Tag Archives: software

Arca Noae Status Update: Wi-Fi Drivers

We are aware that many people have been asking about availability of drivers for new wireless networking adapters. If you’ve followed our driver roadmap and our Warpstock presentations, you might be aware of the fact that these drivers are still in development.

Wi-Fi drivers are by their nature considerably more complex pieces of code than wired ethernet drivers. As a result, they take a considerably longer time to build than wired ethernet drivers. The complexity and multi-functionality requirements of Wi-Fi drivers, and the radically different architecture of unix (or Linux) means that Wi-Fi drivers cannot be created by simply compiling a FreeBSD driver for OS/2 as is generally possible for MultiMac wired ethernet drivers. Wi-Fi drivers need to be developed specifically for OS/2, with the capability to handle expected wireless communication protocols and be manageable by XWLAN, the de facto standard for Wi-Fi device and profile management on the OS/2 platform. All of this work is extremely time consuming and requires comprehensive knowledge of Wi-Fi operations and OS/2 networking.

ArcaOS 5.1 is the first version of OS/2 capable of not only booting on modern UEFI hardware with or without the availability of a Compatibility Support Module (CSM), but also the first to be able to access – and indeed, boot from – GUID Partition Table (GPT) disk layouts. All of this work was prioritized above Wi-Fi driver development, under our guiding philosophy of “if the system can’t boot, not much else matters.”

As addressed in our FAQ, the standard workaround for lack of a Wi-Fi driver is to use a small wireless bridge device. Indeed, this is not a solution, but a workaround until such time as Wi-Fi drivers are available for more modern chipsets.

We understand that wireless drivers are very important to a some of our users. We are doing what we can to address that need while simultaneously continuing to improve the ArcaOS experience overall. We appreciate everyone’s continued patience.

eCo Software Runtime packages updated to 20240126

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the availability of updated eCo Software Runtime packages, downloadable from our downloadables page.

The eCo Software Runtime packages provide support libraries for several components of ArcaOS and eCS, as well as eCo Software applications. The Base, Net, and Win packages have been updated as of 2024-01-26. The Win update improves compatibility of the File Open Container (FOC) used by default in ArcaOS with the standard system file dialog, while some of the other updates address issues in other applications which utilize these libraries.

The eCo Software Runtime Toolkit has also been updated with this release.

These packages are provided by Arca Noae as a convenience to our customers, clients, and the community at large. Arca Noae does not produce these packages, and the software is provided “as is” without any warranty of any kind. Support for the eCo Software Runtime is provided by eCo Software, in their support forum.

About the future of the Hobbes archive

For over 30 years, the Hobbes repository at New Mexico State University has been a mainstay for OS/2 users to locate software for OS/2, whether freeware, open source, or commercial demos.

This month, Hobbes announced that it would be shutting down as of April 15 of this year. While this truly saddens those of us closely involved with software development for the platform, Arca Noae nevertheless understands the level of resources and commitment required to maintain an ever-growing archive. We applaud the Hobbes archiver and the entire team of faculty, students,  and other volunteers who have come and gone over the years, all the while keeping Hobbes up and running for the benefit of all. We are also grateful to the University for its commitment to the archive, providing hardware, software, power, and bandwidth.

We are aware that discussions are underway in the OS/2 community to find a new home for Hobbes. There is a thread on the Warp mailing list at groups.io and another in the OS/2 World forums. You may also read a public announcement from OS/2 VOICE about this here.

At this time, Arca Noae urges caution and advises against more people volunteering to host the main Hobbes repository (though mirrors of a potential new site would likely be appreciated). We remain hopefully optimistic that Hobbes will indeed find a new long-term home and that the transition from New Mexico State University to that new home (wherever it might be) will be a smooth one.

Warpstock 2023 videos now available

Videos of Warpstock 2023 presentations from earlier this month, including Arca Noae staff and developers featuring the latest ArcaOS news and how-to sessions are now available on YouTube in the WarpEvents channel.

Video topics include:

  • ArcaOS Roadmap
  • High-Resolution OS/2: The Sequel
  • ArcaOS 5.1
  • Is ArcaOS a DOS Gaming Mecca?
  • ArcaOS under and next to VMWare ESXi
  • UEFI vs Traditional BIOS: Which is Right?
  • …and much more

ArcaOS Desktop updated to 1.0.16

Dynamic Icons

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of ArcaOS Desktop (ANXWP) 1.0.16 in English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Russian. This is a maintenance release containing bug-fixes and updates that have accumulated since the last release. The primary improvements include:

New Features

  • Text Size
    Use the first page of the Desktop’s Properties notebook to set the text in folders, menus, titlebars, and most dialogs to a size best suited for the current screen size and resolution.
  • Large Icons in XCenter
    XCenter’s Properties notebook allows selection of Large (full-size) or Mini (half-size) icons. The WinList widget allows setting its icon size separately from XCenter as well as the choice of text, icons, or both on its buttons.
  • Low Battery Alert
    The Battery widget now has a Properties page to set up the widget’s new alert. Set the level at which a warning should pop up (e.g. at 15%), and optionally, set follow-up warnings whenever the level drops another specified percent (say, 5%).

Updates and Bugfixes

  • XStartup
    Large parts of the XStartup code have been rewritten for improved reliability
  • XWP Help
    A Table of Contents has been added to the XWP Help system to organize its many pages into 21 top-level topics.
  • Other Changes
    • XShutdown has been revised to invoke Text Size’s shutdown processing when updates occur. Related code has been refactored.
    • An undocumented setup string has been added to XFldDesktop to enable Styler and other shutdown utilities to invoke Text Size’s shutdown processing when changes are pending.
    • ‘xwptrap.log’ has been partially reformatted to make it less versbose.
    • ‘h2i.exe’ which converts HTML help to .INF format has been revised to support an optional “Table of Contents” mode.
    • ‘xunlock.exe’ has been added to the distro to ensure scripts always have access to an “unlock” utility. It returns 0 if the file is now unlocked and >0 if it remains locked or an error occured.
    • A rewrite of the Window List widget should ensure that its last button doesn’t paint over the widget to its right.
    • Code to read the display’s EDID has been added to support future Text Size enhancements.

See the Version Information topic of the ArcaOS Desktop Users Guide and Reference located in the Help Center for more details about this release.

Arca Noae would like to thank Rich Walsh for his work on maintaining and improving XWorkplace and ArcaOS Desktop. This release also includes contributory work by Alex Taylor.

If you have ArcaOS, this software is available for download from the Arca Noae website as part of the Support & Maintenance subscription for your ArcaOS product. Please log into your account and see your ArcaOS order details page to access your software.

If you are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation this is a great reason to consider moving up to ArcaOS. This update includes reserved features licensed for use exclusively with ArcaOS.

 

Clearing up some more upgrade confusion: Subscription downloads

It’s important to remember that when an ArcaOS 5.0 license is upgraded, the existing ArcaOS 5.0 license is converted to an ArcaOS 5.1 license. This does not create a new license for another system. If the ArcaOS 5.0 license has a Support & Maintenance subscription in effect, any remaining time is added to the ArcaOS 5.1 subscription. Several actions take place automatically on Arca Noae’s side of the transaction and other actions should take place on the customer’s side.

First, on the Arca Noae side:

  1. The existing ArcaOS 5.0 Support & Maintenance subscription for that license is terminated as of the date of the upgrade of its associated license to ArcaOS 5.1.
  2. With the termination of the ArcaOS 5.0 Support & Maintenance, access to associated downloads for ArcaOS 5.0 is removed If you have more than one ArcaOS 5.0 license with current support and are only upgrading one of those licenses to 5.1, the associated downloads will still be available for your other ArcaOS 5.0 licenses.
  3. Whatever time was left on the ArcaOS 5.0 Support & Maintenance subscription is added to the included subscription for ArcaOS 5.1. So, if you recently renewed your 5.0 subscription, and it had 12 months before the next renewal, your new ArcaOS 5.1 personal license will now have 18 months of support & updates (6 months from the new ArcaOS 5.1 subscription plus the remaining 12 months from the old ArcaOS 5.0 subscription). You don’t lose anything.

On the customer side, the installation of the ArcaOS 5.0 license being upgraded should be upgraded to ArcaOS 5.1. It is a violation of our license terms to upgrade a 5.0 license to 5.1, install the 5.1 license on another system or partition, and to continue using the 5.0 installation. One license is consumed per bootable installation, regardless of the edition (personal or commercial). If that license has been upgraded, the upgraded license is only valid for the upgraded ArcaOS version. An upgrade does not create a new license for another installation.

If you would like to maintain access to ArcaOS 5.0 downloadable content, but would also like to install ArcaOS 5.1, then we invite you to purchase a new ArcaOS 5.1 license from our store or from your preferred authorized reseller. In that case, the two subscriptions will be separate, and their contents will be available in your ArcaOS Download Center as long as the respective subscription remains in force.

For more information, please refer to this FAQ item.

ArcaOS

Pricing for ArcaOS 5.1

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the pricing schedule for the upcoming ArcaOS 5.1 release.

New licenses for ArcaOS 5.1:

Personal edition:   $139.00 (includes 6 months of Support & Maintenance)
Commercial edition:   $249.00 (includes one year of Support & Maintenance).

Discounted upgrade pricing will be available for all customers with a valid ArcaOS 5.0 license. However, the best upgrade pricing will be available for customers who have an active Support & Maintenance subscription (S&MS) in place. Also, you won’t lose any remaining time on your old subscription—any remaining time will be added to your new ArcaOS 5.1 subscription.

Upgrade to ArcaOS 5.1 for customers with active Support & Maintenance:

Personal edition upgrade:   $59.00
Commercial edition upgrade:   $109.00

As mentioned above, any remaining time on the ArcaOS 5.0 subscription will be added to the included Support & Maintenance for the selected ArcaOS 5.1 product edition.

Upgrade to ArcaOS 5.1 (for customers without active Support & Maintenance):

Personal edition upgrade:   $89.00
Commercial edition upgrade:   $189.00

These include the standard Support & Maintenance subscription term as provided with new licenses: 6 months for the personal edition, and one year for the commercial edition.

In all cases, volume discounts for aggregate commercial purchases or upgrades of 25 licenses or more will apply.

The subscription channel for ArcaOS 5.1 will be separate from the channel for ArcaOS 5.0. This means that 5.0 Support & Maintenance ends when that license has been upgraded to 5.1, and 5.1 Support & Maintenance will have some different content specific to ArcaOS 5.1 (features which are reserved for ArcaOS 5.1 and not available for ArcaOS 5.0).

Support & Maintenance renewals for ArcaOS 5.1 will be:

Personal edition Support & Maintenance:   $70 ($63 early renewal; $87 late)
Commercial edition Support & Maintenance:   $125 ($112.50 early renewal; $187 late)

As always, the best practice is to renew early. This cannot be stressed enough when upgrading to ArcaOS 5.1, as any remaining time on the ArcaOS 5.0 Support & Maintenance subscription will be added to the subscription included with the selected ArcaOS 5.1 product edition.

ArcaOS

I want ArcaOS 5.1!

TO CLARIFY: ArcaOS 5.1 HAS NOT YET BEEN RELEASED. Please read this post all the way to the end to get all information.

ArcaOS 5.1 is complete and waiting for release. The holdup is really related to our distribution system, which is based on the WooCommerce platform.

Until we can produce multiple versions of ArcaOS ISOs, in multiple languages, WE MUST HOLD UP THE ArcaOS 5.1 RELEASE.

While WooCommerce is a capable ecommerce solution, Arca Noae’s requirements to be able to allow ordering of a personalized ISO have now become considerably more complicated than they were for the 5.0 release in 2017. Instead of only spinning the same ISO with personalization data for each customer, we now must continue to have 5.0 ISOs available, and offer 5.1 ISOs in several languages. In addition, instead of maintaining one subscription channel for ArcaOS, we now must maintain two separate channels, one for 5.0 and one for 5.1. Upgraders will also need to change subscription channels when they upgrade ArcaOS. This work has proven more complicated than we had anticipated.

In the meantime, we have taken steps to upgrade our infrastructure to expand our capacity to build and warehouse more ISOs, and we are now at a point where the missing pieces of the puzzle are just the software enhancements for the website to bring everything together.

We have always avoided stating narrow windows for anticipated delivery dates, and take great efforts to avoid the appearance of vaporware. ArcaOS 5.1 is real, and it is coming…soon.

In the interim (and after the release of ArcaOS 5.1), ArcaOS 5.0 will continue to receive critical updates and support, and from time to time, we may even release new bugfix ISOs for ArcaOS 5.0 (generally when an update impacts the installation experience).

It is also important to note that not all languages for ArcaOS 5.1 will be made available when English is released, nor will all non-English languages be released at the same time. Translations of German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and others are in varying states of completion. As we deem a certain language ready for release, we will make it available.

We appreciate everyone’s continued patience. We want to bring you ArcaOS 5.1 as much as you want it!