Re: Re: For you SBBS Sysops operating on *NIX, what's your flavor?
By: Nightfox to Gamgee on Fri Jun 07 2024 03:27 pm

Re: Re: For you SBBS Sysops operating on *NIX, what's your flavor?
By: Gamgee to fusion on Fri Jun 07 2024 01:34 pm

I never got aboard the OS/2 train. Straight from DOS to Win, and eventually Linux.

I went from DOS to Windows too, but in 1996 I experimented a bit with OS/2 because I was curious about it. I could definitely see how it would have been nice to run a BBS in OS/2 (even a DOS BBS). I had also played a bit with Ray Gwinn's SIO drivers, which allowed telnet access to a virtual serial port.. I tried setting up a copy of RemoteAccess (BBS software for DOS) with those SIO drivers and was impressed that I could successfully telnet into it. I also looked into an OS/2-native BBS package that I thought looked interesting (AdeptXBBS) but never actually used it to run a BBS.

By that time though, Windows was the main OS I was using, and OS/2 was on its way out, with not much software being made for it.

Nightfox

Your post really resonated with me. I really had big hopes for OS/2. While serving in the Navy we used Windows NT Server and Workstation primarily but OS/2 Warp made it's way into our internal network for managing building security (badging, door sensors, alarms). I wanted to run BBS's on OS/2 but ended up using Windows instead. It's so nice now to have so many options all the way from CP/M and DOS all the way to Raspian, Debian, and some really cool distros. I've even got Mint installed on a spare laptop which is pretty decent and gives Ubuntu a run for it's money from a desktop perspective.

Prowler (Tom)

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Re: Re: For you SBBS Sysops operating on *NIX, what's your flavor?
By: Prowler to Nightfox on Mon Jul 29 2024 09:03 am

Your post really resonated with me. I really had big hopes for OS/2. While serving in the Navy we used Windows NT Server and Workstation primarily but OS/2 Warp made it's way into our internal network for managing building security (badging, door sensors, alarms). I wanted to

That's cool that there was some use of OS/2 there.

run BBS's on OS/2 but ended up using Windows instead. It's so nice now to have so many options all the way from CP/M and DOS all the way to Raspian, Debian, and some really cool distros. I've even got Mint installed on a spare laptop which is pretty decent and gives Ubuntu a run for it's money from a desktop perspective.

Yeah, I like the options we have today. And although I think it would have been nice to see things like OS/2 and Amiga continue on, we can at least run those through emulation and virtual machines.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: For you SBBS Sysops operating on *NIX, what's your flavor?
By: Prowler to Nightfox on Mon Jul 29 2024 09:03 am

I never got aboard the OS/2 train. Straight from DOS to Win, and
eventually Linux.

I was all-in for quite some time. Worked with OS/2 1.2 and 1.3 in a IBM AS/400 and Lan Manager environment, then 2.0, then Warp 3 working with Netware - and then Windows NT 3.51 came out and it just *worked*.

Ran the BBS under OS/2 Warp 3 for a couple of years, loved that I could have a mailer, busy BBS and all the utilities running in an OS/2 console in the background of my desktop and not even notice it was there.



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Re: Re: For you SBBS Sysops operating on *NIX, what's your flavor?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Prowler on Mon Jul 29 2024 09:48 am

I was all-in for quite some time. Worked with OS/2 1.2 and 1.3 in a IBM AS/400 and Lan Manager environment, then 2.0, then Warp 3 working with Netware - and then Windows NT 3.51 came out and it just *worked*.

Ran the BBS under OS/2 Warp 3 for a couple of years, loved that I could have a mailer, busy BBS and all the utilities running in an OS/2 console in the background of my desktop and not even notice it was there.

I feel like I may have missed the heyday of OS/2, which seems to have been the early 90s. My first computer, in 1992, was a hand-me-down 286 and I wasn't old enough to get a job yet - and I didn't get my first job until 1996, so in the meantime I don't think I had a PC that was really up to running OS/2. Before I got my first job and bought my own parts for a new PC, the fastest PC I had was a 386DX-40, which I think could have ran OS/2, but I don't think I had enough RAM (I think I had 4MB max at the time) and maybe not enough hard drive space either.

Around 1994 or 1995, I bought a used copy of OS/2 Warp 3 at a used software store in my area (before they closed, I think due to legal reasons), and it was on floppies, and many of the floppies were bad.. Later (1996 or 1997), I bought a new sealed copy of OS/2 Warp 4 from my local Egghead Software (and I wondered if spending the $120 on it would be worth it), and I had my PC in a dual-boot setup with that and Windows for a little while. I think one of the things I tried that I thought was really cool was using Ray Gwinn's SIO driver for OS/2 to make my DOS-based RemoteAccess telnettable. But I only did that as an experiment; I continued running my DOS BBS in DOS/Desqview (and later Windows).

Nightfox

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Re: Re: For you SBBS Sysops operating on *NIX, what's your flavor?
By: Nightfox to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Jul 29 2024 01:51 pm

386DX-40, which I think could have r
OS/2, but I don't think I had enough
RAM (I think I had 4MB max at the ti

I also only had shit hardware when OS/2
was a thing.. but, there was a stripped
down (non-legit) CLI-only versin of
OS/2 Warp 3.x that I ran on my 386 with
1mb of RAM. It was basically like
DOS without the 640k barrier, and it
was quite good and fast. The only
reason I ended up going back to DOS
6.22 is that a lot of/most demos always
checked for EMM386 to run, which
obviously wasn't there because it
didn't need to be. Anyway, I wish I
could find that version/copy of OS/2
Warp again. Pretty sure it fit on just
three 3.5" floppies. I might've
mentioned it on this message net
before.

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