I would like to install Excel 5(The old win 3.1 version) on OS/2 ver 3 however my copy of os/2 does not have win-os2 installed. Don't I need this to run the program bacuse It's a windows program? How can I install this without resetting up the whole system?

If its a Blue spine package you just need to add win-os2 through the OS2 setup routine and install it. If its Red spine you'll need to have Win 3.1 disks handy but still need to go though the OS2 set routine as well. In my limited experience win-os2 via Red spine OS2 was not very successful at all.

How can I tell if it is a blue spine or a red spine package? Or.... Does anyone know of a good spreadsheet program that will run natively on os/2? Preferably free.....

either you - ahm - well - take a good look at the box (or the CD jewel case) and if the spine looks kind of reddish it's 'red spine', if it is more sort of blueish then it might be the other kind :-) or - more satisfactory from a scientific point of view - you run syslevel and compare the output for the base operating system with this list: (please note that the small x in XRx will be replaced by the language code eg F for french) XRx3000 Warp for Windows ('red') XRx3001 Warp with WIN-OS/2 ('blue') XRx3002 Warp for Windows Manufacturing refresh ('red') XRx3003 Warp with WIN-OS/2 Connect ('blue') XRx3004 Warp for Windows Manufacturing Refresh Connect ('red') XRx3005 Warp Preload ('blue', at least I guess so)

free spreadsheet program: download StarOffice 5.1a from hobbes (this is the english version) http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/suite/staroffice51a.zip and watch the porting of OpenOffice at http://porting.openoffice.org/

os/2 supports Win3.1 programs very nicely. The Red Spline version uses your existing Win3.1 and will multi-task all DOS/Win3.1/os2 programs well. I reccommend that you set up os/2 as either Dual Boot or Boot Manager. My experience with MS products both Access and EXcel, were that they don't install under os/2 sessions. They could only be installed booting from Windows 3.1 running alone. Once you have it installed, shutdown and boot with os/2. You can then add the apps to your desktop and they will run just fine. This has only happened with MS products, Corel and others install in Win3.1 sessions just fine. Dual Boot is easiest, as you can take an existing Win3.1 machine and install os/2 just fine.