Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Tue 4th Dec 2001 17:47 UTC
IBM's OS/2 has a great history as a workstation operating system, it was a major alternative OS in the '90s. At its peak time in the mid-'90s OS/2 had about 2 million users but the Windows NT and Windows 95 releases broke its further development. This year Serenity Systems has released a new client version of OS/2. This article will introduce you to what OS/2 is all about. You will learn its history, its user interface, and its power under the hood. The article is also accompanied by a number of screenshots.
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As an avid OS/2 user, supporter, & consultant since 1992 or so, and a very satisfied eComStation 1.0 customer, I can understand why the desktop appears to be "aged" and less than "modern". However, the Workplace Shell (WPS) has become a framework, if you will, for some very sophisticated UI feature enhancers, such as Xworkplace and Dialog Enhancer (the former ships as an add-on with eCS; the latter is bundled with the eCS install).
Between these two, the look and feel of the WPS is quite modern and often (well, perhaps because I've used it for so long?) more intuitive than Gnome or (especially) Explorer.
Icon size and font smoothing are two separate issues. The first can be addressed by the video driver. Under SciTech Display Doctor, the proper CONFIG.SYS entry is SET SDDICONS=small. Font sizes can also be "adjusted" by SciTech with SET SDDFONTSIZE=small and/or SET SDDFONTDPI=96. TrueType font rendering is greatly improved by the use of FreeType.
Again, the above is admittedly not apparent to the new user, especially during the install. It is my understanding that Serenity is working very hard to improve the installer, which has always been OS/2's Achilles' Heel. (Try an OS/2 2.x install sometime, or a Warp Connect install!)
Finally, a minor correction: The second CD ships with Warp 4.5, not Warp 4. eCS is based on the latest (2001) code from IBM, used in the "Convenience Packages" now offered by IBM as continuing support for OS/2. Warp 4 code dates back to 1996, so it should be noted that this is indeed NOT the code base for eCS.
All in all, a very good article which has (for a change, considering the usual slant of the computer media) presented a fair commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of a truly great (IMO) OS. Thanks for the good read.
Lewis