EComStation 2.0 GA To Be Released May 14

martiniturbide writes "After a long delay, eComStation 2.0 GA will finally become reality. It will be released in time to be presented at the Warpstock Europe 2010 event which will be held in Trier, Germany, from May 14 to 16. We consider eComStation 2.0 to be the biggest overhaul of OS/2 so far. Together with a team of both hired and volunteer developers, we have extended the functionality, removed limitations, updated hardware support as far as possible, and resolved close to 1000 issues that had been reported since the release of eComStation 1.2R. The new eComStation 2.0 GA is the result of several years of combined efforts and investments."

could ya...

[Nyder]

... give it a lamer name?

Oh my God, my Eyes!

[Phrogman]

I am sorry if it seems overly shallow, but looking at the (awful) Flash demo, the UI design hasn't been upgraded at all from the last time I ran OS/2. I was hoping they had someone spend some time getting rid of the Win 3.1 look and feel, or are they hoping for some upswelling of nostalgia for the old look and feel?

I should be open-mindedly welcoming the return of an old friend, and looking at the functionality available, but I am afraid I can't look past the awful look and feel of the UI long enough to find out. It just looked terrible - at least as long as the terrible flash demo ran before the whole thing seized up on me and I gave up.

I *loved* OS/2 when I used it, it was superior to Win 3.1, allowed me to run DOS programs (like my BBS software) in the background while I ran something else in the foreground, etc etc. It had an amazing future - until IBM dropped the ball and completely failed to promote it. I would far rather than modern OS design had drawn more from OS/2 as a heritage than from MS Windows, but its a tad late now.

Now, I am sure there is a market for this - all those POS software packages that look like DOS and are still used all over in small stores, ATM applications that are similarly primitive etc - but I can't see it having much appeal beyond the legacy support type environment.

Now, if the arrival of eCommstation heralds the return of BBSing, I might be inclined to buy it. I loved the old BBS days prior to the availability of the Intertubes, but I don't think anything is going to bring that back :(

Like AmigaOS it just wont die

[StephenM_Sparrowhawk]

OS/2 is still used quite extensively in Australia by banking institutions, who claim it is still more reliable than the Windows equivalents. Much of the critical banking infrastructure reliant on OS/2 has since been ported to Linux (Mostly running atop RHEL.) The combination of high stability. the very configurable and flexible workplace shell with REXX IPC, at a time when the NT kernel was still being sorted ensured rapid uptake and penetration in some vertical markets. Like the AmigaOS it was very economical of system resources and had a very consistent UI. There are still lessons in the Workplace Shell (OS/2) and Intuition (Amiga) for both KDE and GNOME. Window managers with some of the WS features for Linux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell [wikipedia.org] and related http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7822082064.html [desktoplinux.com]

Re:Oh my God, my Eyes!

[FuckingNickName]

Am I the only person in the world to prefer the UI of classic Mac OS and Windows 3.1 to the shiny of Windows 95 / Vista (bleugh) / OS X (arghgh) ? I like clean simplicity, not decorations which distract me from using and enjoying the machine. Oh, and there's nothing enjoyable about a textured close button.

Re:Oh my God, my Eyes!

[jonbryce]

I don't think it is a case that they aren't able to copy it rather than that they don't want to copy it. They are doing a reasonably good job of copying OSX's funcionality in Windows 7, and that has always been the way they've done things.

Re:Oh my God, my Eyes!

[Moridineas]

Sadly, how it works should always be more important - but in this day and age, in most markets (cars, computers, and so on) that is not the case. Another prime example are the people who would buy a Toshiba piece of shit over a Thinkpad because of the looks - even though the Thinkpads have always been more reliable and better built. Yes, there are those who made that purchasing decision based on price, but (having worked in retail at CompUSA) there were numerous people who, having the money to spend, stil chose the Toshiba because of how it looked.

To be fair, price and appearance are about the only factors that the "average" consumer can figure out when buying laptops. Things like "quality of build," "reputation," or part quality aren't easily discernable.

Heck, when I go into a CompUSA/TigerDirect wherever and look at laptops, unless I've read reviews lately, I feel pretty helpless (and rarely stmble across a salesperson like you who actually knows their stuff)...

Re:For what application?

[afidel]

Dude, most of the java code I've run into isn't even future proof to the next subversion of java. It's seriously a significantly larger headache for us than going from Office 2000->2003->2010 or XP->Win7.

Re:So... I downloaded the demo CD and..

[gearloos]

Thats exactly my point. IBM Hardware and your golden but anything short like a different atapi cdrom and you had to edit the config file on the floppy install and you better hope your good at remembering hardware addresses, IRQ's, DMA, etc... I did try and boot on a regular PC directly, but it's a Corei7 and figured that would be a bit much. tried anyway and it failed there too. I just don't feel like trying to get OS/2 working if it's that much trouble. Yes, I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard, and I do know how to get most things working, I just don't think the end result is going to be worth it...