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Messages - Fahrvenugen

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46
General Discussion / Re: Abandonware
« on: December 01, 2017, 06:16:51 am »
I would not support this.

Going back to the book analogy, if I write a book I expect to own the copyright to that book for the period of time that it is protected.  That generally means that I'll own the rights as long as I am alive, and then my estate / family / etc will continue to own the rights for 50 years after my death.

Whether or not I chose to update or support that book is not relevant.  Whether or not I chose to have the book available in publication that entire time is not relevant.  What is relevant is that I spent the time and effort to write the book, provide the product, and for the duration that it is protected under law it should be up to me (or those to whom the ownership has been passed) to decide on the fate of that work.  If I chose to offer it to the public domain / a free to use  license / a creative commons license / etc - then that should be up to me, not up to some law.

Software should be treated similarly.  Time and effort goes into the development and coding of software and that work should be protected - whether or not the software gets updates, support, etc.  If something becomes abandoned then as long as it is still considered protected then it should be up to the owner of those copyrights to decide its fate.

47
Applications / Re: IBM's Windows 95 Emulator
« on: June 03, 2017, 04:57:11 pm »
Hi,

As I recall at around the same time that this so-called "screen shot" turned up, an OS/2 port of the BOCHS 386 emulator turned up around the same time.  It was slow and painful to run even on the fastest processors available at the time, but you could install (if you were patient enough) a full copy of Windows 95 on it similar to how you can install Win95 on Virtualbox today.

There was speculation at the time that this "IBM emulator" was simply a screen shot of BOCHS with Windows 95 running which someone had tweaked a bit.  It is anyone's guess if this was actually done inside IBM or if it was someone who just decided to have some fun.  With the lack of anything other then a screen shot it is all speculation, but it would not surprise me to hear that someone inside IBM might have looked at this. 

At the time of Windows 95's release I suspect there was a lot of discussion within IBM about OS/2 - while Lou Gerstner may have already made up his mind, there was also momentum behind OS/2 - the Just Add Warp marketing campaign - aimed at home users - was released in the fall of '95, resulting in December 1995 with OS/2 having more sales then Windows 95 had to home users (ie, I'm not talking about pre-installed on new PCs. but rather people going to the store and purchasing the OS).  Then early 96 - with the PowerPC version still not being completed (although they had "shipped" a version to select customers in December '95) - this was a huge part in the decision (recall that back in those days IBM still thought the PowerPC chip was going to be the next big thing!).  From what we know of the Power PC port of OS/2, it was a strange beast.  From what I recall it could run Dos and Windows software without modification, but in order to run OS/2 applications - the apps would need to be recompiled from source.  And many parts of it were still very much "beta" level code.

If I recall correctly there was also some discussion around a comment that one of the IBM developers had made surrounding the win32s driver (the driver that allows win32s 1.25 to run in WinOS/2).  The discussion had something to do with the driver having the capability to be modified / extended to allow other 32 bit code to run within the OS/2 Dosbox sub-system.  Some speculated that this might be a route for Win95 to be able to function within OS/2, although my own suspicion is that it was more in reference to the fact that Win32s version 1.3 had been released by Microsoft, and IBM wanted the potential to support this within WinOS/2.

Cheers!

48
Setup & Installation / Re: OS/2 Warp 3 - Installation
« on: April 23, 2017, 09:23:53 pm »

Note: I always wanted to create the "Updating Warp 3" wiki page just like I have for Warp 4.52 but I never got the time to create it.

Martin,

At on point I'd actually had a long set of instructions on getting Warp 3 running on more recent hardware, back in the day I found myself regularly supporting Warp 3.  I'm not sure where my original file is but I did find through searching stuff that I've posted much of the information at:

http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,378.msg3311.html#msg3311 (referencing the German language updates)

http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,378.msg3312.html#msg3312 (referencing the German language updates)

http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,158.msg1227.html#msg1227

http://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,177.msg1401.html#msg1401

Checking the various download links in those messages, most of them refer to the original IBM ftp locations and the files still appear to be available.


49
Setup & Installation / Re: OS/2 Warp 3 - Installation
« on: April 22, 2017, 06:03:32 pm »
Hi,

The original warp 3 CD requires a lot of hand-holding to get it installed.  By its lonesome and without updates you'll at a minimum need to create some boot disks to get the process started.  If I recall there is a batch (or .cmd) file in the root folder of the CD that can create the disks for you.

But - the original install disks didn't work well with most hardware out there, so you'll need to update the boot disks with IBM's Warpinst - a package that IBM first released shortly after the release of Warp 3 when they started getting endless phone calls from users who couldn't get past the install without a trap.  You can grab it from:

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v3.0warp/english-us/warpinst/

For the original unpatched CD you will need either older hardware, or access to a Warp machine that is up and running.  For those with a copy of Warp up and running it used to be possible to create a patched install CD that you could boot directly from with a packaged called updcd but I don't know if this is still possible - I have not tried this package in several years.

I do see that updcd is still available on Hobbes, but I know that updcd would download fixes and patches from various sources on the web to do the magic that it does.  I don't know if it'll still work or not.

Ultimately it is still possible to make a working Warp 3 box if you have older hardware and the time to spare.  I've done it on Pentium 4 era PC's (around 12 years old now).  If you're working with the original CD the trick is to 1) find a machine with floppy drive, 2) create your fixed install disks, 3) if the machine is SATA based for its hard disks then you'll need the Danis506 drivers on the install media, 4) Don't use too large a hard disk or it'll fail, 5) If you do happen to get it up and running to a desktop you'll want to install the latest FP available for the machine or it'll be unreliable for you (the last one that IBM made available for Warp 3 is FP40, Warp 3 server they did release a FP43). 

I seem to recall that one time I tried to do a Warp 3 install with an unpatched CD I ran into an issue where it trapped if I had more then 512 MB installed.  Getting down to 512MB (or less) involved digging through old memory and such - but eventually I got it up and running.  After installing FP40 it would run when I put 2 GB into the machine (it still didn't recognize the full 2 GB as available due to the way the kernel handles memory on Warp 3).

Good luck!

Something to consider - given the fact that Warp 3 was released 23 years ago (1994) unless you're doing this for fun you might just want to wait for Blue Lion. 

50
Applications / Re: Do you really need DOS/WIN16 Support?
« on: March 21, 2017, 02:32:32 am »
Hi,

I definitely need the DOS support. 

One piece of hardware that I run at a radio station that I work at is an RDS encoder that lives on a PC card.  The hardware is quite sensitive to hardware timing, and the custom software runs on either real DOS and a 286 / 386 *or* I've been able to make it work on a newer computer with OS/2's DVM by tweaking the various hardware and timing settings that IBM so nicely provided.

The same hardware won't run under Dosbox, Freedos, and the like.  It doesn't work under Windows (and there has been no software update to it since the original DOS release)

The benefit of running it under OS/2's dosbox is that I can not only keep the thing running with newer hardware, but by tweaking various settings and using the SIO drivers I've been able to add in network capabilities to a system that was never designed to be network capable beyond a simple serial port and modem access.  Between REXX, OS/2's Dosbox, SIO, and  network stack I've got it doing things that it was never designed to do.

As for WinOS/2 support, I still use Pagemaker quite a bit.

So yes - I still find value in these aspects of OS/2.

51
Multimedia / Re: USB Audio
« on: March 04, 2017, 04:55:23 pm »
The CM108 chip in the Trend only appears to support the playback of 16 bit 44.1 and 48kHz PCM data, so the 10 & 20 kHz system audio files sound distorted for that reason, while a frequency converter in the system would fix that, a simpler solution is to replace the system sound files with 16bit 44.1kHz versions.

Good to hear that it is working with the CM108 (as long as the sample rates of the original files are correct).  There is a ton of USB stuff that uses that chipset - from the cheap USB audio dongles that you can find on ebay for $1 to $5, a ton of USB headsets.  I'd also be interested to find out if it works with the Texas Instruments PCM-2900/2902  series chipset which also gets used in a lot of USB audio gear.

52
Multimedia / Re: USB Audio
« on: March 02, 2017, 02:09:04 am »
I also tried some cheapo chinese USB Audio stick (which broke after about 2 weeks of use).
In general any USB Audio device should work but manufacturers are free to support dedicated sample rates.
They will almost always support 44.1 kHz Stereo because it is so common, then the good stuff will also support 48 kHz Stereo (the Terratec Aureon does) because that is the sample rate for professional sound equipment (as far as I know).

Lars,

You're correct on the 44.1 and 48, but the other 2 sample rates that are sometimes supported on the higher end USB audio stuff is 96000 Hz and 192000 Hz.  Admittedly these are much less common as they're usually only used in industries where audio is the product (recording industry, radio broadcast production, etc).  I regularly work with a number of sound cards (both USB and non-USB) that support these sample rates.

Admittedly these sample rates are rarely used on consumer-based stuff, and considering that OS/2 doesn't have any current and up to date professional audio production software, I would not suggest that this be a priority.  44.1 and 48 kHz are more then adequate to cover pretty much all the needs that OS/2 would run into.  And given the limited market for high-end audio production I don't really see anyone running out to develop or port high-end audio recording / production software to OS/2.


53
General Discussion / Re: registering to upload to hobbes
« on: January 30, 2017, 09:34:52 pm »
Any chance of tying Hobbes login information in with one of the community sites such as os2world.com  so that Hobbes would authenticate through a community site?




54
General Discussion / Re: XEU.com and eComStation
« on: July 16, 2015, 03:41:13 am »
Joachim,

I for one want to thank you for continuing to work on eCS even when the situation became more difficult amid both company changes and user feedback/criticism.  I can understand how that would be difficult, and I am looking forward to the new version of eCS.

As for the pauses / crashes upon boot, I ran into something similar to what Doug talks about on a machine years ago (Warp 4 based), I don't recall exactly what it was but there was something I ended up putting in the startup/config.sys that caused it to pause for about 5 seconds, never had a problem booting again.  Unfortunately that machine is long gone or I'd check to see what it was I'd done.


55
General Discussion / Re: News from the front line
« on: July 08, 2015, 03:27:11 am »
Hi

...but I also noticed a boycott campaign by someone calling OS/2 community members one by one to tell to do not help XEU at all.

Hi,

One thing that we all need to keep in mind is that regardless of the fact that 2.2 has been promised for several years and has not been released, we still need XEU around - if only for the fact that it is the only way to easily get new eCS / OS/2 licenses.  If a boycott were to take place then it is entirely possible that XEU's revenue on the product would drop to nothing, which could eventually lead to a the product being withdrawn.  For that reason, I can't see any benefit to such a campaign.

Without XEU, then there is no way to license a new copy of OS/2 / eCS (and I'm not talking about used ebay copies that you have to apply a bunch of fixes to)


56
Applications / Re: Favorite/Required non-opensource OS/2-eCs apps?
« on: May 26, 2015, 07:26:17 am »
Didn't PostRoadMailer get opensourced and rewritten in Java as Polarbar mailer?

Polarbar is the open sourced version of J-Street Mailer, which was the Java-based email client that Innoval sold.  However as I recall it wasn't a straight port (although I believe there was a bunch of shared code - if I recall correctly it was the same team of people doing the coding on both).

Regardless, the one I'd like is PostRoad, as the native OS/2 client (I still have it installed on my OS/2 partition, bugs and all!).  I was never a big fan of the Java client.

At this point I don't even know if the source code still exists.  I've emailed Dan Porter a few times to ask about it but have not received a reply.  That suggests that I either have an incorrect email address for him (very possible) or he isn't interested (also possible).  Either way is fine - it is his choice after  all.  Bit it is one app that I'd love to see the source made available.

57
Applications / Re: Favorite/Required non-opensource OS/2-eCs apps?
« on: May 24, 2015, 12:17:09 am »
I know i have listed this before, but will again.

PostRoadMailer

Still my favourite email app.

58
Yes, I seem to recall that switching resolutions without a reboot is something that PM does not support, and would take a major rewrite of various portions of PM to make it happen (not to mention that this might make various apps stop working).

I could be wrong, but if my memory is correct then it is unlikely to happen regardless of who has the rights to the driver.

But I too am encouraged by this news.  I also am one who continues to use SNAP, I find it works better then just about anything else out there for video.


59
General Discussion / Re: Haiku OS and its Niche.
« on: April 09, 2015, 04:39:49 am »
A few things to keep in mind.

TuneTrakker has been available for quite some time, originally it was developed to be a radio automation system to run on top of BeOS.  When BeOS development stopped, from what I understand they had an agreement to allow them to continue to distribute their own distribution of BeOS with their product (similar to how OS/2 is distributed as a part of eCS).  I believe for a while they also distributed their system on top of Zeta too.  Then eventually to Haiku once it developed enough for actual use. 

The only other (business) options that Tunetrakker had would have been to either try and port to another OS (Windows or Linux most likely), which likely would have required a significant rewrite.  Or to just close up new sales and go into maintenance mode (maintaining current customers). Once Haiku reached the point of being a solid OS, it was the obvious route to go from a business standpoint.

I wouldn't say this is a "niche" for Haiku, since quality radio automation software does exist for Windows, Linux, and Mac (and yes, I do know this as I work in the radio broadcast industry).  Bundling Haiku with the TuneTrakker / Command Center product seems more like the people behind TuneTrakker using the opportunity that Haiku offers for them to be able to continue to offer their product and keep their business moving forward.  Of course there is nothing wrong with this, and it does provide a path for TuneTrakker to continue to be updated and improved, providing upgrade and support options for both current and potential new customers of the software.

You might not know this, but there was at one point a radio automation system developed to run on top of OS/2.  It was called Startrax.  While it was a solid system for its day, I'm not aware of any stations currently running it any more.

IBM intended to have replaced the original design of OS/2 by 1997 with a more up to date and more coherent variant, rather than the rather thrown together OS they had on their hands, replicating the original design in 2025 is such a strange idea........

This is pretty much what the original plan for the PPC version was.  Keep in mind - the PPC version of OS/2 wasn't just a port of OS/2, it was a new OS framework based on top of a microkernel.  The idea was that you'd have a microkernel for a particular hardware architecture, and then run the OS environment of your choice on top of it.  The plan was to have multiple OS environments available, and have microkernels for different architectures.  OS/2 happened to be the only OS environment that reached any point of near completion when that whole project got cancelled.  Some of the remains ended up in Warp 4, Warp Server, and some eventually into Warp 3 via fixpaks, but most of what's left of that project - at least what we've seen in public - is on the OS/2 for the PPC beta CDs that have turned up from time to time.


60


Wise Manager was the product I recall, and no, we did not get the rights to it (nor was it discussed). that said, Olafur seems to have a better recollection of the available offerings (but no, we neither asked for nor received any of these).

Yes Wise Manager is the product that I was thinking of.  Thanks to everyone for refreshing my memory.


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