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Messages - stevegarrett

#1
Applications / Re: New Programs
2012.05.21, 13:01:46
Melf - Thanks for the information, and the link to eCSoft/2.  eCSoft/2 seems to have the same software as Hobbes for the most part, although it has a much nicer, more up to date user interface, and includes screen shots, etc. Very usable, and very useful.  I searched through the categories where I am trying to find OS/2 versions comparable to their Windows counterparts.  Unfortunately, as you eluded to, there just aren't many, and in some cases, ANY.  Regarding the discussion about PM123, while it works fine as a basic player, unfortunately it is the equivalent of MP3 players from several years ago.  If you have access to Windows, you could download Media Monkey, or iTunes to see how far media players have evolved since the early WinAmp days, which is what PM123 is on par with.  Music is an important part of my life, so this was disappointing.

The lack of a freely downloadable version of LibreOffice, or even OpenOffice is a lot more serious.  Without it, I can't work on Libre Office (ODT), or MS Word (DOC) files. If you were serious in Your suggestion to download sources and compile it myself, I'm afraid that I am not a candidate for that sort of thing, having neither the know how, or the time to learn how.  I guess my hope would be that newer, more stable, compiled versions of 3.4 are placed on Apache.  I keep checking the location where I found the full OS/2 version r1299571, but so far there are no updates, and all of the other platforms are now several versions ahead.  If anyone has more information about this, please let me know.

One thing that I was very happy to find on eCSoft/2 was an OS/2 Package of Ccrypt 1.9 supplied by Elbert Pol, and separately, a GUI front end called QCCrypt. This should enable me to encrypt / decrypt across both OS.
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Martin - Thank you for your Firefox suggestion, however I already had Firefox 10.0.2.  I searched for a current version, but the latest available for OS/2 seems to be 10.0.4, so I installed that.  Firefox has been at version 12 since April. Because of all the security & stability updates, I try to keep up to date, but version 10 will do for now.  Maybe version 12 will be available soon?  It was sort of nostalgic having to install an update from a ZIP file instead of an installer.  It reminded me of how we did things years ago.
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Greggory - Os/2 Release Notes was a very good tip.  Thanks.  I found a lot of useful info and links there, and I will revisit once I am a bit more up to speed and can hopefully find the software that I need.  Under the section "WPS Enhancers", Desktop Wizard sounded interesting, but the download link was broken, so I'll try and find it later.  There was also a broken link to AudioCD Creator, but after checking on this computer, I realized it was already installed.  I haven't burned anything yet, so I'll give it a try.  The Questions of the Week section looked like a good idea, but as I started to read questions, I realized that the column had been taken over by a spammer, or spammers.
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Jep - Thanks for your input on Embellish.  This computer has Embellish, Photo>Graphics Pro, & Photo Tiger.  It does not have GIMP, or ImPOS2.  I've tried working with Embellish, as well as Photo Tiger.  While Embellish has some editing capabilities, It's crashed on at least 3 occasions already.  I've tried researching it from old newsgroup posts, but apparently, that was a significant problem with Embellish, and the author gave up on it many years ago.  It's a shame that some of these OS/2 programs that show potential were not taken over and improved by another developer.  Photo Tiger is nice, but it's more of a viewer, and so far, PMView is in an entirely different class than other OS/2 viewers.  I'm very impressed by it.  Yesterday I started trying to work with Photo>Graphics, or tried to.  The user interface is different than any graphics programs I've ever seen..... and not in a good way.  I can see that it is capable, more so for creating graphics, than working with or editing existing graphics.  It's definitely not on par with PS Elements.  I'm going to look into GIMP, but from my Linux Head friends comments, it has a very steep learning curve, and "Is not meant for a casual users".  From the Wikipedia description, it seems to have more in common with a semi pro, or pro photographer.
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To all - Thank you for taking the time to reply.  I'm a bit discouraged, but I haven't given up on OS/2 yet.  I'll spend some more time on it next weekend, or sooner if I get the time.
#2
Applications / New Programs
2012.05.20, 04:03:14
Hello,

I bought a used computer last week, approximately 10 years old.  It has an AMD Athlon 64 3200 with 2GB of RAM.  It has 2 OS, Windows XP, and OS/2 Warp 4.5 Service Pack 17.  It is very responsive, and runs well, but the programs it came with, with only a few exceptions, seem to be very old, with no modern features.  They are very basic.  Some even look like DOS, without a GUI.  I am very happy to see that it has Firefox and Thunderbird, they are not the newest versions, but work fine.  I use web mail, but I might try Thunderbird, it seems to have a lot of nice features. There is also a nice bittorrent program that's very similar to UTorrent, which is what I use in Windows.

I have a few questions, and probably more later.  For now, I would appreciate some directions in where to find modern software.  I found the web site called Hobbes and searched the categories that I need, but this computer seems to already have the same versions.  A lot of the software I saw dates back to the mid 90's.  Can you provide a link to an up to date web site?

Here are the Windows programs that I would need to use in OS/2.

1.  iTunes, or even better, Media Monkey.  I have an iPod Nano and need to transfer songs back and forth.  I also would like a modern, intuitive user interface.  This computer has a program called Z, but it looks VERY old, without any modern features.  It's one of the programs that I think might even be DOS.  This computer also has a player called PM 123 that looks like a very old basic version of Win Amp.  It's better, but again lacks any modern features. There is a modern video player, VLC (?) that I think played MP3, but it looks like that is all it can do with music files.  Not a proper GUI for music at all.  I couldn't find anything else.  If you can, please provide me a link, or just a name and I can search it out.

2.  I need an office suite like MS Office, or Libre Office (It's free, and very good).  I found a web site the has an old version of Open Office for OS/2, but they charge for it, or say that the charge is for something else, but you can't download it without paying.  Bait and switch I guess.  I hate when companies do that.  I've never heard of anyone charging for it.  I can't pay for it, that is why I bought an old used computer that already had all of the Windows programs that I needed for work and home.  I found a link in your forum to a new version that would be great.  It's Open Office, not Libre Office, but as long as it can use current MS Word files, and .ODT files, I can still use it.  I tried it, but every time I tried to open a document from work, or do anything with it, it crashed.  It looks like it is just a test version.  Is there a stable version somewhere?  I really would need it.

3.  The computer came with a very nice graphics viewer called PM View.  I would definitely use it.  It does have some basic editing ability, and I really like it, but I would also like a graphics program like Photo Shop Elements (not it's big brother), that can do a lot more editing than a viewer.

That's it for now, I'm sure that I will have other questions, but first I need to get some useful programs for OS/2 so I can use it. :-)