Hi there all you OS/2 fanatics. Yeah, it is me again, the nut on the southern tip of Africa. Sometimes I think I'm the only OS/2 user this side of the Sahara, but then I get in one week five calls for support, and then I'm wishing I was the only user this side of all that sand. But, as they say in my business, if there were no problems, I would be out of a job.
On the very sad side, I must admit that the Cape Town OS/2 user group is starting to die. After more than five years, and many, MANY interesting meetings (and I am very proud to say that I missed only ONE meeting) it sounds like the Cape Town OS/2 community is just not interested in the OS/2 meetings anymore. And maybe we must give credit where credit is due. Glenn Fermoyle, the soul and joy of many meetings left IBM about 6 months ago. He always did more than anyone else to make sure that there were speakers and other information available for every meeting. Now that he is away and there is no one around that has the time and connections, well, maybe it will just end. Very sad, but that is maybe the way the Cape Town OS/2 user group is going.
There is however a way out! Like any other user group, the Cape Town OS/2 user group must start to depend on the group. I'm a firm believer that if everyone in the group just keep his eyes and ears open and are willing to talk just once a year on his/her topic of choice, we can have many more interesting meetings. But then the users must also start to attend the meetings a lot better. We used to be a group of about 60 fairly regular attendees, with the average size of a meeting of about 30, but lately attendance figures dwindled to about 15-20. Now this is just not enough. On a very negative note I must say that if the May meeting is not a lot better, then the May meeting will also be the last meeting of the Cape Town OS/2 User Group.
Now, on a more positive note. All indications show that Warp V4 sales are not bad, not bad at all. For me, a much more positive sign is that there is definitely less problems with Warp V4 than with any other release. I've been using Warp since version 1.2, a long time ago, and I was very satisfied with it from version 2.1, but boy, am I satisfied with V4. I think I've battle tested it now in the business environment where I spent most of my time, and up to now it passed with flying colors. But, I'm running it on a ThinkPad 755 CD, a 66 IBM Valuepoint and an old 25Mhz Micro Channel server, so all true blue machines, but still, it just hums along. My next big step is to convince my wife that we must upgrade the home PC from Warp V3 to Warp V4. She always gets the jitters when I change something on "her" PC, because she must work on it every day and this and that. But I think that will be a good test for Warp V4, because if it can survive in the home, it can survive anywhere!
Maybe I'll talk next month on why the best OS in the world can't make it really big out there. If you have any ideas, one liners etc., please let me know.
Have fun and support the Cape Town Olympic bid for 2004! Remember, we are now in the last five, and we'll MAKE IT !!!
Please do not hesitate to send me any news and information pertaining to South Africa you would like mentioned in this column.
Francois van der Merwe was the South African Country Coordinator for the "Connect the World with Merlin" project. He is also an active member of the OS/2 Users Group in Cape Town and Team OS/2.
