No summer time blues for OS/2 users, unless you count the blue desktop background! I spent some time on IBM ThinkPads for my clients and I had a happy surprise. In the past IBM has been, rightly, criticized for not supporting OS/2 on their own hardware. But now, on various models, I could find all the needed drivers, neatly stored on Web sites (including sites from IBM France with instructions in French) and install them with easy installation software and instructions. I guess that the latest models may not have all their OS/2 drivers ready as they start shipping but there is some commendable effort here. As Creative Labs is also coming back to developing OS/2 drivers for its AWE64 card and most video chipset manufacturers are still updating their OS/2 drivers there is some return from the effort of many OS/2 users to keep asking for drivers. Of course Windows users don't have to ask - their sheer number speaks for itself. But as OS/2 users we have to act. It does not take much to send an e-mail, ask a salesperson on a booth, or add OS/2 to the "Others" checkbox on forms. Any company with business sense will end up seeing our community as a potential market, smaller but hungry. When we get to be seen from a business point of view instead of being dismissed as a bunch of jurassic users there is hope for some products to be developed.
Speaking about product being developed the saga of StarOffice continues. The latest news is that StarDivision is setting up an office in France, which will be activated in September, to market and sell StarOffice on all the platforms supported. I don't know yet if they will have the French version ready right from the start. What I do know is that they will be targeting the big corporate accounts, which makes some sense for a newcomer on the office suite market. But the base price is low enough to attract all kinds of users.
I will end with one piece of advice: listen to Elvis Presley while using OS/2, you will notice that some dead are more alive than they are supposed to be.
Please do not hesitate to send me any French specific news and information you would like mentioned in this column.
Vincent Delaruelle is a Technical Consultant at OS/2 boutique in
Paris. He is also the editor of an OS/2 newsletter, la Lettre d'OS/2 Magazine.