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21
General Discussion / Re: What happened to Paul?
« Last post by David Kiley on March 15, 2026, 08:44:33 am »
Thanks folks, it's brought me some comfort reading these messages. I'm on a good path now, maybe I'll be back porting some day (If I remember what to do lol)

Hi Paul, I fondly remember using your ports throughout the ecomstation era. You've done such great work and it kept my computer going.
So I do hope you just hang out with us here regardless if you decide to port more stuff or not:).
22
Internet / Re: Mypal68: A possible alternative browser?
« Last post by David Kiley on March 15, 2026, 03:45:45 am »
they could have found a skilled developer to update our existing browser years ago, before we fell so far behind.

Did Ecomstation contribute to the browser? Or something changed that they didn't need to?
23
Internet / Re: Interested in a remote winflector/ web browser hosting service?
« Last post by David Kiley on March 14, 2026, 09:20:28 pm »
And yes there are definite limitations like YouTube as you mentioned. So we will see if I can build it with enough value to still make it worth using.

I'm looking into bundling others apps like office suites ftp etc. But Microsoft charges through the nose for a multi user office suite so probably not them
24
Internet / Re: Interested in a remote winflector/ web browser hosting service?
« Last post by David Kiley on March 14, 2026, 09:18:38 pm »
Thanks for the feedback. It gave me a lot to think about. Fortunately winflector has a lot of built in security. I'm still testing it but here is a list of built in controls:

Isolated Application View:
Unlike Remote Desktop Services (RDS), which share the entire desktop, Winflector only
presents the windows of the specific application, limiting user interference with the server's environment.
Independent

User Accounts: Winflector allows the creation of user accounts that are independent of Windows user accounts.

Resource and App Access Control: Administrators can define which applications specific users can access.
Virtualization: Winflector uses kernel name virtualization to prevent conflicts between different users running the same application, ensuring that each instance acts as if it is in its own user space.

I have a lot of experience with server hardening.. so I am working on that now.
I purchased a server so it looks like I'm going ahead with it. I will probably only buy limited seats to start though in case no one wants it lol.
25
Sabon,

Your EliteDesk 800 G6 looks like a very fine machine. If you need the manual you can get it here
https://www.manuals.co.uk/hp/elitedesk-800-g6/manual

I have a couple of HP machines, one of which (EliteDesk 800/G4 mini) is running AOS 5.1 that has WSeB installed.  I had to contact Arca Noae to get the audio working but after that everything works - well I have to close VLC after watching a movie/video before starting the next video or the machine gets very unhappy. 

On that machine I am currently booting in UEFI only but I have switched between Legacy and UEFI booting for testing of Panorama for a presentation last year.  I believe that the 10th generation of Intel processors (i5/i7) are the last that support CSM - but I may be remembering incorrectly.  The manual for the machine indicates it has CSM support.  Since your machine has expansion slots you may need/want to run in legacy/CSM mode for some of the hardware you might plug in.  But if you aren't plugging anything in you will probably be fine in UEFI mode.

As for OS/2 being easy to install in the past - that was only true if you were lucky.  I can remember spending hours on the phone with IBM tech support trying to get OS/2 installed on some early machines.   And if you are old enough to remember the cow computers (Gateway Corp.) then chances are the transition to machines with UEFI firmware is going to be a bit difficult.  It was for me.

My recommendations/advice:  Make an USB stick with the install stuff on it rather than trying to boot from CDROM.  I have had problems getting newer machines to boot from CDROMs.

When making the USB stick use the instructions on the Arca Noae web site for that - which it looks like you are doing.  Don't use the Read.me on the install media.  There were issues with that read.me, at least in version 5.1 - I don't know if they have been corrected.

If you are still having issues getting an AOS 5.1.x on a USB stick,  snail mail me a USB with your downloaded ISO from AOS and I will make that into a bootable USB, test that it boots on my Elitedesk 800/G4, and snail mail it back. Or one of hte re-sellers might be able to do that also.

Good luck.
26
Hello David!

So I had a crazy idea of renting a windows dedicated server to serve as a winflector server to try to solve the web browser problem.
...
Anyways, anyone interested or is this a dead end idea?
...

So here is my response while wearing the Corporate IT Hat:

1) SECURITY
Before anyone signs up for this kind of a service you need to very precisely spell out how the security aspect of MY data residing on YOUR server is going to play out. By that statement I do NOT just mean "is my data secure?" as if it were in it's own cloud hosted server...you need to account for the fact that multiple user IDs would now exist on the same box and therefore you'd also need to account for how that segregation is to be accomplished.

2) PLATFORM
#1 above assumes a single server, is that indeed what you are thinking? How about looking at any of the cloud platform services, purchasing compute & storage credits which are then applied to UNIQUE VMs that host user specific environments?

You see, this approach, while I suspect more costly due to underlying OS licensing requirements, would certainly account for a lot of the SECURITY worries. After all, each and every time I connect to run one of these remote apps i'm essentially logging into my very own hosted VM environment.

3) PERFORMANCE
There is a big difference in implementing this within your LAN vs such remote configuration as what you propose. I would want to prove this out first so the sort of usage people are expecting to see (say YouTube access) can in fact be facilitatted.

Regardless of whichever approach you pursue in #2 above, the speed at which that remote session is instantiated would play a big role in how "happy" the end user is. After all, if it takes me 1-2 mins to spin up a remote FF window, and even then I can't honestly use it to browse my favourite YouTube channels (just a use-case here LOL), then is it really worth it to me?

In other words, we should define real use-cases and spell out what the end-user expectations are going to be met by each one.

4) APPLICATIONS
Is the intent to create a blank-slate remote OS platform which each user then adjusts to his/her liking? I think this is largely driven by the PLATFORM approach you decide to pursue. If we are all in a single virtual box, how do you know manage the application configuration?

Are we all permitted to install our own Apps? Oh, but you need Admin access for that?...sooo, do I get that Admin access (hell NO, b/c then you open up everyone else's data to my inspection), or do you exclusively own the Admin role and work through the AppInstall queue requests???

OK, now from the end-user perspective: I do think this approach could work if you were to really scope this down and perhaps just establish a package of 1-3 Apps that are accessible through such a service. Would this still be enough to entice folks to pay $15/month? Hard to tell...

Corollary: this proposal is a perfect example of whee an established business (AN) could step-in and put their weight behind this. Given my experience in the corporate cloud procurement space I am comfortable saying that economies of scale apply and based on who the licensing request comes from will dictate how that conversation plays out.
27
Internet / Re: Mypal68: A possible alternative browser?
« Last post by Dave Yeo on March 14, 2026, 05:56:51 am »

I'm not sure, but I thought that an existing Winflector 32-bit linux client would mean a fairly easy port to OS/2.

Not really, unless it uses Qt which is about the only widget set we share with Linux. The Windows 32 bit version would actually be easier as Windows and OS/2 are cousins. It would still be hard as hell, perhaps easier to go the Odin route. A small team might be able to do it in a year including testing etc to make it stable. Can't see it making business sense.

Quote
So, the bigger problem is that they think OS/2 is too "niche". Unless AN gets involved, it may be hard to dissuade them from this view ... if there are no seat numbers, there's no way to judge interest.

How do we get AN, EComStation, and OS/2 Warp seat count? I can see potential seat numbers in the thread view counts on OS2World ... other sources?

It's hard to say how many OS/2 users there still are, but I doubt there's many using OS/2, eCS and AOS full time. Even if we knew how many licenses Arca Noae has sold, it wouldn't mean much as a lot of them are likely tyre kickers. I've seen a few people from the past show up with an AOS license, play a bit and move on.
AN itself doesn't have much in the way of resources, otherwise they could have found a skilled developer to update our existing browser years ago, before we fell so far behind.
28
Internet / Re: Mypal68: A possible alternative browser?
« Last post by David Kiley on March 14, 2026, 02:49:33 am »
Yeah. I asked them if we achieved 200 virtual users and all 200 users were willing to pay something for the client app..and that was their response. That would have been over 6 thousands of dollars in "seats" plus the client license fees. That would be a pretty high bar and I would think enough financial return.So they are really not interested in developing a native app. in one sense I get it.. coding for os/2 isn't an easy venture. They don't even have a native app for os/x which has a lot more users

 The big question is if we can continue to make the browser compatible enough. Like if they come out with html6 will it be codable with what we have. I would think coding the base might be easier then the whole browser but I don't know.
29
Internet / Re: Mypal68: A possible alternative browser?
« Last post by JTA on March 14, 2026, 01:06:42 am »
That last bit from Winflector is interesting, because I offered to buy them an ArcaOS seat & such (afaik, the only $$$ part of a dev machine's software, as all else seems to be free or open source?).

I'm not sure, but I thought that an existing Winflector 32-bit linux client would mean a fairly easy port to OS/2.

So, the bigger problem is that they think OS/2 is too "niche". Unless AN gets involved, it may be hard to dissuade them from this view ... if there are no seat numbers, there's no way to judge interest.

How do we get AN, EComStation, and OS/2 Warp seat count? I can see potential seat numbers in the thread view counts on OS2World ... other sources?
30
Internet / Re: Interested in a remote winflector/ web browser hosting service?
« Last post by JTA on March 14, 2026, 01:00:27 am »
I'm not sure, but it seems like it takes time for everyone to find a thread ... if you go by thread view counts, some stay low, and some surge into the 10's of 1000's.

Also not sure of the actual user base (seat) count ... I'd think Arca Noae has a handle on how many seats they've sold, and perhaps someone from EComStation time frame has rough seat numbers for their OS. Finally, it seems like OS/2 Warp (4.xx) had quite a few seats, and can benefit from Winflector solutions.
 
All told, my estimates are about 25k to 100k, but I have no way to nail it down ... it would possibly be useful to nail it down, and pass it to Winflector folks, to build up interest for an OS/2 client.

Certainly, there are still millions of 32-bit OS users out there (windows 7 and XP, linux distros, etc). If OS/2 is a better windows than most windows variants, some of these seats could possibly be brought into the fold?

How to get hold of any of those seats, other than by marketing? Perhaps with AN (you would think that they might participate, for their customers), with BlondGuy and others, and elsewhere. Build it, and they might come ...
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