OS/2 turns 20

Alive..barely

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38666
from WinCustomize Forums

OS/2, the operating system that did battle with Windows for desktop supremacy turns 20 years old this week. 

OS/2 was a land of many innovations.  It is also the environment in which Stardock was born into. It is where Object Desktop came from originally with features such as the ability to change all the icons by applying a "package" of icons. It included the ability to change the look and feel of the OS/2 GUI (title bars, buttons, scrollbars, etc. sound familiar?).

OS/2 was incredibly advanced in its day. In 1992, when I started to really get into OS/2, it was a 32-bit, multitasking, multi-threaded operating system with an object oriented environment.  By contrast, Windows 3.0 barely could run, was ugly, had a terrible shell (Program Manager), didn't really multitask.

Only through IBM's incredible incompotence and Microsoft's hardball marketing strategy did OS/2 end up blowing its incredible lead.

For those of you who were OS/2 users who are reading this, I toast you as fellow OS warriors in the right. We may have lost, but the battle goes on.

 

7,342 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I really need to try out OS/2, to see what was so cool about it
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
OS/2 is how I first met Stardock.  What a great trip!

Zubaz raises a glass and wonders where the twenty years went
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I ran OS/2 from 1992 to 1996. Several friends did as well. What we all had in common was that we ran BBS systems. Mine was the only "PD" board, the rest were warez boards with user voting, etc. We ran OS/2 exclusively because it was much more advanced than Desqview/X which some systems ran, and it could handle multiple modems active at a time without bogging down. Windows could not do that - even after Win95 came out. One of the friends needed to start using his PC for work, and was required to use a proprietary networking software that only ran on Win95. He tried to keep the BBS, but after switching to 95, the BBS system started experiencing message base corruptions on a regular basis, and users complained of choppiness on the modem connection whenever he was using the second modem.

All of us eventually left OS/2 for various reasons. It took many years for the Windows world to even approach the quality of multitasking that OS/2 offered. Those who didn't use OS/2 "back in the day" had no clue what they were missing. That, ultimately, is why OS/2 failed. IBM could not communicate OS/2's advantages to the average user. If they had been able to, OS/2 would have easily dominated. Unfortunately, "IBM's incredible incompetence" is an understatement. IBM's marketing department seemed to WANT OS/2 to fail.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Lets get a special OS2 WB skin package.

A Classic OS/2 and a New OS/2 look to compete with Vista.

Maybe a few of those first skins when Windowblinds was back on OS/2.

I am a big fan of the classic OS skins like OS/2, NextStep, Win32, BeOS (My Favorite).
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I appreciate the nostalgia factor, but to be clear, the Amiga OS was vastly superior in every regard listed above to the Mac OS, OS/2, and Windows flavors of the day. So let's not over-emphasize how "incredibly advanced" OS/2 actually wasn't, m'kay? It was at best a solid third behind the Amiga and even the early Atari OS's.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For me the real OS/2 started with 2.0. That is when Microsoft got out.
The OS was vastly superior to anything Microsoft produced until windows XP.
It took them 15 years to catch up, and a lot of cash !
Only to say how important marketing is in our modern world.

Microsoft cheated by adapting the win32 API regularly, so IBM was always playing catch up on the compatibility side.
And apparently they blackmailed PC manufacturers to install windows : if they dared to pre install OS/2, the OEM license prices multiplied. I guess this is the same reason we don't see so many Linux boxes out there.

I remember doing real multitasking on my 386 pc :
- formatting a floppy drive
- run some movie in the background
- running X Wing (best space sim ever).
And all that in 8 meg ! Those were the days ...
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
running X Wing (best space sim ever)


I have the whole series on a shelf.  I keep meaning to build a Win95 box to run them all but never do.  
(also ran on OS/2)
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I appreciate the nostalgia factor, but to be clear, the Amiga OS was vastly superior in every regard listed above to the Mac OS, OS/2, and Windows flavors of the day. So let's not over-emphasize how "incredibly advanced" OS/2 actually wasn't, m'kay? It was at best a solid third behind the Amiga and even the early Atari OS's.

Oh please.  As someone who had an Amiga (before it was even called the Amiga 1000) you can't possibly say that the Amiga was better than OS/2 so adamently. It had some great features and great multitasking and could do it on 512k of memory but it wasn't memory protected, a single app could take over, and its windowing system was primitive and its drives were incredibly slow.  It had its pros and cons but by 1992, I'd use OS/2 over the Amiga 2500 or whatever it was by that point.

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
We still run (2) OS/2 WARP machines, for working on our "classic" systems. My brother was able to use an app on the Mac he is running to load an image of OS/2 WARP. It works great. I never really had to use it but there are 4-5 guys here that love to use it over our current (Solaris 10) systems.

Cheers!!
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
One can only ponder what the Operating System environment on our desktops would have been/looked like today, had there been genuine and ongoing competition at least as between OS/2 and Windows. Your short article Frogboy is yet again a reminder that the history of Microsofts rise to prominence is not solely a tale of its own actions but includes the misfortunes or bad decisions by others.

"I've got this pointing device thingy.. sort of looks like a mouse" (unamned source Xerox)   
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Unfortunately I can say that I've never used it and I only vaguely remember seeing it in use on a business desktop during a business trip where I travelled out of country.
Anyone know if OS/2 is available for download & use still? What was it's latest version until it was discontinued by IBM? What kind of hardware did it require to run? Did it support ethernet & token ring - it sounds very interesting! Also does anyone know if there are any decent full size screenshots of this os in action?
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Cheers!

Kris

(lotta past history there - I have a Warp Connect VPC VM around if you want to hear the startup sounds, Brad  )

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Cheers. Am I really that old? aaarghl I must admit, I had my first experiences with OS/2 a little late, short time before Windows 95. But I loved it.