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Messages - Lewis Rosenthal

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76
Polls / Re: eComStation Retail Store?
« on: August 07, 2014, 06:36:32 am »
[I'm not voting in the poll, as I build these for a living, so I wouldn't buy one in a store - but that's not to say that I don't believe people would buy them if they had the opportunity.]

Hi, all...

David, as a Linux consultant, I can tell you that getting the average Windows user to switch - even given the enormous learning curve moving from Win 7 to Win 8 - is a difficult task. Getting a Windows user to switch to the Worklplace Shell, however, is a different matter. Of course, we *do* need those updated apps (and they are coming).

As for lacking a fully functional VirtualBox, how so? Frankly, I find running *any* guest under a 32-bit host is less than enjoyable. If you want to install eCS as a VM under 64-bit Linux, then you have pretty much all the support you might need. That said, I *do* run guest VMs under eCS, for specific tasks ( a slim Ubuntu build makes a great multi-protocol VPN client; route the traffic from the eCS host through it, and there is no need to be concerned about a native VPN solution).

Macs are another alternative, and people seem to make the switch to that environment without too much fuss (I can't get used to mice with single buttons - "cycloptic," I like to call them). Still, there are alternatives, and eCS isn't for everyone. That said, every time I list eCS pre-loaded machines on eBay, I sell a few. In fact, it's pretty good advertising, and I've made more than one acquaintance from people just seeing the systems there and contacting me about other OS/2-related work.

Cheers, and good luck with your new venture.

77
Hardware / Re: PCI Parallel Port card install -- need info
« on: August 06, 2014, 03:53:05 am »
Late follow-up, due to my lack of sufficient notifications in my user profile here, Klipp...

Glad it worked, and hope that it continues to do so. Thanks to Andy for the great work. This thread reminds me that I owe him lunch at Warpstock, as his updated driver allowed me to deliver a machine to a client - and I got paid for that work, so he should, too.  :D

Cheers

78
Mail-News / Re: ExQuilla for Thunderbird under eCS
« on: August 06, 2014, 03:33:20 am »
but thankfully I have no exchange server to test it with.

ROFL...

[OT: I had the experience recently of some tech advising me to enter my login credentials for my "Exchange" server. I quickly informed him (tongue firmly in cheek) that I was not aware of any such requirement to connect the particular application to M$ Exchange, but that I was fairly certain that any standard SMTP server, such as sendmail or exim, could handle the task of relaying messages from the application. He stuttered, then quickly concurred. This was for a client with about 20 Linux servers of varying flavors...]

 ;)

79
General Discussion / Re: Still more on new OS/2 developments
« on: August 05, 2014, 08:00:29 am »
We're now a mollusc?
LOL!

Hey, we ended up with "SeaMonkey," which is a brine shrimp, right?  ;D

I wish I were better at keeping everyone informed, but unfortunately, this has consumed a tremendous amount of time, aside from my daily admin tasks and the usual "being kicked around like a soccer ball between clients." We really have made considerable progress, even if that progress isn't immediately apparent. Merely organizing and strategizing with a group of people can be an arduous task (and that is no knock against the others involved, who have all worked just as hard). Keeping the community in the loop has sadly taken a backseat to allof the other matters of formation.

It will be easier once the site goes live, as we'll actually have a place to make our announcements and where people can get more information (and products and services).

Cheers, and thanks for the smile, Dave.

80
General Discussion / Re: More on new OS/2 developments
« on: August 05, 2014, 07:45:25 am »
Apologies for the really late follow-up to this thread. It seems that somewhere along the line, my notification settings got messed up, so I was unaware that more follow-up had been posted for me, here.

If I convince Phoenix to produce a stable retail kernel release, for example, each 200 SVN revisions, I'll really look forward to see OS/4 included in Lewis's OS/2 build.

This is highly unlikely.

Do you have access to the eCS source files repository? Steven surely has.

Unfortunately, Jacques, I'm not in a position to comment on this at the moment.

They don't have access because of some people who rock the boat and shouting about software piracy.

Code which is owned by other people is not ours to take, modify, sell, or distribute. I would be one of those people "shouting about software piracy." Our goal is to ensure that proper owners receive proper credit, care, and treatment of their code and of their copyrights. Period. OS/2 is a licensing mess, which has only become more difficult to decipher over time. We need to be mindful of that, which is one of the main reasons why we are not currently considering replacing the OS/2 kernel (patching it in memory is another issue altogether, and well beyond the scope of this discussion).

I still think that Mensys "Crown Jewel" was ACPI, which is based on an open source Intel ACPI driver, which allows derivative work to be closed. But I don't know how owns the right of that port.

Without getting into the current copyright status of ACPI, it is surely quite obvious that ACPI is the key to running OS/2 on modern hardware.

My suggestions to developers is that do not sign any agreements with "eternal copyrights". The fair way to do it, if there is no choice, is that both maintain the property of the source code, and the company that is paying for it has some "time exclusivity" for some years. But of course it will be 1000 times better to have a project that is open source with all the development in the public. 

Remember that on this platform the majority of copyrighted non-open source software is now abandonware.

Certain projects lend themselves to being open source, while others do not. Our aim is to open source what we can, and respect the rights of others who have chosen (or have had no choice but) to restrict their code under proprietary licenses.

Cheers

81
General Discussion / Still more on new OS/2 developments
« on: August 05, 2014, 07:19:00 am »
Greetings, everyone.

In case anyone missed my previous statements regarding the formation of a new OS/2-focused company, please see:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/eCS-Technical/conversations/messages/19068
http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,397.0.html

and some discussion auf Deutsch:

http://www.os2.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=265

I want to share with you that at the end of July, Arca Noae, LLC was chartered in the State of Delaware in the US. Arca Noae is poised to become the driving force behind further development and maintenance of the OS/2 platform for some time to come.

Our website is still under construction, but we hope to be able to unveil it in short order. Besides new applications and updates, new device driver developments (upgrades, enhancements, and likely some completely new) are occurring, all of which we plan to announce on our site.

In Warpstock Europe news, summer vacations have brought some delays, but we are working to narrow the list of possible locations, and should have an announcement with more details in the near future.

Again, I want to thank all of you for being patient. We want to launch Arca Noae properly, and are paying close attention to detail. Rest assured there is a small but dedicated team working on and for the Company on a daily basis, and developers continue to do what they do best: write code. It's coming. Really.

82
General Discussion / Re: More on new OS/2 developments
« on: May 31, 2014, 02:30:21 am »
I'm happy to share what I can, when I can, Martin.  ;)

Sergey, I have some grave concerns regarding licensing with OS/4. If we can be assured that no reverse engineering has taken place, we might be more inclined to consider getting involved, but that's just a start. It's difficult to remain friends with Big Blue while playing fast and loose with their copyrights.

Neil, the situation is what it is. I recall when Novell first released Novell Nterprise Linux Services (NNLS), it shipped as a supplementary disc alongside United Linux. It was sometime after that when Novell bought SuSE and finally shipped a unified installer for SLES. Setting aside fresh installations for a moment, I think that *any* eCS 2.x user would be happy to get the equivalent of an overlay CD which could upgrade the non-IBM components of the system in a uniform manner, resulting in Product X, based on OS/2. New installations would need a different approach, of course, and neither of these is preferable to a single disc solution, I realize. That said, one of the (to be) stated goals of the new organization is that clear licensing must be provided with every product distributed.

Clear branding. True licensing. Good, solid code. Excellent value. These are the things we wish to promote (and again, while I've been the most visible member of the team, I am only one of a much larger group. Many of the people we all know from throughout eCS' development, and a few fresh (or less visible) faces, are involved in this undertaking.

Cheers

83
General Discussion / Re: More on new OS/2 developments
« on: May 30, 2014, 04:03:43 pm »
Joachim is still with Mensys, though Roderick has left the organization.

While questions abound as to the status of eCS 2.2, there does not seem to be a clear roadmap or projected release date, either for a fresh beta or GA. As a consultant, it's hard for me to justify deploying beta software for a paying client. This is just some of my motivation for starting this new project.

Presently, I have no agreement with Mensys or XEU.

Cheers, guys!

84
General Discussion / More on new OS/2 developments
« on: May 30, 2014, 12:22:06 am »
[Starting a new thread, as the original one seems to have gone off a bit.]

I posted a message a week or so ago concerning my plans to start a new organization focused entirely on OS/2 products and services. For those of you who may have missed that, the gist was that little in the way of new OS/2 products or releases have been made available in the past year or so, and that there seems to be a need in the community for new applications and updates. I was able to locate several contributors of time and resources and get them to come together to form a new company which will be focused on this market, maintaining strong ties to the user community, and dedicated to maintaining the viability of OS/2 on modern hardware.

I also said that I would have further announcements. Today, I'd like to share with you some more details of some of the team working to bring new and updated technology to the platform.

We are working closely with bww bitwise works GmbH in Austria. Bitwise ports software to eCS such as  Java and QT, and is directly involved in the current work to update Firefox for eCS. Also, other developers such as Steven Levine and David Azarewicz have committed to providing time and code for the new company.

We are also working to help make Warpstock Europe 2014 happen this year, and while date and location have not yet been set, we are committed to making details public in the near future.

Many people have come forward offering support and asking what they may do to help. Rest assured, as we move forward, we will stay in touch and will advise when we need assistance. We greatly appreciate the response we've received so far, with so many willing to donate to this project. Stay tuned!

All the best.

85
General Discussion / Re: eCS 2.2
« on: May 21, 2014, 06:00:18 pm »
 ;)

86
Sorry for the late follow-up, here, and thanks for starting this thread!

Indeed, there are many things happening behind the scenes right now; too many to list, and lots of new and exciting stuff coming.

Right now, the best help we can get is for people to spread the word, particularly outside the normal OS/2 and eCS channels, perhaps to disgruntled/disenfranchised Windows users, who now understand the feeling of betrayal we all had when IBM decided to throw in the towel. I've had several clients of mine enter into serious discussions concerning what to do about the XP EOL situation, realizing that Windows 8.x on the PC is no joy.

Thanks again, and I'll do my best to stop by and post more often!

Cheers/2

87
Hardware / Re: PCI Parallel Port card install -- need info
« on: March 04, 2014, 04:59:29 pm »
...also uploaded to Hobbes incoming is a tweaked PRINT01.SYS which should see IRQs as high as 48. Andy just built it form the DDK sources. This should obviate the need for Virtual Wire Mode under ACPI. Please test and report. I have it in a machine with a PCIe 1x parallel card (Oxford chipset), ACPI mode 2, set for IRQ 19. The card is recognized by the driver and prints as expected (I have not tested speed or anything else, just output to an HP LaserJet 4000 over an HP-branded IEEE-1284 bidi cable).

Cheers

88
Hardware / Re: PCI Parallel Port card install -- need info
« on: March 03, 2014, 10:20:07 pm »
FYI:

I've just uploaded to Hobbes an updated pcidevs.txt (updated to 2014-03-01). It's in /incoming, now, but it should replace the one from 2013-10-28.

Of course, this won't help drivers recognize hardware, but it should help us identify what new hardware we have, so that we may build the correct entries elsewhere or at least see what the system sees.

Cheers/2

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