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Article Discussions / Re: Preview: eComStation 2.2 Beta, the legacy of OS/2 lives on
« on: March 01, 2013, 02:12:37 am »Thanks Sigurd for a thoughtful response.
You bring up a very interesting point: the strategy choices for the development for eCS. Here, I agree with you that a clear strategy choice has not been made, and that one can make a lot of damage to oneself by overselling (it works on all modern software when in reality it does not), and by not sticking to time tables.
On proper beta testing: with the small eCS community, it would be difficult to test all new computers. Some of this is probably not even the fault of eCS but of computer producers who fail to document the hardware that make up their computers. This is a problem not only for eCS -- Linux developers face many of the same problems. As indicated by my previous posting, things work on my workplace because the computer and network department document things. Hence, odd guys like me know which solutions to look for.
So, there have two challenges:When I buy new hardware, I try to get as exact info. as possible. Drivers is a huge challenge. The ongoing ACPI development will solve some of that, but not all as some computer producers neither adhere to standards nor document what's in their box. PCI produces this documentation once you have bought a computer, but for most of us, that is a bit late.
- Proper documentation by hardware producers
- A clear development strategy for eCS, followed by proper documentation on which hardware that works. And then this documentation needs to be more detailed: several computer models come in multiple editions, and one needs to be clear on which edition = which hardware
Eirik
I commented on selecting certain hardware for eCS and making a list public for that. From my point of view it won't really work.
Infact to make the specific point even more clear. Most companies that contact us say simply "he I have this peace of hardware, make it work with eCS".
Most companies don't ask us "what hardware is supported".
Also with not all equipment being sold by suppliers for a long time its not always possible to say use model X from manufacturer Y.
We had it with a very big OS/2 customer from Europe. They just knocked on the door and said "he want this HP workstation to work". We got it to work and 2 months later it was off the market.
Then again some computer vendors do have business models that are sold longer so companies can plan.
See my other posting for some of the issue's with sticking to a small sub list of hardware.
Roderick
