I have skimmed the messages here are some answers.
Bluetooth is something you have to hold you breath for on eCS.
Audio support on eCS is a no brainer with the current UNIAUD driver.
You can get it here: svn.netlabs.org/uniaud
If something does not work open a bug. But a lot of problems have been fixed in UNIAUD!
We are in better shape then ever before. We are current with the current Linux ALSA code.
Mensys has received the first 2 binaries for AHCI drivers and we are testing this as we speak.
When finished the code will be released. SO AHCI is under development and on the move.
Somebody mentioned that eCS has boot limit of 512 GB of eCS on 2 TB discs. That is not true.
But you need to partition the drive completely with eCS and otherwhise follow the instructions.
Current work is to make installing and booting eCS next to Windows 7 and on large hard disc
is by dumping the boot manager and replacing it with Airboot. I won't go into the details but the bootmanager
we have used for many years is technically dead. With airboot into eCS included we can
boot Windows normaly Vista and 7 OEM preloads normaly. We save 1 primary partition also!
Airboot will receive some updates. And yes we are allowed by Martin Kiewitz to include into eCS
(For the people that have pointed out the license of use limiations for Airboot)
In the end we also need to update OS2DASD, DANIS506.ADD and the miniFSD for bootable JFS to support big hard discs properly. As it now stands
hard discs going beyond the 2 TB disc boundary will use GPT disc layout but start to jack up the
sector size from 512 bytes to 4 KB. And the old MBR disc layout will stay as well.
I base this on the current state I read in the computer magazine C'T from Germany.
The first DLL will be made for Panorama in the coming months to support accelrated Intel Graphicss chipsets.
About wide screen support. That is currently what it is. But one developer we are looking to create
a generic wide screen eneabler driver.
About people wanting to point out that SNAP is an option. From the point of view of Mensys
SNAP is dead. We have not realy to come to an agrement with the company that has taken over
SNAP on how to get source code access. Besides that the SNAP source code is not that interesting.
Currently 2 people are busy updating screen01 as that contains a lot of legacy, like scanning I/O ports
it should not do. Thats what is causing hangs on some systems. Lars Erdmann is working on this.
When it comes to DIVE performance with sysbench Panorama get a score of 3.6 million dive marks,
SNAP gets 3 million marks with accelrated support. So go figure, Panorama runs faster then SNAP.
Work is being done by a group of people to fix the USB stack. I have mentioned this before but this is something
that has to be done in a proper fashion. Patching the current IBM binaries we have is not sufficient.
*first* priority is to get the USB host controller drivers stable with ACPI APM and APIC (high IRQ mode).
Also updating the USB HID and USB keyboard mouse driver and fix USBD.SYS.
Other strategies are useless. The base needs to be stable. Then we can work on USBMSD and possibly USB 3 host
controller support.
About GUI enhancements the file open dialog now in beta zone we hope you can test this.
That we all old applications can have a decent file open dialog!
Eschemes will receive more in the coming months as well.
About IP 4 versus IP 6. This is one of the most overhyped items. IP 6 should, based on what I have read and heart
not going to be a problem. In about 9 months from now All IP 4 adresses at RIPE will run out.
Some ISP's are already handing out IP 6 ADSL lines. But most of these modems translate IP 6 to IP 4 on the internal
LAN side of the network. Besides that IP 4 devices will be around for years to come! So in that retrospect
OS/2 will not be in the dark. ISP will have to provide gateways for most common IP 4/6 traffic.
People who tell you IP 6 will the dead for OS/2/eCS are making statements without technicall knowlegde.
We are looking at IP 6 support for eCS but thats going to be a big job.
Talking about connectivity. Take a look at
http://svn.ecomstation.nl/multimacNew NIC drivers coming. Already released current support for Nvidia and Intel gigabit.
This skeleton has a portion of OS/2 specific code and the rest is the Linux code ported to OS/2.
It has support Xwlan. Soon Mensys will release a binary for Realtek gigabit.
A new Intel Wireless driver to support current chipsets is also in the pipeline.
Mensys also provided funding to have Firefox/Mozilla sweet updated. The latest fixes done by Richard Walsh
for printing and fixing certain memory leaks where done by him. Flash is still under development
and Mensys also co-funded the Java development. Java 6 was released recently.
As for Sigurd amd other people there remark we should support specific computer models. Its nice to suggest
but not very practical. Here is the reason why. Look at UNIAUD, USB drivers and NIC drivers for example.
They are all generic. Also the upcoming AHCI driver most hardware drivers are so generic that it makes
no sense to just say "support this model". Infact I can tell you this is not even practical for some
of large company customers since certain computer models have such short live cycles.
I know it sounds weird but I have been there having to deal with it.
To wrap up I have not much time to read the forums but I hope this does provide some inside in the way
we working. I keep seeing people making assumptions about the future of eCS. But when you make statements
put a solid technical analyses under it. That is sometimes missing. If you have questions contact me...
ACPI is still being worked on hopefully getting back to that later this month.
About the shared memory issue. This is something that can not be fixed in the current kernel. What is fix is to let applications use high memory to store data. Storing DLL's in high memory is in the back of our mind.
And is possible possibly later this year you will see more about this.
But a lot of freezes and hangs of systems by using firefox have been caused by faulty code. This should be fixed in Firefox 4 being released.
Have a good new year for 2011!
Roderick Klein
Mensys
P.S. Not yet annouched officialy (and the website still needs to be worked on!) but Warpstock 2011
will happen in Haarlem, home town of eCS and Mensys. It will be in Haarlem on the 6 to 8 of May.
Again the website still needs updating!!!! Thats currently being worked on.