Re: ATT etc. (now: HTML versions | OS/2)

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Patricia M Godfrey wrote:

> Well, your problems with Opera may be related to the OS, though buggy
> software seems to be everywhere.

It is certainly possible. Their browser would have to have a fatal collision with
the video driver, or something really fundamental, to yield the nasty results I
saw.

> The HTML/XML issue is even more
> complicated, in that the WWW standards people say that code should be
> written in a certain way, but sometimes NO EXISTING BROWSERS will support
> code written that way. (I ran into this when I tried to create my own Web
> site.) It took forever for Cascading Style Sheets, a basically good idea,
> to be supported at all.

At a presentation I attended on website creation basics, one of the few things I
learned *and*
retained is that often pages are very badly done, due to ignorance or dumb
mistakes. For
example, I'm sure you've seen pages where the text color on background color
choices have
rendered the results just about unreadable. I had initially thought this must
have been browser-
specific, and that the page would look o.k. when viewed in MS-IE . . . but that is
not necessarily
the case.

> If I ever should find (I have occassionally seen it at flea markets) OS/2
> Warp, would it do me any good to get it?

> How much--and for how
> much--would it have to be upgraded to run on today's hardware? What apps
> can it support?

That depends on how much time & effort you are willing to put in. As Robert has
pointed out, like
the not-so-good NT (or W2K, its greatly improved descendant), these are not
"casual user" OSes.
I don't believe they are the near-excursions into hackerdom posed by Linux / Unix,
but they do
present a number of configuration challenges, esp. if you want to be in the
driver's seat and to have
things the way you like them. The learn / use issues go well beyond what you are
used to in W98.
*Once set up properly*, OS/2 tends to be a model of stability and reliability. It
is an especially
good choice for anyone who wants or needs to run much "legacy" DOS or Win-16
software.
There is a pretty decent library of OS/2 app.s, mostly either shareware now if not
abandonware
that you can get for free. To run Win-32 app.s from inside OS/2, in some cases
you might get by
with the now dormant ODIN project (which was free), but in many other cases you
would need
the pricey VPC package that has been mentioned here. Of course, nothing would
prevent you
from the multi-OS alternative, booting into either as needed.

One big problem has been driver support for later-issue hardware. That has meant
one had to be
rather careful and selective in purchasing said hardware. A lot of this issue
seems to be evaporating
now, due to universal driver projects (e.g.: video now well covered, NICs pretty
much there, audio
chip support apparently in the pipeline), and a stream of ports from the Linux
world.

Another considerable problem had to do with the install process, which many found
confusing and
a bit obtuse. In fact, it is widely held that the Warp installer truly bites, and
if they had had a well-
automated, *well* auto-detecting,
holds-your-hand-while-limiting-most-of-your-possible-choices
installer for Warp, as Win did from W95-on, the history of the OS market might
have come out
differently. (Then again, IBM has a long string of failures in marketing,
whenever they weren't in a
position to "shoot fish in a barrel." The consumer market was a profoundly wrong
turn for them,
into places they didn't really want to be, in terms of their business
orientation.)

That brings us to eCS, the successor to OS/2 Warp. Its first commercial release
had things like a
drastically improved installer, which is said to be even better in the forthcoming
new version.

Where this idea may fall off the table for you is in cost. It was possible to buy
a used Warp 4
(no earlier version acceptable for this purpose !) on Ebay or somewhere else, for
no more than $50.,
probably a good deal less than that now. For upgrade purposes, this gave you a
presumptive license.
I actually got my Warp 4 for free, the license turned over to me by a departing
user, a friend of a friend.
Then, many of us happened to get in on the ground floor of the eCS subscription,
which was I think
$79. at its lowest point. Today, the cost is probably more like twice that
amount. I also bought the
"upgrade protection plan" (no longer offered) covering at least the next version
released.

Wendell asked me off-list about support, and the IBM announced "withdrawal" of
Warp 4 and WSEB
(a server / networking-heavy version). These "withdrawals" are more complicated
than they sound,
and I could point you to a URL that explains this in more comprehensible
language. In any case, I have
to say 'What Support ?' I've never gotten an ounce of support from IBM (unless
you want to count
various things they released that you can download for free as support, and I'm
sure one can make that
argument), nor can I think of anyone I know who has. Support, in the sense of
"Here, let us help you
resolve this problem," has been reserved for large enterprises with very large
site licenses and the attendant
support contracts. You won't get support from Redmund (or anyone else, either,
these days), without
forking over some serious coin, probably on a per incident basis.

No, I have gotten all of my support from other users. From Lists like this one,
forums, newsgroups, the
closest user group, individual app. developers, wherever. So far, there has been
enough of it out there.
Serenity Systems, the developer / distributor of eCS, has the ability to open
APARs (problem reports
inviting a fix), on your behalf, something otherwise only available to the large
IBM customers. I don't
think it is likely that IBM can totally walk away from OS/2 and its successor any
time soon.

Jordan