eComStation

EComStation ( eCS short ) is an operating system developed by Serenity Systems and as such the OEM development and the successor to OS / 2 The development is mainly driven by employees of the Dutch company Mensys, volunteers and by the open- source community Netlabs.org. Under the umbrella of Netlabs.org numerous extensions are developed or ported. Thus originates among others, the document viewer Lucide that can display PDF, JPEG and DjVu files and integrates with eComStation 2.0 of Netlabs. Also the project Odin is here looked after, with the help of a large number of Windows programs on OS / 2 and eComStation can be used.

A demo version of eComStation 1.2R and the beta version 2.2 is available as a live system ( like Knoppix), in which no ( writing ) access is required on the hard disk. Certain network cards are supported and automatically detected. Furthermore, an automatic configuration via DHCP is undertaken, for example, the access to the WWW possible with the included web browser Mozilla Firefox.

System Architecture

EComStation is based on a ring architecture. In the inner ring 0 running system kernel and device drivers. Ring 2 is used for graphics drivers. In the ring 3 run user programs. The system is a single-user multi-tasking system.

Without additional installation of virtual machines in addition OS/2-eigenen applications ( GUI and console programs ) can also be carried out:

  • DOS sessions, individually encapsulated ( built-in virtual machine); by old DOS programs can be used.
  • Windows 3.1 sessions (integrated virtual machine) for Windows 3.1 programs.

EComStation integrates with Samba in Windows networks and with ECUPS in Unix / Linux and Mac OS X printing environments, even over Wi-Fi.

Description

EComStation provides an object-oriented desktop ( Workplace Shell WPS) with a plurality of selectable screens. Drag and drop is done in contrast to many other systems with the right mouse button.

Included is the most powerful scripting language REXX. Optionally, the extended command interpreter 4OS2 can also be installed. EComStation runtime environments for Java and Qt exist.

An effective software management tool for installation and de-installation of software is WarpIn. Often software but it is distributed as a ZIP archive. The user unpacks the archive and move the unpacked files in the program path.

Demarcation from other operating systems

EComStation is compatible further development of OS / 2 The system has been adapted to modern hardware (motherboard, printers, USB, large hard drives, JFS file system, modern boot manager, computer network, scanner ).

Due to the small number of eComStation it is unattractive for criminals, but to develop viruses, worms, hacks or spying software.

  • Long term stability: It is possible to use application software and drivers since the release of OS / 2 (1987 16- bit, 32 -bit 1992) continuously without having been required by the operating system updates or re-programming of the applications. This is an important aspect especially in business applications.
  • Low hardware requirements
  • Device drivers are available in lesser numbers; per new and special hardware, the more likely there is no driver. Support for USB 3.0 and UEFI is planned in the long run. No solutions are currently known for co-operation with smartphones and tablets. For Bluetooth drivers are not available.
  • EComStation is a commercial product, there is no free version. However, the full version of the price of a " SOHO " is less than that of a current Windows full version.
  • The software range is far less than, for example, for Windows. However, Windows or other operating systems can be run in a virtual machine. Various programs from the Linux world have been ported.
  • Despite similar GUI operation for new users may be unfamiliar or unknown.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

License model

The workplace is a license to purchase.

In the Home & Student Edition, the " Software Subscription Services" are included for a period of 6 months. This variant is recommended for use with up to 5 jobs.

The Business Edition is intended for users who want to use eComStation on more than 5 jobs. In the Business Edition, the " Software Subscription Services" are included for a period of 12 months.

Upon delivery of the media pack you get 3 CDs (system, bonus software and Open Office ). Download as you only get the system CD.

List of functions

In current versions of eComStation 2.1 The following programs and drivers that are (selection):

  • New Boot Manager AiR - BOOT (version 1.0.7 final) allows the installation of multiboot environments without sacrificing the primary partition (required for most Windows 7 preloads ).
  • Current OS/2-Kernel 14,105.
  • ACPI 3.18 for 14,105 new kernel.
  • Revised ACPIWIZARD to support APM mouse driver.
  • AHCI support with driver version 1.12 allows the installation of systems based exclusively on AHCI. AHCI controller promise better performance than standard SATA controller.
  • ( Manually select the time ) New AHCI option in the Preboot Menu.
  • New BOOTDLY driver delay of 20 seconds at boot time, so that SCSI controllers and disks have time to initialize. The driver is added from OS2CSM and HWMERGE when a SCSI driver is selected.
  • Improved disk integrity test with graphical user option. This allows more control options as well as feedback.
  • ( Supports more than 240 chipsets, overlay, and Dual Head DVI depending on the chipset ) SciTech SNAP ENT graphics driver.
  • Panorama video driver.
  • Improved VESA graphics driver driver VBE2GRAD.DLL ( universal graphics card drivers ) for a better work in VirtualBox (since eCS 2.0, offers improved VESA support and allows widescreen formats at Intel and AMD / ATI graphics chips by manipulating the graphics card BIOS).
  • USB support: OHCI, UHCI (USB 1.1) and EHCI driver (USB 2.0) for printers, keyboards, mice, USB sticks, ...
  • Drivers for network cards (used with eCS 2.0 by Genmac > = 2.2 extends ).
  • Drivers for wireless cards ( will be updated with eCS 2.0; Genmac > = 2.0 then also supports WPA encryption ).
  • Drivers for sound cards by Uniaud, a port of the Linux ALSA subsystem.
  • EIDE (PATA ) and SATA drivers by Daniela Engert.
  • Bootable JFS File System 1.9.4 ( already since the release of eCS 2.0 is also the boot process is supported by a JFS partition).
  • Advanced hardware detection now available for Intel PRO/1000 PCIe.
  • NTFS support ( read-only).
  • FAT32 support.
  • ECUPS makes just about all newer printer available (PostScript, PCL, inkjet printers, and plotters).
  • SANE scanner driver (SCSI and USB).
  • Simplified Logical Volume Manager.
  • More contained open- source software.
  • Wireless LAN Monitor to configure the wireless network interface (uses the Genmac drivers and integrates into XWorkplace or eWorkplace ).
  • Software Subscription Services (12 month term; access to Beta and new eCS versions if they appear in the 12 months ).

List: Available software for eComStation

Among other things, the following packages from the open source area are also available for eComStation or being actively developed:

  • Range of Mozilla products: Firefox version 4.0.1 ( the Internet is version 10.0.12 ESR later installation )
  • Thunderbird version 2.0.0.22 ( The internet is version 10.0.12 ESR later installation )
  • SeaMonkey ( version 2.xx ) (On the Web version 2.7.2 is installed subsequently )
  • Samba version 3.0.x ( stable)
  • Samba version 3.3.16 ( stable)
  • Samba version 3.5.9 ( in test mode)
  • Samba version 3.0.x ( stable)
  • Samba version 3.3.x ( in test mode)
  • Qt ( version 4.6.2 ) - building on dozens of applications
  • Free Pascal 2.0
  • WDSibyl 3.9
  • GCC compiler ( version 4.4.x )
  • Open Watcom compiler ( version 1.8)
  • Tcl / Tk scripting language with graphical user interface

List: Versions

Version 2.2 will include the following improvements:

  • ECUPS integrated into the system
  • Odin to run Windows programs
  • New Desktop with modern dialogue and larger icons
  • New Configurator for adapters and protocols (network connections )
  • Update for ACPI, wireless and graphics cards
  • Remote Desktop Protocol Client ( RDP) to access Windows computer
  • Various internal system updates

List users

Booth 2013 ( selection)

  • Alstom, Germany
  • Belgacom, Belgium
  • Boeing, USA
  • Bowe, Bell Howell, USA
  • Canadian Coast Guard, Canada
  • Caterpillar, Singapore
  • Colgate Palmolive, USA
  • Fujitsu, Japan
  • IBM Global services, USA
  • Johnson & Johnson, USA
  • MIT, USA
  • Max Planck Institute, Germany
  • Michelin, France
  • Norwich Union, UK
  • OCE BV, The Netherlands
  • Qatar Petroleum, Qatar
  • Siemens AG, Germany
  • Stanford University, UK
  • Trustco Bank, USA
  • U.S. Postal Services, United States
  • Universal Instruments Corp., USA
  • VMware, Inc., USA
  • Whirlpool Corporation, USA
Odin (Software) Samba (Software) 4DOS Computer memory OpenOffice Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Logical Volume Manager (Linux) Mozilla Thunderbird MPlayer Scribus Clam AntiVirus Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
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