Hobbes (Files) Reoganization

[andreas]

also a big thank you from my side!

May I suggest something?
Maybe it's useful to add a comment function to each entry, maybe with some sections for stability, usability, limitations, better alternatives, special features, and others. or maybe some rating

amoung all the programs there are some gems and a lot of outdated, not working, problem causing, difficult to install or other "bad" programs.  I guess it would be helpful for everyone to get some clues ...

[Lars]

This would go against Martin's decision to keep all old cruft.
Back at the time, he uploaded to Hobbes all old versions he could find.

[TeLLie]

Hi All,

Will access with webdav still works?

Greetz Tellie

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello.

- As far as I know Webdav is not planned.
- Registration is not working for the moment, but people can still upload files. (Nathan will check if some Anti-Spam or registration is required later)

EDIT: I notice on the main page mirror 'OS/2 Site Australia' is shown to be in the USA? I doubt it...

- I will give Nathan feedback about that. The site is called OS/2 Australia but it is hosted on Netherlands. I guess the mirror should be "Netherlands".

Maybe it's useful to add a comment function to each entry, maybe with some sections for stability, usability, limitations, better alternatives, special features, and others. or maybe some rating

amoung all the programs there are some gems and a lot of outdated, not working, problem causing, difficult to install or other "bad" programs.  I guess it would be helpful for everyone to get some clues ...

- Do you have more detail of you suggestion, any site that looks similar of what you want? ecsoft2.org has a comment area, but I'm not sure if you want something like that, or found a better example.
-Andreas, but if you have an example of "bad" programs, just post is here. If it dangerous, we can add more information or even remove it.

About the software upload:
What we discussed on this thread is that hobbes should have the latest version of every OS/2 software. No matter how old or new it is. To recognize old stuff I choose to standardize to the "latest update date" on the "short description" of the file, so people can easily see it is something from 1995 or 2024.

But there are exceptions to this rule:

1) Drivers: There are retro OS/2 users that require older drivers, because newer drivers will not work for their machines. There are cases when people prefer a working older driver because the newer remove/change support for their device.

2) Libraries and Runtimes: Sometimes software is locked to an specific version of a DLL runtime or library and it's good to keep those versions.

But there is still the necessity to have the older versions of all OS/2 software in a repository. I had encounter myself with users that don't want to use the latest by different reasons.  For the moment we have https://os2site.com/sw and http://cyberia.dnsalias.com/index.htm for them. But I hope in the future to work in a "Software Archive" repository with the older versions of each software.

Regards

[andreas]

- Do you have more detail of you suggestion, any site that looks similar of what you want? ecsoft2.org has a comment area, but I'm not sure if you want something like that, or found a better example.
-Andreas, but if you have an example of "bad" programs, just post is here. If it dangerous, we can add more information or even remove it.

have no similar site in mind. The comment area in ecsoft2 is not so much for the comments i have in mind for its assumed content. but technically it might be similar. peolpel should be encouraged to write their opinion about the software so others might know in advance that the progam is suitable for him or not. it might save a lot of time for many people and maybe avoid big problems.

You ask for an example. Hm. I treid 100s of programs since i use OS/2. I saved maybe 300 programs that are "good" for me. The rest is "bad" for me. That does not mean that the programs must not have been good at the time they were programmed, but there were othwer programs that work better (for me). And there are programs that are just not useful anymore today, for example programs related to floppy disks. Of course i also encoutered some programs that caused problems on my system. As an example i can name INIMAINT, that destroyed my desktop completely when i tried to "repair" my ini-files. Bet you also encountered programs that harmed your system in some way.

I think everyone has just 3 caragories: programs to install, programs to not install, programs to maybe install in certain situations.

I guess there are a lot of programs that are doing exactly the same job as calculators or text editors. I know amoung these programs there are some with unique features. but there are also many that do exactly the same job. It might be helpful for everybody to learn from other user's experience which one of them they prefer and why they do so. I am quite sure nobody needs 10 calculators on their harddisk.

and: I realzed you did a great job, testing programs. Often you need some knowledge how to install some programs. this might also be helpful to read in the comments.

Same with restrictions of shareware. Some programs might be great, but without registration not usable at all.
At least it would be good to know, what the restrictions of those programs are, since often registration is not possible anymore or the profram would be to expensive to achieve.

I have no comlete concept in mind, just some basic ideas. Not sure if it's technically possible to add such a function or if the community agrees with my ideas. And maybe it's too much work to add this function.

Mybe a link to www.os2world.com/wiki would also be some idea. The comment function could also be included there of course.

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks Andreas.

Maybe I can summarize it as, "there most be a better way to warn the users or give suggestion about each software, but we still need to crack it down".

I will keep thinking about.
- Software comments feedback?
- Software Rating ?
- Use Recommendations?

Regards

[Mentore]

Thanks Andreas.

Maybe I can summarize it as, "there most be a better way to warn the users or give suggestion about each software, but we still need to crack it down".

I will keep thinking about.
- Software comments feedback?
- Software Rating ?
- Use Recommendations?

Regards

Everyone please consider that a huge work on fields like this has been done by the former Team OS/2 Italia with the eCSoft/2 site

https://ecsoft2.org/

The infrastructure is AFAIK maintained by Massimo, which is a fellow user of this forum as well.

I think the topics in the database could be "enhanched" somehow by adding ratings or the like.

Mentore

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

I'm thinking that /pub/os2/util/wps maybe has too many files. Even that I removed from it the wallpaper changer utilities. (/pub/os2/util/wallpaper)

I'm thinking that it may be slip into:
1) /pub/os2/util/wpsenh (?) - For WPS (GUI) Enhancers
2) /pub/os2/util/? (?) -  All the "bars", like stuff for WarpCenter, launchpad and new desktop bars. Which is a good name for these ones?
3) /pub/os2/util/wps - For the utilities that register, deregister, classes... and anything else related to WPS.

What do you think, too drastic?
Or maybe just moving the "bars stuff" may be enough?

Regards

[Lars]

"wpsenh" makes no sense as every WPS class enhances the WPS. That is the nature of every WPS class.

[ivan]

It appears that you are making it much too complicated to find anything with your reorganisation.  Use the 'keep it simple' idea, that way people can just look through the main division , see what is there and select what they want without needing a deep knowledge of OS/2.  Your system assumes that everyone has a deep knowledge of the inner workings of the OS (I have been using OS/2 since version 1.20 and I would be lost with your system.  Most people using it just want it to work, people just trying it out expect to be just able to select something to try without having to know the inner workings).

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Ivan

It appears that you are making it much too complicated to find anything with your reorganisation.  Use the 'keep it simple' idea, that way people can just look through the main division , see what is there and select what they want without needing a deep knowledge of OS/2.  Your system assumes that everyone has a deep knowledge of the inner workings of the OS (I have been using OS/2 since version 1.20 and I would be lost with your system.  Most people using it just want it to work, people just trying it out expect to be just able to select something to try without having to know the inner workings).

Just let me know your suggestions on how to "keep it simple". Just take your time.

Reards

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Lars.

"wpsenh" makes no sense as every WPS class enhances the WPS. That is the nature of every WPS class.

A Desktop Enhancer is not neccesary a WPS class enhancer. I think Styler does not mess at all with WPS classes. I wanted to make it more focused on "Desktop Enhancers".

For me "/pub/os2/util/wps" means more of software utilities related to WPS (and the GUI), that can replace/affect WPS classes or not. But it is open to discussion.

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

1) /pub/os2/util/wpsenh (?) - For WPS (GUI) Enhancers

If "/pub/os2/util/wpsenh" gets confused with WPS Classes enhacements, what could be a good name for it?
- "/pub/os2/util/guienh" ? or just full "/pub/os2/util/GUIEnhancers", "/pub/os2/util/DeskEnhancers", or just "/pub/os2/util/desktop"?

Regards

[ivan]

Hi Martin,

I was thinking of something along the lines of http://www.os2site.com/sw/

[Neil Waldhauer]

HobbesArchive.com is down for a while, so does anyone remember the URL for the mirrors of HobbesArchive.com?