View From the End (User)

By: Don K. Eitner (secretary@os2voice.org) http://www.tstonramp.com/~freiheit/

Many veteran OS/2 users have their list of "must have" applications and utilities. However for any newcomer, it's a wide open field of thousands of applications, and finding the right one can be daunting. To make the process a little easier for anyone new to OS/2 or just coming back from some "other" system, I present my own list of "must have" OS/2 programs and utilities -- those things without which I doubt I could use OS/2 as my primary system. My thanks go out to the authors of each of these products.

Desktop enhancer - MicroLearn Switcher (hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/mlsw101.zip)
Freeware

By far the best PM window switcher around. Works a lot like Warp 4's ALT-TAB switcher but allows display of 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 open windows' icons at once so you can hold down CTRL, quickly view what's open, and click TAB the right number of times to get to the window you want. Also works with minimized/hidden windows, unlike Warp 4's built-in switcher.

Desktop enhancer - NPSWPS 1.82 (www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/npswps/index.html)
Freeware

A long-time must-have item for OS/2 users. I still use it for its superior right mouse button popup menu for VIO windows and text entry boxes, mouse menu dragging, and easy VIO window mark/copy feature. Also includes the ability to draw on the screen, move pointer to focus window, activate window at pointer, a close button (for Warp 3 users) and much more. One has to wonder why most of these features weren't built into OS/2 in the first place, they're so useful!

Desktop enhancer - BubblePad (www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/5785/bubblepd.htm)
Freeware / Open-source

A handy bubble text utility for the Warp 3 or Warp 4 Launchpad. With this little tool installed, you can easily shrink the size of your Launchpad's border as well as display only icons (no text) on the buttons yet still be able to differentiate between two or more identical-looking buttons. You can, if you wish, also increase the border of the Launchpad.

Desktop enhancer - Keyboard Plus (yuggoth.ucam.org/~mjf35/projects.html)
Freeware

These days it's nearly impossible to buy a 101-key keyboard, so to make use of those damned Windows logo keys, Keyboard Plus is the perfect tool. It's a full keyboard macro utility which just also happens to support all 3 "Win95" keys on 104-key boards. Can be set up to have different hotkey codes and features for individual apps as well as the global key mapping.

Desktop enhancer - Animated Mouse Pointer (www.online-club.de/m1/clanganke/wpamptr.eng/)
Freeware

Eats little CPU time (by my observations) and gives OS/2 mouse pointers a little nicer look than the standard, flat, 2-color arrows. Supports Win95 and AniMouse animations, as well.

Internet dialer - EZLinkPM (www.psychosis.com/ezlinkpm/)
Freeware / Open-source

Alternate front-end to replace IBM's Dial Other Internet Providers. Adds redial support, minimum acceptable connection rate, up to 3 phone numbers per provider listing, and much more. Now falls under the GPL open-source license.

IRC client - GammaTech IRC 3.03 (www.gt-online.com)
Shareware

I spend a good deal of time on IRC and my OS/2 client of choice is GTIRC 3.02 hands down. Lacking in WPS integration, but otherwise a good, solid PM IRC client. For the REXX savvy, GTIRC is even better since it's IrcRexx scriptable. In my opinion, there's no better way to communicate with other OS/2 users and developers than with the real-time chat capabilities of IRC.

E-mail client - PMMail/2 2.0 (www.southsoft.com/)
Shareware

There's just no contest -- PMMail/2 2.0 is the best e-mail program I've ever used on any OS. It works exactly the way I do and is fully WPS aware. REXX scriptable, multiple account support, intuitive interface, a simple yet thorough filter language, and multiple address book support make this a must-have for any OS/2'er.

Web browser - Netscape Communicator 4.04 (service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/catalog.htm)
Freeware

Since Opera/2 never shipped, this is what's left as the best OS/2 web browser. Also includes e-mail client, newsreader, and graphical web page editor (which I find to be pretty rotten but workable). Some people report FTP download problems with this apps, but I oddly never experience them.

Image viewer - PMView 2.0 (www.pmview.com)
Shareware

Another no-contest winner. PMView is the most versatile and technically rich image viewer/converter/editor I've used. This is not a paint or draw package. It's more in line with Graphics Workshop or ACDSee for Window or with the old PMJPEG for OS/2. Version 2 of PMView (due out soon, currently in beta testing) is an amazingly fresh upgrade over 1.0x and well worth the cost (though version 2 is free for registered PMView 1.0x users).

Text editor - FTE 0.49.7 (www.kiss.uni-lj.si/~k4fr0235/fte/)
Freeware

Ported from Linux and not entirely PM nor WPS aware, this happens to be the best freeware/open-source text editor I've tried (though there are hundreds if not thousands to be tried). I like the syntax hilighting (personally for HTML but it also does C/C++, Java, IPF, REXX, Pascal, Ada, and more). I'm told MED (a commercial text editor for OS/2) is superior to FTE, but its commercial nature has made it difficult for me to try it out.

Vector draw app - Photo>Graphics Pro
Commercial (abandoned)

Sadly defunct since TrueSpectra dropped it (for both OS/2 and Win32) but still the most intuitive graphics draw app I know. Much easier to get used to (for a graphic artist newbie such as myself) than GIMP, which is a freeware PhotoShop clone. Photo>Graphics is full of great ideas not fully realized in its relatively short lifespan. REXX scripting, a nicely designed object-oriented interface (with layers support) make this a perfect addition to any OS/2 user's system for touching up photos or creating logos and letterheads. If you're interested in doing graphics work for personal or small business use (including the web) and you can find a copy of P>GPro, get it!

MP3 player - z! 2.4 (dink.org/)
Freeware

Of the freeware MPEG Audio Layer 3 (mp3) players for OS/2, I used to be fond of WarpAMP, a PM app, until I got aggravated with its persistent crashes under heavy disk activity. I turned to z!, a VIO text-mode mp3 player, and haven't regretted it. Run z! in an OS/2 windowed session and your PM mouse pointer can be used to change the volume and position in the current track, skip forward or backward to the next track, and so forth. Snazzy text-mode graphics make this a pleasure for us graphics-everywhere types. :)

Archiver - WarpZip 2.1 (www.pillarsoft.net)
Shareware

An excellent OS/2 native, WPS integrated zipper/unzipper with some handy OS/2 specific features (such as also handling the compressed files on Warp 3 install diskettes). New version both looks nice and runs well. If you don't already have an archive program (in Object Desktop or somesuch) then WarpZip is definitely worth a look!

Archiver - KAZip (hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/archiver/kazip1.zip)
Freeware

For those of us with little to no disposable income, KAZip will do in a pinch. Not nearly as feature rich as WarpZip, this archiver/unarchiver only handles files in the traditional ZIP format, but it has an intuitive graphical display with several handy features such as ZIP file integrity testing, display sorting, and an internal text viewer.

System utilities - FM/2 Utilities (hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/browser/fm2utils.zip)
Freeware

Collection of freeware utilities made to go along with FM/2 but capable of stand-alone operation. This is a wide variety of tools including CD-ROM eject, HPFS and FAT optimizers, a MOVE command replacement that works across drives, a text string search program, and much much more. It's amazing that IBM let OS/2 out of their labs without some of these tools.

Multimedia viewer/editor - MainActor/2 2.06 (www.mainconcept.de/html/products.html)
Shareware

The only video player (AVI/MPG/MOV) for OS/2 that can hold its own with the Windows players. MainActor also plays various audio formats and functions as an editor so you can make your own audio and video files. Version 3 is apparently expected "soon" with many new features.

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Desktop enhancer - MicroLearn Switcher (hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/mlsw101.zip)	Freeware
By far the best PM window switcher around. Works a lot like Warp 4's ALT-TAB switcher but allows display of 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 open windows' icons at once so you can hold down CTRL, quickly view what's open, and click TAB the right number of times to get to the window you want. Also works with minimized/hidden windows, unlike Warp 4's built-in switcher.

Desktop enhancer - BubblePad (www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/5785/bubblepd.htm)	Freeware / Open-source
A handy bubble text utility for the Warp 3 or Warp 4 Launchpad. With this little tool installed, you can easily shrink the size of your Launchpad's border as well as display only icons (no text) on the buttons yet still be able to differentiate between two or more identical-looking buttons. You can, if you wish, also increase the border of the Launchpad.

Desktop enhancer - Keyboard Plus (yuggoth.ucam.org/~mjf35/projects.html)	Freeware
These days it's nearly impossible to buy a 101-key keyboard, so to make use of those damned Windows logo keys, Keyboard Plus is the perfect tool. It's a full keyboard macro utility which just also happens to support all 3 "Win95" keys on 104-key boards. Can be set up to have different hotkey codes and features for individual apps as well as the global key mapping.

Desktop enhancer - Animated Mouse Pointer (www.online-club.de/m1/clanganke/wpamptr.eng/)	Freeware
Eats little CPU time (by my observations) and gives OS/2 mouse pointers a little nicer look than the standard, flat, 2-color arrows. Supports Win95 and AniMouse animations, as well.

Internet dialer - EZLinkPM (www.psychosis.com/ezlinkpm/)	Freeware / Open-source
Alternate front-end to replace IBM's Dial Other Internet Providers. Adds redial support, minimum acceptable connection rate, up to 3 phone numbers per provider listing, and much more. Now falls under the GPL open-source license.

IRC client - GammaTech IRC 3.03 (www.gt-online.com)	Shareware
I spend a good deal of time on IRC and my OS/2 client of choice is GTIRC 3.02 hands down. Lacking in WPS integration, but otherwise a good, solid PM IRC client. For the REXX savvy, GTIRC is even better since it's IrcRexx scriptable. In my opinion, there's no better way to communicate with other OS/2 users and developers than with the real-time chat capabilities of IRC.

E-mail client - PMMail/2 2.0 (www.southsoft.com/)	Shareware
There's just no contest -- PMMail/2 2.0 is the best e-mail program I've ever used on any OS. It works exactly the way I do and is fully WPS aware. REXX scriptable, multiple account support, intuitive interface, a simple yet thorough filter language, and multiple address book support make this a must-have for any OS/2'er.

Web browser - Netscape Communicator 4.04 (service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/catalog.htm)	Freeware
Since Opera/2 never shipped, this is what's left as the best OS/2 web browser. Also includes e-mail client, newsreader, and graphical web page editor (which I find to be pretty rotten but workable). Some people report FTP download problems with this apps, but I oddly never experience them.

Archiver - WarpZip 2.1 (www.pillarsoft.net)	Shareware
An excellent OS/2 native, WPS integrated zipper/unzipper with some handy OS/2 specific features (such as also handling the compressed files on Warp 3 install diskettes). New version both looks nice and runs well. If you don't already have an archive program (in Object Desktop or somesuch) then WarpZip is definitely worth a look!

Archiver - KAZip (hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/archiver/kazip1.zip)	Freeware
For those of us with little to no disposable income, KAZip will do in a pinch. Not nearly as feature rich as WarpZip, this archiver/unarchiver only handles files in the traditional ZIP format, but it has an intuitive graphical display with several handy features such as ZIP file integrity testing, display sorting, and an internal text viewer.

System utilities - FM/2 Utilities (hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/browser/fm2utils.zip)	Freeware
Collection of freeware utilities made to go along with FM/2 but capable of stand-alone operation. This is a wide variety of tools including CD-ROM eject, HPFS and FAT optimizers, a MOVE command replacement that works across drives, a text string search program, and much much more. It's amazing that IBM let OS/2 out of their labs without some of these tools.

Multimedia viewer/editor - MainActor/2 2.06 (www.mainconcept.de/html/products.html)	Shareware
The only video player (AVI/MPG/MOV) for OS/2 that can hold its own with the Windows players. MainActor also plays various audio formats and functions as an editor so you can make your own audio and video files. Version 3 is apparently expected "soon" with many new features.