An editorial view from Mark Dodel, editor of the VOICE Newsletter editor@os2voice.org
Last month we told you about a campaign to join with Linux, BeOS, Solaris and
other non-micro$oft operating system users to demand a refund if you are forced
to purchase windows with a new pc started at http://www.linuxmall.com/refund/.
February 16th was the official 'Windows Refund Day'. to my knowledge no one actually
received any money back, but this was the start of a growing trend to demand a real
choice in pc operating systems. This past month the VOICE board of directors was
approached by members of IACT- The International Alliance for Compatible Technology
to help sponsor their Freedom of Choice Project.
Freedom of Choice Project was created by James Capone at the Linux Info Website
- http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/Linux/company.html,
along with the International Alliance for Compatible Technology. It is all about
spreading the word that there is a choice, and that pc users don't have to just
take what is forced on them. By joining together hopefully we can convince the pc
vendors to offer us a better selection of operating systems then windows95/windows98/windowsnt.
Like that is any kind of choice to begin with.
VOICE is committed to choice so this seemed like a great fit, but we wanted input
from our membership. I wish we could get a better turnout, but all votes received
were in the affirmative, so VOICE has now signed onto the Freedom of Choice Project
as a Project Associate. We have added a link to the project on our web site, and
will keep the OS/2 community apprised of developments as this project matures.
Speaking of voting among our membership, in February, the VOICE board asked the
members to vote on providing a network server box for use by the hosting site for
future Warpstock events. Our membership voted in favour of this gift, but the Warpstock
board has since asked us to hold off on this purchase as they pursue other avenues
of providing a network server. The goal is for the Warpstock Network Administrator
to have a server in advance so future events won't be hampered by some of the problems
encountered at Warpstock98. VOICE is committed to assisting Warpstock, and will
do so in any way we can. If not with a network server then we'll explore other ways
of helping out. We will again have a presence at Warpstock99, and I hope to meet
many of you there.
Last month VOICE put out the call for nominees for the Board of Directors positions
of Marketing Director, Secretary, and Liaison officer. As of now, we have received
no nominations. If you have any interest at all in any of these positions and want
to help VOICE continue to thrive, please send a message to secretary@os2voice.org.
We cannot continue without your support and assistance.
In February/March VOICE sponsored several very interesting Speakup sessions that
were actively attended. If you missed any, you can catch up by reading the transcripts
at http://www.os2voice.org/transcripts.html.
As always, if there are any special guests you would be interested in hearing from
please drop us a line - editor@os2voice.org.
This month on March 15th we host Peter Nielsen, who will answer questions on his
upcoming 2.0 release of PMView. A must attend session will be held this month to
announce the Warpstock99 site selection. The scheduled date is dependent on when
the selection is made by the Warpstock board, but we have been told it will be in
March. Finally on April 5th, we have a Speakup session scheduled with our good friends
at Sundial Systems on one of their new OS/2 native applications Rover Pack -a new
desktop navigation and enhancement product. Please be sure to check out the updated
VOICE Future events Calendar in this newsletter or on the
VOICE website at http://www.os2voice.org/calendar.html
for more details on these events.
In this issue of the VOICE Newsletter we begin with a review by Peter Lazenby of
Sokoban for OS/2 v1.01 . Have you heard about VNC?
If not you can read all about it from Peter Lazenby's review of the PM
VNC Viewer for OS/2. Then Tom Nadeau continues with "Y2K
and the Search for Scapegoats -- Part 2" . And in the VIEW
from the End(User), Don Eitner reviews PMView 2.0
- The Future of Graphics on OS/2.
Mark Dodel
Editor, VOICE Newsletter
editor@os2voice.org