OS/2 eZine - The Best OS/2 Reading Anywhere!

August 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

I hope everyone is enjoying a long hot summer. There's been some neat software out these last few weeks, hopefully we'll be able to look at some of it in the coming months. This month was a big one for me with new DVD software, new SDD and an update to Virtual PC.

Everyone should take a moment to thank the contributors this month. At deadline we had no articles and it was looking like there wasn't going to be an issue this month but fortunately for our readers, a bunch of our authors worked extra hard to get the articles in this issue put together so that we could put out the August issue on time. As an added bonus for them, Mensys has donated a wireless networking card to our monthly author draw, you'll find out next month who got it and you can expect a review of this very interesting hardware in an upcoming issue.

eComStation 1.1 Installer Screenshots

It looks like the folks at Serenity Systems have taken some of my comments to heart. They've got some screenshots of the new eComStation installer, and it looks to me like a big improvement.

Java 2 Standard Edition 1.4 Coming to OS/2

Golden Code Development has announced the upcoming availability (4Q 2002) of Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition V1.4 on the OS/2 platform. This is a great step forward for OS/2 Java developers who have been very concerned with the lack of a current Java development environment from IBM of late.

Golden Code will be cooperating with InnoTek to develop and market the overall service solution. This offering will also be available in select markets through IBM Global Services. Golden Code will also be providing ongoing development of the Mozilla Web Browser under OS/2, no word so far on what effect if any this will have on IBM's continuing involvement in Mozilla development.

Customers are encouraged to contact Golden Code to discuss terms and pricing.

Scitech Display Doctor 7.1 Pro Released

If you're a Scitech Display Doctor user, you'll want to go get version 7.1. This new release is the final version of SDD/Pro. Now OS/2 users will want to get SNAP Graphics, the next generation driver technology from Scitech. Some of the improvements in version 7.1 include:

Support for SiS 315 chipset.
Support for SMI Lynx 3DM chipset.
Support for Intel i845G chipset.
Integrated latest versions (E.094) of IBM GRADD components. This fixes problems in VSVGA.SYS for i845G chipset.
Support for the Nvidia nForce, GeForce4 MX, and GeForce4 Ti series of chipsets. In addition, the GeForce2 Ti and GeForce2 MX 100/200 are now separately detected and certified.
Support for the Radeon 8500DV chipset.
Support for S3 ProSavage PM133 and KM133 chipsets.

The full list of changes can be found here.

Cool Speed Tip

If you download large Windows EXE files, you may have noticed that WPS takes a VERY long time to display the folders holding these files. The reason for this delay is that OS/2 has to search through the entire file to find the proper icon to display. If you're tired of waiting, here's a cool tip from "DoC". If you have a newer (post APAR PJ27886) kernel, you should find this works for you. Add the following to your CONFIG.SYS file:

SET NOLARGENTEXEICON=n

Where n is the number of megabytes OS/2 should scan before assigning a default Windows icon. I've set this to 2 since Windows EXE files regularly hit 1M, but not so often 2. This has made my download folder display so much faster that it is usable even when I have 100+M game files in it.

Ogg Vorbis for OS/2

Brian Havard, the maintainer of the popular Apache for OS/2 web server, has come out with another little gem. Ogg Vorbis is a music format like MP3 that offers good compression and sound quality in a patent-free open source format. This package even includes a plugin for PM123 which allows it to play OGG files.

JunkSpy 2.01 Update

If you're a JunkSpy user (and you should be) there's a free update here that fixes a number of bugs. The folks at Sundial Systems say this update is strongly recommended. I've been running it for a couple of weeks with no noticeable difference. JunkSpy just works.

New FAT32 Driver

The FAT32 driver by Henk Kelder has been updated as of June 8, 2002. The driver is available from OS/2 Netlabs. Unfortunately there's no information on what has been changed/fixed in this release.

FTPServer Update

If you're a FTPServer user, you are strongly advised to upgrade to Version 1.05. The developer has discovered a problem that can cause your server to lose the ability to service customers because in certain circumstances it can use up all available sockets.

DB2 for OS/2 Discontinued

IBM has announced that DB2 version 8 will not support OS/2. Version 7.2 will continue to be supported until March 31, 2004.

WarpStock 2002 Conferences

Both WarpStock 2002 and WarpStock Europe 2002 are ready for you to visit. You only have 3 weeks left to preregister for WarpStock 2002 in Austin. Get more information at www.warpstock.org and warpstock.os2.org.

This Issue

Simon Gronlund considers usability a little further with a look at file organization. Robert Basler looks at the news of the month, looks at OS/2's first publically available DVD player and James Cannon and John and Chris Angelico bring us some nice desktop art.

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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