The OS/2 WarpFlash - 13

THE OS/2 WARPFLASH -  Issue #13 (May 8, 1995) A Weekly Update On The World Of OS/2 and LAN Server

IMPORTANT NEWS!!!!!!

The OS/2 WarpFlash is now available as a mailing list - but if you subscribed to the old dstrong@vnet.ibm.com address you will have to resubscribe.

Send e-mail to: netwarp@ibm.net with your e-mail Subject line = "SUBSCRIBE WARPFLASH"

You will then automatically receive the weekly OS/2 WarpFlash in your mail-box.

Important Note

I lost (or rather my hard drive lost) the list I was building from past cards and letters sent to me at dstrong@vnet.ibm.com. Please resubscribe to the netwarp@ibm.net address. Sorry for the inconvenience.

YES, I WILL STILL POST OS/2 WarpFlash to the USENET groups

BACK ISSUES of the OS/2 WarpFlash are now available on the following Web site: http://www.iceonline.com/home/duncans/warpflash.html

If you know someone who might be interested in OS/2 WarpFlash, feel free to forward this document, provided you forward it in it's entirety, as per the copyright notice at the end.

OS/2 RATED NUMBER ONE SERVER IN "COMPUTERWORLD" BUYERS SURVEY
OS/2 was rated number one when compared with Novell NetWare 4.1, Microsoft Windows NT 3.5 and "Unix" in a recent Computerworld survey of 450 users of desktop and server operating systems.

The April 24 article in Computerworld titled "IBM OS/2 Wins Tech Points" reported on the results of a recent Buyers' Satisfaction Scorecard survey. OS/2 was rated best in 5 of 8 categories including reliability, multitasking, speed, recovery from failures, and technical support, and was rated best overall.

OS/2 also was rated number one on the desktop compared to Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.5 and the Microsoft Windows 95 beta.

OS/2 WARP AND LAN SERVER ON TRACK, IN COLLEGE, AND DOING BILLS
IBM ROLLS OUT CHINESE OS/2 WARP IN SHANGHAI; CHINESE RAILWAYS GET ON BOARD

Business Wire via First!, 4-27-95

The Chinese Ministry of Railways announced a pilot program with IBM to put the new Chinese version of OS/2 Warp in all of China's railway stations. There are approximately 1800 stations. One the tasks of the system will be to track the location of specific railroad cars.

IBM TO OFFER SPECIAL COLLEGE PRICE FOR OS/2 Reuters via First!, 4-27-95

IBM is offering a specially priced college bookstore edition of OS/2 Warp.

THE TRAVELERS' NEW DIRECTION Mary Hayes, Information Week, 5-8-95

Travelers Insurance's new invoice system uses IBM PCs linked by LAN Server 4.0.

IBM DEMO GOD ON E-TV
Channel surfers shouldn't miss E-TV's FYE! segment on the Internet to witness our very own David Barnes doing a little surfing of his own--Internet surfing, to be sure--using OS/2 Warp. Late night TV junkies should tune in Thursday, May 11 at 2:30 am. Prime-time TV watchers should tune in on Sunday, May 7 at 5:30 pm. These air times are EST.

P.S. The segment already aired on David Barnes was recently honored as one of the 1995 Demo Gods by PC Letter.
 * Sun. April 30, 8:00 am and 11:30 pm
 * Monday, May 1 10:30 am
 * Tuesday, May 2 at 7:00 pm
 * Wednesday, May 3 at 1:00 am

THE LATEST OS/2 WARP MOMENTUM NEWS

 * IBM has sold over 2 million copies of OS/2 Warp since it began shipping in November, most of that through the retail channel and to new customers, bringing the OS/2 installed base to well over 8 million.
 * IBM has sold over 50,000 LAN Server 4.0 licenses since the launch of LAN Server 4.0 in October. It currently has over 9% market share, second only to Novell's NetWare, up two share points from the same time last year (source:IDC).
 * OS/2 outsold Windows NT 2-to-1 as an applications server in 1994. There are over 800,000 OS/2 applications servers installed, compared to 75,000 NT servers (IDC).
 * In March, OS/2 Warp won seven industry awards, most notably InfoWorld's Readers Choice award for best product of 1994, and the Software Publishers Association's "Codie" for best business software.
 * LAN Server 4.0 won LAN Magazine's Departmental Network Operating System of the Year award at Networld + Interop.
 * In the first 3 months of 1995, 17 major software developers have announced plans to develop over 30 native OS/2 Warp applications on both Intel and PowerPC platforms, including Adobe, Corel, Computer Associates, MacroMedia, Sybase, Frame, etc.
 * The IBM PC Company began preloading OS/2 Warp on desktop PCs and announced plans to preload OS/2 Warp on all of its 8mb machines.
 * OS/2 outsold Windows NT 2-to-1 as an applications server in 1994. There are over 800,000 OS/2 applications servers installed, compared to 75,000 NT servers (IDC).
 * In the first quarter of 1995, IBM released the "fullpack" version of OS/2 Warp, which is the version the installed base will generally use to upgrade. We released PC DOS 7.0 to industry acclaim. We sent OS/2 for the PowerPC into its first phase of Beta testing, and OS/2 Warp Connect, the network-savvy client, into its third and final phase of testing.

OS/2 WARP IN PC NOVICE MAGAZINE
The June 1995 issue of PC NOVICE Magazine features 2 stories on OS/2 WARP by Trevor Meers.

The first "Managing Files in OS/2 WARP" is very informative and "how-to-do".

The second is very comprehensive about WARP and includes some side-bars with quotes from Jeff Howard (OS/2 brand manager). The OS/2 BonusPak is mentioned "...applications bundled with an operating system. They're sometimes like cheap prizes in cereal boxes, but IBM'S BonusPak is like finding $100 in the Apple Jacks."

F.Y.I. The Editorial Staff is at 800-544-1264 and Authorization for Reprints is 800-334-7458.

NEW CLIENT/SERVER BOOK AVAILABLE
Real World Client/Server, a new book by IBM's Dr. Steve Krantz, is now available from Maximum Press. The book is a practical guide for planning, migrating and installing a client/server computing network. It contains a wealth of practical information, based on the author's experience leading a large-scale migration to an OS/2 client/server, Lotus Notes environment at IBM's Boca Raton, Florida facility. Topics include: Real World Client Server (375 pages, U.S. $29.95, ISBN 0-9633214-7-1) may be ordered directly from the publisher by calling (800) 989-6733 or by faxing Visa / Master Card info to (615) 254-2408. For more information, contact Linda Kean: fax (301) 598-2514 or e-mail 75662.2304@CompuServe.Com.
 * Client/server computing basics
 * Business re-engineering
 * Total quality management teams
 * Building your client/server roadmap
 * Client/server infrastructure: hardware and software
 * User communication, education and support

OS/2 WARP - LET THE GAMES BEGIN
This was the theme for OS/2 at the Game Developers Conference held earlier this week in Santa Clara, California. Many gamers are taking a serious, closer look at OS/2 as a gaming platform based on OS/2's growing install base and the announcement of the OS/2 Entertainment Toolkit.

Aside from a three hour lecture to a packed house on OS/2 as a viable game platform, IBM displayed four OS/2 pedestals. The first pedestal was aimed at showing different development tools such as the SMART TOOL, the Developer Connection and DIVE. DIVE stands for Direct Interface Video Extension and it makes sure the performance of games does not suffer from the overhead of dealing with a GUI interface.

The other pedestals in the IBM booth were an OS/2 Entertainment pedestal showing Doom for OS/2 Warp, Galactic Civilization, SimCity, and a beta from Stardock Systems Inc. of a new game called Avarice. The Multi-media Publishing studio pedestal demo'ed Hyper man and Rapid Assault. The last pedestal featured ICSS speech recognition software.

If you have more questions on the conference or are interested in Games, please visit the OS/2 Game Homepage at HTTP://WWW.AUSTIN.IBM.COM/OS2GAMES. Right now the page is geared mainly towards game developers but they have some user information and they are planning to add games in the future.

OS/2 WARP AT SPRING COMDEX
Lots of good stuff happening with OS/2 Warp at Spring Comdex. The IBM booth was jammed... There were 35 ISVs demonstrating applications like Global Village, DOOM/2 and a SOHO financial package like Quicken. Also in the booth was a virtual reality race car game on OS/2 where 3 people can race at a time, a demonstration of Serial Storage architecture and IBM Workgroup.

IBM also supported a very large test drive center for OS/2. There were 40 systems up and running and a constant line to get to one of them.

Team OS/2 was at Comdex in force. They go around the show floor and install OS/2 on as many different systems as they are allowed. Once they have OS/2 on a machine, they put a collar around the machine declaring, "I've been Warped".

At a user group presentation, Paul Giangarra demonstrated using infra-red connections (without any cables) to transfer a file from one machine to another and then print a file. The Infra-red capability will be available in OS/2 Warp Connect.

LAN SYSTEMS JUMPSTART PROGRAM
The LAN Systems Marketing Support Department traveled to Mexico City, Mexico, last month, to join forces with their hosts, IBM Personal Systems Marketing and Business Partner Support organizations, to present the LAN Server 4.0 "JUMPSTART" Program to over one hundred resellers, distributors and dealers in Mexico.

The "Jumpstart" was designed to provide a two-day introductory course at no charge for key Business Partners in the Software Channel. This consisted of technical training, demonstrations, and hands-on workshops of IBM's award-winning LAN Server 4.0 product.

Additional topics included, "IBM's Personal Systems Software Strategy and Directions", "How to Sell LAN Server", "Remote Access with LAN Distance " and "Migrating from Netware to LAN Server 4.0."

At the close of the event each attendee was encouraged to pursue professional certification as a LAN Server Administrator and LAN Server Engineer. In fact, IBM offered complementary Professional Certification vouchers for the required testing at a convenient site in Mexico City.

The "Jumpstart" ends its Latin American program with a session in Sao Paulo, Brazil. However, due to the phenomenal success of this program in Mexico, similar sessions are being scheduled to be rolled out in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region.

For information on the Jumpstart program, send e-mail to lansystems@vnet.ibm.com

NEW BOOK EXPLAINS OS/2 GRAPHICS INTERFACE
A new book from John Wiley & Sons addresses the Graphics Programming Interface (GPI) for OS/2 Warp, providing step-by-step instructions and accompanying coding examples. The book, written by Stephen Knight and Jeffrey Ryan, covers the full range of OS/2 GPI functions, including the latest additions to OS/2 Warp Version 3.

Programming the OS/2 Warp Version 3 GPI includes: The book (416 pages, $39.95 U.S.) can be ordered as ISBN 0-471-10718-2. Publisher's order line: (800) CALL-WILEY (800-225-5945). Fax: (908) 203-3200. For more information, e-mail: CompBks@JWiley.Com.
 * Drawing primitives
 * Working in coordinate spaces
 * Character fonts, metrics, sizing and positioning
 * Metafiles
 * Transformations
 * Over 60 screen shots, drawings and tables
 * Accompanying disk includes:
 * Graphics editor application
 * Text browser file
 * Query printer information
 * Other utilities

NAVIGATING THE INTERNET WITH OS/2 WARP
The latest book from author Herb Tyson is a step-by-step guide to using OS/2 Warp's new BonusPak Internet Access Kit. It covers connecting to the Internet using the IBM Internet Connection (Advantis) and other Internet providers, as well as the BonusPak tools provided for using the service: UltiMedia Mail/2, NewsReader/2, Gopher, WebExplorer, FTP-PM, and Telnet. The book also documents other BonusPak Internet tools such as ping, nslookup, hostname, and finger.

The book is an excellent companion for IBM's Warp BonusPak CD-ROM, providing detailed installation, configuration, usage, and troubleshooting advice for all OS/2 Warp users. Additional topics include: Navigating the Internet with OS/2 Warp can be ordered as ISBN 0-672-30719-7. Publisher phone orders: (800) 428-5331 or (317) 581-3500; fax: (800) 448-3804 or (317) 581-3550. For more information, on CompuServe: Go Macmillan; Internet: http://www.mcp.com or ftp.mcp.com.
 * Internet basics
 * Getting connected to Advantis and other Internet providers
 * Third-party OS/2 Internet tools
 * Tips, problems, and solutions
 * Troubleshooting tools
 * OS/2 Internet resource directory
 * OS/2 Internet sites for FTP, Gopher, World Wide Web, and more

Sams Publishing, a division of Macmillan Computer Publishing, is a leading supplier of books about OS/2 and related products, and is a member of IBM's Independent Vendor League (IVL). The IVL supports individuals and companies who develop and market books, newsletters, magazines, training videos, courseware and consulting services for OS/2 and other IBM personal software products.

OBJECT TECHNOLOGY - IBM'S OT PAGE DEBUTS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
IBM's Object Strategy & Implementation group has established an Object Technology page on the World Wide Web. The page can be accessed via the following URL address: http://www.torolab.ibm.com/objects/ or if accessing IBM's home page (http://www.ibm.com/) then select the 'Products, Services and Support' icon, locate the 'Advanced Technology' subsection and select 'Object Technology'.

This page will serve as the entry point for Web users to explore IBM's Object Strategy, Business Value, Products, and Service Offerings. The page will also serve as a forum to highlight upcoming IBM Object Technology related events, promotions, and marketing information.

AVARICE - A NEW OS/2 GAME NOW IN BETA
In 1994 Stardock Systems, Inc (SDS) brought you Galactic Civilizations. This year, we're bringing two games to OS/2, Entrepreneur, a real time corporate conquest game designed by the designer of GalCiv, and Avarice, a virtual reality game developed by the team at CSS!

The beta of Avarice will be coming out this Quarter and anyone interested in getting involved on our latest OS/2 gaming project, then read on.

Avarice is a virtual reality game made exclusively for OS/2. In it, you explore a fully rendered world with a real time AI engine working in the background. It is similar to Myst but uses OS/2 to enhance performance (threads loading your surroundings in the background) and to create a truly living game (threads have NPC characters that you can interact with and who move around).

The SRP when it comes out this Fall will be about $70 so this is a good chance to not only have input on the game but to get the game at half the price and get it sooner than anyone else. It will REQUIRE a DOUBLE SPEED CD-ROM. I just demoed this game at the Game Developer's conference in San Jose and we are still using floppies, it required two boxes full of HD floppies to install! You'll also want to make sure you have an OS/2 supported sound card so that you can enjoy the MMPM/2 sound and original musical score.

As you play AVARICE, you will:
 * Explore a fully rendered, 3D world with hundreds of locations and thousands of pictures.
 * Interact with thousands of objects at an unparalleled level of depth.
 * Use a customizable interface that offers point and click, object oriented interaction.
 * Exercise your intellect in a story filled with brain-twisting puzzles.
 * Listen to digital sound effects and an original musical score.
 * Interact with enigmatic characters that feature a revolutionary artificial intelligence engine.
 * Enjoy realtime interactions with the game world in a low stress atmosphere.

THE BETA:

Beta testers will get to have input into:
 * The game itself
 * The manual
 * The packaging

BETA FORM

Name____________________________________________

Address ________________________________________

City/Zip/Country _______________________________

Payment Type / / VISA / / Mastercard / / Check

If Credit Card, # and expiration _____________________ ____

REQUIRES: OS/2 WARP 8 megs ram 2 speed CD ROM 486DX or SX CPU or better SVGA (256 colors)

Pick one / / Avarice beta program (includes final version free) $35 plus $10 shipping ($20 if outside USA/Canada) / / Avarice pre-order (final version only) $40 plus $5 shipping ($15 if outside USA/Canada)

/ / ENT AND Avarice beta programs (includes both betas and final GA) $60 plus $20 shipping ($40 if outside USA/Canada)

Make Checks payable to: Stardock Systems Inc. 13405 Addison Gibraltar MI 48173

Stardock: PHONE (313)/782-2248 USA FAX  (313)/207-0780 USA CompuServe: GO STARDOCK OS2BBS: Stardock forum Email: Wardell@ibm.net

IBM UNVEILS NEW DB2 PRODUCTS
IBM has underscored its leadership in database technology by extending the power of the IBM DATABASE 2 (DB2)* system to include multimedia and other complex data types. Now customers can use their relational database systems to search, access, manipulate, and distribute both multimedia and unstructured data, including text, audio, video, and images ranging from fingerprints to seismic readings and medical X-rays.

The new relational extenders, part of DB2 Version 2 for OS/2* and AIX*, were announced at DB/EXPO in San Francisco this week. They allow users to customize their DB2 systems - without prerequisite new application development - using the standard Structured Query Language (SQL) for relational databases.

SQL provides a single point of access to customer data. Comparable to a programmable TV remote control, it can be 'programmed' on the database level to accept user-defined functions and data types.

Five new relational extenders - for text, audio, video, image and fingerprint data - are now entering the beta test phase of their development. In addition, DB2 Version 2 offers users significant improvements in operational capacity, performance, data integrity and reliability.

IBM further strengthened its commitment to open systems by announcing the intention to provide multiplatform support for DB2 Version 2 on HP-UX**, SUN Solaris**, Windows NT** and Siemens Nixdorf SINIX** platforms. DB2 is fully scalable from small notebooks to massively parallel processors.

Also announced was the general availability of DB2 Parallel Edition Version 1, a solution that enables fast, accurate access to very large databases. The DB2 Parallel Edition extends the quality, functionality, reliability and robustness of DB2 to massively parallel environments.

IBM has announced the following database products and enhancements: * Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. ** Other product or company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
 * DataHub for UNIX Operating Environments**, a control point for managing both IBM and non-IBM relational databases;
 * Visualizer Query for Windows, a decision-support tool;
 * Stored procedure builder, an integrated BASIC development environment;
 * Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA), the architecture for the DB2 engine;
 * IMS Version 5.1, IBM's premier hierarchical database manager.

1995 ISV ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR OS/2 WARP
Adobe Systems Incorporated: Acrobat Products

Arcada Software Corp.: Arcada Backup for OS/2 Warp

Artisoft Inc.: LANtastic 6.0 for OS/2

Attachmate Corportation: EXTRA! for OS/2

Borland International Inc.: Borland C++ for OS/2

Computer Associates' 4Home Productions:
 * Kiplinger's Simply Money
 * Simply Tax
 * Simply Vacation
 * Simply House
 * Parents magazine's Simply Kids

Corel Corp.:
 * CD Office (word processor, spreadsheet, database, graphics)
 * Ventura Publishing
 * CorelDRAW
 * CorelFLOW
 * CorelPresents

Frame Technology Corporation:
 * FrameMaker
 * FrameViewer

Genesys Information Systems Corp.:
 * ImageServer 3.0

Intelligent Environments:
 * Applications Manager, Version 4.4

Lotus Development Corp:
 * SmartSuite 2.0 for OS/2

Macromedia:
 * Director Player for OS/2 Warp

SPG Inc:
 * ColorWorks for OS/2

Stac Electronics:
 * Stacker 4.0 for OS/2 & DOS

Sybase Inc.:
 * SYBASE System 10 product family
 * SYBASE SQL Server
 * SYBASE Replication Server
 * SYBASE Workgroup SQL Server bundle

Sytron Corp.:
 * Systos Premium v2.1
 * Systos Autoloader v2.1 for OS/2

Novell Inc:
 * OS/2 Integration Tools Disk for Word Perfect 6.1 for Windows

THE *NEW* NORTH AMERICAN DEVELOPER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Effective today IBM's Solution Developer Organization is announcing the creation of the North American Developer Assistance Program.

This new program provides cohesive support, marketing programs along with software and hardware discounts to Independent Software Vendors located in the United States and Canada. The goal of this program is to provide the best solution developer support in the industry.

If you have any questions regarding the North American DAP program please call the IBM Software Vendor Hotline at 1-800-627-8363 and/or visit the IBM Solution Developer Home Page at http://www.austin.ibm.com/developer/

Important Disclaimer

I do this newsletter in my spare time. Please respect that I will sometimes make typographical errors that result in incorrect phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses. I would appreciate it if you would contact ME and let me know before firing off e-mail to the general IBM in-box. This will help me continue to work at IBM and therefore, continue this informal newsletter.

Although notices within this newsletter may be IBM press releases, the OS/2 WarpFlash as a whole is not an official IBM communication and should not be treated or represented as such.

All efforts have made to internationalize the OS/2 WarpFlash where possible; however, it is entirely possible that certain information with OS/2 WarpFlash may be applicable only in the US and Canada.

If you know someone who might be interested in WarpFlash, feel free to forward this document, provided you forward it in it's entirety, as per the copyright notice below.

INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain relevant copyright notices and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit.