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Messages - Lewis Rosenthal

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16
Events / Re: User Meeting Cologne November, 5th 2022 confirmed
« on: July 09, 2022, 03:32:11 am »
Hi, Mike...

But I can understand his opinion about AN focusing on industry. I guess things might be different if you had brought up in your newsletter a continuous stream of progress updates about the new AOS5.1, the long time ago announced WiFi drivers and so on. Staying in the dark as an outsider leads to guess-working about whats going on. Better communication from AN might be the key to overcome such guessing.

Whenever the question arises about us not providing enough updates, I answer that with the question:

If we are still working on things, what should we say in a blog post?

In other words, we've said that we are working on ArcaOS 5.1, UEFI, GPT, WLAN drivers, and other things. Nothing has changed. We're still working on these things, and nothing has reached the point of us being able to release it as finished product. I could put that in a blog post every week, but then our blog posts would go from being few and informative to being frequent and redundant, saying nothing of any value.

We haven't gone out of business. We are processing new orders every day. We have released a steady stream of updates to USB, ACPI, and other things, including releasing a new NVMe driver (again, not for any commercial customer in particular, and not even prompted by a request from a commercial customer). I fail to see how or why anyone would get the impression that we had somehow shifted our focus from individual and small business users to large enterprises.

Again, to reassure everyone reading here:

Arca Noae remains committed to keeping OS/2 running on as many modern, bare metal systems as possible for as long as possible, whether those systems are owned by individuals at home or at school, or by businesses, small or large. Our driving force is just to keep OS/2 viable for those who need it or want an alternative to the ever-more-invasive mainstream OSes and the Powers behind them (Big Tech).

Sigurd, my friend:

We looked from what we know and what we can have access to today. The things I mentioned above are things we would like to have had, may be "exaggerated expectiations" from both of us.

I can understand about exaggerated expectations. Arca Noae's human development resources are limited. Whereas IBM could put a dozen or more engineers on a single task, we have a dozen or so tasks for a single engineer. This kind of flips the development cycle on its head. We have a queue of projects running in order to get to the next release. GPT was a major part of getting us off the ground (though GPT is by no means a requirement for UEFI - far from it). UEFI has been a monumental task, and then integrating that with the traditional BIOS install which we have had since ArcaOS 5.0, so that one ISO can boot under both environments and the installer can intelligently provide the correct options for the booted environment (correct options=ESP selection, as the ESP is necessary for UEFI boot, but makes no sense under traditional BIOS), has taken an enormous amount of time and effort. It is not easy to re-imagine the OS/2 installation process with UEFI involved, as it's decidedly un-OS/2-like.  :)

Somewhere in that work queue is continued USB3 development as tickets are submitted about this and that not working under a given controller (and USB technology itself - not the drivers we have on OS/2, but the specs and mis-application or ignorance of them by hardware manufacturers - continues to be an ongoing uphill slog). Behind that - and I do mean at the end of that list of priorities - is WLAN support, which really is moving along (though not ready for even a technology preview, yet).

The ordering is simple: First, be able to boot the machine. Next, be able to connect it to things, such as USB and LAN. If there are already supported drivers for wired networking, that's an acceptable workaround using bridge devices until such time as we can focus more attention on WLAN driver development. Otherwise, we'd be "all dressed up with nowhere to go," because who cares about a Wi-Fi driver when the computer can't boot or the display is black?

I understand that what's important to some may not be what's important to others or that on a scale of want-like-need-urgent, people will have many of the same things placed in different categories ("I have no working video, so video is urgent, while Wi-Fi is something which would be nice to have;" or, "My computer boots, video is fine, but I have no working keyboard or mouse - and only a single xHCI controller, so working USB is urgent.")...

Again, I fully understand the amount of work which goes into organizing a meeting of any type, and at a certain point, it's normal to stop and reassess the amount of time and energy vs the return on that human investment - for all concerned. I just don't know that ArcaOS 5.1 or Wi-Fi driver availability today would really make much of a difference in that picture (though it would give you more topics to cover, and considering that we really do anticipate 5.1 to be GA in the next couple of months - yes, we're that close - you may indeed have lots more to discuss by the time November rolls around).

ATB

17
Events / Re: User Meeting Cologne November, 5th 2022 confirmed
« on: July 07, 2022, 02:32:57 am »
- that ArcaNoae ultimately no longer has any major interest in the remaining "private/end users". Neither a version 5.1 has been released, nor a German translation, nor WLAN drivers, nor would there be without the work of Paul Smedley, Wim Brul, Lars Erdmann etc. (to name just a few and please forgive those who we have not named here have) sound support or webcam drivers etc. for OS/2 - eCS - ArcaOS on "modern hardware"

Sigurd, my friend, I wish that when you state your opinion or what you observe from the outside, you would make that clear in your statements.

Arca Noae does indeed have a major interest in individual and small business users. In fact, the entire 5.1 development cycle has been mainly about getting UEFI and GPT support into the finished product for these users, as our enterprise clients have not even requested this. We have spent the better part of two years on the 5.1 project, and we are within months of release.

ArcaOS 5.1 will indeed be released in EN, DE, ES, IT, NL, RU, and likely FR, with DBCS releases still in the works (CN, KO, JA, TW). Do you really think that we sit on our hands all day?  ;D

WLAN drivers are in development. Do you realize the scope of work involved in implementing the wireless protocol stack for the platform from scratch? GenMAC sort of cheated around this by wrapping a Windows driver, but MultiMac WLAN drivers do not take this approach. The first of these drivers is in development RIGHT NOW and has been for SEVERAL MONTHS, at least.

You mention Paul. Did you know that Paul is part of the ArcaOS development team? In fact, just a few days ago, Paul and I were discussing bringing the Samba server component up to the Samba 4.11 level to match the client, and how best we want to handle the server configuration utilities.

Just because you don't see things outside the Company doesn't mean that we aren't busy inside the Company.

I understand that what you wrote is your perception and opinion, and that's fine. Just please say that and don't presume to speak for Arca Noae. We remain committed to all OS/2 users, regardless of how many licenses they purchase. Our goal, however, is not to implement every single driver for every single device in every single computer so that it may be used under OS/2. Rather, we produce an operating system, and drivers necessary to get that OS up and running on as many new and recent systems as possible. Wim's webcam work is great, and we fully support his efforts and applaud him for making his drivers available to all. The same goes for Lars and other third party developers. You should not, however, feel that they do their work specifically because Arca Noae isn't doing ours.

Lastly, I understand the frustration of organizing an event for fewer and fewer people. I recall my late friend, Stan Sidlov, the former Warpstock treasurer, saying to me that the attendance was dropping to such a point that we should just have a barbeque in his backyard - and that was over a dozen years ago. All tech gatherings have struggled with this problem, and frankly, the technology itself is partly to blame (we seemed to be able to do virtual meetings during the COVID-19 disaster without the hassle of travel and hotels). I've also said many times that it takes the same amount of work to do a conference for 10 people as it does for 100. In the end, if you have stuff to discuss next year, I suspect you'll reconsider the merits of investing your time and effort in another meeting.

18
This should all be working, now. A server glitch led to a cascade failure of several dependent systems, but reboots work wonders.  :)

19
General Discussion / Re: YT video with download link
« on: December 13, 2020, 09:47:23 pm »
Many thanks.

Now to see how quickly the download site and YT process our takedown requests.

20
General Discussion / Re: YT video with download link
« on: December 12, 2020, 09:26:23 pm »
Reported. Please remove the link here from your previous post.

We are dealing with it. Thanks for letting us know. In the future, it would probably be better to just send an email to sales AT arcanoae DOT com or use our contact form.

21
Applications / Re: PmMail 3.24 bug
« on: May 18, 2020, 11:54:47 pm »
Stand by, Doug (C). I'll re-send. Who knows? Maybe it was deemed "non-essential" by some Governor ruling his fiefdom in between us, and was hauled off to jail.  :D

Edit: Just re-sent from my SysAdmin AT os2voice DOT org account to the same address I've had for you for ages (and ages). Let me know.

22
Applications / Re: WarpIn 1.0.23 - Where is it?
« on: May 18, 2020, 11:52:38 pm »
 :)

Thanks to you, too, David. We have a couple more of your outstanding icons in 5.0.5 (for the MozTurbo objects, at least, and probably a few more in other nooks and crannies). Your work is very much appreciated.

23
Applications / Re: WarpIn 1.0.23 - Where is it?
« on: May 18, 2020, 11:01:38 pm »
Ivan: If your subscription is in force, then you have no rush. The point was for the folks who let their subscriptions lapse (think: early adopters, who purchased ArcaOS 5.0 in May of 2017 with six months included subscription and then never renewed). It's simply not fair to everyone who does renew on time to have people go three years and then re-up for another year at a fraction of the cost of a new license. Everyone else is funding development in the meantime. (And frankly, the vast majority of ArcaOS licensees do renew early or on time, probably because we continue to crank out new stuff and we work tirelessly to address trouble tickets. </shameless plug>)

David: That link is correct. There is no 5.0.5 available today. We plan on a release sometime this month, but that hasn't happened, yet. So, in the meantime, 5.0.4 is the current shipping release, and from your original order page, you may download a decent portion of the updates which have been released to date, but more stuff is coming in 5.0.5. I've been busy in the workshop today, hammering out the last few bumps (I hope; at least everyone else on the team has been waiting on me, today).  ;)

Cheers

Cheers

24
Applications / Re: WarpIn 1.0.23 - Where is it?
« on: May 18, 2020, 08:13:52 pm »
Hi, David...

Quoting from:

https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos-support-maintenance-subscription-renewal-window-is-closing/

Quote
For a limited time, we are allowing all who have allowed their ArcaOS Support & Maintenance subscriptions to expire — no matter how long expired — to reinstate them at current prices…but this window is closing rapidly. Once ArcaOS 5.0.5 is released (and that release is imminent), current ArcaOS licensees who have let their subscriptions lapse for six months or more will have to pay more to have their subscriptions reinstated for another full year.

You should have received that via email.

My Warpstock Europe presentation yesterday also mentioned that we anticipate a release before the end of the month.

25
Applications / Re: WarpIn 1.0.23 - Where is it?
« on: May 18, 2020, 04:10:40 pm »
Indeed, 1.0.23 is an "in-test" build which we are currently using in ArcaOS. The new wic functionality specifically deals with creating and parsing WPI repository files. Paul refreshed the 1.0.23 build for us last year, and the newer 1.0.23 should be the public release when he gets around to releasing it.

So, while WarpIN is surely GPL and both source and binaries freely downloadable and usable by all, I would still caution against posting the 1.0.23 build anywhere (for those who have access to it). Paul may want to update documentation or add some more fixes to the final package (I have no idea; we haven't really discussed it).

HTH

Oh, and for the curious:

Make Repository (-m): wic -m <mask> [-H<host path>]
    Writes all package versions for all archives in <mask>.
New Updates (-n): wic -n <filename>
    Writes archive names for out of date packages listed in <filename>.

We do some further massaging of the repository file after running wic -m to add MD5 sums and sizes for the packages in the list. The additional fields were confusing the parser when run from ANPM, where we use the -n option to find updated packages. This was the fix in the refresh from last fall.

Other than that, 1.0.23 should perform just like 1.0.22. When ANPM 1.1.0 is released, the WIS in it will specify 1.0.23 as the minimum WarpIN version, so we'll want to get to a public release of 1.0.23 (or later) before then.

26
Applications / Re: PmMail 3.24 bug
« on: May 18, 2020, 03:44:26 pm »
Hi, Doug.

Your login should be working. I sent you an email yesterday with your temporary password. Please let me know if for some reason you didn't get that.

I swear I am going to look at what is failing in the Mantis install for PMMail as soon as humanly possible (tentatively scheduled for next week).

Cheers, and apologies again for the frustration with the new account setup.

27
Public-facing services should be back up and running, with the caveat that much public FTP content still needs to be restored and updated. The Arca Noae bugtracker is back up, and we are able to build new ISOs and sign driver downloads, so subscription content should be available. YUM repositories should be back up as they were last week, as well.

Still more to do, but we're making steady progress, finally.

28
Thanks for all the good wishes and positive thoughts.

Mail services are back online as of 1:00am EST, though anyone retrieving mail from the server will need to accept the new self-signed cert (yes, I should have added a real cert to the box, but there has been so much other stuff to do).

Recovery of prior data continues.

Web services are next, and we should have ArcaOS ISOs spinning in the next day or so.

As for standby servers, let's just say that that was not an option in this case.

29
Thanks, my friend. Work continues. As you know, it's a process.

30
Hi, all...

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on where we stand after a catastrophic RAID failure on Tuesday night (December 10).

The main Arca Noae website remains up, and the store is accessible, as is all wiki content, and most downloads from the customer portal. New ArcaOS ISOs are not being spun, and subscription driver downloads are not available. Downloads from the Resources | Downloadables pages are not available (ANPM, eCo Runtimes, etc.).

Email remains offline, as does Mantis. This includes the ecs-isp, os2-wireless_users, os2-netware_users, virtualized_ecs_users, and usb-dev mailing lists. In addition, all VOICE mailing lists are offline. All posts sent to those lists since we went offline are queued at the firewall, waiting for the server to come back online, so they should be delivered in time.

As a result of email being offline, the Arca Noae store is unable to send order confirmations and renewal reminders. If anyone has a subscription renewal coming due, be assured that we will extend the due date for you (though you may certainly renew without a reminder email by logging into your account and selecting the subscription order itself).

Web sites other than Arca Noae remain offline, including Rosenthal & Rosenthal, my personal blog, VOICE, PMMail wiki, etc.

FTP is unavailable, as well, as are the Arca Noae YUM repositories and the US mirrors of the Netlabs YUM repositories hosted at 2rosenthals.com.

For those using Subversion, including the PMMail devs, this, too, is offline.

We are working hard to bring things back up again, and hope to have mail and other websites running at least in some rudimentary fashion in the near future. As you can imagine, it's been a rather stressful few days around here. Let's just say that the chain of events which led to this array failure was beyond my wildest expectations, and while I really did plan for disaster, it seems that there's always the one set of circumstances which gets left out of the equation, and this was it.

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