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.
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.
----------------------
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.
----------------------
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.
----------------------
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.
----------------------
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.