OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - General > Events
Warpstock 2024: Coming? Not Coming? Why?
Lewis Rosenthal:
Rather than try to discuss this in the Warpstock forums, which are lightly trafficked, I thought I'd ask this here.
The event in Pittsburgh is earlier this year than in recent years, to try to give people a better weather experience. Also, the holiday calendar makes October a bit difficult, and November is potentially chilly (see my first point).
Some may not be familiar with Pittsburgh, or have misconceptions about its charm. I suggest a quick trip to Wikipedia for a refresher. Pittsburgh is rich with history and culture, and there is an excellent technology museum there (we're working on a potential evening outing there during the event - no promises, but we can always do something impromptu).
Another thing is the hotel group rate. (The hotel has extended our cutoff date to September 9, so for today, at least, it's still possible to book at our group rate of $145/night, which is considerably less than the normal rate for the end of September.) In recent years, I've found that our hotel group rate seemed great when we negotiated the contract, but then, as compared to the regular rate for the time of year of the event, it may have actually been a few $$ more than the regular rate. That annoyed me no end. That's apparently not the case this year.
Warpstock is picking up the tab on lunches for the event, too. Students with valid high school or college ID get FREE admission to all sessions and free food.
We have historically had difficulty "breaking into" the college IT departments to get the publicity we'd like. Let's face it: we're not getting any younger, and getting new blood interested in the platform is priority 1 for us these days (I got the same speech at my car club convention in July and at an Antique Automobile Club of America National Meet last month - encourage new, younger people to join). If anyone has contacts at any of the local (within reasonable driving distance, certainly) colleges or universities - or even high schools - please let us know or make the introduction on our behalf. A wider audience is good for all users of the platform, and who knows? Perhaps the next star developer will attend a Warpstock event - this Warpstock event.
We believe that we provide a good value for the cost of attendance. Watching the stream is a good second choice, but it never matches the in-person experience.
So, if you are coming to Warpstock this year, please mention why. If not, please go into some detail as to your reasons for not making the trip (travel cost, hassle of getting there, registration cost, bad timing, lack of enthusiasm for the location, etc.). We want to know.
Thanks!
Gordon Snider:
I'm all booked to come!
I do enjoy meeting the people behind the names in the OS/2 world.
Lewis, does CafePress have this year's logo for branded swag?
Even though I am probably the least technically advanced attendee I do look forward to hearing of Roadmap ahead
and meeting the programmers of the OS/2 products.
I am a "user", the web browser, PMMail, Mesa/2 Spreadsheet, NEPMD
Editor, and REXX for scripting.
Martin Iturbide:
Hello Gordon
I will see you there !!
Regards
Mentore:
--- Quote from: Lewis Rosenthal on September 08, 2024, 04:54:42 pm ---Rather than try to discuss this in the Warpstock forums, which are lightly trafficked, I thought I'd ask this here.
Some may not be familiar with Pittsburgh, or have misconceptions about its charm. I suggest a quick trip to Wikipedia for a refresher. Pittsburgh is rich with history and culture, and there is an excellent technology museum there (we're working on a potential evening outing there during the event - no promises, but we can always do something impromptu).
Another thing is the hotel group rate.
<-- snip -->
So, if you are coming to Warpstock this year, please mention why. If not, please go into some detail as to your reasons for not making the trip (travel cost, hassle of getting there, registration cost, bad timing, lack of enthusiasm for the location, etc.). We want to know.
Thanks!
--- End quote ---
As much as I'd love to meet other OS/2 enthusiasts like me, I'm afraid Warpstock and Warpstock Europe are all off limits for me.
The only thing I don't lack is enthusiasm, both for the platform and the events. I don't have time nor resources to afford the trip, and having a wife, a two-and-a-half years old son, a full time job and other jobs, there's really too much to do here for me to leave for a few days.
I'll try to follow the recordings as soon as I have the time to do so. Yes it's a second choice, but alas, there's nothing else available.
A quick note on involving youngsters: I totally agree in saying there should be something to do with students. I feel OS/2 has really much to say in STEM fields, where its stability can rival with other platforms and a more coherent user interface may guarantee a better user experience than its most relevant competitor (which is surely Linux: Windows is too far). This should be the most important point to stress out, since Linux is unbeatable when it comes to money (but still, not free - you have a steep learning curve even with the most "windows-ish" distributions).
Hope everyone attending this year's Warpstock will have a great time.
Mentore
JTA:
I drive vs fly, and Pittsburgh is a tad too far from the Colorado area, so I'll be watching the stream this year ...
I hope Warpstock can bring parity to both sides (conference & virtual attendance), including local clubs video conferencing to the national meetup ... which requires more local clubs. This will be my first virtual attendance.
Basically, I don't understand Warpstock (the .org & website), as that site seems woefully out of date. I can get at historical info, but ... Huge gaps, no (OS/2) news, etc. NO ROADMAPS (here on the site) = no future?
I couldn't tell anyone what any of the roadmaps for OS/2 are ... I think they are:
1. modernize the OS/2 platform ... this is ArcaOS, mostly for commercial purposes(?), but also for consumers. Basically, get ArcaOS onto more modern computing equipment, with more device driver support. OS/2 remains 32-bit.
- I don't run OS/2 directly on real hardware ... it's too problematic, with 64-bit issues, hardware issues, etc.
- I do virtualize, and feel that there are "no problems" and "64-bit access to everything", on one machine (even in OS/2)
- got no traction this past year on a native 32-bit Winflector client for OS/2 (even though a native 32-bit linux client exists (meaning it's 90% done?). A native OS/2 winflector client would've brought very seamless 64-bit apps to OS/2 (the OS/2 browser html5 approach still works, as I demo'd in Warpstock '23, but not as seamlessly). ArcaOS is not driving this, and needs to be?
2. bring more (young) people to OS/2 ... can't find a roadmap for this
- how does one develop for OS/2 ... what is the perfect dev environment; I couldn't really find anything to give to a kid wanting to develop. nothing ties together.
- how does one do all of the modern things alongside a not-so-modern OS; as it stands today, I couldn't attract my kids to OS/2 as a single OS on real hardware.
- what is the platform of the future, that the kids will be driving (hint: I think it's virtualization)
3. get OS/2 on top of 64-bits ... can't find a roadmap for this
- I did post a thread recently with loose roadmap ... not enough feedback, other than continue on my own until I hit a roadblock. One person was kind enough to say it'll never happen, but I can't put this in the sales pitch slide deck.
- I run OS/2 on a single modern platform, 64-bits, zero hardware/software problems ... but it requires virtualization; very few realize they can virtualize with today's hardware, and run any os. My scheme (AToF) is not currently packaged to be downloadable, and needs to be.
OS/2 is what it is (at the moment) ... I am just trying to understand where OS/2 is going, much like where Haiku is going ... both were excellent OS's in their original time, and both are still relevant in modern times, but with seemingly different trajectories & futures. Haiku seems to be going somewhere ...
Could we just compliment the Haiku folks, by lifting the Haiku website look & feel for Warpstock?
Hope this helps ...
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