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Well OS/2 is still being used somewhere, but it is relevant as Win95/98 is these days...

There are very few pieces of software (or platforms for that matter) which are relevant to everyone.

As long as some folks (like myself) can continue to use it effectively, it will still be relevant for them. :-)

it's a lot more relevant, and has more users, than many other OS' featured on OSNews.

It seems to get more flak than many, anyway. Or maybe that's just my overdeveloped persecution complex. :-)

I was once a devoted OS/2 user. Loved it, but I eventually had to move away from it. Sure, some people still use it, I can still boot it up sometimes for sentimental reasons (in a virtual machine on my intel Mac) and I couldn't go back to using it on a day to day basis.

I remember it with a great deal of fondness, but both the world and I have moved on, not because OS/2 was itself a bad OS, but because IBM refused to maintain and improve it so that it could move into the 21st century.

I went to windows, left that behind too. Went to Linux, and found that interesting enough that I still use it regularly, but when Apple moved to the unix based OS X, I found my new computing home, and unless Apple does something really stupid, I don't think I will be going anywhere from here for a long long time to come.

<hee hee>

This sounds like a "Dear John" letter! It wasn't her(OS/2) it was you!

Edited 2007-05-30 16:59

To someone owning a copy of eComStation this might be a very welcome addition to an old-old version of Lotus WordPro/2 ...

But rather, I like to see it as an example of what little companies sometimes can get done on tight budgets to support a marginalized platform, like e.g. eCS / OS/2, and hell...comparing it to Apple's world in which there's no native Aqua version of OpenOffice.org, no matter what version, I think this ought to receive a small respectful nod for delivering a native eCS / OS/2 version of a much hyped Microsoft Office competitor!

There are too many people like you on OS News. Do you enjoy poking the fun out of Minority OS's or something? Just because it’s not Windows, OS X, or Linux related and not even the latest version of open office doesn’t mean it’s not "news". I think this is a great upgrade from where they were before.

RISCOSMike,

Not really. An OS upgrading to OpenOffice 2.0 when 2.2 is out really isnt news, even if it were for a Linux distribution.

As for being a "Minority OS"...

eComStation doesn't position itself well against others by being proprietary and expensive while failing to deliver the same level of features as other proprietary and expensive OSes.

eComStation has caught up to the Windows 9x era with far less software and a few unique features. However, eComStation costs about as much as Vista Buisness at retail price and therefore a terrible value.

If Linux is still considered a minority OS, imagine the changes needed upon eComStation for it to be a contender.

OpenOffice is a significant open source program, arguably one of the most important, and its continued availability in any form on minority platforms is a Big Deal, at least to the fans and users of those platforms (and to many fans of minority platforms in general).

eCS has price issues. IBM is responsible for those; the community and the distributing vendor (SSI) can't do that much about IBM's licensing fees. A sad situation, IMO.

Other than Windows, which propietary and expensive OSes would you be talking about? Are you seriously suggesting that something like Solaris/x86 can compete with eCS as a desktop solution?

FWIW, I think all non-Microsoft operating systems are rightfully considered minority platforms in the desktop space. Very few people care about any of them except their respective groups of enthusiasts because Windows has been the resident default value on desktop hardware for the past decade and a half.

Edited 2007-06-01 19:07

I understand about the IBM license fees but that makes no difference to the paying user. IBM surely doesn't want to see OS/2 exceed.

Open Office is a significant program but not the only one. There is several Office solutions (both FOSS and Commercial) for *nix, MacOS, and Windows.

Solaris can be downloaded free and Open Solaris is free and open source. It also supports more software. So yes, Solaris is in a better position even on a client workstation. However, Solaris is better suited for servers as the desktop initiatives are new with Open Solaris.

I find it hard to believe there can be an eComStation enthusiast group with it costing so much, being proprietary and superseded all-in-one.

I think the few businesses who still use OS/2 continue to do so because migration costs to other platforms would be more than just paying for a copy of eComStation.

With all due respect, and also keeping in mind that the latest version of eComStation is really Warp 4.52 with a better installer and additional drivers/software, I would suggest that you visit the following sites:

http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/
http://www.os2world.com/
http://en.os2.org/
http://www.os2voice.org/

There's a significant OS/2 and eCS enthusiast group out there. Even old school OS/2 users like myself have an eCS license (I converted one of my Warp 4 licenses to eCS some time ago), and there's enough momentum in the community to have multiple Mozilla development trees (one stock, one with additional WPS support and other stuff), a native OpenOffice effort which has produced a successful port, multiple yearly conferences (Warpstock and Warpstock Europe) plus a Developer's Workshop in 2007, etc.

Most of us are emphatically not business users. :-)

Yuppers. GA = General Availability. The code is golden. :-)