First thing this month is to get registered for the birthday party at IBM, celebrating 10 years of OS/2. Registration is not mandatory, it only means that they can order the right amount of food and beverages! The official Web page for the details is at http://www.ibm.fr/france/sws/com/anniv2.htm. Registration can be made by fax (0149059982) or by phone (0149057409, to François Christienne.
I think we will get to see how IBM intends to implement their Network Computing strategy using OS/2, including a demo of an early version of the network OS (I forgot its name of the week). Not only will we have fun but we could learn something as well.
StarDivision made the news this month by announcing StarOffice 4.0 for many platforms, including OS/2, with international versions, including French. The 3.1 beta was a very good product and the 4.0 looks great (I only had a glimpse). I understand that StarDivision is well respected and even liked by its German customers, but I think that going international may have stretched them too much. Their international (read : English) Web site (http://www.stardiv.com) does not mention version 4.0 yet (although the German one - http://www.stardiv.de - does, but I can't read German), and they just stopped their CompuServe as the Web is not as good as a public forum for exchanging information with users or creating some sort of community around a product. I think companies moving away from the BBS style of forums and going Web only are not on the right track for building user loyalty. I hope StarDivision can fix these communication problems, as we all know that even having the best product is not always enough those days...
As I am quite busy on my network right now this will be my shortest column so far, but I will be back with more...
Please do not hesitate to send me any French specific news and information you would like mentioned in this column.
Vincent Delaruelle is a Technical Consultant at OS/2 boutique in Paris. He is also the editor of an OS/2 newsletter, la Lettre d'OS/2 Magazine, as well as the sysop of a BBS, Warp Club de France, at (33 1) 53 68 61 22 and Webmaster of http://www.os2boutique.fr.
