OS/2 eZine - The Best OS/2 Reading Anywhere!

16 July 2001

From The Editor

Looking for More OS/2 eZine Content?

How about writing it? The OS/2 eZine has to be a community effort, the more writers we have to spread the work around, the better the issues will be and the easier it is for everyone. Our current group of writers are showing signs of tiring and far too high a percentage of the articles in this issue are mine, so we're looking for help.

If you're working on a cool OS/2 project that you think the readership of the OS/2 eZine would find interesting, we're looking for one-off articles as well as short series and monthly columns to fill the pages of the OS/2 eZine. Trying some cool new software? How about writing a short review? It doesn't take much time and you can win some great prizes!

Please visit the OS/2 eZine Pressroom (http://www.os2ezine.com/pressroom.html) for submission guidelines and article ideas. If you have any questions, let me know at editor@aurora-systems.com.

A Wealth of Web Browsers

No matter what web browser you use on OS/2, there was something new for you this month. I'll be looking forward to trying some more of these in the coming weeks.

Opera for OS/2

I was very pleased to see the first public beta of the Opera (http://www.opera.com) web browser for OS/2 this month. The making of the OS/2 version of Opera has been a long and torrid affair, so it is nice to see a product at last. If you're not familiar with Opera, it is designed to be small, lightning fast, and cross-platform. It comes in two versions, the free version shows ads at the top, or you can purchase an ad-free version. Interestingly enough, the new OS/2 version needs Odin (http://www.netlabs.org/odin/) to run. You can download Opera here. (http://www.opera.com/download/download.cgi?id=129) I strongly recommend you give this new product a try.

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IBM Web Browser Gets a Shot of Adrenaline

If you have been disappointed by the performance of the IBM Web Browser, you'll want to get IC30795.ZIP (ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/os2web/ic30795.zip) This single DLL replacement provides a big performance boost when web browsing. I was very impressed.

Mozilla Update

Also out this month, the 0.92 version of Mozilla (ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/mozilla0.9.2/mozilla-i386-pcos2-vacpp-0.9.2.zip) offers a similar speed boost as well as new features, although if you run SMP, you'll need to run EXECMODE to bind MOZILLA.EXE to only use one processor as there is a crash bug in the current version on SMP machines.

Netscape Refresh

Also, Netscape 4.61 has been updated. Details are at the Fix News page. (http://ps.software.ibm.com/pbin-usa-ps/getobj.pl?/pdocs-usa/fixnews.html#jns) Download it at IBM's Software Choice site. (http://www6.software.ibm.com/dl/netscape4/nc461os2w-p)

We Want Your Ideas

I have now completed a lot of the things I wanted to do for the eZine, so I want to start implementing some of your your ideas. What do you want the eZine to do for you? What services could it provide that would be valuable to you? Tell us what you think, we're looking for suggestions, we're looking for help, bring your ideas to the forums.

This Issue

We're glad to welcome Simon Gronlund's Into Java column back this month. We also have a couple of multimedia articles if you're looking to improve your computer's audio experience. Doug Clark continues his series on ODBC on OS/2, and John Bijnens takes a look at Web/2.

Please Support the OS/2 eZine

Thanks to our sponsor Sundial Systems (http://www.sundialsystems.com) last month, Isaac Leung got a copy of the Relish (http://www.sundialsystems.com/relishhome) personal information manager. Please support the eZine by clicking through and examining our sponsors products. It really does help, and you never know, you might find something you really need.

Got a New OS/2 Product?

If you are interested in advertising in the OS/2 eZine, take a look at our Advertising (http://www.os2ezine.com/advertising.html) page. We've got an offer we think you'll find hard to refuse.

The OS/2 eZine is committed to serving the OS/2 community by providing accurate, useful, and timely information every month. We will deliver user-oriented hardware and software reviews, thoughtful editorial comment, and 'how-to' articles which will include useful tips for both the novice and the experienced OS/2 user.

Robert Basler (mailto:editor@aurora-systems.com) is the president of Aurora Systems, Inc. (http://www.aurora-systems.com) and a dedicated OS/2 user since he tired of rebooting Windows 3.1 twenty times a day.

This article is courtesy of www.os2ezine.com. You can view it online at http://www.os2ezine.com/20010716/page_1.html.