OS/2 and eComStation

Welcome to the OS/2 and eComStation part of this website. In this section you will find information about:

01. Preparing for installation of eComStation2 using VMWare Workstation version 9.
02. Installing eComStation2 in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine.

03. Preparing for installation of eComStation1 using ms virtual pc.
04. Installing eComStation1 in a ms virtual pc virtual machine.

05. Configuration of eComStation (the way I do it).
06. Installation of applications.

I would like to inform you on how I did install eCs. What is eCs? eCs or eComStation is the successor of OS/2. As we all know, well maybe not, OS/2 was created by IBM and Microsoft early nineties to replace DOS. DOS ( Disk Operating System ) was a non graphical 16bit operating system used on the first personal computers. Apple at that time had an graphical interface with a pointing device ( mouse ) and both IBM and Microsoft wanted to have something like that for the pc. Also OS/2 should be a fully 32bit OS. At a given time IBM and Microsoft did not agree on how to develop OS/2 and Microsoft and IBM went there own way. Microsoft came with Windows and IBM with OS/2. I think, and that is just my imagination that Microsoft wanted the close button for the windows on the left and IBM on the right and that, in a personal battle between the two CEO's (they battled for who was the fastest in closing the windows) Bill Gates won. :-)

At the long term Microsoft was more successful than IBM, not because they had a better product but only because there marketing was better. IBM was and still is a big company, and in big companies the wheels turn slow, for OS/2 the wheels turned to slow. But it is still there and used in the world. Mainly by banking companies because it's reliable. Even now IBM has stopped support for OS/2 there are still companies and people who use OS/2 by it's successor eCS.

Serenity Systems was allowed by IBM to create an OEM version of OS/2 while IBM still holds the patent to the kernel. Many volunteers started to write drivers and programs for eCS and without those people OS/2 / eCS would not be alive any more. Many thanks goes to those people who spent many free hours of there own time in keeping OS/2 / eCS alive as it is today. In conjunction with Mensys we expect the release of version 2.0 somewhere in 2009. What can you do with eCS? Is there any software? The answers to these questions are easy. You can do with eCS almost everything what you can do with Windows or Linux. There is more than enough software to do daily tasks. To give you an idea: There is Firefox and Thunderbird for internet and email. Upcoming is flash10 support where Adobe has allowed Serenity Systems/Mensys to port flash to the eCs platform. There is Open Office for daily office duties. People work on CUPS which goal is to get printer drivers to the eCs platform. Web, Mail and Ftp server programs are available if you want to set up your own web environment. You have some photo editing tools like PMView and Gimp and when you install Odin you have the ability to bring some Windows programs to the eCs platform. I for myself was successful in installing Photoshop 5.5 ( Yes I know it's an old version ) native in eCs after installing Odin. At a later point I will try to install an older version of Premiere, just for the fun of it. As you can see there are many options and possibilities. You can even install QT4 which is a platform used on Linux and Windows as-well and install ported QT4 applications on eCs. No games I hear you think. Well if it is games you want you better buy a game console. :)

So is eCs something for you? When you are tired by the way Microsoft forces it's users to do the things they see fit, after all they own the software so they own your computer as well. At least MS thinks it does, and if you think you are ready to step out of the horde and do something different then eCs might be the OS for you. It is not easy at the beginning, that's true but if you hang into it it's worth it. You can make use of Microsoft Virtual PC which you can download for free from the MS website. It has no support for USB but that is MS to blame and not eCS which has fully USB support. With Virtual PC you can try eCS without loosing any MS related stuff. There is another way but that one is more complicated and I can't be hold responsible if you mess up and that is install a dual boot operating system on your computer. You could use the free airboot program for that.

So there are two things you must do:
(1) Download Virtual PC and install this.
(2) go to www.ecomstation.com and buy EComStation.
Better you also buy a software subscription so you are able to download the latest betas and updates.

If you are in possession of VMWare Workstation, since version 8 (better support in version 9) you can also install eComStation as a guest in it. The advantage is that you will have a fully functional eComStation virtual machine with USB support.