SWITZERLAND REPORT


by Rene B. Sloot
Oberwil, Switzerland
rbsloot@ibm.net

BEST THINGS FIRST

Did you ever have a look at the IBM Java Site? No, in this case you missed something:

"Downloading ActiveX over the web is like bungee jumping from
the Empire State Building - without the cord."

If you want to read more about IBM's opinion on what M$ is saying about Java and ActiveX, jump to http://www.ibm.com/java/community/commentary.html

NO DRIVERS AVAILABLE? WRONG!

Beside all the drivers you may find on the IBM Device Driver home page, there are some more. I would like to mention one specifically: Epson. Epson Germany wrote OS/2 drivers for most of their printers and they did a fantastic job. In the meantime, since their first appearance, we have seen updates too and they are getting better from release to release. Today I would like you all to get into action: Support (morally) Epson to continue this support and have next version to support more printers. The best way to do so, is writing them an e-mail, telling them they are doing a great job and shouldn't stop this. The only e-mail address that is available is the webmaster@epson.de. Unfortunately, they will only accept mail concerning their home page. Epson Germany, the developers of the drivers can only be reached by standard mail at:

EPSON Deutschland GmbH
Zuelpicher Strasse 6
40549 Duesseldorf
Germany
Tel: 0211/56030
Fax: 0211/5047787
WWW: http://www.epson.de/support/download/l2os2.htm

But to make life easier for you, we decided to collect all mail and send them together to Epson Germany by fax or mail. Please send me (rbsloot@ibm.net) your name and e-mail address and the subject: Yes, I want Epson Germany to continue their OS/2 driver development. I will report the results in a future issue of OS/2 CONNECT.

SMARTSUITE IS COMING

Finally, after nearly ten years of waiting, Lotus SmartSuite for OS/2 seems to be on its way. This year, I tried to order the new OS/2 versions of WordPro and Freelance, but I wasn't very successful in getting an answer from Lotus Switzerland nor Germany. But now, you have the possibility to download the whole suite from Hobbes or order the beta CD from J3 (http://www.os2store.com/). I will have to wait for that CD, because I doubt, I will stay awake long enough to do the download of over 100mb from Hobbes. Getting up early in the morning to shutdown the line (and perhaps finding out the line failed 1mb before completion of the download) is not my most liked case. Anyway, those ten years of training, will make it easy for me to wait another one or two weeks.

TUCOWS CONTINUES THEIR SUPPORT FOR OS/2

A little while ago Tucows announced, they would stop their support for OS/2, but showed an e-mail address, where to send any requests for continuation. Due to the overwhelming number of e-mails that came in, Tucows promised to continue (and even enhance) their support for OS/2.

OS/2 IS ALIVE!!

The Tucows reaction to all the e-mails shows, that slowly everybody knows that OS/2 is alive (as also shown at Warpstock), except for the IBM management. If you want OS/2 to remain alive, read Tim's petition page to do real support.

THE BEST COMMUNICATION OS WITH THE MOST OPEN SHELL

A couple of weeks ago I was setting up an NT server machine (no comments please, I know what you're thinking and I share your thoughts). All the server has to do, is serving a small LAN and access the Internet. So, I wanted to start a dialer. OK, to keep this story short I'll stay with the major facts: NT wanted to install RAS. I don't want any RAS. All I want is getting into the Internet with Netscape (of course). - There doesn't seem to be a dialer available, just for getting into the net, without installing, and updating later, other unwanted features. The best solution for a problem like this (NT) is putting Warp Server on a system. IMHO, getting into the Internet and letting other systems dial into the server are two different things and I would expect that it would be a user's choice, what to install from the CD. But as M$ is very user-friendly, they're taking that decision for you. In M$' opinion, I'm probably too stupid to decide for myself.

After this unwanted RAS installation, I wanted to get rid of the various icons on the screen. So, I created a standard folder to contain all(!) others currently ruining my background. If you might ever become successful in doing so, please let me know how you did it. So far, I'll have to continue living with the decisions M$ already made for me.

SIMPLE QUESTIONS

  1. What's the difference between a reference and a shortcut? (Beside the fact that one works and the other doesn't.)
  2. Does the sun ever shine in Redmond? I don't think so, because otherwise people over there would know about shadows.
Don't forget to send me your e-mail address to have Epson Germany continue their driver support and please read Tim's petition page.

Please do not hesitate to send me any news and information pertaining to Switzerland you would like mentioned in this column. I'll take correspondence in English, German and Dutch (and will respond in the same language).

- Rene B. Sloot

Rene is an AS/400 technical consultant, an IBM Certified OS/2 Engineer, and a proponent of OS/2 on the PC. Rene also serves on the board of directors for the 'COMMON Switzerland' (AS/400 user group).

EDITOR's NOTE: Rene is scheduled to be married on October 21st. We offer Rene and his wife to be our heartiest congratulations and wish him much happiness in the years to come.