16 November 2001
Pete Grubbs is a
self-described OS/2
wonk, a former doctoral
candidate in English
literature at Indiana
University of
Pennsylvania, a former
part-time faculty
member at Penn State
and is still mucking
about with a copy
editing/creation service, The Document
Doctor, which tailors documents for small
businesses. He has also been a
professional musician for 20 years.
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An Interview with Achim Hasenmueller
This year's Warpstock, coming less than a month after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was
perhaps not as widely attended as previous years, but users from many different parts of the U.S. and Canada braved
the new airport and border crossing security restrictions to attend. There were also a number of attendees from
Europe, including Achim Hasenmueller who offered the first presentation I had a chance to attend. Like all of the
other sessions I saw, his had a jovial air about it. In fact, I'd have to award him an Honorable Mention in my Quotable
Quotes Competition for a remark he made as he explained that it was, indeed, possible to play DivX files under OS/2,
however, he couldn't demonstrate this capability for us at the time. His reason? 'Unfortunately, I don't have a DivX
file I could show you, not at this time of day.' Our conversation later in the weekend was as pleasant and enlightening
as Achim's presentation.
PG: Who are you?
AH: Achim Hasenmueller
PG: Where do work? What do you do?
AH: Innotek, Stutgart, Germany. IT Architecht.
PG: Why did you come to Warpstock?
AH: I go to every OS/2 event that takes place.
PG: Is this your first Warpstock?
AH: No. I was in Philadelphia last year.
PG: How is this year's convention different than previous years? How is it the same?
AH: I see a big change. I think this one is much more vivid. I think this one has much more excitement.
PG: How long have you used OS/2?
AH: Since 1991.
PG: Where do you see OS/2 heading?
AH: Enterprise use is declining. IBM support is also declining so it will be harder for the community to survive. I think there has to be a lot of separate development (device drivers, etc.). I think what's going to happen is not what IBM says is going to happen, In the long term, OS/2 will go away, but it will be around much longer than IBM thinks it will be.
PG: Where should OS/2 go and how should it get there?
AH: That's a very difficult question. [In the short term] It's not possible to do much without IBM . . . they have the control. [In the long term] I think there will be a gap that cannot be filled by Linux or Windows. The OS/2 community needs to develop something that can fill that gap ... a new OS.
PG: What is your opinion of eCS?
AH: I think it's very encouraging that IBM has given Serenity Systems the right to do a distribution of OS/2... They have a great chance. However, I think they have a great challenge to fix all the holes.
PG: What do you use OS/2 for?
AH: Everything.
PG: Is there anything you'd like to do on your OS/2 box that you can't do?
AH: Artwork. But that's going to change with the Virtual PC. And reading complex Office documents.
PG: While earlier Warpstocks had sessions dealing with OS/2 advocacy, this year's schedule seems totally devoted to product information and technical issues. Is this significant? Why/why not?
AH: Advocacy is about trying to grow the community and I think that's pretty much over these days.
PG: Do you have an OS/2 wish list?
AH: Yes. Multiple input queques . . . [and] a dynamic device driver model.
PG:Any parting thoughts?
AH: Come to Warpstock Europe. Very much can be achieved by people who do something. If you really achieve a lot, you can really earn a lot of respect in the community for doing things. I hope that more people realize they can do something. The community should get more active.
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