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Regarding the OS/2 Product Priority List as appearing in the June issue of OS/2 CONNECT...
Things of High Value and Urgency
The one thing we would benefit most from is market share. I understand that IBM now has the license to win3x. Why don't they overhaul the cosmetics and interface to resemble Warp, add long file names, IPF, applets, games and anything else that would move a user towards Warp? Then they could market an inexpensive upgrade package that had lots of information on the best way to run legacy Windows apps, OS/2. They could also provide the face lift to WinOS/2. We could see an influx of users and maybe some vendors actually using DAPI (or DAX or whatever they're calling it now).
Great idea!
I don't know how much trouble it would be but would there be a way to vote on each of these suggestions much like the World games charts or the OS/2 Petition Site?
Top of my list is Win32 application support. I can't recommend OS/2 to newbies and intermediate users because they won't be able to go pick an app off the shelf at the local computer store and expect it to run on their system. Even if it is emulation, such as with SoftWindows32 for the Mac, it is better than no support.
Second is improved "game" support meaning DIVE, DART, and other multimedia support including duplex support for sound cards. There are good games for OS/2 but there would be more if the fundamentals for games--video, sound, device access, 2D, 3D--were more stable.
Third is the best Java support available.
I love all of the suggestions for the "Home Edition OS/2"
The problem for OS2 is that IBM only knows how to sell to major companies. They also are a hardware, not software company. All operating systems are only to support hardware sales. To expect IBM to help create applications for OS/2 is to wish for fairy tales to come true. Until IBM understands that there is more money to be made selling good software than there will ever be in selling hardware, we will not see a change in its way of doing business. The Win95/NT API's that IBM has put into OS/2 is the best we as users and developers can hope for until the old guard at IBM is put out to pasture. This should speed up the development and lower the cost of new applications and updates. We need to make sure that all developers know that OS/2 has the Win95/NT APIs.
You should forward Rick Bradley's letter on to IBM (reply to "I Don't Understand" in the June issue, Sound Off! section). Its the most articulate response I've seen about what needs to be done to put OS/2 back in the game. It may not be what a lot of OS/2 users want to hear but its realistic.
Mid 1995 and despite the imminent release of Windows 95 I bought a battered and lonely Red Box copy of OS/2 Warp 3. It was sitting on the shelf of my local computer store amid the glitz and hype of the Microsoft advertising campaign. I suppose I could say I felt sorry for it. Rumors were abound that 95 would be the final nail in the coffin of OS/2 and even the salesman attempted to discourage me from parting with my cash, "I've tried it and I couldn't make head nor tail of it, you want to be saving your money 'til 95 is released." Blaagh! I got a great deal on that copy, I guess he thought that charging me full retail price would be wasting my money.
I'm a bit like that though, I tend to support the underdog. The way I see it, any effort to counter Microsoft's monopoly of the PC market place will get my vote. I simply don't agree with the way Bill Gates likes to do things.
A really invaluable computer system, it seems to me, is one that can be tailored to suit the needs and requirements of its user. This is why I bought and continue to use OS/2 as a preferred operating system. I share with many the belief that an OS should be open, scalable, flexible, have cross platform support, be both backward and forward compatible etc. etc. all the things a Microsoft OS generally isn't.
Warp 3 never sat comfortably on my hard drive because of a mishmash of conflicting and second rate hardware devices in my humble little PC. Warp was on and off (my system) more times than an old top coat. The learning curve was immense but satisfying, I discovered what a great many people had been saying about OS/2 for years, OS/2 is truly is an amazing piece of kit. All this praise does not come without some criticism however.
Warp 3 seemed to lack any integrated and useful support for high-end multimedia devices, it supported very few, if any, wave table sound cards and being a semi-pro musician with an enormous interest in the developing digital audio/MIDI arena, I found out the hard way that Warp 3 was definitely not the musicians choice of OS: no native sequencing software, no real-time MIDI sub-system, no support for professional quality cards. Of course, IBM is not totally to blame for the lack of OEM support. OEM support is dependant on buoyant consumer markets and we are all aware of IBM's position here.
After using Windows 3.11, the install and setup of anything other than a basic Soundblaster in OS/2 was traumatic and more often than not, a non-starter. Things just didn't happen as you would expected them to. Furthermore, I don't consider a Soundblaster to be a serious choice for musicians.
I have since spent enormous amounts of cash upgrading my hardware to meet the needs of OS/2. I upgraded to Merlin as soon as it became generally available expecting to find the shortcomings of the multimedia side of things remedied. Wrong! My �250 Turtle Beach (Wavefront) synth and my �130 Yamaha DB50XG sit idle and silent inside my machine. The only MIDI device Merlin handles effortlessly is the on-board (Tropez) OPL3 FM synth chip so despite the real-time drivers, my MIDI still sounds like a wasp in an old tin can.
Now, I consider myself to be fairly computer literate. I am not short of grey-matter when it comes to installing drivers, setting IRQ's, I/O ports, hacking around in system files etc. But I am pulling out my hair! I am punching holes in walls and stuff. I have spent countless hours installing, un-installing drivers, configuring and re-configuring the system, booting-up, shutting down the system, I am fending off a divorce here! To hit the nail on the head, I have never come across an installation routine so erratic, unpredictable and downright unworkable as setting up a wave table sound card to work properly in MMPM/2. I have heard rumors that there are bugs in the OS audio code, if this is true then it should be rectified ASAP.
The trouble with me is I'm tenacious, I mean really tenacious. I should have switched back to Windows for my MIDI needs a long time ago but it's too late. What guts me most of all is hearing everybody say, "We told you so!" and its true, both cards work flawlessly in Windows 95.
I have invested so much time, energy and enthusiasm into OS/2. And furthermore, If anybody with the clout at IBM finds the time to read this, then do your OS/2 customers a massive favor and ditch MMPM/2 and develop a real-time MIDI sub-system from the ground up that works and which is easy to configure. Please DON'T insist that it works when it quite clearly DOES NOT!
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