Thinkpads Forum

I just found out about Warp being continued with ECom Station- has anyone tryed it out yet- Good for Thinkpads?

Yes.
TP-R51 here with eCS v.1.2 Runs great

Hi,

I run eComstation 1.1 on a T30 - quite well.

all Hardware is supportet (Intel) , but the fu*** Winmodem.

Quite Fast and silent - on accu up to 4 hours

Mikex

I see you are in Cupertino.

Every month, in Los Gatos, we hold an OS/2 user group meeting. I always run some kind of demo on my ThinkPad T30 running eComStation 1.2.

See our web site, <http://www.baywarp.org> for more info.

Only bad note about installing eCS was that I kindof screwed up the Windows XP installation. I deleted the XP disk volume, and restored it to a much smaller one to have room, but the restore copy of XP was generic, and didn't have Access ThinkPad on it.

But it works pretty well in eCS, so I wound up running Windows 2000 inside of a VPC container running on eCS. Just for those few programs that I need that only run on Windows.

I've installed eCS 1.2 in on an X31 (1.4GHz) 7 weeks ago. I created a bootable USB Stick to load the basic stuff (just copy all the files from the subdir with the images to the USB-Stick and added the 512bytes Patch to boot from it -> MEMDISK from Veit Kannegiesser - sorry I currently don't have the link at hand) and the rest came from an external CD-ROM connected over PCMCIA /PC-CARD.
I had to add the PCMCIA stuff and correct parameter for the CD-ROM to Danis506 but that was all.

If you wonder why I had to connect an external CD-ROM - well the X31 has only a harddrive and no floppy, nor build-in CD/DVD-ROM. I don't need it because I install everything over the network.

klkoehler wrote:I just found out about Warp being continued with ECom Station- has anyone tryed it out yet- Good for Thinkpads?

Well, for one, there is no "Warp 5" although the distributor of eComStation in The Netherlands was advertising eCS as "Warp 5" and was forced to stop the false advertising by the European Consumer Agencies.

As an OS/2 advocate (for more years then I care to count), I retain a fully licensed copy of every version of eComStation, including the latest v1.2, and it has failed to install on my T30, T40 and T41. That's not to say that it won't install it will just take a lot of hand holding and preferrably previous OS/2 background and knowledge to understand what needs to be done. Once installed the user finds eCS to be somewhat problematic and dependent upon other eCS consumers to solve system problems.

eComStation is actually a minor third party vendor's proprietary product that uses an older version of OS/2 as the base operating system. To the OS/2 community it is equivalent to the Linux distribution of "Lindows" and is not a welcomed product. The pricing scheme is deceptive and often advertised and marketed by eCS salesmen as "Just $59" but the actual cost is a little over $300 per release. Like Microsoft, the eCS product is 'upgraded' on a near yearly basis and the upgrade re-marketed as $59 but actually ends up costing over $300. Over a three year period the eCS consumer will pay approximately $1,000. The makers of eCS are entirely dependent upon IBM to continue its OS/2 support but the eCS consumer cannot turn to IBM for assistance or help. The maker of eCS does not provide Tech support and the product can only be purchased outside the U.S. in "The Netherlands" where U.S. consumer laws have no validity.

BTW, IBM has never stopped 'continuing' OS/2 Warp and continues to support it today through their Passport Advantage subscription service. Every IBM OS/2 consumer with a PA subscription can contact IBM's Help desk at any time for support and assistance. The latest release is Warp 4.52. Version 4.53 is currently in beta testing. To obtain a copy you simply sign up with Passport Advantage for free then select Warp followed by a Maintenance Contract purchase. Initial cost can be as low as $65 to as high as $120. IBM fluctuates on the cost. Re-up subscriptions are around $10-$40 a year. IBM continues to pump out drivers, new software, new enhancements, Java updates, and all kinds of stuff which is available for download by any PA subscription

OS/2 Warp 4.52 installed on all of my ThinkPads (T30, T40 and T41) within 20 minutes and runs very well on each of them today. IBM officially support OS/2 on the T30 and I believe the T40 but OS/2 will also install on a T41 machine.

Would I recommend eComStation? No. I would recommend IBM's OS/2 Warp 4.52 to any T30, T40 or T41 Thinkpad owner.

Dear Tim Martin,

some comments to your last reply:

- At http://shop.mensys.nl/cgi-bin/db2www/MN ... 9:08:41&C= you can see the prices for Ecomstation,.
- ECS new costs 172 €/219$, Upgrade from Warp 77 €/99$, and from EComstation 1.1 only 44 €/59$.
- EComStation application pack costs 110 € new, 74€/99 $ as Upgrade from ECS 1.0 or Application pack 1.1

You can combine Application Pack with ECS, but there's no rebate any more.
Application Pack includes Lotus Smartsuite 1.73, OpenOffice 1.1 and SVista (Serenity Vista successor for Virtual PC for OS/2, including USB support)

- ECS contains OS/2 warp 4.52 as basic system, combined with new features like ECS Styler, multi-window-support, and other feature.
- ECS, every new edition, changes a lot of system interna so that it is not easy to upgrade to newer versions
- often working system components are changed and modernized so that sometimes there may be difficulties.
- ECS starts a modern system with graphical interface (well, that's not absolutely necessary but fine), uses a moderner LVM interface which is more logical for newbies, and can be installed from one system
- EComStation 1.1 was the best, most mellow version, EComStation 1.2 supports modern notebooks better, concerning power management, a modern graphic driver (Scitech SNAP), improvements at COM-drivers, integrated EMX-Runtimes, a RSJ version for cd-writing, and many other features and programs

- IBM discontinued support for not-paying customers, only few things are available for "normal" users.
- IBM delivers OS/2 warp 4.52 with Concenience Pack 2 since 3 years and broke its stipulation to deliver newer Concenience Packages so that Fipacks can be installed within one installation, and you've got a modern system at one run (I ordered Software Choice, now Passwort advantage, at that time, the fist year I got two Concenience Packs, 1 and 2, and then nothing. well, a new SDD driver, a new IBM Webbrowser, a newer printer driver, but that was all. And that fun cost for me 350 €, too much for my benefit
- driver development for printers is nearly obsolete, it's outsourced to Linux, and there are new actual printer drivers available. You must hope that newer printers like the Pixmas IP?000 are compatible to former i-printers from Canon and so on.
- important things like WLAN-support for most Wireless network cards are not supported to be delivered for OS/2, especially not newer 54 Mbit cards, like in Thinkpads greater or equal the T40, (Accton or Intel Wireless chipset. WPA is not supported, too. you must be lucke to get WEP protection. By the way, actual UDF-drivers for OS/2 are not available as service, IBM Webbrowser with security fixes could be gotten with software choice, too.
- multimedia support like MP3s and so on is not supported, too. Maybe OS/2 should make not happy
- the look and feel of OS/2 warp is antique, loveless, the font rendering machine is disastrous, so that I must install an improvement of Innotek.
- OS/2 costs 300 € at mensys.nl, no mention about including any Convenience Packs or Fixpaks.

If IBM and Serenity worked better together, ECS would be better.

Well, the future of OS/2 remains in Ecomstation, but Ecomstation is not the ultimate OS/2, the users are ... (in Germany you say "in the same boat"), if they don't hang together, OS/2 will be as dead as been told in several press releases or magazines.
And in the community, interested in further improvements for OS/2 and ECS. A lot of those developments were included in ECS.

Regards,

Thilo

By the way:
Ecomstation was installed on my notebook T41P without bigger systems.

I meant without bigger problems, except for the lacking JAVA 1.31 which should be installed to run tcpcfg2.cmd, and sometimes the not working multimedia support.

See at commtalk.de

Anonymous wrote:I meant without bigger problems, except for the lacking JAVA 1.31 which should be installed to run tcpcfg2.cmd, and sometimes the not working multimedia support.

See at commtalk.de

Dude, I dunno who you are but I can see you are writing from another country. I'm telling you I bought ecomstation v1.1 from a place called Mensys and they were the worst people on earth to buy anything from. They claimed they lost my order. They sent me 1 of 3 CDs and when they finnaly sent the last two CDs they were blank as hell. eCS didn't work on my T40 at all. It just sat there grinding away for ten, twenty, thirty minutes and never did install. I sent it all back and told 'em I wanted my money back (about $320 with shipping charges) and I got nothing. They ignored me bad.

Whenever you OS/2 guys say buy ecomstation I cringe bad. It's a ripoff. Stop. Just stop fleecing people.

Hey Tim Martini, aka "OS2guy".
Stop your eCS hate bashing in here, its bad enough to endure on UseNet.
On the OS/2 UseNet groups you can get away with that, as those are none moderated forums.
Behave yourself for a change.

We want eCS to be part of the OS/2 familly and if you don't agree, no one forces you to use it or to even be in here.
So stop your hate mongering for once and stop trying to tell us what OS/2 products to use or not to use.

eCS is very much welcomed by the OS/2 community, IBM has stopped actively developing OS/2 some time ago (as Bill with his many IBM contacts can easily verify himself) and this is not your private operating system and no one made you judge, jury and executioner.

Bill, I think you should read this one:
http://www.mr2ice.com/TMFaq/

PS: Also stop posting the same nonsense under different user IDs.
We all know that MenSys is just one more OS/2 company you try
in vain for years now to run out of the market. Why, no one knows...

"Guest"-ID =Sternenschwaermer wrote:Dear Tim Martin,

some comments to your last reply:

That was me, there happened a mistake

Regards,

Thilo

eCS 1.2 installed flawless on my T40. Modem is not working under OS/2, that's all.

They changed a single chip in the modem circuitry between the T41 and 42, but that is sufficient to render the Thinkpad modem driver useless.
But there are alternatives. You can either go with a Modem PCMCIA card (-> Xircom) or use a portable USB pocket modem.
I have both and can testify that both are working just fine.
Even so I run WSeB, I got my USB modem drivers from the eCS website, so eComStation support shouldn't be an issue here.
The pocket USB modem is neat and so small that its just a bit larger than a normal cable dongle.

Even so I run WSeB, I got my USB modem drivers from the eCS website, so eComStation support shouldn't be an issue here.
The pocket USB modem is neat and so small that its just a bit larger than a normal cable dongle.

What brand USB modem do you have? Any URL?

I have a Best Data 56K PCMCIA modem that I've had for years, but haven't tried it with my Thinkpad yet. I haven't had a dialup account in a couple years now, so I can't, but I'd like to get a national ISP so I can have access when I'm traveling.

Mark

That pocket USB modem is a "MultiMobile" modem from MultiTech Systems.
Part # is MT5634MU. I bought mine on Bay.

Hope this helps.

Batuta wrote:Hey Tim Martini, aka "OS2guy".
Stop your eCS hate bashing in here, its bad enough to endure on UseNet.
On the OS/2 UseNet groups you can get away with that, as those are none moderated forums.
Behave yourself for a change.

We want eCS to be part of the OS/2 familly and if you don't agree, no one forces you to use it or to even be in here.
So stop your hate mongering for once and stop trying to tell us what OS/2 products to use or not to use.

eCS is very much welcomed by the OS/2 community, IBM has stopped actively developing OS/2 some time ago (as Bill with his many IBM contacts can easily verify himself) and this is not your private operating system and no one made you judge, jury and executioner.

Bill, I think you should read this one:
http://www.mr2ice.com/TMFaq/

PS: Also stop posting the same nonsense under different user IDs.
We all know that MenSys is just one more OS/2 company you try
in vain for years now to run out of the market. Why, no one knows...

Umm.... I think you posted the response yourself, as so many other eCS salesmen have been caught doing, so you can rush back and claim The OS/2 Guy is bashing poor eCS. The OS/2 community can only thank you for revealing and exposing the truth behind the failure of eCS.

If eCS were of any value IBM would let it be called eCS for OS/2 or eCS/2. IBM won't allow it. Thank God.

OK Timmy Martini (-> OS2Guy), I'll make this one real ez for u.
This thread was about HW install issues, not about your paranoid delussions.
So you either stop your anti-eCS hate mongering, or I'll have to reconsider an offer from an old friend of mine and simply make sure myself that this forum stays open for real OS/2 users.
That means those that are interested in the operating system and everything around it (inlcuding eCS and other software/2, whether you like it or not), and not in running private crusades at the expense of everyone else's nerves.
So behave Mr. or "be behaved".
And IBM doesn't have anything (any) more to do with eCS than they do with OS/2 or with you Mr.
eCS is OS/2 +, Serenity Systems says so themselves, even on their web site, but IBM on the other hand has stopped actively supporting OS/2 for end users already years ago. You're the only one who simply refuses to acknowledge reality.
But what IBM is doing is pointing end users to eCS, yes, end users unwilling or unable to sign up for an overpriced IBM SW choice program (only way to get OS/2 from IBM these days) and/or not ready to try out original IBM OS/2 installion CDs that are so out of date they won't even boot up on state of the art hardware anymore (-> 512MB barrier, missing USB & video drivers, ...), are told to try out eCS instead.
That was the message that I myself got from an IBM rep.

You are the only one here Mr. who's turning paranoid 24/7 because some people dare to support freedom of choice in the OS/2 market.
But this is Bill Morrow's web site, not your private dictatorship kingdom.
People can buy IBM SW choice, OS/2 on eBay and yes eCS directly from Serenity Systems.
Its called "freedom" and if you don't like it then get out-a-here and move to North Korea.

One last time Mr. fake OS2Guy (aka "Tim Martin/Larry Chauvet/and so on).
All in the OS/2 community are tired of your eCS flame wars Mr. Martin/Chauvet/OS2Guy whatever.
We can't stop you on UseNet, but we can & will in here

Batuta wrote:OK Timmy Martini (-> OS2Guy), I'll make this one real ez for u. I'll have to reconsider an offer from an old friend of mine

Geez Herbert, your threats are ridiculous. BTW, who is Timmy Martini?

Whether you like it or not I use and advocate the use of OS/2, own three IBM Thinkpads and have every right on earth to participate in these forums.

TM, my name ain't Herbert and

I use and advocate the use of OS/2, own three IBM Thinkpads and have every right on earth to participate in these forums.

You are the single most non-economic reason why companies stopped supporting and developing OS/2 software, as your kind of tirades and flame wars can frustrate any good will attempt.
Indeed, your flame war to stop the development of PMview2000 for OS/2 might have been part of the reason why no new version of that SW for OS/2 has come out thus far.
In any case, your meager 3 Thinkpads do not entitle you to hijack this forum and you'll need more than one night's session to handle what is headed your way.
I myself owned almost 2 dozen Thinkpads just during the last couple of years.
I still own 4 as we speak and I'm running an entire server farm of OS/2 and have spend more for OS/2 software than all your flaming is worth (not that that means to much - as your flames aren't worth anything to begin with).
This is a private OS/2 forum and not your personal stomping ground.
You are not in charge here, Bill Morrow is, and that means people get to talk (not flame!) about eComStation, PMview, Mensys, Hobbes and whatever else you hate (must be looong list, isn't it?!) as long as they like!

Warp 5 or above?

Gee, as far as I know we are at 4.52 revision 14.103


ciao.

Well some people (for their own mysterious reasons -> to stop people from buying eComStation) once brought out the rumor that IBM would soon sell a new Warp 5 version of OS/2.
Naturally nothing ever came of it.
Some folks after that started calling eCS Warp version 5.

But you are right, official IBM kernel releases never got past 4.5x.

Edited by Moderator: Take this argument offline now.

Edited by Moderator: Take this argument offline now.

Edited by Moderator: Take this argument offline now.

Edited by Moderator: Take this argument offline now.

Locking this thread. Don't start this up in another one in the ThinkPads.com forums.