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1995-05-18
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Michael Widmann: Team OS/2er Extraordinaire
It's amazing the things that inspire people to start something
new... a sale at a craft, garden or hardware store, a
well-produced infomercial, and even a desktop operating system
that fires the imagination while enhancing personal
productivity. What these things have in common is that they
motivate a person to do something that they haven't done before.
Michael Widmann, co-founder of the first Austrian OS/2 User
Group, found just that kind of inspiration with OS/2. Michael
has been a driving force of the OS/2 grass roots efforts in
Austria. He has developed and taught OS/2 classes, declared a
"holy war" within his company to get them to set OS/2 Warp as
their desktop standard and was recruited on the spur of the
moment to demonstrate OS/2 Warp for the PowerPC at CeBit in
Hannover, Germany. Michael has made it his personal mission to
establish a big market for OS/2 Warp in Austria. He boasts that
Austria has the highest per capita OS/2 Warp consumption in the
world.
As in many love affairs, Michael's first encounter with OS/2 was
not very positive. He was first introduced to version 1.3 of
OS/2. He thought OS/2 looked like Windows and he wasn't too
impressed. Then his software dealer offered him a good price for
version 2.0 and he decided to give OS/2 another try. At first,
Michael could not get OS/2 2.0 to work on his system. Since
Michael is a self-proclaimed compulsive type, he just had to
make it work.(By the way, getting started with OS/2 Warp is much
easier than it was in the days of OS/2 2.0. For more information
on Installation, see Step One: Installation in this issue.)
As Michael worked to get familiar with his system, he was able
to learn many of OS/2's benefits. As he continued to work with
the OS/2 operating system, the elegance and forethought of the
OS/2 architecture became apparent to him. He supplemented his
growing understanding of the system by reading articles and
books on OS/2. Mike Kogan's "Design of OS/2" was particularly
helpful.
Understanding the architecture and design of OS/2 did not keep
Michael from appreciating the practical features of OS/2.
Michael likes how he can do many things at one time. As a
student who works in the computer industry full time, Michael
needs the productivity that OS/2 offers him. When Michael uses
OS/2, he really feels like he is getting the most out of his
computer hardware.
He also feels secure that an application that runs into a bug
will not bring down his entire system. Michael likes that he can
feel secure with OS/2's Crash Protection.tm When Michael tests
out some of the code he writes for school, he knows his
programming errors will not impact the other applications he
runs on his system. OS/2 Crash Protection is one of the reasons
that Michael wants his company to switch from Windows to OS/2.
Michael also enjoys the flexibility of OS/2. He likes being
able to create a document in the IBM Works word processor and so
easily fax it out. He also likes to show off how his system can
play film and sound clips. And then there are the games... Need
I say more!
Knowing all that OS/2 can do plus how and why it works serves
Michael well in his role as an OS/2 advocate. In a call to IBM
to find more OS/2 applications, Michael heard about IBM
Austria's Team OS/2 program. Figuring that Team OS/2 would help
him establish contacts in the business world that might lead to
something in the future, Michael signed up.
As a team OS/2er, Michael was focused on reaching the provinces
outside of Vienna with OS/2. The response to Michael's efforts
have been overwhelming. He organized a presentation in a theater
that had 300 seats; about 1000 people showed up to see OS/2. He
also organized the first OS/2 electronic bulletin board in
Austria. Now there are five Austrian OS/2 bulletin boards.
OS/2 truly motivated Michael to do things that he had never done
before. Through his passion for OS/2, he has become a public
speaker, an organizer, a co-founder, and an impromptu trade show
demonstrator. Michael has shown IBM the potency of his user
group and his personal dedication yet he receives no monetary
compensation for his hard work. Michael does what he does for
OS/2 out of a belief in the product. He knows, " OS/2 is the
right way".
For more information on Team OS/2 see the Team OS/2 WWW page at
http://www.teamos2.org or send an e-mail to teamos2@vnet.ibm.com.