Hailing Frequency - V1N3



'''Last month's Captain's Log on Merlin brought out hundreds of letters. Below is a sample of some of the typical responses -ed.'''

I think OS/2 finally needs to stand on its own. If IBM makes it possible to run Win95 apps in Merlin, ISVs once again will not be motivated to write native OS/2 apps. I think you're right in saying Merlin is a make or break release which makes it even more appropriate for Merlin NOT to run Win95 apps. Let's hope the user base gets big enough that an ISV will say "look at the millions of users that can't buy our app, we better come out with an OS/2 version". - P.A.B.

I disagree with your notion that Win 95 compatibility is a must for Merlin and OS/2 to succeed. IBM's decision to not include Windows 95 compatibility in OS/2 is the key to ending 'Windows everywhere'. I see new, native OS/2 applications appearing daily. Why? It could be the IBM strategy is working as planned. Do you really want to use Windows applications, or would you rather have native OS/2 apps instead? Kind of a no-brainer question, isn't it? - John Lardinois

I think at some point OS/2 needs to run both Win 95 and NT applications but I don't want IBM to do it yet. OS/2 needs more native code and be considered a success from the "main stream" first. If it's done too soon, ISV's will say what they have always said, "Why bother keeping two code bases...our product runs under win-os2!" When OS/2 is considered a viable alternative to Win 95/NT and the big names have both Windows and OS/2 applications--then stick it in there. - Surenko

It would be a step in the wrong direction to support Win32 apps. How many times have you heard "Use the Windows version" or "We do not plan on releasing a native OS/2 version because the windows one works fine in it." Users are not going to use OS/2 just because it runs Windows 95 apps. If they wanted to run Windows 95 apps, they would use Windows 95! - Kzinti

It is, it was and it will be (more than ever) important to have all those Windows-applications running on OS/2. No applications - no OS/2. - Jari Jakes

Merlin is not code named for the magician -- its for the bird of prey. Check out all of other IBM's new products and you'll see that they all are named after birds of prey. - Jon Paul

'''Many people pointed this out. I actually knew that, but the whole "Crystal Ball" thing that I wanted to do didn't work with a bird of prey. :) -ed'''

On the article about the Java enabled WebExplorer: I too had similar problems at first. After leaving it alone for several weeks, I decided to try it again. I downloaded the latest Java runtimes, and the latest version of the Java WebEx beta and followed the directions carefully. Lo and behold, it worked! I went searching the net for cool java pages, found several and tried the applets on them. Almost all java pages I encountered worked. I will still agree that not everyone should go out and try it just yet. There were a couple of pages that crashed WebEx, and it seemed a little slow (but this is probably because I've only got 8 megs). - Greg Boyko

'''Other people reported similar experiences. It appears as if the Java WebExplorer is a work-in-progress and is constantly improving. -ed.'''