Details
Category: VOICE

Here is update number 3 for the OS/2 VOICE browser funding campaign. To be clear the development work will not be performed by OS/2 VOICE. OS/2 VOICE just collects the funding and sends 100% of your donation to bww bitwise works GmbH (hereinafter called BWW). Sorry for the delay in giving no updates for such a long time. I have moved to a new apartment in the last couple of months and have a new job. Also a close family member has been having serious health issue's. Taking away time from this volunteer work.

As of this writing we collected $12,650.00 (this excludes the funding being raised on os2.org).

There have been some misunderstandings in the OS/2 community about this funding campaign that I would like to clear up.

* While the sponsor money is collected by OS/2 VOICE and its called the VOICE browser funding campaign. I have tried to be clear that all the development work is done by BWW. All technical information came from BWW and was discussed with Dmitriy, who is responsible for the Qt 4 port and the current Firefox for OS/2 port among others. Also all funding will be transferred to BWW.

* There is nothing secret or weird happening on this funding campaign. Before the funding campaign was started October 2017, it was discussed with Herwig Bauernfeind from BWW. The whole idea of this funding campaign was for a change to start collecting money early and not to late when Firefox begins to run out of track. Its extremely time consuming to keep Firefox running on OS/2. Everybody at BWW was extremely busy and Herwig appreciated the help from VOICE to perform a funding campaign.

* Another point that was made is, that its unclear in which direction this funding campaign will move. Ongoing research has been done by Dmitry from BWW. When the funding campaign was started it was clear, that Firefox will need the RUST compiler after Firefox 54. To port this compiler is possible but it will need a lot time. We also looked at Pale Moon, which could have been a valid path. But even there it's uncertain, that RUST will not be needed at one point.. It ended up that a Qt based browser made the most sense. But this conclusion was reached *after* the funding campaign was started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9C6Hs-_Ung at 19:28.

The whole point is that this funding campaign was started as early as possible to collect money. People which have doubts about the funding campaign could have asked me privately, but I never received any emails from *anybody* asking me for more information about the funding campaign. Some of the concerns that have been expressed is, if BWW is capable of porting Qt 5.9? The truth is, that  the current situation with OS/2 is nothing new compared to lets say 10 years ago. IBM stopped funding OS/2 and organizations like as Mensys and Netlabs stepped into that part. Mensys used to sell sponsor units for Netlabs and BWW. I did manage most of these funding campaigns.

Also BWW has been porting software to OS/2 since 2012! Herwig and Silvan have *always* asked for more funding.
The main reason Java and Qt are running behind is because most of the development time is used for the Firefox port.
The estimated time to port Qt 5 varies from 9 to 12 months.  So the question that comes up is: can it be more accurately estimated? The answer is no. We are currently at Qt version 4.78 for OS/2 and the unknown factors will show up as development moves on.

* One other question, that was also asked is what browser version would be selected when a Qt browser is ported.
Chromium seems possible, but we also have other Qt browser. The choice of the browser was and is not that important and can't be done until Qt 5 is ported. As we want to port the best browser by then. And in the end it's the engine (backend) which counts and not the GUI (frontend). And 85% to 90% of source code is Qt based code anyway.

The developer Dmitry from BWW wrote further about the browser options with QT:

"Also, I would clarify which browser options we have in case of Qt 5. The first option is provided by the qtwebkit submodule which uses a special version of the Apple's WebKit engine. This submodule is deprecated in Qt 5.6 but it still builds with Qt 5.9 and some patches. The second option is provided by the newer qtwebengine submodule which uses the Chromium browser project's engine. This engine is more powerful and has better conformance to the modern Web standards so it's the primary target of the Qt 5 roadmap. The WebKit-based submodule is a fallback option (and it's faster to port as it uses only Qt classes, while the Chromium engine has a number of external dependencies). "

* Another question that was raised is why was 10.000 Dollars set a target. The historical funding campaigns done by Netlabs
and BWW also just set the first target to reach. The total cost will be much higher, around 40.000 Euro at least.

While I can understand people do not like sponsoring a project of which the outcome is uncertain. Having worked in the OS/2 community on eCS, Warpstock events for close to 20 years I can only say one very simple thing. Uncertainty has always been part of using OS/2, eCS and ArcaOS in the sense that a small group of people are doing the work.

I hope this answers some of the outstanding questions. So while we reached our first goal. Lets see if we can collect more.

You can buy sponsor units here: https://www.arcanoae.com/shop/os2-voice-browser-sponsorship/


Best regards,

Roderick Klein
President OS/2 VOICE

Details
Category: Software

For some time I have been wanting to put up a OS/2 LAN file server again at home.  ArcaOS does not have a server version of its product. A server version as in WSeB (Warp Server for eBusiness) or ACP 1/2 (Aurora Convience Package 4.51/4.52).

Still having a licensed copy of WSeB I contacted Alex Taylor. He had a tool he had created some years ago that enables you to install the LAN server components on top of your ArcaOS OS installation. I thought it might be useful to release this utility to the public.

Please read the readme.txt in the ZIP file for more details!! Note that this tool is provided on an AS-IS and that where possible I will try and provide support. Click here to download.

Details
Category: VOICE

Dear ArcaOS, eCS and OS/2 users,

Here is a list of upcoming projects for 2018 that VOICE is working on or will be working on to help with promoting OS/2 and make your usage easier. You have not heard much from OS/2 VOICE since I have been moving to new apartment because I have a new job. Also a family members has been in hospital very sick but she has recovered. Anyway here is the list:

*A Teamviewer kind of solution for OS/2*

We are working on a project to provide a free of charge remote control program for people who need remote support for OS/2. It will consist of a Warpin package you can download. Via a secured encrypted SSH tunnel a volunteer from the community will be able to login into your system and with VNC access your desktop when you start the Warpin package. It will not need any setup on your side. So this is somewhat of a Teamviewer solution for OS/2. The person providing support will need to setup the server side. But this will be documented. We hope this can make it easier to help community members if they are somehow stuck!

* Warpstock Europe 2018 in Berlin
On the 26th and 27th of May OS/2 VOICE will host Warpstock Europe 2018 in Berlin Germany. While some of the donators do not come to Warpstock Europe. As I previously explained Warpstock is a benefit for all OS/2 users as OS/2 developers meet at the event and discuss issue's and future plans. So in the end the whole community benefits from this event! You will also be able to follow the conference via a free videostream. Keep an eye on www.warpstock.eu for more details.

* Installing LAN server support on ArcaOS.
* VOICE will publishing a free tool that will enable you to install your WSeB or ACP1/2 onto LAN server components an OS/2 MCP or ArcaOS. This will enable you to turn your ArcaOS installation into an OS/2 domain controller.

* New browser funding campaign.
* So far the campaign to collect funding for a new OS/2 web browser has in total generated 7400 US Dollar.  About 2000 Dollars of additional funding is on its way, but this amount is not certain yet. On behalf of BWW and the OS/2 VOICE board we like to thank the OS/2 community their donations. That said the 10.000 Dollars was a target to get started. So please keep the donations coming in: See the browser funding campaign for more information. As I always say free software does not grow on tree's, somebody needs to port the software.

* Free RPM software library for OS/2 applications
Some people still have seconds thoughts about RPM being used on OS/2. In my opinion the useability of RPM has increased with Arca Noae Package Manager. With the release of ANPM 1.02 more user issue's have been resolved.  Also it has been painfully obvious many OS/2 users do not know what software can be downloaded for OS/2 and if they do find it for a lot of end users its simply to complicated to install some the software.

VOICE has the domain name rpm.os2voice.org ready to go. The idea is that software developers and the community help package software in RPM format so people can for example install a current Multimedia player on OS/2 by a few mouse clicks in ANPM. The RPM repository  will  be accessible by the OS/2 community free of charge of course.

VOICE is looking for people who want to help package old and new OS/2 software in RPM format.
If you are not familiar how to build an RPM package this is a good place to start, Andy Willis his presentation on how to make an RPM package: http://www.warpstock.org/filemgmt/visit.php?lid=263 (This is an Open Office presentation)
Or the video recorded at Warpstock 2017 in Toronto of this presentation.

Once this RPM library is being filled up with  programs we also would like to work together with https://www.ecsoft2.org/. We have been in touch before with the people behind ecsoft2.org but things got put on hold because we had no RPM files. The idea is that we would like to see if Arca Noae can update ANPM so it can show a description of the program you are going to install and a screenshot (information loaded for ecsoft2.org)! It would be a complete software catalog for OS/2 users.

If you would like to help create RPM packages please send an email to president at os2voice.org.

* Financial transparency:
It should be noted that your donations are more then welcome and VOICE will published it yearly financial report for 2017 shortly. Also a cash audit commission will check the bank receipts. Both reports will be posted here: http://www.os2voice.org/reports.html
Before any money is the VOICE board that consists of 7 members votes on any propels.
We hope in these ways we provide the best transparency possible how your donations are spend. We can give you access to an upload directory. Note we will test the package before its uploaded for generic usage. We do not want to break people there systems...

You can make a donation via the Arca Noae webshop.

Best regards,

Roderick Klein

President OS/2 Foundation

Details
Category: VOICE

So far we have collected 6.700 Dollars, which includes a one person 5000 Dollars donation. So far I have not revealed his name. 
I will ask the people who donated, if they want to be publicly credited for this on a website or not. 

First question that was asked: Which browser would be ported ?

Answer: It is safe to state that at this moment that is unknown and that it does not really matter which browser we choose, because about 90% of all browsers are based on either: 

* Gecko (Firefox browser and derivatives) 
or 
* Google Chromium (via Qt's QtWebEngine) or Apple WebKit (via Qt's QtWebKit, now deprecated in favor of QtWebEngine) 

During Warpstock Toronto 2017 Herwig Bauernfeind from bww bitwise works GmbH (who joined via Skype) answered questions after his presentation. We had multiple browsers that where mentioned at Warpstock 2017 Toronto and asked whether they would be an alternative future browser. In some recent OS/2 forum discussion more browser alternatives where suggested. Most of the mainstream open source browsers that could be feasible use one of the two engines I just mentioned above. It bears some logic that these mainstream libraries used as browsers are extremely complex and continue to become more complex. So getting one of these libraries is more important than selecting a specific browser.

Second question: Are 10.000 dollars enough and what happens when the money is spent? 
Answer: It was set as a first target and if successful or more money is collected that is great. Previous bww bitwise works GmbH funding campaigns always collected money in stages. 

Third question: Some people have suggested the Chromium browser can not be ported to OS/2. 
Dmitriy Kuminov responded: "Regarding Chromium not portable to OS/2. This is not true. If it's about OpenGL, then this support is optional. If it's about Qt needing OpenGL for QtWebEngine — yes, but you can use a fake OpenGL stub to trick it and fallback to software rendering and there is also a patch (will be part of the next release) that makes this stub not necessary". 

I can understand that some of the people have been doubting sponsor campaign, but  as it stands right now Firefox 45.9 ESR is being worked to iron out the last bugs. These are mostly new and hard to find bugs in the JavaScript engine, which slipped in.

I hope that answers the questions/concerns. Please note that information in both postings have been reviewed by Dmitriy Kuminov from bww bitwise works GmbH for any incorrect technical information. 

I hope this addresses some of the concerns for the OS/2 community as to where this funding campaign is going. As it now stands we will be going in the direction of Qt based browser. This will also result in lower amount of maintenance. 

You can buy sponsor units in the Arca Noae webshop: 
https://www.arcanoae.com/shop/os2-voice-browser-sponsorship/ 
All the collected money is send by Arca Noae to the OS/2  VOICE foundation.
  1. Sponsorship needed for new OS/2 web browser
  2. OS/2 voice an update from the chairman