IBM released an updated USB Basic Device Support Package provides the basic OS/2 & eComStation support required for devices that meets the USB 1.0 OHCI, USB 1.1 UHCI, or USB 2.0 EHCI specs.
Updated OS/2 USB Basic Support Package Available
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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thanks for that news link, but what’s the link to download these drivers?
You must have software choice subscription or be an ecomstation user to get the drivers
I’m sure both OS/2 users will be thrilled.
I just wish they’d open source the Workplace Shell and add the Anti-Aliasing code to the Video subsystem.
The IBM download link is here (you need a subscription):
http://www7.software.ibm.com/2bcprod.nsf/bf7e05615440e8f086256b6c00…
For the person who said “about time!” – this is merely an update, not a new thing. USB 2.0 support has been available for quite a while.
If you want OS/2 news, check out these sites:
http://www.os2world.com/
http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/
http://en.os2.org/
As SteveW mentioned USB 2.0 support has been available for quite some time. It may also be mentioned that OS/2 had USB support before Windows did.
As to your comment about “both users”, Mensys and BMT were beyond swamped with orders for eCS 1.1. Due to not being able to keep up with demand, it took six weeks for my copy to arrive.
Anonymous, have fun knocking things you don’t understand. I’m sure it makes you feel good about yourself.
I’m sure both OS/2 users will be… Oh someone’s already said that… But really, why is this news? So IBM is continuing to release OS/2 patches and updates of various sorts, as they have since OS/2 was launched.
Um, well ok, perhaps that is news to many people.
I’ve used USB on OS/2 for awhile now, it worked before Windows got it running.
Why is it so much fun to laugh about the size of the user base? OS/2 has more users than most of the operating systems ever referenced on OSNews, but I don’t think that is really relevant to the discussion. If you’re not interested in a particular OS, there’s no need to butt in with irrelevant snide remarks.
There’s definitely more OS/2 users (including corporate) than BeOS users. I almost became an OS/2 user ages ago but I wasn’t impressed with the UI and the installer problems I had. Though I have to give them credit for being the ONLY OS on Intel that has the brains to include dynamic links. BeOS never had that. Windows never had it. I’m glad to see OS/2 still kicking. Better yet, being updated by IBM.
no one cares if you have 1 or 1 million os/2 users. fact is, not many people use and and most of us thought the number was closer to 0. whether you like it or not, its a headline that os/2 is still being worked on.
those of us that dont use os/2 will comment because we can. quite frankly, its funny. chill out. its not like i’m making fun of your child.
I have to agree with you James. I am an OS/2 user and will switch away as soon as another OS better fits my needs.
That being said, I’ve no idea why a driver update is considered news. I subscribe to a mailing list where multiple updates a day are posted. Should all of these show up on OSNews?
CA is correct that informing the non-OS/2 community that OS/2 is still being worked on is news (to many). I’m just not sure how posting a driver update accomplishes that.
It’s “news” because a large number of readers here seem to be seriously lacking current knowledge about OS/2, the nature of its user base, and even its basic technical capabilities.
Most of you probably assumed that OS/2 didn’t support “newer” things like USB devices. If you are one of those people, the initial article would be new information for you.
That’s what makes it “news”. 🙂
Overcoming ignorance (intentional or otherwise) is a good thing in my book. I’d rather see folks make informed choices about alternative platforms than see folks blindly going in a particular direction, however good that direction might be.
Let’s not diss other people’s choices of platforms, okay? If you have energy you really need to expend, why not use it to answer someone’s questions about the software you DO like?
Hey C.A.:
Just cause Mom wouldn’t let you use the Lumina this weekend doesn’t mean you can be catty with us.
It´s good to see that IBM is still supporting OS/2, I have OS/2 Warp 3.0 but I don´t have a subscription to their services, so I can´t use any USB device in OS/2 because even the Warp 4.0 don´t have USB native.
That´s why I don´t like IBM.
I’ve used USB on OS/2 for awhile now, it worked before Windows got it running.
Not only has OS/2 had USB support for longer than Windows, it is my experience that that support is more mature and reliable. My experience is from supporting systems using external USB drives for backup purposes. WinXP and Win2k systems seems to occasionally ‘forget’ that the drive is attached. This always leads to a support call. I have not seen this happen with the OS/2 systems. The same is true for USB printers.
I am convinced that if we only shipped our product on OS/2 systems then our call volume for support issues would be halved. . .The PHB can’t play EverQuest on an OS/2 machine though so he figures that OS/2 isn’t as well suited for a vertical application. He could mine our call ticket database for all the evidence to the contrary he could want but that is too much like work. The head of engineering (my boss) keeps the Windows reliability issues hushed up `cause it was his idea to start shipping on Win2k in the first place. Ah! What an inspired and typical management style!
I remember working for France Telecom in 1998 and they were using it on whole their Desktop.
It was neither pretty (a clone of Windows 3.1), nor fast, but it was vquite stable. I remember seing it crash only twice in 6 months.However when it happened we couldn’t do anything with it at all. The entire server was down and it took ages to get it back on.
Nowadays could it be compared to a BeOS or is it more of a Linux sort of OS?
What kind of apps can we still find running on it?
Ah some of these comments in here are funny. Who would have thought that an OS so old could create tention? Let’s get a news post about DOS and see who starts bashing/defending it harshly.
Anyhow, I think I’d like to try OS/2 just to see what it’s like. I remember when Warp came out around the time of Win 95. There were articles comparing it to win95, and it seemed kind of interesting. Can you even still buy OS/2? Where would you even get software for it? Are there are major open source projects for OS/2?
OS/2 is a single-user 32-bit operating system with a DOS-like command set and the ability to run both DOS and Windows 3.x programs as well as its own.
As such, it’s not really similar to Linux at all (which is a Unix-like multiuser operating system), and its extensive support for legacy software also makes it quite different from BeOS (which is limited to running its own).
OS/2 can run a lot of software, though much of it is older and not easily available anymore. As a home user of OS/2 since 1992, I’ve had time to collect things, and I currently use software like the following:
Native software:
Mozilla 1.4 and Firebird 0.6, Links 0.96, slrn 0.9.7.3, Pine, StarOffice 5.1a, Lotus WordPro, XFree86 3.3.2 (needed for running programs like GIMP and XV), a native VNC client, Partition Magic 2.03 for OS/2, various GUI front-ends for native cdrecord, leech, lame, and bladeenc ports, Abobe’s Acrobat viewer, Z! and PM123 for playing MP3’s, Embellish and ColorWorks for graphics work, and UPSMon (a UPS monitor program which talks to my box’s Blackout Buster UPS).
Windows 3.x software: Quicken 98, ABC Flowcharter 3, the American Heritage Dictionary/Thesaurus, MS WordView 98, A&L Draw, Drafix Windows CAD, and Corel Draw 3.
DOS Software: MAME, Retrocade, DVE (Vectrex Emulator), Appler (Apple II Emulator), Executor/DOS (Mac Emulator) QuickView Pro, PC File 7, QuickMenu III (to organize the more than 100 older DOS games I have installed), and GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0.
If you have any questions, feel free to toss me a line…
> Who would have thought that an OS so old could create
> tention?
Linux is also old (I started using it in the spring of 1993), but that doesn’t make its current version old. 🙂
Same with OS/2.
> Can you even still buy OS/2?
Yes, but it’s expensive. Your best bet is probably eBay, and you’ll probably want OS/2 Warp 4.
> Where would you even get software for it?
Some starter sites:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu
http://www.os2bbs.com
http://www.bmtmicro.com
> Are there are major open source projects for OS/2?
http://www.mozilla.org
http://www.openwatcom.org
http://www.netlabs.org/
It was neither pretty (a clone of Windows 3.1), nor fast
OS/2 in default configuration has not looked anything like Win3.1 since the 1.x days. It could easily be made to look like 3.1 to eliminate the learning curve for organizations upgrading from Windows though. Also, the speed of an OS is usually only judged in relative terms. I have in many instances found that Win16 and DOS applications run significantly faster on OS/2 than in their native environment. Naturally, native OS/2 applications run much faster on OS/2 than on any other platform! 😉
I’d like to extend the list provided by Mr. Steiner a bit though first I would like to point out that GIMP seems to run fine using the port of xlib to Presentation Manager (EverBlue) instead of XFree86. Unlike XFree86, however, EverBlue is still very beta.
GhostScript and GhostView also offer some nice features that Adobe Acrobat lacks. They’re worth getting even if you don’t work with pdf files much.
I’m a programmer so I use a number of unimpressive looking text mode tools (the entire GNU development toolset ported to OS/2). I also use the latest Win32 version of BeyondCompare because it really is better than any of the native OS/2 graphical file compare tools. It runs perfectly on OS/2 using Odin. MultiEdit works fine using Odin as well but I prefer EPM and emacs as my text editors of choice.
For source code control I use Sourcerer’s Apprentice (for legacy code) and CVS.
I also maintain an OS/2 web/email server. The web services are supplied by Apache with the Perl and PHP mods and MySQL (considering migrating to PostgreSQL but. . .). SMTP is provided by Sendmail and POP by Weasel. There are some excellent commercial alternatives to the above (well, Weasel is commercial) but these provide good industrial strength services.
At home I watch DVDs with WarpVision, watch television using TVShow, listen to shoutcast stations using Z!, surf the web with the latest version of the world’s best browser (Mozilla) and keep tabs on the server and firewall at work using SSH (I could use Desktop on Call or KopyKat but SSH is more secure and uses less bandwidth).
There are many dozens of other applications that I use, almost all of which are native to OS/2. I’m not missing much by declaring my office and home Microsoft free zones. . .except of course the latest virus or trojan or security hole!