As I checked some months ago, OS/2 Warp 4.52 is included there, it was available for download. So IBM will not bother to use OS/2 in Universities (Academic Use Only). I really see it more from the Serenety/Mensys side to have a way also to give eComStation for free to students, but thats up to they and possible they see a risk of IBM suing them for giving the software for free to Students.
AFAIK Mensys has to pay a fixed amount of money per license to IBM. So they would actually lose money by giving eCS away.
About Eugene optimist and Christian Hennecke negativism, well my opinion is that you are both wrong.
That's not negativism but realism. And IMHO the OS/2 community needs a good shot of realism to survive. It needs to clearly see the situation, analyze the options, and draw the consequences. I was rather pleased to see that some have actually bit the bullet now (a few years ago, a project like Qt 4 would have failed) but the majority is still sleeping, dreaming, in a state of denial or has resigned.
Christian you see this Eugene's effort like it is a waist of energy, but I think you are wrong. Let the people/students decided by theirself which is an interesting OS and which not. Possible there are students that will like what they can fix on OS/2-eCS instead of what it has or not. But you don't even want to give them the chance know about eCS.
Excuse me? I am not denying them anything. Think about the effort required for success -- a few pages on a site that's basically unknown outside the OS/2 community and sometimes has warnings issued by Google (yeah, I know that's not Eugene's fault but the effect remains) will not suffice -- and about return on investment.
Christian, you give a good point on explaining why this initiative will fail, but you don't even suggest in what will be good for Eugene to waist their efforts. Your criticism is not in a constructive way.
Come on, Martin, do you really want me to spell out what is only too obvious? Me and many others have already told this Eugene before but he won't listen. One can sum it up in one word: Focus!