A general note: as of mid-October 2000, Tucows revived their OS/2 section. Go to http://classic.tucows.com/os2soft.html. A word of caution: some of the software listed may be older versions; however, you can suggest new software (or newer versions) by going to http://submit.tucows.com.

Updates from last month's column:

IBM has released an update for Java 1.1.8 as of 11/23/2000. Go to ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/software/java/fixes/os2/11/118/.

IBM has released on 11/09/2000 a fix for Warp Server for e-Business. It's at ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v4.5warp/english-us/xr_e001. The file is UNI1106.ZIP (for uni-processor systems), SMP1106.ZIP (for SMP systems), and the readme is KRNL1106.TXT.

IBM has released on 11/09/2000 another fix for Warp 4 FixPak 14. It's at ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v4warp/english-us/xr_m014/. The file is W41106.ZIP, and the readme file is KRNL1106.TXT.

A new version of CDR/RW Wizard (0.9.96) is now available as of 11/23/2000. It's a GUI wizard interface to cdrecord/2 to burn CDR/CDRW (data, audio, etc). Changes/new features should be in the readme file. Go to http://www.quasarbbs.com/rocco/.

JSANE, a Java front-end for the scanner program SANE, has been updated as of 11/11/2000 to version 0.21. Use search key jsane on Hobbes. There is also another front-end called FESane, version 0.2 as of 11/12/2000; use search key fesane on Hobbes for this one.

SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy), is now at version 1.0.3 beta 4 as of 11/19/2000. Go to http://paulf.free.fr/software.html. An older port (version 1.0.1 as of 06/29/1999) is at http://www.quasarbbs.com/yuri/sane2.html.

Ray Gwinn has resumed work on the beta of SIO version 2. The beta is now at level 14b as of 11/19/2000. Go to http://www.gwinn.com/. The GA version of SIO is at version 1.60d (as of 03/17/1997).

The program UpdCD (a.k.a. cdupd) was updated to version 1.1 as of 11/19/2000. It now has support for TCP/IP 4.1 & Java 1.1.x fixpaks, USB, WarpIn, Netscape plug-in-paks, Acrobat Reader, EMX, Flash, etc). With UpdCD you can incorporate public FixPaks into your Warp 4 or Warp Server for e-Business install CD. This allows you to install a Y2K-compliant Warp 4 or Warp Server for e-Business on systems with large hard disks right from this CD. Look updcd11.zip on Hobbes, or go to http://xenia.sote.hu/~kadzsol/rexx/sajat/updcd.htm.

Another way to get UpdCD is to go to http://xenia.sote.hu/~kadzsol/rexx/sajat/updcd/wupdkit.htm. Here you can specify the components you use or want on your system (such as FixPak level, MPTS level, TCP/IP level, whether or not you use IBM Peer and/or Netware Requester, etc.), and the author of UpdCD (Zsolt Kadar) will send you a CD with the components you select, plus the latest official version of UpdCD, with an installation script to set your system up in order to use it with UpdCD. While Zsolt makes no guarantees, it is a way to set your computer up to use UpdCD without a lot of the manual work (creating lots of directories, downloading lots of files and unzipping/expanding them, and then copying the component(s)' files into the directories/subdirectories).

XWorkplace, which was part of Part 3 of Gary Granat's series on Seeking Ways to Get Rid of System Bloat last summer has been updated to version 0.9.6 as of 11/25/2000. Go to http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444vnd/xwp.htm. NOTE: It requires WarpIn (see below).

WarpIN, which was written up by Gary Granat in Aug. 2000 (and is required to install XWorkplace), has been updated to version 0.9.6 as of 11/25/2000. Go to http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444vnd/warpin.htm.

The "in-development" version of Apache 2.0 has been updated as of 11/25/2000. Go to http://silk.apana.org.au/apache/apache_v2.shtml. This version offers big performance improvements due to multi-threading and elimination of some emx dependencies.

NewView version 1.22 has been released as of 11/24/2000. It is a rewrite of VIEW.EXE that comes with Warp 4. It reads .INF and .HLP files. Improvements include a new user interface, remember size & position, select and copy from the window, and more. Use search key newview on Hobbes.

This month's new listings - Drivers:

Daniela Engert has released Danis506 version 1.3.6 as of 11/04/2000. Use search key danis on Hobbes.

Matrox has released as of 10/25/2000 version 2.03 of their video card BIOS updates for the G200 & G400 series. This puts all the G200 cards at version 3.1, the G400 at version 1.9, and the G450 at version 1.3. Go to http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/bios/home2.cfm.

While the following may not be a driver nor an application: IBM has a BIOS update for the Thinkpad T20 series (not the Thinkpad T21 series, as that has a different BIOS). This BIOS fix fixes a network hang that may happen when the machine returns from suspend under OS/2 or NT 4. Go to http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-4JWNJC.html.

For those of you who have the new NetVista PC's from IBM: the OS/2 driver for the ACCTON Ethernet card is available at http://www.accton.com/. According to Serge Sterck who has a NetVista model 6269N2G, and the Ethernet card in his PC is an EN1207D. The file is EN1027DV107.ZIP.

This month's new listings - Applications:

For those of you who use the 32-bit version of MPTS (WR08610 version 5.4), IBM has re-released the first 2 disk images of MPTS FixPak WR08621. Go to ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/mpts/fixes/english-us/wr08621. (The fixpack is 4 disk images; use LOADDSKF to create diskettes).

WarpCD version 0.2.0 is available as of 10/30/2000. It's a CD player which uses WinAmp skins to change its' appearance. It uses the IOCtrl interface instead of MMOS2. Go to http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/5785/warpcd/warpcdmain.html. (Note: this program requires WarpIn to install).

An OS/2 port of cdrdao, version 1.1.4 alpha 3, has been released as of 10/31/2000. It is a free CD-R/RW writing program for Disk At Once mode. Use search key cdrdao on Hobbes. An older port (version 1.1.3 as of 12/11/1999) is available at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Sector/5785/cdrdao/cdrdaomain.htm.

Mkisofs version 1.10a04 has been ported to OS/2 as of 11/14/2000. It generates images for burning CD-ROMs, and has support for 255-character names, including national characters. Use search key mkiso on Hobbes.

SoX (Sound eXchange) version 12.17 is available as of 11/16/2000. It translates sound samples between different file formats, and optionally applies various sound effects. It is intended to be the Swiss Army knife of sound processing tools. Go to http://teamos2.ru/files/sox1217.zip.

PM123 version 1.1 beta 3 is available as of 11/01/2000. It's an MP3, WAV, and CD audio player. Go to http://www.cam.org/~guardia/pm123.html. A source of "skins" to change its' look is at http://www.teamos2.sci.fi/pm123/skins/.

PMView 2000, the indispensable graphics viewer, has been updated to version 2.13 as of 11/03/2000. Some minor bug fixes are incorporated. Go to http://www.pmview.com/.

InCharge, the financial management system, has been updated to version 1.02.69 as of 10/30/2000. Go to http://www.spitfiresoftware.com/.

GSView, the PM front-end for GhostScript, has been updated to version 3.41 (beta) as of 11/06/2000. Go to ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/ghostgum/beta/gsview341b_os2.zip. The non-beta GSView version 3.4 is available at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), billed as THE PhotoShop for Linux, is now at version 1.1.26 (test version) as of 11/07/2000 for use under XFree86/OS2. Go to http://birdy.hpage.net/. The stable version 1.0.2 is available at http://www.netlabs.org/gimp/.

SmartBar, which was reviewed in part 4 of Gary Granat's series on Seeking Ways to Get Rid of System Bloat, is now at version 3.1 as of 07/31/2000. It's at Hobbes at ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/smbar31.zip (the directory location given in the article was slightly incorrect).

Polarbar Mailer version 1.18 has been released. This e-mail program came from the source code release of JStreet Mailer. Go to http://www.polarbar.org/.

A public beta of Virtual Pascal, version 2.1 build 243 is now available as of 11/06/2000. It's a multi-platform Pascal compiler with support for Linux in the works. Go to http://www.vpascal.com/.

The Mesa 2 utility with the interesting name of Tequila is now at version 1.1 as of 11/27/2000. The program is e-mailware. Go to http://www.subsys.de/index2.htm.