back on OS2 after 18 years

[mauro]

Hi all, I'm glad having joined this forum.  I have had an OS2 system preinstalled on my first owned pc, and have been using it till the HD kept working, then I switched to Win98.  But after this time past and the new virtualization possibilities, I took the chance to jump back to the old times with an OS2 Warp 4.52 iso on Virtualbox, and now of course I got addicted.
But being not anymore used to manage this system, I need a first help from you friends, let me describe the situation:
-WEB : cannot afford to browse with Netscape 4, very few basic website in http protocol can be opened.  But meantime cannot find any recent browser to install. Meaning to install without pains and problems, every manual installation has been unuccessful. Can you suggest something handy/friendly to manage?  I have installed the runtimes of InnoTek and Warpin, then I have installed ANPM and his Yum-Rpm package installation. All working but not browser found in their repositories.
Then, I subscribed  Arcanoae software package (49$) for accessing some drivers packages in the direct downloadable links (USB, Video, Audio, Mouse, ecc), but first of all I hoped to find a recent Firefox version -or similar recent browser- plus some other software application in the subscribed repository added on Yum via my autenticated account.  HAVE FOUND ONE ONLY PACKAGE in that repository ! No Firefox, no tools, no utilities. Nothing. While the free preinstalled repositories contain tents of packages, the pay one (repeat: 49$) contained an USB 1.17 driver, that's it.
So this is the situation, but trust it will run much better than this with a little help.
Thank you.

PS I have also downloaded the package firefox-45.5.0.en-us.os2-wpi.wpi but the icon remains white like is not recognized a a wpi package, in fact when I run (doubleclick) execution, it does nothing, while some other downloaded wpi package do their work.

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Mauro, welcome back.
The latest Firefox is available here, https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases with 45.9 the latest and some considering 38.8 the most stable. Read the readme, in particular the dependencies, which are easy to install with ANPM. There is also SeaMonkey (and Thunderbird) at https://bitbucket.org/dryeo/dry-comm-esr31/downloads/, same applies about dependencies, which are basically the same as most of the code is shared.
Post if you have any problems with install or even just to let us know how it is going.

[Mike Kölling]

Hi, and welcome back.
Please check out the following site: https://ecsoft2.org/firefox
Greetings from Potsdam,
Germany

[David Graser]

Hi, and welcome back.
Please check out the following site: https://ecsoft2.org/firefox
Greetings from Potsdam,
Germany

Just copy and paste the YUM install scripts from the eCSoft/2 page to your Arca Noae Package Manager  under the Manage > Quick install.

Again welcome back.

[David Graser]

Hi Mauro, welcome back.
The latest Firefox is available here, https://github.com/bitwiseworks/mozilla-os2/releases with 45.9 the latest and some considering 38.8 the most stable.

My experience is that if you have a dated computer, version 38.8 is the way to go.  If you have  a computer that is only a few years old, the latest version of FireFox is the way to go.  Version 38.8 does not play youtube and other videos well, if at all.  Version 45.9.0 does, but if the machine is extremely old it may not work well at all.

[Dave Yeo]

With 45.9.0, you have to be more careful of extensions that you run, with some or combinations of some giving unexpected CPU usage. Even the theme can make a difference. Minimized, the default theme gives high CPU usage, other themes don't.
For YouTube, and perhaps other video sites, there's also VLC or even FFplay.

[Martin Iturbide]

Welcome back Mauro !!!

[Eugene Tucker]

[

quote
PS I have also downloaded the package firefox-45.5.0.en-us.os2-wpi.wpi but the icon remains white like is not recognized a a wpi package, in fact when I run (doubleclick) execution, it does nothing, while some other downloaded wpi package do their work.
[/quote]

You will have to drag the wpi package to the warpin icon to get it to work, ai know therer is  new version you were directed to so I am telling yo just in case yo have this problem with other warpin apps.

[mauro]

You will have to drag the wpi package to the warpin icon to get it to work, ai know therer is  new version you were directed to so I am telling yo just in case yo have this problem with other warpin apps.

Thank you for advising this, it will be helpful to me

[mauro]

YES! It has worked.
But now is giving the following issue:  it loads pages extremely slow (minutes also for getting the settings page and for reacting to any mouse click), and it is clearly not a connection problem.
Could it be, just guessing, because I've installed many prerequisite components in their P4 version as found in the repository, instead of i686?

Thank you

[Dave Yeo]

The CPU architecture shouldn't make that much of a difference. What is your CPU and how much ram do you have installed?

[mauro]

a little bit better after a system reboot, even if still not really running a level of same Firefox in other systems.
But this is encouraging after all

[David Graser]

a little bit better after a system reboot, even if still not really running a level of same Firefox in other systems.
But this is encouraging after all

Mauro

It doesn't and it won't.  The present code has become too burdensome for the few programmers working on the OS/2 port.  That is why QT5 is being ported so a new and more responsive browser and other internet tools can be built.   The age of the machine you are using determines how fast FF does things.   You may have to continue to do some things in Windows or Linux until the work is complete on QT5.  I have a Lenovo thinkpad 430S and FF is very responsive although as you have said, it is still not at the level of FF in other systems.

[mauro]

The CPU architecture shouldn't make that much of a difference. What is your CPU and how much ram do you have installed?

BINGO!  It was due the poor ram size choosen for this virtual machine installation:   128 Mb seemed to be a very confortable choice for the old times OS2, but the actual Firefox needs a lot more.
1Gb setted, and now Firefox runs fast.
Thank you

[mauro]

a little bit better after a system reboot, even if still not really running a level of same Firefox in other systems.
But this is encouraging after all

a little bit better after a system reboot, even if still not really running a level of same Firefox in other systems.
But this is encouraging after all

Mauro

It doesn't and it won't.  The present code has become too burdensome for the few programmers working on the OS/2 port.  That is why QT5 is being ported so a new and more responsive browser and other internet tools can be built.   The age of the machine you are using determines how fast FF does things.   You may have to continue to do some things in Windows or Linux until the work is complete on QT5.  I have a Lenovo thinkpad 430S and FF is very responsive although as you have said, it is still not at the level of FF in other systems.

this is right, I'm not expecting same performance as in a Win/Linux Platform; especially in a virtualized system I keep ready for compromises. In this case my cautious optimism has rewarded me (see previous post).
Thank you