This month VOICE interviews two business OS/2 users and a home OS/2 user. Our
first interview is with Dave Cull, "a private individual, Canadian citizen,
information manager, writer and activist."
Dave > Property management, Promotion and distribution of industrial hemp
products, Research and development of industrial hemp resources for the construction
industry.
VOICE > Can you please describe your current use of OS/2 in your workplace?
What kind of hardware and software are you using for OS/2? Approximately how many
pc's are running OS/2 at your site?
OS/2 is my primary operating system . I run a desktop (Cyrix P200, Matrox Millenium,
Warp4, FP7) and a TP 385xd for mobile use. A zip drive and a Mictotek E3 scanner
are available from both machines. I use ODPro, Netscape 2.02 with PMStripper and
WebXOrg as add ons, InJoy and I-Link as dialup programs. Impos/2 V2.1 and PMView
for graphics and Snappy in a Win-OS/2 session for single frame video capture from
a cam corder. FaxWorks Pro on both machines. I have Lotus SS/2 loaded on both machines,
but still use DeScribe. WordPro has some very nice features, but Organizer conflicts
with the RMB 'cut, copy and paste' provided by NPS WPS that I use between the net
and my legacy PIM (a venerable DOS program called InfoSelect). I also look after
a couple of other pcs running OS/2 for friends and family.
VOICE > How did you decide to use OS/2? What features were considered important
for this project(s)? What previous experience was there with OS/2 and other operating
systems?
Dave > I decided to try OS/2 after many years of struggling with Dos and Windoze
memory management problems, etc. (at one point I actually had Ventura running on
a 286, sort of)
VOICE >What other operating systems if any were under consideration or are
used for your business? If you use OS/2 in conjunction with other OSes in any form
of a network, how well does OS/2 work with these other systems?
Dave > Not a consideration.
VOICE > Do you foresee continued/increasing use of OS/2 in this fashion?
Dave > no
VOICE > Are there any changes that you would like to see to OS/2 that would
facilitate your continued use or expanded use of OS/2?
Dave > I'd like to see continued support for hardware and software developments.
Win32 support would be a big help.
VOICE > How have IBM's statements that they are targeting the medium to large
business sector affected your work or your decision to continue using OS/2 for this/these
task(s)?
Dave > So far it hasn't really been a problem. There seems to be enough shareware
and other software development to keep things working.
VOICE > If IBM licensed another company to sell the OS/2 client to home/SOHO
users, would it affect your usage of OS/2 (would you use more OS/2 clients for your
work, etc)? If this company could add features, what features would you like to
see added?
Dave > Win32 support
VOICE >Would you be interested in a refreshed version of OS/2 Warp 4.0, that
is a new install package that included all fixes and new enhancements as well as
new harware support since the original release?
Dave > Yes. I've already signed up at the web site as a potential purchaser.
VOICE >Has your business been contacted by IBM about the potential use of
Work Space on Demand? Do you see any use for that product in your business?
Dave > No contact. At this point, no use for WSOD. Nice to know its a possibility
if I need it though.