[Discussion] eCS and other woes

[Bob Wonderly]

Brian

Sorry to hear about your woes.

When I downsized in early 2005 and reluctantly abandoned OS/2 in favor 
of Linux I bought my second laptop from Emperor Linux. It is set up with 
M$Win XP Pro on one side, Linux on the other and a common partition in 
between. I use USB memory sticks (thumb drives) on Linux (also on Win 
depending upon how they are set up) for quick back up, I can play MP3 
files on Linux. I have a 120 gig external hard drive for archiving and 
because I had I-Omega disks and A-drive-diskettes I have 
almost-never-used external USB I-Omega and A drives. Since I am a 
full-time RV'er (no room for desk top hence the laptops) I use the wifi 
to access the internet from Linux. Regina Rexx works fine with Linux and 
so far has run every one of my Rexx programs that I needed to use. 
Regina has a nice interface to Linux, allowing you to run Linux command 
line programs and capture their STDOUT from within a REXX program.

Nothing's perfect. I do miss the PL/1 compiler I had on OS/2 and have 
opted to not use the IBM PL/1 compiler for M$Win. And I wish I could 
compile one of my useful PL/1 programs to run under Linux. The Linux GCC 
C-compiler works fine and I am using the Ruby OO-language for most of my 
programming needs.

Linux does take a  bit of getting used to. I leave my Linux running 
without IPL'ing for weeks at a time (putting the laptop to sleep when it 
will be idle for a while, but leaving many apps in place ready to go 
back to where I left off when I wake it back up again).

I recommend Emperor Linux (EL) for laptops with Linux. They are quite 
helpful. Last year when in Nebraska I found an office supply store with 
a helpful manager who allowed me to connect to their LAN so the EL 
people could remotely operate my computer as super-user to help me 
resolve a problem. One time on my older EL laptop the Linux got 
destroyed (not EL's fault). So when I was in the Atlanta area (where EL 
is located) they--for a reasonable fee--rebuilt my Linux.

I should clarify that my particular EL laptops are IBM/Lenovo Think 
Pads. EL will sell any number of brands of hardware which they will 
preload and configure for you so that they are ready to go. They have 
special expertise in configuring laptops which seem to have issues not 
present in desk tops. (They have some special kernel modifications they 
use.) By the way IBM/Lenovo have been excellent at dealing with (3-year) 
warranty issues requiring major replacements on both of my computers.

I find that Open Office (O-Off) will easily read M$Word files people 
send me. I use O-Off for spreadsheets but have not tried their data base 
feature. Can you run your Lotus SS "stuff" under XP Pro so you could 
move to the current M$ OS?

Well, I rambled a bit there, maybe a little off-topic, but that is an 
update on "my life after OS/2". Oh yes: I IPL M$Win as little as 
possible--mostly for special things like infrequent Palm One synchronizing.

Good luck. As you can see I continue to lurk on POSSI. I was especially 
interested in Larry Linder's recent comments on current Linux matters. 
Does anyone out there in POSSI land have a handle on how the eCS company 
is doing and what the future might hold for them?

Bob Wonderly

Brian Grawburg wrote:
> I'm just about ready to throw in the towel on OS/2!
> I installed eCS on my Thinkpad T20 and it has been a mess. I did keep my original version of Warp 4 however so I can return to it.
> 
> With eCS:
> 1. DeScribe won't work.
> 2. On many occassions the system freezes and I have to shut it down to restart. I froze trying to send this message!
> 3. I installed it specifically so I could use my USB memory stick...it won't work.  And I do have the 1.2R version, I went out to their Web site and downloaded the USB updates.
> 4. I hate to think that I will have to install Win98 in order to use my MP3 player and memory stick!
> 5. Since I have many important documents and databases in Lotus SmartSuite I can't switch to Linux.
> 
> I am not a happy camper today.
> 
> 
> Brian Grawburg
> 
> 
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