GERMANY REPORT


by Stephan Elter
Bremerhave, Germany
Elter@FISHTOWN.han.de

Resistance is futile!

For many students Windows is the one and only operating-system. Sometimes they hear about such strange things like Unix, Linux or even OS/2! For many of them seems to be no necessity to know how to handle these systems. This may be right for some students, but for students learning information technology this is fatal.

In Bremerhaven's Institute of Technology one have the possibility to work with four operating systems: DOS and Windows 3.x, Windows NT, Linux and OS/2. Oops, OS/2? Because no one seemed to be interested in OS/2 at all, the decision was made to stop using it.

Hardly surprising - except for the operating system itself: there wasn't any OS/2 software installed - not even IBM-Works! Furthermore the system was not protected by a security-software so some students took their chance to "play" with the WPS or some configuration files - often with a deadly result for OS/2. So if an interested student came along, he had sit in front of an OS/2 computer with a corrupted WPS and no native software.

I was shocked by the fatal decision to remove Warp from all computers and replace it with Windows NT. Undoubtedly NT is important but I was sure that many of us will meet OS/2 in our future jobs. Over 50% of German banking houses use OS/2 and even many other big corporations use it like UPS, Ford, Volkswagen (Germany), or even McDonalds.

So a few students decided to "play" advocacy for OS/2. And it seems as if they had made a good job: all 20 OS/2 systems will be updated, at least! IBM-Works will be installed on every system, and now it is also planned to teach Java and Lotus Notes using exclusively OS/2! And I got a job as system operator for the OS/2 installations. Sometimes advocacy can be a very helpful thing, and...resistance is not futile!

What happened to you "C't"?

The German computer magazine "C't" is or should we say was the most respected source of information for "high-end" computer users. It was one of the few magazines which reported in a neutral manner about Windows in all its versions, OS/2, Linux and the Mac. One can read about the MS-Office 97 and on the next page about the great advantages of PM-Mail 1.9 or other OS/2 applications - until now. Rumors say that the assistant editor-in-chief is after years of using OS/2 frustrated about the IBM marketing of OS/2 and the lack of native applications and turned his back to Warp. That's his own decision and all right so far. But since then all articles about Warp have a taste of bitterness. I have no problem with that either - but its important that the OS/2 contributions based on facts and not on his own opinion! In the last issue, "C't" wrote about the "secured" future of OS/2 but finished the article with the sentence that its very improbable that a Warp 5 will ever be released. I really don't no what source of information the author had. Maybe some German readers of this report should ask him at: db@ct.heise.de

Please do not hesitate to send me any German specific news and information you would like mentioned in this column.

- Stephan Elter

Stephan Elter is a student of economic-technology in Bremen and, of course, an OS/2 user. He is helping out our regular columnist, Henry Luebberstedt, until his return.