I know all these arguments but when a client asks 'if OS/2 is turning into Linux why don't we just dump it and use Linux?'
I find I need to say something and ask how many other organisations are wondering the same thing. It could end up with the use of OS/2 becoming smaller not larger as we were hoping.
Dave, I can understand your point about the tools used but from my engineering viewpoint wouldn't it be better to spend the time fixing the tools first?
Ivan,
If people ask if OS/2 is turning into Linux. What is the definition of "turning into Linux" ?
I do not know who these organizations that ask these questions you raise Ivan. I also guess you can not disclose this. What I mean is if you mean organizations these are companies you provide consultancy services for that use OS/2 ? If these organizations and people have certain exceptions they are not very well known. I know BWW is still asking for extra funding...
As for native discussion and what makes OS/2 OS/2 ?!
* For years the GCC compiler and LIBC libraries have been the life line for OS/2 to get new software (Is LIBC native !?). Years ago this was started by innotek because the old IBM compilers no longer supported the new C++ dialects used in Mozilla (any of the experts, is that correct ?). Every OS/2 users has tons of GCC compiled on OS/2 system.
Few OS/2 users asked if we could not have a "native" OS/2 browser (what ever you could call native).
* Heck the last versions of Lotus Smartsuite to a large extend used OPEN32. Is that "native" ?
(Heck it used the system.dat user.dat). Nobody raised the point that running Lotus Smartsuite on OS/2 you could just as well run Windows.
* The Java version from Goldencode was the last Java version that was compiled for OS/2 with something like ODIN in between. Plenty of people used the Java ODIN versions and never asked "well is OS/2 not turning into Windows" ?
* I just do not get it why the directory structure that the RPM/GCC applications bring to OS/2 make it "more of being" a Linux distribution then when using GCC apps. Also then we do have an RPM format for packages.
I guess you get the gist of my points. What is native OS/2 ? Since 2000 the amount of resources IBM allocated to OS/2 have been reduced. And to be honest I think its miracle we still can boot OS/2 in the current shape we have it now in conjunction with all drivers we have. Considering how many contribute...
Having been to Warpstock US 2014 in Witchita Kansas. I organized most of the Warpstock Europe events in the last 5 years alone. You know what the primary reason was why people wanted to dump OS/2 ?
Because their web browser, they did not know how to update it properly. And so websites could not load and they and had put Linux next to OS/2 or migrated.
In the grand scheme of things I think that is what people who do not like RPM should consider. Yes its true maybe the community could have created a "native" package (and reinvent the wheel). Maybe come up with a new software update framework. But with our limited human resources, why reinvent the wheel ?
Is RPM perfect ? Well maybe its not. But for developers it reduces the time they need to spend and makes live easier for a lot of people to update software.
To be honest I think a portion of the OS/2 are just way to conservative to accept change. And its rather fear of the unknown...
My guess is that in about 1 year RPM/YUM will be accepted by most developers and most people will find it easy to just hit the update button and download an install all packages with a push of the button...
My conclusion OS/2 being "native OS/2" basically ended when circa 2000 when IBM stopped updating compilers.
Heck you could say we no longer have a native compiler ? I am just trying to point out this discussion about what is native and that OS/2 is no longer OS/2 etc is somewhat of strange discussion.
We now have Open Watcom compiler and the GCC compiler and I think we should count our blessings how much software and drivers we have. The developers developing for OS/2 have to make chooses. And if people expect differently then I guess somebody should put a bag of money on the counter to develop an alternative for RPM for example.
Anyway more news will follow on Warpstock Euroep 2017 for people who are interested. See
www.warpstock.eu for details. The amount of visitors has been rising over the last 2 years so lets see what happens.
Roderick Klein