I have a lot of fun reading my favorite web sites. Especially, a series on www.os2voice.org, where the history of OS/2 had been chronicled. Great reading, from the earliest 16-bit version 1.x, to the full 32-bit version 2.x, to version 3 - OS/2 Warp. I also do a lot of other reading, on newer sites dedicated to the newest member of the Warped family eComStation, more commonly known as eCS. One site in particular is www.ecomstation.org, which has a link to OS/2 Warp upgrades, neatly chronicled are the steps necessary to bring Warp up to standards.

Of course those aren't the only pages I visit, OK, I admit it, "I'm an eBayaholic (is that a real word?) and have not bid in the last month, I mean a week, umm, day?". Yeah, I'm hopeless. Hopelessly Warped ... that is. On eBay, I look at a lot of hardware I've always wanted, but never could afford ... EISA SCSI controllers, 4MB VLB cards, you get the picture. I also like to check out all the Warped stuff ... books, software (I couldn't afford), OS/2 logo pens (cool stuff indeed), and the latest prices on OS/2. Then I got to thinking ... OS/2 is pretty cheap, and runs in a small footprint. Of course, if you don't consider downloading Linux or FreeBSD, or having illegal copies of Windows, Warp is cheap, and I'm not talking used copies. I'm talking about shrink-wrapped copies of OS/2! From upgrades to OS/2 2.x, to red label (does not include Win-OS/2) and blue label (includes Win-OS/2) version 3 OS/2 Warp, to IBM's latest OS/2 Warp version 4. A special note to our non-Warped readers: Win-OS/2 is Microsoft Windows 3.x code licensed to IBM to run Windows 16-bit apps.

With all this in mind, OS/2 is a better deal than ever. I've never been a "one OS geek". Having more than one OS on your PC extends the power of your PC. It opens more options to you. Also, if you're a hardware-junkie, you've gone through a lot of upgrades. You probably don't toss anything away, but ferret it away for another day. Heck, I still use AOL floppies! Well, if you have read a previous article of mine, you may have discovered a removable rack to slap in your box. Or you have an old Pentium you've been trying to pawn off on your parents, knowing damn well, they won't turn it on. Or your kid sister, who won't use it because it won't run the latest software (she's probably a geek too, and it runs in the family.) Or maybe you feel that standardizing the PC will lead to its downfall. After all, once it becomes an appliance, we may have to call it an X-box, or something goofy.

So now you're excited. Getting that old hardware back in action, that Pentium MMX 233Mhz CPU, those 32MBs or 64MBs of 72-pin RAM, and that old 1 or 2 GB hard drive. OK, let's have some fun. So you head to eBay, or a computer show, or a church bazaar. You get OS/2 Warp 3, or maybe Warp 4. then you head over to www.ecomstation.org, and follow the link to update Warp. You then just follow the recipe.

Maybe you're recycling an older drive, maybe you have a big hard drive. But go ahead and update those boot disks, because it's a good idea to do that anyway. To play it safe, and to keep those disks original (be warned, older versions of Warp may be collectable, so you may want to keep everything in mint condition...), make copies of the boot disks and update those to use during your install. You install Netscape (I'd recommend version 4.6), you apply the fixpacks, if it's Warp 3, you'll need to get fixpack 40. Fixpacks higher than that are for Warp Server v.4. Once you've updated Warp 3 to the latest fixpack, you can than use almost any video card that doesn't come with native drivers by using the Scitech Software "Display Doctor".