Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2010-12-25 23:43:16 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [Mensys BV, http://www.ecomstation.com/news.phtml?action=fullnews&id=3549&title=Merry%20Christmas%20and%20Happy%20New%20Year]

Serenity Systems International and Mensys BV wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

A short review of the past year:

• eComStation 2.0 GA was released at Warpstock Europe 2010 in may.
• A lot of work was done in tweaking the hardware detection and additional drivers;
• The Intel NIC PCIe driver: this driver has been ported from Linux and is based on the Linux kernel module e1000e. It is released under the GNU Public License and anyone can request access to the source repository. It supports 49 chipsets natively and as such covers 45 more than the Genmac driver shipping in eCS 2.0 GA.
• The NVidia Ethernet driver was updated too, now using the same framework as the Intel driver.
• Java 6: this port is close to a beta release; follow http://svn.netlabs.org/java for the latest news.
• Qt4 has been updated to version 4.6.3 thanks to community sponsoring; see http://svn.netlabs.org/qt4/ for more information and a lot of applications that were already ported
• eComStation 2.0.1 will be released in English, German and Dutch. Unfortunately the update will not be available this year, but early 2011.

Are you going to install eComStation on a tablet PC?

2010-12-19 02:28:56 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

New poll on ecomstation.ru site: Are you going to install eComStation on a tablet PC?

You can see more and more tablets on the market (CPU: Intel Atom). We are interested to ask eComStation / IBM OS/2 Warp users, are you going install eComStation on a tablet?

• yes, I am going to test eComStation installation
• no reason to install eComStation on such kind of hardware
• My tablet is equipped with other CPU. It's impossible to install eCS
• I don't plan to use tablets

You can select only one option, select the general one. Write detailed answer in the comments field.

(Don't forget input anti-spam 6-digits CODE: below the list of answers on the page of voting)

GL/2 needs some help

2010-12-17 13:22:41 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [[os2ddprog], Dee Sharpe]

I'm Dee Sharpe. Many of you have heard me digging around for OS/2 systemic info in the past, in an effort to create a gameplan for rewritting it. I've kicked off part of that initiative by starting the GL/2 project. The goal of this project is to great an OpenGL DDK for OS/2 & eCS that allows for hardware acceleration. Currently, I'm stuck on a few points of the PM & GPI APIs & I need a little help. These are the main things that I'm having problems with:

• ---pglWaitPM() currently has no way to check to make sure that the presentation manager is finished drawing to the viewing area of the window before it returns.
• ---pglUseFont() still doesn't have a solution for putting the font on a bitmap.
• ---pglUsePMBitmapFont() was depreciated by IBM, so my implementation is well within reason by just returning FALSE. However, I'd like to go ahead & implement it properly for indirect contexts anyway.

Any help that you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated!

File Open Container update

2010-12-13 19:36:07 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

New file open container influences on all your applications and utilities, it brings life to your desktop again. Say "bye-bye" to 90-th, welcome to 2011.

Check compatibility of your applications with FOC today and post bug-reports to the bug-tracker: FOC bug-tracker -> [New ticket] (login: ecotrac, password: nhfrerth)

Whatsnew:

• Improvements for network drives
• a dozen of bug-reports resolved
• read about reliable drives in the documentation
• full list

Let's update old applications

Custom FileOpenContainer dialogs

Download & install new FOC

• base package is uploaded to BETAZONE (no need to execute it if you have installed new FOC in the past)
• the latest eCo Software runtime -- update Win runtime

New version of VLC video player

2010-12-13 14:02:49 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [www.os2voice.org, Mark Dodel]

VLC media player v1.1.5 for eComStation

KO Myung-Hun has uploaded VLC media player v1.1.5 for OS/2 to Hobbes incoming.

The cross-platform open-source multimedia framework, player and server VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac ...) as well as DVDs (including menus), Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. For more on VLC itself: http://www.videolan.org/vlc Read the readme.eng for installation instructions. I've successfully run this on my T61 with eCS 2.0, but so far only with the SNAP video driver, not Panorama. It is great to be able to play DVDs and even use the DVD menu.

screenshot of DVD menu (thx Mark Dodel):

Download: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/incoming/vlc-1.1.5.zip

Source: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/incoming/vlc-1.1.5-src.zip

Requires: kLIBC v0.6.3, Qt 4.6.3GA

If you would like to support VLC on OS/2-eCS you can make a donation at http://www.ecomstation.co.kr/komh/donate.html

eComStation news - bit by bit

2010-12-06 00:13:05 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

1) Community: We updated the list of famous people which were recommending OS/2

2) Discussion of Open GL for eComStation os2world.com forum - porting TinyGL library.

3) List of reviews and articles is updated: Reviews

4) eComStation-tan - fun toy eComStation-tan, OS/2-tan, other tans

thx craigm

5) eComStationAustralia Podcast # 20 - Nothing much - no news..

6) Opinion exchange: How to modify eComStation to reduce load on SSD disks?

7) How to switch Youtube and Vimeo to HTML5?

method 1 - doesn't work. method 2 (from Cinc): change user agent to iPad - does it work for you?

8) History of eComStation

Let's recall, please send us facts and links.

• history of eComStation / OS/2 installers
• history of eComStation / OS/2 User Interface
• history of Office Suites

Cybergang Compromises Every ATM In Russian City

2010-12-05 17:35:14 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [> www.OS2World.com, IBManners]

"A group of fraudsters has been arrested in Yakutsk and Moscow for allegedly compromising all the ATMs in the city of Yakutsk - population: around 210,000 - in the Republic of Yakutia in the Russian Federation. Three of the men formed the actual criminal group, and the fourth - a Moscow-based malware developer - was 'subcontracted' by them and received 100,000 rubles (some $3200) to develop a custom ATM virus with which they would infect the devices."

• slashdot.org
• www.net-security.org

How to solve the problem of viruses? Extend the functionality of eComStation ATMs (IBM OS/2 Warp)

Moving to SSD drives

2010-12-04 23:07:19 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

More and more eCS users are switching to SSD solid-state drives.

Question: how to modify eComStation to reduce load on SSD disks? Which disk functions to modify?

eComStation is used in restaurants

2010-12-02 16:23:45 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

eComStation is used in restaurants and cafes in Russia and other countries.

Some screenshots of computers:

one more screenshot..

We are interested support other developers of such solutions.

eComStation 2.0 - known problems; bug-tracker

2010-11-27 23:26:24 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

If you have troubles with eCS installation then create the bug-report. Every user has different model of PC, different configuration.

• ENG: ecomstation.com -> Log in -> Access bug-tracker -> ..
• Support page -> Bug-trackers (OpenOffice.org, Genmac Wrapper, ..)

Known issues of eCS 2.0 which you can overcome/fix without extra efforts.

Interview with Neil Waldhauer

2010-11-26 00:27:54 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Interview with Neil Waldhauer (Blonde Guy, LLC)

"Q: Why do eComStation customers come to your company?

A: I'm an OS/2 expert. People come to me to support their use of OS/2 and eComStation. ..."

See also:

• (RUS) Prospects of eCo Software -- Valery Gaynullin
• (ENG) 2009/04 -- Prospects of eCo Software -- Eugene Gorbunoff
• Other interviews: http://ecomstation.ru/community/?action=interviews

eComStation and IPv6

2010-11-25 21:15:41 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [Roderick Klein (Mensys BV), http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/eComStation/message/85120]

IP 6 currently is kind of a no-brainer.

Why ? While we might look into IP 6 support later down the line. But let me give some people some hard facts...

IP 6 is needed for the internet. IP 4 address are running out. In the Netherlands the first ISP is selling internet connections with IP 6. The world as no choice if the internet is not to grind to a halt.

However there are going to be masses and masses of systems running IP 4 apps for years to come. The new ADSL modems coming out support IP 6 on the outside and and IP 4 / IP 6 on the outside. We will enter a transistion period of a few years.

Next to that IP 6 is far from secure and protocol loop holes are being found and fixed. Its kind of neglected this transfer to IP 6, it as been delayed to long. The result if IP 4 and IP 6 will have to run next to each other on the internet and gateways will be created...

So the result for OS/2/eComStation is currently we won't go out in the cold because IP 4 will be around for a long time..

Roderick Klein (Mensys BV)

Mix of snow news about eComStation

2010-11-21 15:06:02 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

1) multimac project was launched

2) "Replace the word OS/2"

• If you are searching for "OS/2" word you often get Windows OSR2
• Windows Vista was released after SVISTA (Serenity Virtual Station), Of course, we formed the word "SVISTA" from spanish "vista".
• Now Microsoft is using "Aurora" word: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20021535-92.html

3) Here is the interview with Valery Gaynullin (russian language) - developer of Panorama video drivers

4) (one more time): How to launch VLC player in eComStation? (step by step instructions?)

5) For users with SMP computers: Can you disable / enable the 2-nd CPU? Does it work for you? Use the utility: x:\OS2\MPCPUMON.EXE What is the version of OS: .., Version of ACPI driver: ..

ATM machines based on IBM OS/2 Warp / eComStation

2010-11-21 14:53:35 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

We translated the article Analysis of OS/2-based ATM situation to russian language.

Here is the site http://ecomstation.ru/atm oriented on the engineers maintaining ATMs based on OS/2 / eComStation.

You can use this site to share drivers, control programs and interesting articles with other developers of ATM solutions.

Week of network adapters (Genmac Wrapper)

2010-11-21 14:09:57 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Help us collect information about network adapters working in UNSUPPORTED mode with Genmac wrapper.

Here is the list of tested adapters: 173 models. Add new reports or comment reports posted by other users.

You can share the package of drivers with other users.

Additional information:

• Official homepage: http://svn.netlabs.org/genmac http://genmac.netlabs.org
• Download: ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/genmac
• Genmac unofficial web-site: http://ecomstation.ru/genmac
• Forum: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user

eCo Labs: more tasks

2010-11-21 02:55:16 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

We published more tasks for standalone developers. This is the only way to attract new developers to eComStation market.

We offer some design tasks, design DB for other developers, write some REXX scripts, create some PM applications, etc.