We’ve received a few inquiries regarding the availability of Firefox 45.9 ESR. Please note that we have not yet released Firefox 45 due to some final performance and stability issues which we are working hard to address.
Please be patient, and we hope to have a release for general availability in the very near future.
We are hard at work finalizing the last bits to be included in ArcaOS 5.0.2. Among the enhancements and features are a few bug fixes, updates to included RPM packages, updated Samba client, and the new ability to install from an ArcaOS bootable USB stick (or local partition). We call this new feature AltBoot, and it is a milestone for OS/2. This should assist those with USB 2.0 capability but no optical drives in getting ArcaOS installed and running.
In an effort to better ensure the integrity of packages provided by Arca Noae in our release and subscription channels, we have now restricted access to the arcanoae-exp repository to developers and the test team only.
Rest assured, any software which you may have installed from the experimental repository will continue to function just as it did before. However, we strongly urge that if you have installed the arcanoae-exp RPM to configure the experimental repository in Arca Noae Package Manager (ANPM) or YUM, you uninstall that package. It will be withdrawn from the Netlabs stable repository shortly.
Firefox 45.9 GA should be arriving soon for installation via ANPM as part of the subscription content for ArcaOS licensees with active support and maintenance and Drivers & Software subscribers. This new packaging should ease the burden of upgrades by managing dependencies and better ensuring a successful installation. More details will be provided in an upcoming post. (Of course Firefox is free for all to download as zip from Netlabs. There is no requirement to maintain a subscription with Arca Noae in order to get the latest Firefox for OS/2.)
If you are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation systems and haven’t yet purchased a software subscription, this is a great reason to do so now. It may also be a good time to consider moving up to ArcaOS.
As promised (though a little late), for those of you wishing to trade in your remaining OS/2 & eCS Drivers & Software subscription time against the purchase of ArcaOS, you may now do so by following the directions on the Subscription Trade-up Request form, located here. The form includes handy tables listing the cash value of your remaining time as well as the number of equivalent months of an ArcaOS Support & Maintenance subscription, for both personal and commercial licenses.
Three request options are available to you:
You will need some information regarding the subscription being traded and your ArcaOS purchase. Simply fill in the form and submit. Please allow 7-10 days before acknowledgement of your submission.
Even if you ordered your subscription and/or ArcaOS license through one of our partners, Arca Noae will handle your trade-up request.
In case you renewed your subscription outside the 30-day grace period and previously experienced difficulty accessing your downloads, we are happy to report that the problem has been resolved. If for some reason you are still having difficulty, then by all means, please contact customer service.
In addition, we’ve improved the order details page for renewal orders and added a link to the original subscription, to make it easier to access your downloads.
Edit 2020-06-07: This link is identified as Access associated downloads here and appears directly below the name of the subscription (Support & Maintenance, Drivers & Software, etc.).
Thanks again for everyone’s patience and understanding while we worked to resolve these issues. We appreciate your business, your continued support of Arca Noae and our shared computing platform of choice, and we look forward to seeing many of you at an OS/2-focused event sometime this year.
In case you have renewed your subscription outside the 30-day grace period and are experiencing difficulty accessing your downloads, please contact customer service. We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it. We appreciate your patience.
Another area of some confusion is the lack of download links on the order details page for the renewal item itself. Once you have successfully renewed your subscription, simply visit your original subscription order details page (where you have been accessing these links all along), and all of your downloads should work as expected. If not, just drop us a note. We’re working to improve the flow and presentation of the content.
Edit 2020-06-07: Since this post was originally written, we’ve improved the order details page for renewal orders and added a link to the original subscription, to make it easier to access your downloads.
This link is identified as Access associated downloads here and appears directly below the name of the subscription (Support & Maintenance, Drivers & Software, etc.).
Did you know that the value of your Arca Noae Drivers & Software Subscription grows year over year?
Renewals are subject to a 10% discount when ordered within a month of expiration. We’ve also implemented renewal reminder emails to make renewing your subscription easier. If you renewed by making another full purchase, we’ll be getting in touch to extend a credit voucher for your next order of anything in our store, including sponsoring.
The renewal discount applies to personal and commercial editions, and applies to the total number of subscriptions renewed.
If your original purchase was through one of our resellers, you should definitely order your renewal through the same channel. It may take a short while for all of our resellers to add the proper SKUs to their stores, so be sure to contact your vendor of choice to ask about renewal ordering if you have any questions or don’t see it listed.
If you are already an Arca Noae subscriber, thanks for your business. If you still haven’t felt the need, or for whatever reason have held off purchasing a subscription, we’d welcome the chance to prove the value of our subscription service to you.
Mysterious boot problems can be caused by a variety of things from failing hardware to software misconfiguration. Besides regular file backups, saving your disk partitioning can be a big help during recovery (or reconstruction onto a new drive). Fixing an odd problem, such as the once-in-a-lifetime file with an impossible character in the name which just won’t delete, is also possible with a good disk tool. Moving to a new disk to gain more space? You’ll need something to carve that room into something useful and transfer your data.
Luckily, we have just the thing: DFSee, the Swiss Army knife of disk utilities. DFSee runs on a variety of platforms, so if you need to boot from “something else” to fix your OS/2 system, you may. (Likewise, you may boot from OS/2 or eCS to fix your other OS.)
DFSee, now at version 13, now has full support for GPT partitioning schemes, compatible with current systems on the market today. It has an amazing array of features, including:
and, of course, that world-famous support from the developer, Jan van Wijk and Fsys Software.
DFSee is installable to a local partition or may be run from a bootable CD or USB stick, which makes it especially handy for real rescue operations.
If you’ve never licensed a copy of DFSee, now is the time to do so. If you have an older version (even a very old version), an upgrade is only a few clicks away, and if you have a license for version 12, we have an even better deal on an upgrade.
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Review the full feature list at DFSee.com, and stop into our store to license your copy today.
If you are already a registered licensee of Keith Merrington’s SearchPlus, SigmaMD5, or EasySync, there is no need to purchase any of those packages again from us in order to obtain the latest version(s).
Interested upgraders should go to Hobbes and search for the program name(s) and download them there. As of this writing, your existing registration entitles you to free updates. Just download and install.
While you are visiting Hobbes, we encourage you to donate. The Hobbes OS/2 Archive is an all-volunteer effort, and not a university-sponsored project. Thus, Hobbes exists solely from the appreciation of the OS/2 community. Arca Noae fondly acknowledges this longstanding and valuable resource.
While our blog posts have been infrequent, our developers, beta testing, and translation teams have been quite busy the past few weeks. Here are some highlights of what’s been going on behind the scenes at Area Noae:
If you haven’t purchased a subscription for the Arca Noae drivers and software package, now is the time.
It may not be apparent if you haven’t yet ordered, but upon completing your order, all of your downloadable products will be accessible from your account page. Just click the Account link on the main menu, log in (if you haven’t already), and your recent orders will be listed on your account page.
Clicking either the order number or the View button will open the details of the order, including handy links to download your software.