From: "Ed Durrant" <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>
Message-ID: <45DDF79A.4030707@bigpond.net.au>
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 07:05:46 +1100
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To: OS/2 Wireless Users Mailing List <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>
Subject: Re: [OS2Wireless]OT: comparing drivers (was:Re: Intel 3945 support
 in GenMAC)
References: <list-919645@2rosenthals.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-919645@2rosenthals.com>
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Carl Gehr wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:49:13 +0100, Kris Steenhaut wrote:
>
>   
>> As I told already before, why on Earth do we want to accost to Lenovo Thinkpads while there are better options? IBM holds 19 % of Lenovo shares? So what? It's about your (our) money, isn't it?  
>>     
>
> WADR, Kris, I will also repeat myself:  If you were paying attention to
> several of my posts, BEFORE I PURCHASED the T60, I asked HERE and OTHER
> places if anyone was successfully using T60s.  I also asked about
> specific devices, including the PRO/1000 WHICH IS ON THE GENMAC
> SUPPORTED LIST and the WiFi which was originally listed ONLY as 3945
> [w/o any vendor:device qualifications] and showed as supported.
>
> As to why ThinkPads, my rationale was almost identical to the
> explanation given by Lewis.  I will not repeat it again.
>
> Finally, the developers of the GenMac drivers clearly implied that, if
> someone submitted the files and documentation they needed, they would
> at least attempt to add the support.  Thus far, I have not been able to
> get ANY REPONSES, much less support for these two devices; even for the
> one that is SUPPOSED TO WORK.
>
> Finally, since you imply you are so convinced of 'better options' where
> were you back in OCTOBER when I was asking about the T60?  Why did you
> not say at that time, that you KNEW the T60 would not work, has
> unsupportable devices, was a bad choice?
>
> Honestly, I am looking for SOLUTIONS not 20-20 hindsight that does not
> move things forward.
>
>
>
>
>   
Hi Carl,

 I can hear in the tone of your note that you are unhappy with the way 
things are - I think the two key areas are both Genmac. It seems that 
both the on-board ethernet (Pro/1000) and the Wifi are not yet supported 
- but I believe that once the Genmac wrapper developers have time, they 
will get around to adding this support. It is unfortunate that the 
manufacturer has changed the chips without changing the adapters name  
apparently.

Have you posted your request and required data files on the Genmac user 
list ( genmac-user@netlabs.org ) or only here ? I would recomend you 
make your enquiry and post the requested  data on that list if you have 
not already done so.

It's unfortunate that driver support in general lags behind the Windows 
world, however in the most part, the OS/2 support is being produced by 
volenteers at no cost to you. If there were commercial programmers 
willing to produce drivers, the cost to an individual would be too high. 
The eComStation / OS2 market is too small for the hardware suppliers to 
produce drivers for us and the multi-functional auto-sensing drivers 
that we have are I think quite impressive.

 Let me say, this obviously doesn't apply to all hardware types, but 
while I had to install Windows XP yesterday - I had the feeling "This 
can't be this bad can it ?". This operating system has to be given 
specific drivers for everything, otherwise it either doesn't work, or 
blue screens !

OS/2 & eComStation have multi-purpose auto-sensing drivers for:

Audio - UniAud

Network - Genmac and Genmac wrapper

Video - Scitech

Harddisks - Dani's Drivers

Motherboard Chipset.

This makes it possible to create and develop a system on one piece of 
hardware and simply compy it to a different piece of hardware !!  There 
is no way Windows will EVER be able to do that.

My most recent experience was trying to install Windows XP Professional 
on a current AMD X2 motherboard - BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) during the 
install phase, pointing to pci.sys being the failing component. In fact 
after some long investigation it turned out to be the fact that the OS 
could not work on the new chipset on the motherboard. The new drivers 
are supplied on the CD with the motherboard, but theres no way to 
install them as the system can't even build in a "safe" mode using 
generic drivers !! The only drivers you can change during the install 
are the harddisk drivers - which I also had to add as the OS doesn't 
support SATA out of the box.

The solution turned out to be to manufacture my own Windows XP install 
CD out of the base CD and "slipstream" the Windows SP2 CD into the 
image. Not something the average user would want to have to do !

So in conclusion, although support for hardware comes with the hardware 
for Windows, the drivers and structure of the OS itself in Windows XP is 
so restricted that it causes its own problems. OS/2 drivers and 
srchitecture are simply BETTER - but not available immediately.

Cheers/2

Ed.