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If you have any comments regarding articles or tips in this or any previous issue of the VOICE Newsletter, please send them to editor@os2voice.org. We are always interested in what our readers have to say.

Logo for eComStation
May 8, 2007

George W. Archer had another suggestion for an eComStation logo:

I enjoyed your review of eCS logos i n the May VOICE Newsletter, but I'll advance my favorite logo:

The Little Mermaid (Hans Christian Anderson)

Yes, some misogamist cut her head off but her statue in Copenhagen [Denmark] harbor got a replacement (eCS replaced Warp?) but as a symbol she is eye catching, sexy, appealing and a fantasy, but real for all venturesome sailors (OS/2 users) who cannot distinguish a sea cow for what it is they are so blinded by their devotion to the sea and have been drinking too much rum as well. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have never seen the mermaid used as a corporate logo but it has "appeal."

Why does it have to be so hard?
July 20, 2007

Our former Associate Editor Jason R Stefanovich had a few comments regarding Mark Dodel's editorial Why does it have to be so hard? from the February issue:

Haven't written in a while, I know... I'm a serial procrastinator. Anyway, I read this article of yours. Sounds just like me 2 years ago.

I went thru the whole Linux stage again, trying to adapt Ubuntu. But, quite frankly, it had the same problems as eCS did, just less severely. I realized that I might have as well stayed with eCS, so I decided to just wipe everything and go with XP SP2. I never stopped using Windows, even back in the 3.x days I still used windows in my work, although my home PC was OS/2. After Win98 came out I wound up creating a Windows partition, just so I could play games that I enjoyed, but still did all my work in OS/2. It progressively got worse after that. By the time I was writing my OCR frontend, GOAT, in 2004, that was the only reason I was booting into OS/2 at all. It wasn't a matter of me liking OS/2 any less, I had spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours supporting the OS for nearly a decade. It was the fact that the world kept moving on, and OS/2, although it kept moving as well, just couldn't keep pace. I know it sounds crazy, but it was very hard for me emotionally to stop using OS/2 for a number of reasons, and I still have my eCS disks at home, I somewhat understand the zealotry of Mac people.

However, the plain fact is that I have enjoyed my computing experience much more since I gave up OS/2. I spend more time doing things I enjoy, using the computer as a tool and toy, and less time trying to get the damn thing to work (if possible at all). Windows, for all its myriad of flaws, truly is the best desktop going today, but it takes a lot of work to get past your digital religion to realize it.

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Mark Dodel replies:

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I think you misinterpreted my editorial a bit, though I understand why. I wasn't clear that my frustration is not just with eComStation and in particular the GenMac driver, but with all things technology. From our new wall oven which has a microwave door that only opens with the button if you slam it shut first, to the dash board on my 2001 Chrysler Town & Country which decided to randomly turn itself off while I'm driving. Things just aren't simple any more with all the technology that is required. At least after three tries (!) my Dodge service center devined the cause of the car problem so I'm not flustered more then usual when driving now.

My problem with GenMac was just the current torment in my life at the time I wrote the article. Yeah, I know its not Iraq, but for me it sucked at the time. And once I learned the secret its worked great ever since. Even able to use WiFi when I had to travel. In fact if anything I think it was windows that probably messed up my perfectly working eCS wireless networking. I don't think windows is the answer for me. I will never get over the unethical practices of microsoft and I honestly can't trust their crappy software. They spy on people and consequently make their software easy to break into just so they can do the same. Sounds paranoid I agree, and I have nothing much really important to hide. I just really find it bizarre that entities require its use for secure functions like doctors accessing hospital records. It's down-right Orwellian. Use the least secure product for the most secure processes.

As to Macs, I've had iMacs for six or seven years now and my kids love the Macbook Pros they received last Christmas. Mac OSX is usable and it's attractive, but it has a lot of the annoying hand-holding of windows and lack of the configurability I've grown to appreciate in OS/2-eCS. Linux on the other hand still leaves me lost, but I must admit it has made a lot progress every time I look at it. Unfortunately the Linux GUI is becoming a clone of windows. Anyway, I use the iMac for video processing and some games, but continue at least for now and the foreseeable future to use eComStation for doing things like replying to this email. ;-)

Yes it sucks that IBM screwed us and didn't continue to develop OS/2 and useful/currently needed features like Flash 8/9/whatever is next, since lots of poorly written websites are now beginning to require the latest and they are not bright enough to provide a non-Flash option. And its becoming even more difficult to find currently supported hardware since we now rely on volunteers to port drivers from Linux, which has its own problems with hardware support. Also IBM could have easily and probably at little cost to them, provided a legally licensed DVD player application since they did that for NT on their laptops years ago. But besides those things I guess I'm just lucky that I don't have a lot of the demands that many others have. Things like FireFox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, PMView and all the things ported by Paul Smedley and many others seem to meet most of my needs. On the rare occasion I absolutely have to use windows I have a copy of VirtualPC. I miss your writing and coding contributions to the community. What you did was appreciated. But I really do understand that a lot of people just don't want to deal with the limitations and hassles involved in running a non-monopoly platform. I wish there was a way to break the monopoly and get decent support for many platforms.

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