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Public Discussions => General Discussion => Topic started by: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 02:10:17

Title: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 02:10:17
First off, I hope this is in the right forum...

This isn't a troll, I'm seriously asking this question because I seriously want to know. Obviously, there's a userbase, otherwise Serenity wouldn't be spending the money to develop it, and obviously, there's a really good reason that people are using it, because it looks like a license is $259. :o (Yes, I know, a legit full Vista license is more expensive for most versions, but there's reasons that someone would pay that much for Vista - among those, simply needing an OS to run Windows apps.)

So, what exactly is this reason? I obtained a copy of 2.0 RC5, and popped it into a VM to play around with it (along with various ancient versions of OS/2 - I like to mess around with old software every now and then.) And, my first impression so far has been... "they actually plan on selling THIS? In 2008? :o" And, software support is rather poor, IMO - only one real browser choice (at least it is Firefox, which is a decent browser (not my favorite,) but...) And, it looks like you have to pay for a support agreement to get OpenOffice? Unreal.

I was going to put in some UI complaints, but I do understand that the UI is different, and that I haven't had time to get used to it.

I'm going to be quite naive and assume that most people on this forum have paid for their copies of eCS (or OS/2 Warp 4, or whatever version they're using) when I ask... why? What makes eCS/OS/2 better than Linux, or Windows, or OS X, or FreeBSD, or one of the other competitors? More importantly, what makes it worth $259?

I realize that I'm probably going to start a flamewar with this one, even though I don't intend to...
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: Blonde Guy on 2008.11.08, 03:40:51
I use eCS because I prefer it to the alternatives. The price is no problem. I like having the choice.

You forgot to add the price of Software Subscription to the $259 for eCS 1.2. Also OpenOffice support subscription. It's a cheap thrill to be able to use this stuff.

Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: RobertM on 2008.11.08, 03:56:05
bhtooefr,

Many OS/2 and eCS users have different (or overlapping) reasons. I for one solely use OS/2 and eCS on any server I set up (though I do maintain various Windows servers for customers who invested a lot of money into them and arent going to reinvest in switching to eCS).

I do it because: 

(a) I can get cheap hardware (ie: outdated but solid, like the Netfinity and eServer xSeries by IBM) and OS/2 flies - faster than any Windows server I have ever tried (running on 8-10 times the hardware), and faster than Linux (but by not as great of a margin as it trounces Windows)

(b) I set up the boxes, walk away and then maybe come back to clean them (ie: remove dust, clean the fans). Other than the occassional hardware failure, I have never had to come back to do anything else - and the boxes I install have been running for (newest) 14 months to (oldest) 3 years.

(c) Can serve websites of very high load on machines of very low CPU power (and still have tons of CPU power to spare)

(d) REXX is phenomenal (and far more capable on OS/2 than it is on anything other than maybe AIX).

(e) I cannot live without the WPS. Period. Nothing matches it yet. It may not be as "pretty" as Vista or XP (though I think they both are ugly) or as pretty as some of the Linux GUIs (which I think are beautiful), but it is far more powerful. And after you add REXX to the mix, nothing compares.

(f) It seems to have the best support for utilizing multiple CPUs (when they are supported) than any other PC OS. Maybe that is part of the reason why my Quad 550MHz PIII box can outserve a Quad 2.8GHz Linux box, and make a Windows server box look like it is doing nothing (which much of the time, as it was crashed or overloaded, is exactly what it was doing).

(g) I'm willing to pay a few bucks for OpenOffice - as that means for a business workstation, eCS/Warp is then pretty capable (OO and FF).

(h) I've never had to upgrade Warp to keep it running (unlike Windows where certain issues just never seem to be fully fixed before each version's end of life). Think about it... in the OS/2 world, the rule is generally "If it works, dont change it" while in the Windows world it is "There's a new patch/update/hotfix! Lets grab it now! We need to install that" Heck, my WSeB servers still have never had a fixpack or update installed. I may one day... not because I need to, but because "What the heck? Might as well."

(i) I've rarely had to upgrade hardware for a new version of Warp at least not since the rather old Warp 3 (and hence my choice of a Netfinity 7000 M10 for my main server... Windows Server 2003 would crawl on it if it even loaded, newer versions of Windows Server wont even run on such "slow" hardware, and Linux needs 4 times the hardware for the same results).

(j) Once up and running, it is very very easy to maintain, back up, restore and generally keep running.

(k) With VirtualBox and/or VPC I can run Windows in VMs under OS/2 if I need Windows apps or such.

(l) If it continues to be enhanced and kept up with the times, then it's only lacking feature will be gaming, but to me, that's what a PS3, or the Windows box in my room (that I only turn on for gaming) is for (the rest of my home computer use is done solely on my IBM Thinkpad 600, 300MHz "beast").

Personally, I find the Windows interface kludgy, poorly implemented, and poorly thought out. But then again, that's also because I administer both Windows and OS/2 networks ("click, right click, click, click, click, click, type here, click, close, close, close, close, re-open just so the notebooks update, click, click, click" -or- "drag, drop, check properties, click a few things, close" <- that is the difference between changing account rights and taking over directories in WinServ2003 and Warp Server since WSv4).

And I like shortcuts that dont break simply because I moved a directory, or knowing that if I delete something from the commandline, it's shortcuts will dissappear too. I also like being able to create different shortcuts with different properties for each object. And HPFS's ability to virtually never fragment, and JFS's speed.

Others though may have different reasons...

Robert
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2008.11.08, 03:58:59
It's a fun toy and I like seeing it around as an alternative to the UNIX and Win32 OSes. Other than that, I honestly don't think it can stand in today's world. BeOS (which I feel was superior) died out but atleast is being reborn as Haiku.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: rdonnelly on 2008.11.08, 04:04:15
Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 02:10:17
First off, I hope this is in the right forum...

This isn't a troll,

So, what exactly is this reason? I obtained a copy of 2.0 RC5, and popped it into a VM to play around with it (along with various ancient versions of OS/2 - I like to mess around with old software every now and then.) And, my first impression so far has been... "they actually plan on selling THIS? In 2008? :o" And, software support is rather poor, IMO - only one real browser choice (at least it is Firefox, which is a decent browser (not my favorite,) but...) And, it looks like you have to pay for a support agreement to get OpenOffice? Unreal.


Hmm.... Where was windoze 16 years ago? Oh, it was a crappy 16 bit gui gui, sitting on top of dos.
Fast forward, 10 years ago? Still a crappy, now 32 bit gui, still sitting on top of 16 bit dos. (95, 98, ME......)
Then finally 7 years ago, the renamed NT, XP and made it a crappy 32 bit gui, sitting on top of NT.

Sounds like 32 bit OS/2 has always been ahead of its time. Now in 2008 it fits its era.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 05:32:26
rdonnelly: Well, NT is at least a (relatively) modern 32-bit OS...

And, yes, architecturally, OS/2 blows away Win9x.

But, in 2008, I'd say, for most users, WinXP/Vista blow away OS/2 just on sheer availability of software choices, and all that.

However, I'm not trying to make this thread an OS/2 vs. Windows flamewar. I also brought up Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD. ;)

Let me put it this way... why should I run OS/2 instead of another OS? What does OS/2 do that another OS can't?

RobertM: Thanks for your reply, and that did point out some stuff that's interesting to me. I did notice that thing about shortcuts being maintained through file moves, actually. I probably should try to learn REXX scripting, and all that... and the performance benefits are definitely interesting. I'm running Linux on my personal server right now... and it's got plenty of performance (disk space is its limit, honestly,) but simplicity of configuration would be nice...

Software availability is a concern for a daily use machine, though.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: RobertM on 2008.11.08, 07:22:09
Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 05:32:26
rdonnelly: Well, NT is at least a (relatively) modern 32-bit OS...

Considering it's based on OS/2 1.x, kinda. ;)

Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 05:32:26
And, yes, architecturally, OS/2 blows away Win9x.

But, in 2008, I'd say, for most users, WinXP/Vista blow away OS/2 just on sheer availability of software choices, and all that.

Stand alone (ie: no VM software running WinXP/Vista on it), yes. But then again, needs determine whether availability matters. What would you consider it for?


Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 05:32:26
However, I'm not trying to make this thread an OS/2 vs. Windows flamewar. I also brought up Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD. ;)

Let me put it this way... why should I run OS/2 instead of another OS? What does OS/2 do that another OS can't?

RobertM: Thanks for your reply, and that did point out some stuff that's interesting to me. I did notice that thing about shortcuts being maintained through file moves, actually. I probably should try to learn REXX scripting, and all that... and the performance benefits are definitely interesting. I'm running Linux on my personal server right now... and it's got plenty of performance (disk space is its limit, honestly,) but simplicity of configuration would be nice...

Well, that gives you an idea of where you could go with OS/2 as a server platform. Two to 5 times the performance (depends on hardware and server daemons used - the more processors you through at each, the more OS/2 will outperform Linux, as good as Linux is).

Oh, this is from real world experience as a server, btw... here's one post related to it:
http://www.os2world.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,63/topic,977.msg8939/#msg8939

Someplace is a screenshot of the server's (lack of) CPU utilization from that day. The NT based system listed on Netcraft could not keep running - much less serving. At that time, our site was at about 1/10 of the traffic a month. And no, I did not suggest the Windows Server setup - that was before I took over. When switching to a more powerful server also failed, they gave up on that hosting company and switched to BlueHost and were given a non-dedicated box. When that failed under load, they (we) were given a dedicated box, which intermittently goes down due to load - but remains up far more often than the nigthmare that the Windows based box was.

The (my) OS/2 server didnt even seem to notice it was doing anything during the time I was hosting the box - all at the same traffic levels that the far more powerful Linux box handles.


On the other hand, the Linux box also made the Windows box look like someone trying to run a website on an Etch-A-Sketch. So, Windows may indeed have more apps... but as a server, it is abysmal.


Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 05:32:26
Software availability is a concern for a daily use machine, though.

Yes... depending on use. For certain business stuff, not necessarily.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: David McKenna on 2008.11.08, 07:50:24
The same thing that always made it special..... the WPS.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: rdonnelly on 2008.11.08, 15:32:25
You come to an OS/2 forum, post your first thread, and start calling OS/2 ancient, then you say it is not a flame war. I compare it to windoze, because that was its competition. Really OS2 is not all that different then it was 16 years ago at version 2.1. Why? Because it was a great OS then, and it still is now. The WPS is still far ahead of most mainstream OS's. The WPS was the first gui, (correct me if I am wrong) to use the right mouse button, it has always been an object oriented gui. I agree it is "OLD", but it does not fit into the ancient category, since it is still way ahead of most OS's. I mean, what could really be done to improve on OS/2?

Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 05:32:26

rdonnelly:
However, I'm not trying to make this thread an OS/2 vs. Windows flamewar. I also brought up Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD. ;)


Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: djcaetano on 2008.11.08, 16:16:18
Quote from: rdonnelly on 2008.11.08, 15:32:25
I mean, what could really be done to improve on OS/2?

  Improve UI? I dunno. The only things I could think of were:

  - Clearing the last bugs (and I include MMOS/2 and a better solution for the
SIQ in this category)
  - Improve (update) the look.

   On the core system there are a lot of updates needed (better support for huge
amounts of memory, improved support for recent hardware, more more and more
drivers, and so on).

  BTW, about "lack of software", I seldom need something that is not available on
OS/2. One of them is AutoCad (because I never had time to learn MicroStation,
and BlueCad is just too damn limited - no 3D); another one is BlueMSX (or
OpenMSX), an MSX Emulator I use to test some hobby-software I develop.
   Both of them I am able to run inside VirtualPC, so it is not a real big concern
(the only problem is the keyboard input doesn't work for BlueMSX).

   Most of times I have to boot VirtualPC is due to some Windoze user that
sends me a file to work on that is for a "windows-only-software". But otherwise,
I always try to find on Windows the same software I use on OS/2. PMMail,
KON, Mr.ED, OpenWatcom, FireFox, Mercury Messenger, Embellish,
Lotus SmartSuite or OpenOffice, JUDE, Squeak, PMView, Z!, DFSee,
LarsenCommander, Apache, MySQL, PHP, OpenChat, ZOC... the list is BIG!
  The differences from them to most Windows-only software are:

  - They do exist on my main plataform (OS/2) and on my secondary Windoze)
  - They are able to exchange files keeping the data (no need to reformat a document)
  - Some of them are not usually updated, but they all work good
  - Most of them have not "that many features", but have the features I use and
    are sufficient to get the job done.

   If they are available on Windows, why not use Windows? Because:

   - They usually works better (and faster) on OS/2
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - Even using windows, most people do not use them, so the "compatibility problem"
keeps untouched.
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - Many of the software that are available at OS/2 and Windows support REXX
scripts on OS/2, but have nothing similar on Windows.
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - There are too many viruses and trojans on Windows
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - I do not need a computer for gaming (I have a PS2 and an Wii for gaming)
   - Windows has not the WPS

   I believe these are the main reasons. :D
   I could think about more reasons, but I am feeling lazy right now. :P
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: DavidG on 2008.11.08, 17:51:10
Why use eCS/OS2?

The WPS and the operating systems speed.  There is nothing yet today that compares to the WPS.  As for speed, it is fast bringing up a program, no matter how many programs I have open.  Try that under Windows.  I feel Iike I have lost half my life waiting for Windows to do something once the program is started.  Work folders is another example of something Windows can't do.  By work folders, I mean that programs can be auto started when the folder is opened.  You don't have to wait for the folder to open before you manually have to start each program like you do in Windows.

Also, eCS/OS2 has the best file management programs on any platform; FM/2, Filestar, Larsen Commander and I do a lot of file management.

Programs like Seamonkey in my opinion are more responsive under eCS than WIndows.  Remember the long wait times under Windows.

David
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 18:06:13
Quote from: rdonnelly on 2008.11.08, 15:32:25
You come to an OS/2 forum, post your first thread, and start calling OS/2 ancient, then you say it is not a flame war. I compare it to windoze, because that was its competition. Really OS2 is not all that different then it was 16 years ago at version 2.1. Why? Because it was a great OS then, and it still is now. The WPS is still far ahead of most mainstream OS's. The WPS was the first gui, (correct me if I am wrong) to use the right mouse button, it has always been an object oriented gui. I agree it is "OLD", but it does not fit into the ancient category, since it is still way ahead of most OS's. I mean, what could really be done to improve on OS/2?

I did not start calling OS/2 ancient. The only time I used the word "ancient" was in reference to something almost completely offtopic - that I was playing around with actual ancient versions of OS/2. (1.30.1 and 2.10, to be specific. I think everyone on this forum would agree that those are ancient.)

I was saying that I didn't see why OS/2 was a competitive product in 2008. There's a difference. And, I'm fully understanding that OS/2 has some architectural benefits that may even still be ahead of their time, and it's going to make me pay more attention to them.

Anyway, as for software availability... I do know that that's not actually a fault of the OS itself (unless it's because it's hard to develop for - see Palm OS, and try to find a good web browser for it... there isn't any, because nothing can be easily ported, and the (no longer available) J9 JVM is buggy, and Opera Mini hits those bugs a lot.) If it doesn't have the market share, obviously software availability will be poor.

I'll note that one thing that looks impossible is... using most flash content - Flash Player 5 is the current version? Granted, this means no flash ads, but it also means that flash content that you want to use isn't usable.

Let's say I want to watch a YouTube video, something I do quite often. Unless there's a secret version of Flash Player 8 that I don't know about... I have to go to a YouTube downloader, download the video, and then play the FLV in mplayer. That seems like a ridiculously roundabout way of doing things...

(Switched to IE/Win32 to edit this post, because my VM is a bit slow (I don't think my CPU supports VT, so VPC is doing everything in software,) and Opera (my browser of choice) just displays something corrupt on these forums.)

Oh, and one more thing... I know this is one hell of a stretch, but...

Quote from: djcaetanoWindows has not the WPS

For some values of Windows (all of them being 3.1x,) it actually does (http://toastytech.com/guis/wps.html) have the WPS.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: rdonnelly on 2008.11.08, 18:28:53
Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 18:06:13

I was saying that I didn't see why OS/2 was a competitive product in 2008. There's a difference. And, I'm fully understanding that OS/2 has some architectural benefits that may even still be ahead of their time, and it's going to make me pay more attention to them.

Anyway, as for software availability... I do know that that's not actually a fault of the OS itself (unless it's because it's hard to develop for - see Palm OS, and try to find a good web browser for it... there isn't any, because nothing can be easily ported, and the (no longer available) J9 JVM is buggy, and Opera Mini hits those bugs a lot.) If it doesn't have the market share, obviously software availability will be poor.



I can agree with you there, I abandoned OS/2 a few years ago my self, just like IBM did ;)

I recently ran across ECS on the web, and was happy to see some one was willing to rescue it. So I am back, in anticipation that we may see some decent apps in the future. IBM and every other hardware manufacturer is a partner with MS weather they like it or not, and the software and hardware departments, did not see eye to eye. Probably another reason it never had enough support? An OS is nothing with out hardware and apps, and a crappy when can dominate with the opposite.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: djcaetano on 2008.11.08, 18:51:57
Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 18:06:13
I'll note that one thing that looks impossible is... using most flash content - Flash Player 5 is the current version? Granted, this means no flash ads, but it also means that flash content that you want to use isn't usable.
Let's say I want to watch a YouTube video, something I do quite often. Unless there's a secret version of Flash Player 8 that I don't know about... I have to go to a YouTube downloader, download the video, and then play the FLV in mplayer. That seems like a ridiculously roundabout way of doing things...

  Current Flash on OS/2 is Flash 7 (whatever). Most Flash 8 content work on it. Even som Flash 9.
  Anyway, these "ever changing" technologies that impregnates Windows world is one thing I really do not like.
  I really hope someone propose a open and free (and popular) alternative to Flash.

  My Wii, for example, has not support to Flash 8. And there is nothing I can do about it.
  But I do not think I have to blame Nintendo. I have to blame Adobe/Macromedia *and* Website developers, that require newest technologies even when a previous one will work great.

Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 18:06:13
Oh, and one more thing... I know this is one hell of a stretch, but...
Quote from: djcaetanoWindows has not the WPS
For some values of Windows (all of them being 3.1x,) it actually does (http://toastytech.com/guis/wps.html) have the WPS.

  Well, this is a BIIIIIIIG stretch. WPS for Windows 3.1 only looks like WPS. And has some of the WPS feel. But that's all. :)

  It is installed in my WinOS/2, though. :)
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: RobertM on 2008.11.08, 19:59:44
Quote from: djcaetano on 2008.11.08, 16:16:18
   If they are available on Windows, why not use Windows? Because:

   - They usually works better (and faster) on OS/2
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - Even using windows, most people do not use them, so the "compatibility problem"
keeps untouched.
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - Many of the software that are available at OS/2 and Windows support REXX
scripts on OS/2, but have nothing similar on Windows.
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - There are too many viruses and trojans on Windows
   - Windows has not the WPS
   - I do not need a computer for gaming (I have a PS2 and an Wii for gaming)
   - Windows has not the WPS

   I believe these are the main reasons. :D
   I could think about more reasons, but I am feeling lazy right now. :P


I agree with all of these... and one more...

Windows does not have the WPS.

bhtooefr, djc didnt (and probably cant) say that enough times. It may be "different"/"awkward" to get used to at first... but once you really figure out what it can do (which neither of us has even touched on), you may find that like us, there is no subsitute.

Robert
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: RobertM on 2008.11.08, 20:07:58
Quote from: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 18:06:13
Oh, and one more thing... I know this is one hell of a stretch, but...

Quote from: djcaetanoWindows has not the WPS

For some values of Windows (all of them being 3.1x,) it actually does (http://toastytech.com/guis/wps.html) have the WPS.

Oh, yes, that is a stretch. WPSfW, interestingly enough:
- Was written by IBM employees as a fun little project for OS/2 (WinOS2)
- Still runs (even though it is ancient) on the latest OS/2-WinOS2 versions
- Is tiny yet brings more functionality than all of the bloated GUI add-on stuff added to Win95 to make it run like OS/2's GUI.

But that aside, it still doesnt come close to the real thing (the WPS) - it just emulates some of the functions of it.

Rob
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: bhtooefr on 2008.11.08, 20:20:25
Well, and even in 5 minutes, I could see that it had some serious power. I'll have to get used to it...

I do plan on keeping this VM around to play with, and see what it can do. (Either that, or I've got a partition on this ThinkPad (X61 Tablet) that I'm not using for anything... might try running eCS on the metal, that'd force me to take a closer look at it, and not allow the slow, slow VM to influence my impressions of it.)

Of course, how does Odin compare to, say, WINE for Win32 app compatibility? If it compares favorably, that'd help, too.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2008.11.08, 20:36:39
Not even close.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: RobertM on 2008.11.08, 21:22:40
Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2008.11.08, 20:36:39
Not even close.

Sadly, (if memory serves) though Odin uses some stuff from Wine, it hasn't been truly updated in a while. The apps that do run well under Odin run really well, and at least as fast (in some cases faster) than they do on Windows. But without Odin being updated, there are many holes in it's support for Win32 stuff.

Odin would be a great project to be maintained and thoroughly updated. Alas, it seems not to be (though who knows? Last time we all thought that (a year or two ago) a new release suddenly appeared - so who knows what's going on behind the scenes? We may be surprised with a new release in the future).

Robert
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: Saijin_Naib on 2008.11.08, 21:27:44
Can anyone get in contact with the guy that was supposedly making the W.A.P.E project for OS/2 (WINE for OS/2)? I added him to my Jabber list but I'm never online when he is and he's de-authorized me.
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: BigWarpGuy on 2008.11.08, 21:56:37
http://www.ecomstation.com/news.phtml?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=2133 (http://www.ecomstation.com/news.phtml?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=2133)
March 20, 2007
http://www.tursoft.sk/index.php?a=cat.116 (http://www.tursoft.sk/index.php?a=cat.116)
I did what I think was a search using w.a.p.e. but did not find anything that looks like it was about it. :(
Title: Re: Newbie wondering... what makes eCS/OS/2 special, in 2008?
Post by: Fahrvenugen on 2008.11.09, 04:22:53
For me, working with computers I've always had the attitude of "use the best tool and / or OS for the job you're trying to do".  In some cases that is a version of Windows.  In some cases it can be Linux (or BSD or whatever).  Sometimes it may be a Mac.  Years ago (although sadly not any more) if someone asked me about the best platform for video editing / production, I'd have said Amiga.  And in some situations the answer is OS/2 or eCS.  Not all OSes were created the same, each has strengths and weaknesses.

Admittedly, if I need to run a copy of the latest version of Word or Excel (or any of the office apps), Windows is still the best way to run those apps (either in a VM or natively).  Yes I know OpenOffice will open many of those files, but I've also run into a lot of situations / files that just won't work correctly in OpenOffice (especially things that rely on complex macros and stuff) and it is just more  productive to use a real copy of Office.  Other areas where I still use windows on a regular basis includes doing such things such as audio / sound file editing.  At least once a week I find myself editing a sound file, and when comparing the tools available on OS/2 to the tools that I have in windows, there just isn't a comparison.

On the other hand, I have found situations where OS/2 (or eCS) just is the right tool for the job.  Not to say that its the *only* tool that can do the job, but at the time that I set it up it seemed to be the best option.  The biggest example I can find is in automation and server roles.   This is one area where OS/2 shines.

Here's a real world example:  About a year ago I took over the role of managing the IT infastructure for a small non-profit community radio station when the person who was doing the IT work moved to another city.  The station is volunteer run, has a limited budget, and has limited computer resources.  One system that needed immediate attention was a computer that keeps audio logs of all material broadcast.  For legal reasons, the station is required to keep an audio log of everything broadcast for at least 30 days.  Prior to using computers this had been recorded to tape, but a number of years back it was switched over to a digital system.  For redundancy there are 2 systems that do this, in the event that one system quit working the other would keep going.  When I took things over one of the computers had quit working.

The OS that was being used at the time was Linux.  Originally it had been set up on a build of Red Hat / Fedora, then later at some point it had been switched over to run on Ubuntu Server.  The problem with the computer that died was a dead hard disk.  Once I identified this and got a new hard disk, I debated whether to just run it on Linux again (as the other logger was running) or do something different.

The computer itself is a P4 - 1.8 with 256 MB memory.  Not all that impressive by today's standards, but at the time it was purchased (around 6 or 7 years ago) it was an impressive machine.

In deciding what to use for the logger I had a look at the other running logger (which was an identical machine).  The only thing it did was log live audio from the sound card to MP3's via a few scripts that ran SOX and LAME, it all ran as a CRON job.  As it was (running on Ubuntu Server) the machine was keeping up with its job of logging MP3's, but was using a significant amount of the system resources (around 40% - 45% cpu load, which again isn't a lot,  but still) for the limited task that it was doing.

On my shelf at home I keep a  few spare copies of OS/2 Warp (I've used Warp since '94, and over the years I've collected from various sources - bargin bins, people I know cleaning out software collections, garage sales, etc - additional licenses for Warp 3, Warp 4, and Warp Server... you never know when one will come in handy!), so I decided to see how well Warp could handle the job of audio logging.  If Warp did as well as Linux I'd just donate one of my extra copies of Warp to the station.

So I installed Warp 4 on a new hard disk, wrote a few short REXX scripts for the task at hand.  Within about 2 hours it was up and running logging audio and I found it was only taking about 15 - 20% of CPU cycles. 

I've since added things to what that server is doing.  In addition to logging MP3's it is running 2 web servers (each on a different port), PHP, MySQL, Icecast (for live audio streaming), FTPD, Email, SSH (for remote access), Samba (to allow others at the station to easily access stuff on it).  It also has a DVD burner on it which I frequently use to run backups.  With all of this, CPU load sits anywhere from 45 - 60% (depending on how many are accessing it at any one time). 

Could I have done that on Linux or Windows?  I'm sure Linux could have done it, although to run all the stuff running on Warp at the same level of performance that I'm currently getting I probably would have needed more memory, a faster CPU, or both.  As for Windows, I can say that I definitely would have needed both a faster CPU and more memory.  On OS/2 it just runs and was easy to set up. 

So what attracted me to OS/2 as the solution for that problem?  Simply the fact that I've used OS/2 for years, knew that it could handle the job at least as well and likely better then the other options, and I knew that I could get it up and running quickly without any significant upgrades in hardware (with the exception of course being the new hard disk) made a huge difference in my decision.

Since then I've been glad that I made the choice to go with OS/2 for that logger.  I've also switched the other logger over to OS/2 (about 2 months later the hard disk in the other logger failed, and I took that opportunity to switch Logger 2 over to an even older Pentium 3 / Warp 3 based system - which has no trouble logging MP3's, and we now use the higher powered P4 for another use).  It just plain works, doing what I need it to do and has opened up more possibilities for what we can do in the future.