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16 December 2001

IBM's OS/2 Accomplishments in 2001

At the beginning of the year, IBM provided a "Statement of Intent" that listed four features they intended to deliver in 2001 for OS/2, TCP/IP v4.3.1, a new web browser based on Mozilla, a new primary logon client, and a new http server. They have delivered *all* of these in 2001. The IBM statement did not say, however, that these four "features" were to be the *only* features provided, nor have they been. IBM has provided other features for Software Choice customers in 2001. For starters, they released an much-improved update in August of the IBM Web Browser they first released in March. They released the newest version of the Scitech Display Doctor Special Edition display drivers in November. They released a refresh of Java 2 in September that included a Java 2 plugin for using it with the IBM Web Browser. They also released an update to Java 1.1.8. One of the more interesting things that IBM did in fixpack 1 for Warp 4.51 was the creation of PSDs or "platform specific drivers" to provide a hardware abstraction layer which will have interesting uses in the future. That fixpack also provided a change in the printer installation process and euro support for Win-OS/2. IBM released a number of significant hardware drivers in 2001 for Software Choice customers including improved USB drivers for a larger variety of devices that worked on a much wider variety of USB chipsets.

Even for non-Software Choice customers, IBM has continued to release updated kernels and OS/2 builds of the Mozilla browser in 2001. IBM also released fixpack 15 for Warp 4 in 2001 as well as an update to Netscape v4.61. IBM released a number of free device drivers for OS/2 including many new color inkjet printer drivers (Epson and Canon) as well as com and printer port PCI drivers that allowed sharing of IRQ's. IBM even released a 16-port version of the com.sys driver (important for SCADA (http://members.iinet.net.au/~ianw/primer.html) applications.)

As a Software Choice customer, I have been extremely pleased with the job that IBM has done in 2001, and in what I have received. The IBM OS/2 people can look back at a year of accomplishment in which they continued to provide outstanding support for continued use of OS/2 in the face of many difficulties.

[Ed. This was originally posted in the comp.os.os2 newsgroups, I thought it was a very good summation of IBM's year in OS/2.]

David T. Johnson (mailto:djohnson@isomedia.com) has been an avid OS/2 user for 7 years beginning with Warp 3. He is a consulting engineer in Redmond, Washington specializing in designing and troubleshooting complex systems for wastewater pretreatment, hazardous waste treatment-by-generator, and air emissions control. He is married with three children. He started using OS/2 for its powerful multitasking capability and superb HPFS file system and has continued to use it both for its technical strengths and because it's fun.

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