HAARLEM, THE NETHERLANDS (December 23, 1998)
Dear IBM,
Our company is specialized in mail-order sales of OS/2 Warp products. Our customers asked us to start taking pre-orders for a new version of OS/2 Warp (version 5?).
We started taking pre-orders, only from people entering their data on our web-site. We suggested a price level of US $100 excluding tax and shipping.
We so far accepted over 6,000 orders and based on these orders expect a total of 7,000 orders this year and at least 13,000 next year.
So please accept our firm order for 7,000 copies of a new OS/2 Warp version for a total of US $700,000 and our expected order for at least 13,000 copies for a total of US $1,300,000 next year.
Our feeling is that this is of course only a small subset of potential customers. At the recent HCC fair in the Netherlands which attracted over 115,000 people we noticed a growing disappointment in Microsoft products and a strongly growing interest in alternative operating systems such as Linux and BeOS. A renewed OS/2 could attract many new customers and could help IBM with their sales of OS/2 to large accounts. Interest in Java-solutions would grow if there was more diversity in operating systems.
Non-delivery of a new Warp client will also mean that the people and companies who now pre-ordered a new Warp 5 Client may stop using other IBM/Lotus products such as Notes, DB2, TX Series, MQseries, SmartSuite, etc.
If you wish we can send you a list of comments from our customers about suggested functionality for this new Warp version.
Regards,
M.B. de Jong
General Manager, Mensys B.V.
Please read more on this on the official 21Warp Homepage:
http://www.jmast.se/21warp/
Place your order online:
http://shop.mensys.nl/cgi-bin/db2www.exe/mns_reg5.d2w/report
WILMINGTON, NC (December 20, 1998) - BMT Micro, Inc., a leading software reseller, announced today that it has entered into an agreement and plan of merger with Falcon Networking, Inc, a Florida based internet service provider with interests in web based publishing and design, programming, and networking services.
Under the terms of the merger, Falcon Networking, Inc. will move operations to Wilmington, NC. The details of the merger were resolved over a period of months and have been approved by the principles of both companies. The merger and relocation of Falcon Networking is anticipated to be complete by December 31st and is currently underway.
"This merger will allow both companies to greatly enhance their core services and at the same time form a creative environment that will immediately benefit our customers and clients," says Thomas Bradford, President of BMT Micro. "1998 has been a year of dramatic growth for BMT Micro due to the diversification of our product mix and the enhancements we've made to our services. Falcon Networking and BMT Micro have worked closely together for 2 years and bringing the companies together will allow our resources and talent to be used most effectively."
"As our two companies worked together on various projects over the last couple of years, it became clear that that the talents embodied in the staffs of the two companies meshed in a way that would benefit from an even closer relationship," said Dirk Terrell, President of Falcon Networking. "By bringing our people together, both companies will grow in ways not possible as separate entities. This merger will allow us to provide even better service to our customers."
BMT Micro, Inc., founded in 1992, is a privately held software reseller located in Wilmington, NC and has the distinction of being a pioneer in electronic commerce.
Falcon Networking, Inc., founded in 1996, is a Florida-based internet service provider specializing in web publishing.
WHITE BEAR LAKE, MN (December 15, 1998) - Keller Group, developer of the PMfax and FaxWorks OS/2 products, now has a special LAN version which supports Windows, NT and OS/2 workstations for small SOHO LAN situations. This provides LAN fax sharing at a very attractive price of just $299.
The new product allows "shared mode" use of the fax hardware by up to five other workstations, and the workstations can be any mixture of Windows, NT or OS/2 machines. The fax server can be any OS/2 machine on the LAN. This is ideal for SOHO configurations where privacy, routing and other advanced features of the regular PMfax LAN products are not needed.
"We continue to support the use of OS/2 by the home and small office user," says Mark Ahlstrom, President of Keller Group. "Many customers are now using Windows and NT machines in addition to their OS/2 machines, and this new product provides a cost-effective faxing solution for their office."
All PMfax products are now available for electronic ordering and delivery through the Keller Group web site at http://www.kellergroup.com/.
PMfax and FaxWorks OS/2 are trademarks of Keller Group Inc.
Author's Note: I've been getting lots of e-mail asking for the location of the file. Here is a my original announcement supplemented with the previously missing information:
QuickFix is another of those tools for applying OS/2 FixPaks without obliging you to make a bunch of floppy disks. It differs from other utilities of the genre in that it uses a diskette image extractor which does a CRC verification before applying what could otherwise be junk from a bad download to your perfectly-tuned and functional OS/2 system.
QuickFix is not specific to any particular FixPak.
Improvements over version 1.0 include:
File name: QF11.ZIP
Location: Hobbes, currently in
/pub/incoming
but eventually it should migrate to
/pub/os2/system/patches/fixpack (replacing QF10.ZIP).
Author: Jon Saxton (triton@ibm.net)
Credits:
Trevor Helmsley (for DISKFP)
Alan Arnett (for DSKXTRCT)
Peter Flass (for W)
Albert Crosby (for CMDLINE)
An updated version, Release 1.1, of SmartSuite for OS/2 Warp 4 will be available on 12/16/98 (US English version).
Release 1.1 contains new instructions and package files for installing SmartSuite in a WorkSpace On-Demand 2.0 environment. The READWSOD.TXT readme file should be available on Lotus's Web site around that time or shortly thereafter.... http://www.lotus.com/smartsuiteos2/.
BOCA RATON, FL (December 4, 1998) - Solution Technology, Inc. (STi) announces the start of a closed beta for their significantly enhanced Image Edition(R) for OS/2 as well as a parallel update to their TWAIN for OS/2(SM) high performance image acquisition system.
The update to Image Edition for OS/2 includes many functional user enhancements, auto-migration. enhanced database recovery and regeneration as well as an updated Btrieve database and fixes to reported problems. The update to TWAIN for OS/2 includes new data sources for Hewlett-Packard, EPSON, and Fujitsu devices. Support for new models, some enhancements, and fixes to reported problems have been included.
"This is a significant release for STi", said Leon Zetekoff, STi Product Manager. "We're anticipating a release following incorporation of beta changes by the end of January, 1999."
Solution Technology, Inc. is a leading supplier of components for image analysis, data-entry and document management applications. Other barcode, forms reading, image data-entry, and departmental document management products for OS/2 and NT are available for use in the transportation, banking, distribution, and insurance industries among others. Product and pricing information can be requested by calling (561) 241-3210 or by visiting STi's web site at http://www.gate.net/~stidev.
TWAIN for OS/2 is a servicemark of Solution Technology, Inc.
Image Edition is a trademark of Ovation Data Services.
OS/2 is a trademark of IBM Corporation.
Other marks are owned by their respective companies.
