eComStation: Results of 2013

2013-12-22 04:17:17 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Main results of year 2013 - udpated USB drivers (sequence of updates). Several developers are working on USB, (debugging, multi-processor compatibility, patches integration).

IF we have working USB 2.0 drivers, then it's possible to implement USB 3.0 drivers, then support for different USB devices may be implemented, control applications can be developed.
(eComStation: If .., then .., else..)

eComStation If .., then .., else..

2013-12-22 03:54:41 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

You can post more sentences "What will change if implement this in eCS.. Else.."

The first sentences are simple but somebody should collect this minds. Later you will see links and see important conclusions.

• [GPS USB] If implement support of USB GPS receivers, then PMMaps/2 may be updated and it will indicate the location of computer. => eCS may be used as car GPS tracker.
• [OPENGL_ES] If implement OpenGL ES runtime, then several small games and apps based on OpenGL ES may be ported
• [ENGINEER] If we have software aimed to draw and design curcuit schemes, then the engineers which are using this software, will make something useful (write aux utilities and small apps)
• [PC-resellers] If eCS can make N functions then small sellers of computers will sell computers with eCS pre-installed. 2) If price of OEM version is small (chaper than Windows) then the resellers can use eCS as default system
• [WPS-CopyMove] If improve navigation on desktop, then users start using WPS (not only to lauch apps) => more Zippy users, => more PCM address book users
• [eCS-resellers] New people buy eCS for office needs if we offer black boxes with 1 function (eCS computer which executes 1 important task).
• [APPS-Photoshop] - If develop Photoshop, this will not change the situation. 0 designers. There reason to develop small utilities and apps (draw with stylus, edit photos), which cover the needs of existing users

eComStation 2.2 beta II now available

2013-12-16 03:29:15 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

New version is available, number: "eCS 2.2 beta II"

Serenity Systems International and Mensys BV are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the eComStation 2.2 beta II Release. This beta release is available in English only.

This product is available for download to all registered users of Software Subscription Services for eComStation.

eComStation 2.2 beta III will follow before the final release. This eCS eComStation 2.2 beta II is done to test that most issue's with USB, AHCI and disk geometry problems are resolved.

This release does not address all bugs open currently in the eCS bugtracker.

eComStation 2.2 beta II

This is a beta version of eComStation 2.2, provided to interested customers for the purpose of testing and evaluation.

eComStation 2.2 includes many new features. While our in-house testing indicates that they are fully functional and reliable, we would appreciate as many reports from our beta testers as possible in order to complete our evaluation prior to final product release.

Consequently, we would request that, when using the eComStation 2.2 Beta, you pay particular attention to testing and evaluating the following new or improved features:

• New: CUPS printer support. Support for a large variety of printers is installed by default.
• New: File Open Container.
• New: split view for desktop folders.
• New: Adapters and Protocols configuration program.
• New: PNG Desktop. (large icons)
• ACPI power management, especially in combination with multiple processors. The ACPI support in eComStation 2.2 has been significantly overhauled relative to earlier versions.
• Video driver performance with Panorama. Panorama has received considerable improvement since eComStation 2.1; in particular, widescreen displays should now be much better-supported.
• WiFi support has been updated with new versions of the XWLAN widget and the WPA supplicant program.
• A Java-based RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) client has been added to facilitate remote connections to Windows workstations and servers.

Please refer to http://www.ecomstation.com/support/ecs22beta/ for more information on this beta and guidelines to submit your reports.

DISTRIBUTION / CREATING INSTALLATION MEDIA

This product is provided as a downloadable ISO file, this is a raw DVD image that you can burn on DVD-R media. For instructions on burning the ISO image to DVD please consult the PDF document "howtoburncds.pdf" available in the same directory as the ISO files.

REGISTRATION KEY REQUIRED FOR INSTALLING

eComStation 2.2 Beta requires a valid eComStation 2.0 or 2.1 registration key for installing. You should have received this registration key as part of your previous eComStation 2.x purchase. You can download it (by logging in at http://www.ecomstation.com) in digital form, ready to be imported during the installation process.

SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

This product is available for download to all registered users of Software Subscription Services for eComStation. If you subscription has expired, you can purchase a renewal which will grant you immediate access to the download.

More details can be found at http://www.ecomstation.com/subscription/

ENJOY

We hope you will enjoy testing this beta version of eComStation 2.2.

Best regards,

Serenity Systems International / Mensys B.V.

(December 13, 2013)

History: User interface

2013-12-07 22:53:06 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

We continue to analyze the changes of eComStation and OS/2 Warp user interface
User interface

(You can send us add-ons)

Demo version of eComStation 2.2 (2013/12)

2013-12-07 16:42:55 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

This demo will run directly form CD, when inserted in the CD player of the computer. It will not touch the harddrive in any way, but instead run entirely in RAM memory. This enables the user to evaluate the eComStation product easily, without having to having to modify their system. The demo CD is able to detect and configure a possible network adapter, so the user will be able to access the Internet directly from the CD. If no supported network adapter is found, it is possible to use a modem connection to dial-in to the Internet.

http://www.ecomstation.com/demo

Post your email to get link to .iso image.

System requirements:

• minimum of 160 MB of system memory (RAM)
• Boot from CD supported in system BIOS
• High speed CD player is preferred
• Network card for Internet access
• alternatively an external modem
• Booting from anything other than CD (i.e. USB memorystick) is not supported

Fantasy History at Ars Technica

2013-11-29 02:42:35 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Michal Necasek commented an article related to OS/2 which was published at Ars Technica site: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/?p=2144

The initial article and the response collected dosenz of comments.

eComStation 2013/11 drivers update

2013-11-28 23:22:15 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

You can download updates from Mensys web-site, you should have active Software Subscription.

1) AHCI driver (SATA 2 driver) was updated several days ago (version 1.32) / http://svn.ecomstation.nl/ahci / requires: subscription

2) Panorama VESA package was updated (1.06) / http://svn.ecomstation.nl/panorama / requires: subscription

3) ACPI sub-system is updated, (3.22.03) / http://svn.netlabs.org/acpi / requires: subscription

4) Updated USB drivers (hobbes), Lars Erdmann writes (source)

• David has worked on AHCI and released a new version to iron out problems with HDs reporting back wrong status info. I am sure Mensys wants this to go into the distribution. But it needs to be tested on as many machines as possible (in order to prevent regressions) and finally it has to go into the production tree.
• David has worked on ACPI to work around some systems that give incorrect returns on some ACPI method invocations. For the rest, see 1)
• David and me we are working on USB. The short range goal is to have USB keyboards and mice work for say 98% of the people (over the years I learned that with USB you will never reach the 100%). We are already working on USBEHCD.SYS,USBOHCD.SYS,USBUHCD.SYS,USBKBD.SYS,USBMOUSE.SYS and USBHID.SYS to get this problem fixed. Unfortunately, USB is a "driver stack" and not an individual driver ...

Zippy (new generation)

2013-11-22 18:24:19 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Zippy is the most advanced archive manager for IBM OS/2 and eComStation operating systems. It allows browse and extract files from any archive (all popular formats are supported). It helps you create standard Zip and 7z archives.

Zippy Homepage: http://ecomstation.ru/zippy

New version 0.06.01 of Zippy is available. The functionality of command line was extended significantly. Start "zippy /?" to see help.

You can manipulate archive files from REXX scripts now, use Zippy library for REXX (name of library: eZip).

Don't forget install the latest version of eCo Software runtime (includes important fixes). http://ecomstation.ru/runtime

P.S. Tricks&tips:

File Commander/2, add to User menu (F9->Commands->Edit User Menu) this lines:

A:  Create Zippy archive
    zippy /C !x !f

Now select files and directory, press F2 -> A to archive selected files.

eCo Software (fall/winter 2013-2014)

2013-11-19 03:27:25 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

eCo Software is able create several useful applications and libraries for eComStation / IBM OS/2 Warp during the next few monthes. You can become shareholder of our projects.

One of the prototypes: utility aimed to print postal labels (for label printers) (project #723)

(input address)

(output: ready for use postal label)

List of supported hardware: Zebra LP 2844

eCo Software is working on eComStation / IBM OS/2 Warp market since the 90-th. We are specialized in development of native software (and hybrids).

eCo Labs: small tasks for december

2013-11-19 00:58:05 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Several tasks for novice developers

• Update review "Thinkpad and OS/2" - [busy]
• Update review "History of games for OS/2"
• Edit review "Memory troubles"
• Write review of modern libraries (Zippy REXX library aimed to manage archives from REXX), etc.
• Sync with Google account - [busy]
• Create new utility which uses banners (notifications) - List of ideas
• Translate Installation guide to russian
• Update one Doodle screensaver module

What is the agenda for eComStation today?

2013-11-16 00:32:24 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

1) How to open-source the system? or

2) What applications to develop to attract new users, extend the market?

3) How to settle eComStation to virtual machine?

4) How to break the barriers (UEFI, ..)?

5) What extra functionality add to the system (aimed to attract new users)?

Alarm! os2voice.org is down

2013-11-13 01:40:31 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

os2voice.org contains tons of useful information about OS/2 and eCS. Seems that the site is not available. (~ 600 articles related to technologies and software).

Other site os2ezine.com contains ~ 550 articles.

eComStation.RU accumulated ~300 articles only.

What to do?! We should recover the site asap.

Intel 5100 WiFi and eComStation

2013-11-12 20:59:28 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

More users report about work of Intel 5100 in eComStation

• XWLan updates
• Genmac forum

Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN module is installed inside Thinkpad laptops:

• R400, R500
• SL300
• SL400, SL400c
• SL500, SL500c
• T400, T500
• W500, W700, W700ds
• X200, X200s, X200 Tablet
• X301
• 3000 N500

Other method - find patched BIOS (with removed white list) and flash it. In this case you can use Intel 4965AGN adapter, which works with eComStation without problems.

Rexx for Android Available

2013-10-31 19:57:32 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Rexx for Android has been officially released as open source software. It is available at Google Play, and the source code repository is on Jaxo's github: https://github.com/Jaxo/yaxx The git repository also contains a pre-compiled version (Rexxoid.apk) ready to be downloaded to android devices. "Rexx for Android" descends from the Rexx implementation that Joe Latone and Pierre Richard wrote in early 2000. Joe and Pierre were employed as Researcher at the IBM TJ Watson Center in the mid 80's, and there they met Mike Cowlishaw and his Rexx vision. Twenty years later, they have realized their own implementation of Rexx in C++. Designed with portability in mind, it was aimed at running on mobile devices (Palm OS, at the time), beside the classic Windows and Linux. This port to Android was started in 2010 and a preview was shown in 2011. RexxLA thanks Pierre Richard for completing this magnificent implementation and donating it to the world.

P.S. REXX is the general (system) scripting language in eComStation / IBM OS/2 Warp. --------------

SysInfo, new generation

2013-10-26 23:22:14 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

eCo Software is working on new version of SysInfo utility. Download beta version: ecomstation.ru/sysinfo

Please share your experience, what information do you need?

• Resellers of eCS computers: what system parameters do you demonstrate the customers?
• Developers: what system information do you need?
• Home/Office users?
• Administrators of eComStation computer farms: what information about computer do you check?

Yuri Larin talks: "Current target is collect useful functions in libraries so the developers can re-use SysInfo/2 functions in own applications.

Target #2: We should sort information on the pages of the utility and simplify it.

Target #3: Add additional (modern) information about computer to SysInfo/2."

eCo Software runtime updated

2013-10-24 01:14:19 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

eCo Software runtime is the main engine for native applications. The development of applications goes faster if developers integrate useful functions written and debugged by other developers to own code.

Whatsnew: Base, Win, Net runtimes updated, new libraries included.
Changes in every library: Runtime / toolkit whatsnew

For developers: read examples and documentation in eCo Software toolkit.

eCo Software runtime homepage: ecomstation.ru/runtime

If you have useful libraries, you can share and distribute this modules as part of eCo Software runtime / toolkit (requires additional negotiations).