp for my desktop and linux for servers at the moment. corporations who need stability and backward compatibility, however, should really consider this product.
I agree that the desktop aesthetics leave something to be desired, but I’m curious what you eventually end up learning about the WPS, and what you think of various things like crosshatched icons (for processes which are running), the difference between program objects and shadows in the WPS, etc.
Some of the following docs are quite dated but might still give you some additional hints and configuration tips:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/os2-faq/
http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Stupid_OS/2_Tricks
Good luck!
My family always used os/2 since version 2.1. I have done a number of installs in the past (starting at about age 14). The basic installation is moronically easy..but the advanced can be more um…interesting…especially nowadays where you have to go find drivers for hardware that did not exist when the software was written and make loads of driver floppies for use at install time.My first install of freebsd reminded me of os/2, in the sense that I could tell the system was performed reat, but if I didn’t actually know what I was doing I was never even going to get it to install. The os/2 system tools are still some of the best however(except for networking…even on warp 4 it was pretty evil),
From TFA:
“Up until Windows 2000, NT had an os/2 subsystem for running os/2 text-based applications.”
The OS/2 subsystem was not removed from Windows until Vista. I have a couple of old OS/2 applications (including cmd.exe from OS/2 1.3) that still run on Windows XP, but not Vista.
The OS/2 subsystem was not removed from Windows until Vista. I have a couple of old OS/2 applications (including cmd.exe from OS/2 1.3) that still run on Windows XP, but not Vista.
Err: “There is no support for POSIX or OS/2 programs in Microsoft Windows XP-based or in Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based operating systems.” As well as: “The OS/2 subsystem is not included with Windows XP or with Windows Server 2003.”
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308259
Edited 2007-06-29 16:41
Fine… I’m pretty sure I was able to run OS/2 apps under XP, but if MS say different, who am I to argue?
Besides, TFA is still wrong, because support was definately still there in 2000.
I’m pretty sure I was able to run OS/2 apps under XP
You are mistaken, there was no support for OS/2 programs in Windows XP, and even in 2000 it was only for OS/2 1.x text mode programs. I doubt you were running any of those.
Besides, TFA is still wrong, because support was definately still there in 2000.
Correct, Windows 2000 was the last version of Windows to support the OS/2 subsystem. The author may be thinking of the HPFS file system driver which was last present in NT 4.0
Edited 2007-06-29 19:27
Windows NT 4 had no support for HPFS. If NT 3.51 was upgraded to NT 4 the driver (pinball.sys) was disabled with the warning it wouldn’t work with the new OS. Pinball.sys could be loaded in NT 4 simply by hacking the registry, but it might be unstable and features like the Recycle Bin wouldn’t work on HPFS partitions.
The only OS/2 applications that used to work in the Windows NT subsystem were 16 bit text-mode programs. I remember some OS/2 text-mode programs compiled with EMX could contain DOS executable code (if compiled to work that way).
Am I right in remembering that it was just 16 bit OS/2 textmode apps that ran under NT? So, apps that were created specifically for OS/2 2.0 onwards wouldn’t run.
Yeah, older 16-bit VIO (that’s OS/2-speak for “text mode”) utilities for OS/2 1.x would mostly work under NT, but most of the stuff written since 1992 would be 32-bit code. I have some older stuff like that lying around, but it’s mostly little file/disk utilities and such.
99% positive you are correct on that. I don’t think the OS/2 subsystem in Windows was getting a lot of use, given that it was very limited in its nature.
One historical fact I discovered a few years ago was that OS/2 was the operating system underneath all ATM machines — even today. Although Windows (TM) is making significant inroads, OS/2 is still the major system.
Actually, that is complete horseshit, pardon my french. Older ATMs may use OS/2, but Diebold, who makes all of the ATMs, at least on the east coast, runs windows. Yes windows… you know why? For the VB support. Thats right. Their programmers are all VB retards. Explains their work on the voting machines.
How do I know this? My company was contracted over a 4 year span to help on various projects. The best gem of that period was definitely when we were contracted to code a prototype PDA<->ATM interface. At that time they were using NT4 embedded. It had to be done in VB, because their developers couldnt/wouldnt use anything else. On presentation day, the lead developer, who was going to demo the unit was freaking out, that his pda was going crazy then locking up. Long story short, his stylus had a bunch of ribbons on it, and they were dangling and hitting the screen.
Diebold is the same company that made the horrible voting machines for Maryland that lost some votes and sometimes froze when the voter pressed the “Cast Ballot” button. And yes, they were running Windows.
Provide evidence in the form of links. That way we can show those Windows zealots that this stuff isnt made up otherwise they will just call you the zealot.
OK, more precisely it was Windows CE. As for links, here are hundreds of thousands of links. Take your pick:
http://www.google.com/search?q=diebold+voting+maryland+windows
Sorry to bring the tone down, but I must point out that 90% of the worlds ‘ATM’ machines aren’t made in America or used by Americans, so your point about ‘Diebold’ is unlikely to be true.
Just saying, there’s a whole world out there my American friend, don’t forget that.
In 1994 I was fresh out of college and my boss sent me to a local roadshow type event where the IBM team was showing off OS/2 Warp. I hadn’t seen the graphical Web by this point, being limited mainly to shell access to the net, and my boss’s concern was that he’d read good things about Warp and wanted me to get a handle on it and form an opinion on it. Having not seen Windows 95 yet, I was fairly blown away – this was the first time I saw the WWW on a GUI browser, and it looked fantastic.
I was kind of inexperienced and I really thought that this was going to change the way people worked with computers.
I switched jobs soon after and I recommended this to a customer of the computer store I was working in in New Jersey. The customer was a bit of an enigma – he wore really expensive looking suits, drove a Jaguar, and had an Italian surname. He told me that he was in the “garbage collection business.” (His exact words; I’m not kidding. It is only this element – being “a little too in character” that makes me doubt whether or not this guy really was, you know, connected. He sure looked like it though.)
So the question was whether this guy was made or whether he just liked to make people think that, and we joked about it among ourselves when he left our store. I never knew or suspected anyone of being part of this shadowy criminal underground so even as a native New Jerseyan I had nothing to really measure him by.
He was a good customer though – paid on time and brought in good business. My theory was that he was just some businessman who liked casting the aura of a made guy, but appearance wise, this guy was a character right out of the Sopranos. And this *was* North Jersey. I’m not sure whether it’s more naive to think this guy *was* connected, or more naive to think he *wasn’t.* This was several years before the Sopranos debuted on HBO. The first time I watched it, I immediately thought of this old customer.
Anyway I recommended OS/2 Warp to him enthusiastically, sure that it was the future of computing.
We didn’t see him for about a year and a half. He drives up about 18 months later, gets out of his car, clutching the OS/2 Warp box. He puts it on the counter.
“You can have this. And if you ever recommend another Edsel program to me, I’ll break your legs.”
Then he bought a mouse, and walked out.
To this day I am not sure if:
(a) He was playing the “part” and trying to come off as threatening. He was smiling ever so slightly; the kind of smile which can indicate either amusement or menace.
(b) He was being very dry and joking with me, while expressing some displeasure at my bad recommendation (Windows 95 had since been released and had taken desktops by storm).
(c) He was your classic cinematic “made guy,” was ticked off, and wanted me to know it.
That’s my OS/2 Warp story. It is a story of how IBM’s poor marketing, promotion, and licensing strategy with OS/2 almost got me beat down by la costa nostra. Maybe.
As for ATMs, I have seen several of them in maintenance mode, and clearly many of them do run OS/2 – the last one I saw was maybe a year and a half ago, so it’s still out there. OS/2’s/eComStation’s value to people who are not OS/2 users now is of course dubious. I am fairly amused at the price they’re asking. If it was free, I’d maybe install it in VMWare or something just to give it a try (I have no idea if it can be run in VMWare or not).
Edited 2007-06-29 20:45
Here in Denmark there are two main ATM companies, NCR and Wincor/Nixdorf. NCR machines are, I think, OS/2 based. Their terminals are a bit crap and don’t seem to do half of what the Wincor terminals can (bank transfers and such).
But I was most certainly not pleased when I saw a generic Win 2k/NT4 error message on a Wincor terminal screen once, just liek ‘illegal execution’ or something. I won’t use home banking cos there are too many links in the chain I don’t trust… and they expect me to stick my debit card in a computer running the operating system with the most published and unpatched security flaws? (>XP I mean) Eep!
I also see XP error messages on the train info screens here quite often.
“I also see XP error messages on the train info screens here quite often.”
And in the trams in Schwerin and Potsdam. 🙂
Another Dane here, and this is completely unrelated, but what the heck:
Some years ago, on a trip to Greenland, staying at a hotel. There was an info channel on hotel TV that showed flights to/from the nearby airport (not that many, but hey). It crashed. Daily. it went into blue screen mode, rebooted, and showed the default win95 desktop until someone came in and restarted the broadcast. Hilarious. And completely off topic. I am sorry.
Since my first encounter with OS/2 back in 1992 (I’ve used OS/2 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 (Enterprise) 4.0 (Merlin), 4.5 (Aurora), eCS 1.0, eCS 1.1/1.2). I love the system unconditionally, both the base system and the WPS/PMShell and the community.
One setback after another did nothing to change my mind, until Scitech Software announced the death of SNAP Grapchics (The primary display driver system for OS/2-eCS), last fall. That broke my spirit and I never reneved my subscription on the OS nor on OO.O.
I now primarily use OpenSUSE and it works just fine and looks fine. But every time I see a snapshot of eCS, I feel the sadness in my soul.
I’ve never got OpenSUSE to work flawless with wireless on my laptop, at my university. WinXP sort of do, most of the time. I installed eCS 1.2 and after 5 min of work, it worked flawless – even places where WinXP couldn’t find any signal.
There is very little difference between Yellowtab Zeta and eComStation. OS/2 is a dead system, for best results use Linux. With the release of the GPL 3 it just makes Linux more attractive. Why would anyone want to use a dead OS like OS/2 when Linux is available. Its proprietary anyhow and proprietary software is inches away from being extinquished. This is similar to anyone who advocates for Netscape when Firefox is available. netscape like OS/2 is dead and needs to remain buried.
Edited 2007-06-30 15:42
For those interested there are some fairly active IRC, news, and websites.
IRC: efnet #os2warez and #ecomstation | irc.ecomstation.com
Web: os2world.com ecomstation.org
News: news.ecomstation.com
I guess they aren’t all super active but they are places to start looking.
Nice review.
The network install did seem to work better on v1.2MR.
Sound does seem to be a problem with the eCS 2.0 versions. However, check on irc.ecomstation.com or irc.netlabs.org — #netlabs and ask for a working version of uniaud32.
Pricewise, get a Warp 4 cd on ebay and get an upgrade version.
MikeG
It’s nice to see the review. While OS/2 setup and configuration can be complicated, once it is done you never have to mess with it. I have been running an OS/2 Server here since about 2000. I host my website on it http://www.pdfgameguides.com . OS/2 and eCS make great Web server platforms. You can get a current version of Apache, Geronimo, MySQL, Postgres etc… There is also a wonderful advanced firewall available for OS/2. It is capable of dynamic traffic shaping and dynamically blocking traffic when your site is under attack. The firewall is “Injoy Firewall” from http://www.fx.dk . There are also many nice OS/2 ports of apps from the Linux world. Many are available at http://smedley.info/os2ports/
One HUGE advantage of using an OS/2 based system as your gateway and/or web server is that there are almost no known venerabilities to an OS/2 system. So, security is a matter of keeping Apache up to date.
Other important things to know about eCS, specifically is they have added advanced ACPI support so that you can run the OS/2 SMP Kernel (Multiprocessor/Multicore). Arguably still one of the best multicore & multitasking subsystems out there.
There is also the SciTech SNAP video driver subsystem which gives OS/2 a single driver that supports most videocards out of the box.
Edited 2007-07-02 04:12
It is also important to note that OS/2 & eCS have IBM’s advanced Journaling File System (JFS).
When you add that and the other things I mentioned in my initial comment, OS/2 is an obvious choice for my servers here at home.