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To: OS/2 users ~developers

Did you happen to catch a recent e-zine posting in the OS/2 and Windows communities, stating that "OS/2's workplace shell and the Windows 98/2000 explorer shell are still icon based" and that icons under the WPS supposedly behave the same as for Windows?

I won't debate the harmful implications of that sales pitch for a certain Windows desktop enhancer, i.e., that OS/2 presumably would be no different from or better than Windows, so users may stick with MSFT and forget about OS/2. :-(

But I will suggest that if you'd like to have the clear, straightforward facts about the WPS, then check out the OS/2 articles we've collected at IACT's website. In case you still haven't heard of us for some odd reason, IACT is a multiplatform group promoting open standards, user choice and better access to compatible technology. A large percentage of the developers, users and consultants in IACT use OS/2 either by itself or alongside another major OS such as Linux, BSD and DOS. Not surprisingly, many of our commentaries and technical reports cover OS/2.

I could name them and list our articles' URLs, but here's another way: just look 'em up at IACT's brand new Search Tool page! You'll find it at http://www.iact.net/search/Search_Tool.html, and it's been added to our Site Menu as well. You might enter a magic keyword like 'OS/2' or 'Workplace Shell' or some similar phrase. If you prefer, look specifically for the sidebar "Benefits of an Object-Oriented Interface" in IQ Newsletter Issue #6; it might settle any doubts about the powers ~abilities of the WPS to go far beyond those of mortal Windows.

For another example, Kelly King's "A Journey in Search of a Perfect OS" in Issue #3 hasn't aged a bit and is a good match if you'd like to be clear on the difference between OS/2 and Windows. The relationship between NT and OS/2 is yet another story: look up "The Big Blue-Redmond Connexion" in Issue #7.

[** Note-- The search page does require a JavaScript-enabled browser. The script has been tested on Navigator 2.02 and Communicator 4.6x under Warp v3 ~v4, as well as MSIE under Win9x.]

Btw, IACT's old site no longer is being updated. If your website still refers to an IACT article about OS/2 or other subject, please update your link to http://www.iact.net/. And if you like a graphical link, choose from either our 90x30 IACT Button or the 90x95 IACT Icon, both now with metallic backgrounds matching our Logo [see our "Team Spirit" page at http://www.iact.net/connexion/team_spirit.html to get the sample HTML code and the two image files].

As always, IACT's main page offers navigation and info for the entire site, without any use whatsoever of frames, Java applets, ActiveX, or MS-Word, Excel and .ASP files :

IACT's Cover Page http://www.iact.net/

Section Pages also make good short links, either alone or in combination with the Cover Page:

IACT 24x7 Reports Page

http://www.iact.net/features/24x7.html

IACT Quarterly Newsletter Page http://www.iact.net/IQN/iq.html

Our current IQN Issue #8: http://www.iact.net/IQN/8.html

Diane Gartner
IACT Co-ordinator
................................................

International Alliance for Compatible Technology
http://www.iact.net/
................................................

more open standards, user choice and free access to compatible technology

I am pleased to announce now version 1.11 of my Astronomy Software, free for private and scientific use.

New features since the last version (1.10, august 1999) are mainly in the area of calculating and displaying conditions for Solar Eclipses.

The most visible new "feature" is that fact that PmAs comes now with a nice installer: "WarpIN" - an OS/2 Netlabs product (you will need to install the latest version 0.9.3, just about released these days!).

You find more details about the new version and the installation procedure on my new home page at:

http://home.datacomm.ch/cbockem

PS. to those who tried the "test release" of version 1.11 in march 2000: There are no new features or even bugfixes added to PmAs proper, but the problems with the new installation program and the download problems are solved or worked around now - at least I hope so!

Please tell me if you experience any troubles - or if everything works fine! (I like some encouraging mails from time to time... ;-) )

On June 6, Project Odin celebrated its first anniversary.

Just as a reminder Odin is being updated frequently.

http://www.netlabs.org/odin/

Visit also the Odin Daily:

ftp://ftp.os2.org/odin/daily/

....now with WarpIn support !!!

lSwitcher V 2.5 English has been uploaded to Hobbes. You can find it at:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/lsw250en.zip

eventually at

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/lsw250en.zip

lSwitcher is a convenient feature-rich replacement for OS/2 Alt-Tab task switcher which works in both Presentation Manager and full screen sessions.

The IBM SUMMER 2000 software catalog is available at:

http://www-4.ibm.com/software/info/ecatalog/

It's the first time in a long time I have seen an IBM catalog with OS/2 listed on the cover.

Golden Code Development Announces Version 1.1 Upgrade to Network Trace (TM) for OS/2*

Premier Network Packet Capture Software for OS/2 Gains New Features, Better Performance

Atlanta, Georgia, June 9, 2000 - Golden Code Development Corporation today announced the release of version 1.1 of Network Trace for OS/2. This latest release of the company's network packet capture software for OS/2 and WorkSpace On-Demand* environments was specifically designed to address the needs of customers with very high network traffic conditions. Numerous enhancements have been made to improve the product's usability, versatility, and performance.

"We are very excited about this release," said Greg Shah, president of Golden Code. "Every major limitation of the original version has been addressed, and we have virtually eliminated frame loss with a new, high-performance architecture." He added, "We think clients with heavily utilized networks will be very pleased with the improvements in this version."

Among the enhancements included in the version 1.1 product are:

* Service Mode. This mode of operation was added to address the needs of clients with:
o heavy traffic network segments
o integrated Network Trace installations on Ethernet
Service Mode leverages a new architecture, allowing much higher performance than the product's original design, now termed "Protocol" Mode. The result is the virtual elimination of frame loss, even during very high network utilization. In addition, this architecture allows Ethernet frames outbound from a tracing machine to be captured, removing a critical limitation of the original design.
* Additional Tested Hardware. The new IBM 16/4 Token-Ring CardBus Adapter has been added to the list of tested network hardware. With this addition, Network Trace for OS/2 can be used to take promiscuous traces of Token-Ring networks from a notebook computer.
* New and Improved Diagnostic Tools. The product's suite of diagnostic utilities has been expanded and improved to offer better assistance in planning, configuration, and troubleshooting.
* Enhanced Message Handling. All error and status messages have been updated for greater clarity and precision.
* Expanded Documentation. The online User Manual and Technical Reference has been reorganized and expanded to provide more comprehensive and complete information for planning, installation, configuration, usage, and problem determination. Numerous tips and techniques for managing challenging tracing situations have been added.
* Full Support for IBM LAN Systems NDIS Extensions.

Availability

Product sales and demonstration versions of Network Trace for OS/2 are available directly from Golden Code Development. For additional information, e-mail info@goldencode.com, call 678-352-2301, or write to the address below.

About Network Trace for OS/2

Network Trace is the only network packet capture software commercially available today for the OS/2 platform. It is designed to reduce the cost of ownership of OS/2 and WorkSpace On-Demand environments by providing IT managers with a simple and cost-effective mechanism to gather network trace data across the enterprise. Network Trace is part of the growing family of systems and network management technologies developed by Golden Code Development. Additional information, including product brochures and documentation, are available at www.goldencode.com.

About Golden Code Development

Golden Code Development Corporation is a consulting company and an independent software developer, focused on minimizing the cost of ownership of its customers' technology systems. The company's consulting operation develops highly-managed, low-cost systems for its clients. Its software development business builds commercial tools to help its customers more effectively manage their systems. Golden Code is an IBM Business Partner. Additional information on Golden Code is available at www.goldencode.com.

Golden Code is at:

http://www.goldencode.com/

Where do you get it?

You can download SciTech Display Doctor 7.0.2 for OS/2 BETA 31 from our ftp site using the following URL:

ftp://ftp.scitechsoft.com/sdd/beta/os2/sdd-os2-7.0.2-b31.exe

Note that we have now changed the version numbering to keep track of the equivalent release versions of the IBM SDD/se editions of the product. As new public released are made available by IBM, we will update our version numbering to suit.

What's new:

. All remaining changes are now tracked on the web. Public changes are tracked at the following URL:

http://www.scitechsoft.com/sdd2_changes.txt

What is SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2?

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 brings SciTech's proven DOS and Windows device support technologies to the OS/2 Operating System. Although one of the core features of our DOS and Windows products is the support for the VESA VBE/Core standard, the OS/2 version has nothing at all to do with VESA services. Rather SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 incorporates the new SciTech Nucleus, Graphics Architecture device driver technology to bring SciTech's device support to the OS/2 platform.

SciTech Nucleus is a binary portable, OS neutral, device driver architecture. As binary portable drivers, SciTech can fully develop and test the core device drivers in the DOS and Windows environments, while being able to target any Intel x86 based OS as the runtime environment (such as OS/2). This essentially allows the OS/2 product to utilise the same SciTech binary device drivers as the DOS and Windows versions of the product, improving the quality and performance of the drivers for all supported operating systems.

Runtime Requirements

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 requires a version of OS/2 Warp 3 or OS/2 Warp 4 in order to run. More imporantly, it requires at least Warp 3 with fixpack 35, or Warp 4 with fixpack 5 installed. If you have a version with earlier fixpacks installed, SciTech Display Doctor will refuse to install.

List of all certified chipsets:

This is a complete list of the various graphics chipsets that have been certified to work correctly with this version of SciTech Display Doctor. Please note that this list refers to the actual chips being used, not a board-level implementation. Thus you will not see any products from Hercules or STB on the list, but their products are supported because they use S3, Cirrus, Tseng, etc. chips. Also, any card with less than 512KB of memory cannot be supported by SciTech Display Doctor.

Note: Please check the separate list of supported laptop chipsets for more information if you are using this product on a laptop. All laptop chipsets are still listed here as many laptop chipset can also be used in regular PCI/AGP boards.

.. 3DLabs Permedia, Permedia 2, Permedia 2V, Permedia 3
.. 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3
.. ARK 1000PV, 2000PV, 2000MT, 2000MI (Quadro64), 2000MI+ (Quadro64)
.. ATI Mach64 GX, Mach64 CX, Mach64 CT, Mach64 VT, 3D Rage, Mach64 VTB
.. ATI 3D Rage II, 3D Rage II+, Mach64 VT4, 3D Rage IIC, 3D Rage Pro
.. ATI 3D Rage LT Pro, Rage Mobility, Rage XL, Rage 128, Rage 128 Pro
.. Alliance ProMotion 6422, ProMotion AT24, ProMotion AT3D
.. Chips ~Technologies 65550, 65554, 65555, 69000
.. Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434, CL-GD5440, CL-GD5436, CL-GD5446
.. Cirrus Logic CL-GD7555 LCD, Laguna 5462, Laguna 5464, Laguna 5465
.. Cyrix MediaGX
.. InteGraphics CyberPro 2000, CyberPro 2010
.. Intel i740, i740 PCI
.. Macronix 86250, 86251
.. Matrox MGA Millennium, MGA Millennium II, MGA Mystique
.. Matrox MGA Mystique 220, MGA-G100, MGA-G200, MGA-G400
.. NVIDIA RIVA-128, RIVA-128ZX, RIVA-TNT, RIVA-TNT2, RIVA-TNT2 M64
.. NVIDIA RIVA-TNT2 Vanta, RIVA-TNT2 Ultra, GeForce 256, GeForce DDR
.. NVIDIA Quadro
.. NeoMagic MagicGraph 128, MagicGraph 128XD, MagicGraph 256AV
.. Number Nine Imagine 128, Imagine 128 II, Imagine 128 II VRAM
.. Number Nine Imagine 128 II DRAM, Ticket 2 Ride WRAM
.. Number Nine Ticket 2 Ride SGRAM, Ticket 2 Ride IV
.. OAK Spitfire 64107, Spitfire 64111, Eon 64017, Eon 64217, Warp 5
.. Philips 9710
.. Rendition Verite V1000, Verite V2200
.. S3 Trio32, Trio64, Trio64V+, Trio64UV+, Trio64V2/DX, Vision 864
.. S3 Vision 964, Vision 868, Vision 968, Virge, Virge/DX/GX, Virge/VX
.. S3 Virge/GX2, Virge/MX, Trio3D, Trio3D/2X, Savage3D, Savage4
.. SiS 6202, 6205, 6215, 5597/5598, 6326, 5595/530, 5595/620
.. Sigma Designs RealMagic 64 GX
.. Trident TGUI9440, TGUI9440-R2, TGUI9680, ProVidia 9682
.. Trident Cyber9385 LCD, ProVidia 9685, 3DImage 975, Cyber9397 LCD
.. Trident 3DImage 985, Blade 3D
.. Tseng Labs ET4000/W32p, ET6000, ET6100
.. Weitek P9000, P9100
.. VESA VBE 1.2, VBE 2.0, VBE 3.0

List of all non-Certified chipsets:

This is a list of the various graphics chipsets that have native drivers developed for SciTech Display Doctor, but have yet to be completed and pass certification. The drivers should work relatively well, but as they have not been fully certified problems could arise if you use one of these chipsets. Please do not report problems related to uncertified drivers!

.. 3dfx Voodoo4, Voodoo5
.. InteGraphics IGS 1680, IGS 1682, IGS 1683
.. NeoMagic MagicGraph 128V, MagicGraph 128ZV, MagicGraph 128ZV+
.. Philips 9712
.. S3 Savage2000
.. SiS 300

List of all supported laptop chips:

The following is a complete list of the various laptop graphics chipsets that we support in this version of SciTech Display Doctor. Please note that this list refers to the actual chips being used, not the laptop brand or model itself. Thus you will not see any products from Gateway or Dell on the list, but their products are supported because they use NeoMagic, ATI, Cirrus etc. chips.

.. ATI 3D Rage LT Pro, Rage Mobility
.. Chips ~Technologies 65550, 65554, 65555, 69000
.. Cirrus Logic CL-GD7555 LCD
.. NeoMagic MagicGraph 128, MagicGraph 128XD, MagicGraph 256AV
.. S3 Virge/MX
.. Trident Cyber9385 LCD, Cyber9397 LCD
.. VESA VBE 1.2, VBE 2.0, VBE 3.0

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Release of the Mesa 2 Spreadsheet

June 9, 2000 - The best spreadsheet for OS/2 has just gotten even better. Version 2.3 of Mesa 2 adds more features, more functions, and greater versatility to the product that 32BitsOnline called "the leading contender .... to be the top OS/2 software of the year."

The previews of Mesa 2 Version 2.3 that Sundial gave at WarpTech, especially when it came to the enhanced real-time feed capabilities, left customers asking, "When can I get it?"

The answer is now, and the place is Sundial Systems website at www.sundialsystems.com/mesa . You'll also find information about an extra special upgrade offer that includes a copy of Bill Schindler's new book, Down to Earth REXX.

When it comes to OS/2, Sundial has the answers!

Sundial PR
sundialpr@sundialsystems.com
http://www.sundialsystems.com

The IBM Global Services BIS Group of Barcelona is proud of announcing:

1) Updates to the SecureEntry web page : These include latest versions of SecureEntry/2 and SecureEntry/NT evaluation code. SecureEntry is a very powerful solution for security and personalization of corporate platforms. UCM allows for centralized management and administration of the security and corporate users and groups repository, running on top of SecureEntry. Web site URL:

http://www.es.ibm.com/services/bustran/secure/index.html

2) New vertical solution : MECO/PC, now available for OS/2 (NT version coming soon), allows for connecting IBM MERVA to the SWIFT network without requiring a 37xx. Web site URL:

http://www.es.ibm.com/services/bustran/secure/mecopc.html

WarpIN and XWorkplace have both been updated to V0.9.3. Both updates are mostly for bugfixing.

1. WarpIN V0.9.3 has been released.

WarpIN is intended to become the new universal OS/2 installer. It has full system configuration (CONFIG.SYS, WPS classes, WPS objects) and can fully undo all the changes to your system again. This is mainly a maintenance release.

2. XWorkplace V0.9.3 is out also. XWorkplace is the successor to my popular XFolder utility and has become a Netlabs project by now too. This version is still a developer's release (ie might not work on your system and has known bugs), but I have fixed many bugs which were reported for V0.9.2 and added some new features as well.

In addition to all of the XFolder features, we now have a trash can, more CONFIG.SYS settings, most of the features of WarpEnhancer, mouse-button-3 scrolling, improved WPS notebook settings pages, a much better "WPS Class List", full sound schemes support in the "Sound" object, and much more.

To install XWorkplace, you will need WarpIN 0.9.3.

See my home page for detailed information and download addresses:

http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444vnd/os2.htm

WarpIN and XWorkplace are Netlabs projects, released under the GNU General Public Licence. The source code is available on the Netlabs CVS server. See www.netlabs.org/nosa and my homepage for details.

We have created four mailing lists at www.egroups.com.

-- warpin-user
-- warpin-dev
-- xworkplace-user
-- xworkplace-dev

for WarpIn and XWorkplace users and developers, respectively.

We'd be grateful for feedback on these mailing lists.

Note: If you have linked to the above address of my homepage, please update your links to point to xworkplace.netlabs.org and warpin.netlabs.org instead, because my homepage will change in the near future.

A new virus signatures (av30ft.zip) dated June, 8th 2000 was released on the Symantec site. You can reach it by linking to their FTP port at:

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/

and choosing your language, go to the antivirus_definition and then ibmav. You'll find the whole archibang of definitions.

The Ham/2 site is a Web site for Radio Amateurs who use OS/2 as their operating of choice. It is located at:

http://www.lks.net/~davidson

Since there has been a good response to the list of OS/2 enabled Hams, there is now a Ham/2 mailing list at e-groups.com. Subscription is by e-mail.

Subscribe: ham2-subscribe@egroups.com

Unsubscribe: ham2-unsubscribe@egroups.com

Post message: ham2@egroups.com

List owner: ham2-owner@egroups.com

This information is also posted at the Ham/2 web site.

There appears to be a page on IBM's website looking for customer suggestions for Warp. It can be found at:

http://www-3.ibm.com/software/os/warp/webreqs.nsf/

And they've got a product suggestion form with OS/2 as an option at:

http://www2.software.ibm.com/os/warp/webreqs.nsf/page1?OpenForm

Could they actually be interested in hearing suggestions from us users?

Postgres 7.0 ODBC driver + Visigenic manager for OS/2 is now available.

Check the download page at:

http://venuto.monrif.net

Blueprint Software Works, Inc. presents NetDrive for OS/2 - a new virtual file system. NetDrive allows users to mount an FTP site or a local directory or a network resource to a virtual volume.

NetDrive Beta 1 for OS/2 is available from:

ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com/bmtmicro/netdrive/ndfsb1.zip

The June 2000 edition of "The Warped Perspective" has been posted at OS/2 Headquarters:

http://www.os2hq.com/

The Philadelphia Area Computer Society OS/2 SIG web site at:

http://www.phillyos2.org

has just been updated. Stop in for these new features:

APRIL AND MAY MEETING REVIEWS

Meetings page updated with reports and links from the April and May meetings of the SIG.

UPDATED PAGES

News, Connections, and Software pages have been updated with new links of interest to OS/2 users.

An initial port of the PHP4 web scripting language is now available as an Apache module. Please note that this port has had only minimal testing so far so feedback on successes or failures are appreciated.

http://www.apache.org/~bjh/apache2/

There is a new beta (05/28/2000) of Apache/2 2.0. You can get it at:

http://silk.apana.org.au/apache/apache_v2.shtml

Apache is the most popular web server (for serving HTML pages) on the Internet.

The HowTo is updated and now contains instructions about creating a basic WPS system on a bootable CD. Furthermore you find a few links to more information pages.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/5785/bootcd/Boot_cw.htm