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May 16, 2002
 
Robert Basler is the president of Aurora Systems, Inc. and has been a dedicated OS/2 user since he tired of rebooting Windows 3.1 twenty times a day. He spends what free time he can manage travelling the world. Photo was taken at Franz Josef glacier, New Zealand.

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From The Editor

Finally! A Mozilla to Love

It looks like Mozilla has finally displaced Netscape 4.61 from my OS/2 desktop. I've been playing with the version 1.0 RC2 release and fixes for a couple of days now and I am just so impressed. They have fixed every gripe I had with earlier Mozillas, which has finally let me discover some of the additional hidden power in the new browser.

I really like the tabbed display. When you are reading a news site that links to different articles, you can open each article in a new tab, while keeping the main page open to select all the other articles you want to read. By the time you've selected everything you want to read, all of the tabs have ground through the loading process and you can just go. Each tab shows its status so you can see when things are ready without having to stare at a blank screen. I used to do this with multiple browser windows, but the tabs are so much easier to manage.

Also very cool is Fullscreen mode. Just hit F11 while browsing and the desktop fades away, leaving just tiny versions of the nav buttons and address bar remaining.

As with previous Mozillas, browsing performance is quite snappy. Pages blink up, just like they should.

After you install the new browser, you should go to Steve Wendt's Warpzilla page for information on how to transfer plugins to the new Mozilla as well as tips on cool stuff you can do with the browser. Installing plugins is just a matter of copying them to the PLUGINS directory, so it isn't too hard to transfer the Flash and Java plugins from the IBM Web Browser and all the multimedia plugins from Netscape. Use Steve's list though, as some of the older plugins won't work with Mozilla. This is the first Mozilla I've used where Flash doesn't crash the browser on the second Flash animation it plays. I played dozens of flash animations last night with nary a hiccup.

So what about remaining gripes? I have three: you need horsepower to run Mozilla, it is a big application. Also, the Newsreader waits until bitmaps are fully downloaded before displaying them which means waiting around even if the picture is one I have seen before. Lastly, you still can't get rid of Netscape 4.61 since the Feature Install plugin doesn't yet work with Mozilla.

If you haven't tried Mozilla and you've got lots of memory and CPU, this is the one to try. If you've tried Mozilla before and not liked it, this one is worth a look. To the Mozilla team - nice work.

Warpstock 2002

It has been announced that Warpstock 2002 will be held in Austin, Texas, the home of OS/2 development, on October 5 and 6. Some of the presentations that have already been confirmed are:
  • Scott Garfinkle, IBM: OS/2 Hang & Trap analysis
  • Mike Kaply, IBM: OS/2 Web Browser
  • Oliver Mark, IBM: OS/2 Updates
  • Rainer Feuerstein: Bootable CD's
  • Achim Hasenmueller, Innotek: VirtualPC
  • Achim Hasenmueller, Innotek: Universal Audio Driver
  • Richard Spurlock, Starfire: Starfire Titan
  • Andrew Bloo, Scitech Software: SciTech Display Doctor and SNAP
  • Randall Flint, Sundial Systems: Sundial Product Suite
  • Bob St. John / Kim Cheung, Serenity Systems: eCS updates
  • Eric Faulhaber, Golden Code: GoldenCode Trace Suite.
  • Darrell Spice Jr., Spiceware: On emulators for OS/2
  • Sam Emrick, IBM: Speed and Performance with OS/2, covering the following: Convenience Pak2, App design for performance (really most key part!), SMP!
  • Ron Capelli, IBM: Java & OS/2

Warpstock 2002 Europe

Warpstock Europe 2002 will take place in Arnhem Holland November 8th-10th. More details will follow soon at warpstock.os2.org.

UnixOS/2

If you're looking for OS/2 ports of UNIX applications, you need look no further than the UnixOS/2 site. I ran across this this month while looking for some tools for building an OS/2 version of a Linux app I'm interested in. These guys have all the tools.

The UnixOS/2 project aims to develop a distribution of Unix ports that follow common guidelines to make it easier to install and use ported Unix applications on OS/2. After my experience with The GIMP, this is a welcome effort.

IBM's OS/2 Strategy 2002

IBM has revised their strategy document for OS/2. Not a lot of changes, but there is a list of what projects they have planned for this year.

Where are they now?

If you've wondered what our former Editor in Chief Chris Wenham has been up to, I ran across him in an article this month in Salon.

Looking for a Time-Waster?

Drift for OS/2 was rereleased this month. It is a sort of asteroids clone, but with some additional trickiness. The nice thing is that it is fully scaleable, so make it full screen, blast some rocks and get those powerups. If you're looking for a time-waster, it is worth a look.

Yeah! New DirDiff

If you've tried DirDiff 1.x, you've probably found it pretty darn useful. Well its time to get back on the net. DirDiff Version 2 has just been released with a bunch of nice improvements, the biggest one being performace. One change of note is that DirDiff is no longer freeware. You'll have to register it if you want to use it for more than 30 days.

PHPMyAdmin for MySQL

If you're looking for an easier administration tool than the command line for your MySQL server, you might want to look at the new release of phpMyAdmin 2.2.6.

Website of the Month

The website of the month is IBM's Redbooks Online site. It has a spectacular selection of books on a wide variety of topics, and you won't find more detailed OS/2 information anywhere.

This Issue

Roland Casselbrant talks about the difficulty of being an OS/2 convert, Robert Basler reviews Virtual PC for OS/2 and provides from tips for securing your internet connection, Pete Grubbs wonders what the priorities for our community should be, and John Bijnens improves his Weasel email filters.

April Issue Prizes

Thanks to our sponsors last month, David Jones got a copy of the digital camera application 3rd Eye. Congratulations to our winning writer and thanks to our sponsor for their support.

Looking for More OS/2 eZine Content?

How about writing it? The OS/2 eZine has to be a community effort, the more writers we have to spread the work around, the better the issues will be and the easier it is for everyone. If you're working on a cool OS/2 project that you think the readership of the OS/2 eZine would find interesting, we're looking for one-off articles as well as short series and monthly columns to fill the pages of the OS/2 eZine. Trying some cool new software? How about writing a short review? It doesn't take much time and you can win some great prizes!

Please visit the OS/2 eZine Pressroom for submission guidelines and article ideas. If you have any questions, let me know by email .

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The OS/2 eZine is committed to serving the OS/2 and eCS community by providing accurate, useful, and timely information every month. We will deliver user-oriented hardware and software reviews, thoughtful editorial comment, and 'how-to' articles which will include useful tips for both the novice and the experienced OS/2 user.


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