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IBM

Virtual PC for OS/2 released 240

Posted by michael from the both-users-rejoice dept.
LordNimon writes "Who says OS/2 is dead? Not Innotek, apparently. They just released Virtual PC for OS/2 (aka VPC/2), which allows you to run any PC operating system inside OS/2. They also made available OS/2 "guest" support, which improves the support for running OS/2 under VPC for Windows. I just deleted my Linux partition amd reinstalled it under VPC/2, and now I never have to reboot again! I also heard that that OS/2 development team found a number of bugs in the core code, and the fixes were incorporated into the Windows version. Today is a great day for OS/2 users, especially those that want to try out Linux or run Windows apps that don't work with Odin."
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Virtual PC for OS/2 released More

Virtual PC for OS/2 released

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  • Cool! (Score:4, Funny)

    by acceleriter ( 231439 ) on Sunday April 07, 2002 @01:24PM (#3299669)
    The three copies of that Connectix will sell can fund their Mac and Windows versions!

    • Re:Cool! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by NickIQ ( 565519 )
      Just making sure.... But isn't Innotek the name of the bogus company that gets burned down in Office Space? Yeah..... Peter? What's this I hear about you having problems with your TPS reports?

      • yeah, that's the exact same thing I thought. I'm pretty sure it's "Innitech" in Office Space, though (at least, according to salon [salon.com]). Definitely has the same ring to it.

        sean

  • but its on the endangered list. like BeOS, Amiga (which is tring to recover).

    I would love to try OS/2 but the problem is you cant find it or buy it anyplace. and nor do i want to pay for an OS that i would just play with to try it out.

    Maybe it should be released free as abandoned ware....
    • No, BeOS is dead. Not dying, dead. The company which owned is was dissolved and all of the code is now the property of Palm, Inc. Palm will continue development on the x86 BeOS during a cold day in hell.

      That said, there are a lot of OSS projects trying to create an OS based upon the BeOS APIs and 'kits'.

      All of the above is quite a shame. If BeOS rose from the dead today with support for modern chipsets, it'd immediately be the primary OS on my workstation.

    • Amiga (which is tring to recover).

      The Amiga is stone dead, cold, buried in the ground, with maggots having consumed the carcass.

      The "Amiga" that is "trying to recover" bears absolutely no resemblence to the original Amiga, except that the company purchased the rights to the name. It's basically a scam to gravy train the Amiga name.

    • No, OS/2 can't be released as free abandoned ware because it isn't abandoned yet. At least not officially.

      You can still purchase OS/2 online (from IBM, who else?), and IBM is still sending out regular updates to customers.
      Yes, that includes single home-users like me. Every 6 months, I get a full CD install set of the latest revision, as well as CD's with update patches, features and programs.

      All but 1 of the 5 biggest banks in Canada still run OS/2, and I haven't seen any "Windows transition" machines at a branch yet.

    • Re:OS/2 may not be dead... ATM Machines (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      We have a small kiosk type Bank of America ATM at work. (they never want you to leave :) One day I went down, and found it crashed with an odd error message, fiugring it was just like any other computer that was crashed I tried to pull the power and reboot. After WAY too much debug information on the way up, an OS/2 warp banner comes up, it then launched into the gui, then started a remote dialin app, then shot some additional debug info, then started the ATM app, and prompted for a passcode. I wonder how many if not all BOA ATM's are running it. I also wonder if the app is native, or OS/2 is just the host OS, and it runs out of a secure hardware card ala IBM.

      Fun stuff.
    • I would love to try OS/2 but the problem is you cant find it or buy it anyplace.

      eComStation is the new OS/2 and can be purchased at a number of places. Just go to http://www.ecomstation.com/where_to_buy.phtml [ecomstation.com].

    • Ah but you can still get it! The latest release EcomStation [ecomstation.com] was release in 2001. It has been updated (nicer installers, updated drivers, etc).
    • There are almost always copies of OS/2 Warp 4 for sale on eBay, and most of the time the price is under US$50.

      If you get a copy and need help (or have any other questions), stop on by the comp.os.os2.misc newsgroup on USENET and ask. We'll be glad to help you learn more. :-)
  • My dad was a gung-ho OS/2 guy for a long time. This definatley sounds cool enough to pull out one of the old OS/2 copies and plop it on my PC.
  • I've never used OS/2, but what about the performance???
    Is it really the same as native Windows or Linux? THough it should work fine for testing purposes I guess...
    • ... a better windows than windows. That was actually one of their slogans, and it was so true! Apps ran usually a lot faster and more stable than under dos/win3.11!
  • I was there last week, and it looked like their package and warehouse tracking system was running OS/2 warp.

    • All of Sears point of sale (including registers), video kiosks, information kiosks (that are not manufacturer provided), servers, order entry systems, inventory systems, etc run OS/2. Most are Warp 4 [3,000 departments (not machines) worth].

      In addition, the building control consoles (fire, security, etc) of Sears Tower, Empire State Building and many other large buildings run OS/2.

      You can find info here:
      http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/esusa/st.htm
      http://people.wiesbaden.netsurf.de/~meile/los2cl _9 76.html

      Robert

  • for an April Fool's joke! heheh.

    Ah, I still have my warp floppies floating around somewhere... Mebbie I'll try this out on an old pentium and emulate linux running vmware emulating windows 3.1 Just for the Uber-Geek Factor!

    OK, I know it, I'm pathetic.

  • I used to run OS/2 Warp on my 386DX40 and my friend had a 386SX16, and his machine often seemed to run quicker under OS/2. I don't know if it was the microchannel bus or not. As far as I can remember both machines had similar amounts of ram.

    Those Microchannel machines were pretty quick for their day. Too bad it was proprietary.

    • Re:Semi-OT: Did OS/2 run faster on IBM machines? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Two words: turbo button
    • I doubt that your machine had PCI slots, so what you were probably seeing was the faster graphical performance of a Microchannel video card. The bus was a hell of a lot faster than ISA.
    • Microchannel was designed for OS/2 was designed for microchannel... get it? Then enhanced microchannel came out... then it went to the high end RS/6000's and to this day, the PC bus in it's best incarnation cant truly touch it.

      Thus, yes, OS/2 flies on microchannel. Any true multitasking task, or bus intensive task, or many needlessly CPU intensive task (ie: could be performed with better bus mastering and device to device communication) can be handled at 2-5 times the speed.

      I'm looking for a few of the ancient Pentium MCA machines to run as OS/2 servers... amazingly solid, and amazingly fast... especially as servers where CPU speed isnt that relevant (unless you are running Windows).

      Those enhanced MCA machines (bus design wise - not CPU wise, unless of course you are talking about the RS/6000's that came with enhanced MCA) are pretty cuick for today - not just "for their day". And one day, maybe PCI with all it's extensions and AGP, etc may catch up.

      Robert

    • i talked to a beta tester of OS/2... he was old and he is retired now. but he siad it was alright just that it was too hardware dependent. that it didnt run as well on non ibm machines and was less stable.
  • I've never been to Europe so I'm not familiar with what the majority of computers run for operating systems, but I guess I've never though OS/2 was still that popular that a european company would produce a product for it. Anyone care to enlighten me? Maybe this product will be sucessful in europe, but I can't imagine it making that much money in North America.

    • Re:Euros. (Score:1, Insightful)

      by generic-man ( 33649 )
      OS/2 was very popular in Europe, with many large corporations still using it. (That's the reason why IBM won't open the code or give away the binaries, BTW.) Back when I used OS/2 in the states, a lot of the programs I used came from Germany, Finland, etc. Microsoft has run into much more resistance in Europe than in the U.S. as far as competition and government are concerned.
      • Why cant IBM give away the binaries of people are still using it? I mean there cant be a huge amount of people actually buying it is there?
        Yeah im sure you can find old servers running DHCP or something like that in the dark corners of server rooms etc but once they get upgraded they get another OS than OS/2?

        Personally im still studying and dont have money to buy OS's which is why I use Linux (and the fact that everything i have to do can be done there) but wouldnt mind trying out OS/2 just for the kicks of it. Anyone know if IBM has somekinda educational license or cheap/free upgrade? I know i have OS/2 Warp 3 cd's somewhere which i never did anything with but would like to have the version 4 of it. (Got the Warp cd's just by paying the postal fee's for them or something like that).

        Is there any reason anyone should use OS/2 these days? seriously?

  • OS/2 is dying (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ok, just kidding.
    For all practical purposes it's dead.

  • In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by carm$y$ ( 532675 ) on Sunday April 07, 2002 @01:33PM (#3299711) Homepage
    Is this a follow-up to the time travelling [slashdot.org] article?
    I mean, these guys are at least 7 years too late...

  • Richard Nixon, Amiga and OS/2... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...all seem to have a knack of returning from the grave more often the Dracula. Can't dead polititians and OS's just stay dead?
  • "Today is a great day for OS/2 users"

    It sure is, by-golly! Today, they can finally use real operating systems from inside their limping, bleeding-from-the-gums, half-dead OS!

    Break out the party hats! The sun is shining, the birds are singing! It truly is a great day for OS/2!

  • Ouch (Score:2, Interesting)

    by FurryFeet ( 562847 )
    I'd love to finally move to OS/2 but I need my Windows apps. This might be the solution... except 239 euros+tax seems a little steep for a home user...
    Also, has anyone got any idea what will happen when Windows crashes (as it is liable to do) while running on top of this?
    • The OS/2 version costs the same as the Windows version, so I guess most home users don't think $200 is too much. Perhaps Americans are more likely to spend that money than Europeans.

      As for Windows crashing, all you do is close the session and relaunch. From OS/2's point of view, Virtual PC is just another OS/2 applications.

      I once read a story about someone who ran A Windows NT server on his Mac using Virtual PC for Macintosh, so his Mac was basically a Windows server. One of the reasons why he did this is because Windows NT would, over time, just fall apart. It would just corrupt itself to oblivion about once every six months. So whenever that happened, he would just reload his backed-up VPC image and keep on going.

  • I just deleted my Linux partition amd reinstalled it under VPC/2, and now I never have to reboot again!

    Are you sure you didn't get Linux confused with Windows there? :)
  • Are we seeing the trend that one OS is always a M$ OS?

    My workplace...

    Linux running VMware running Win98
    FreeBSD running VMware running WinXP
    WinXP running cygwin with Xfree
    WinXP running VMWare running Linux
    Solaris running citrix clients.
    -
    I need the driver support, so Ill use WinXP. - me

  • Great Day (Score:5, Funny)

    by smoondog ( 85133 ) on Sunday April 07, 2002 @01:38PM (#3299737)
    This is a great day for OS/2 users

    Yes, we are both very happy.

    -Sean
    • While this statement may (sadly) ring a little true, it is also a testiment to one of IBM's greatest strengths: it remains committed to supporting its product line. When IBM says they're going to support something, they mean it, and they'll stick it out to the bitter end. How long did they support the RS/6000 well beyond its useful limit? There's also reason why so many systems refuse to switch from MVS.

      It's good to have somebody this loyal on Linux's side.
      • Errr, the RS/6000 line, is still one of the "Big Three" commercial Unix's... Usually mentioned at the same time as Sun, sgi, HP (hp/ux), etc. For example the machine I want to play with is a p690 [ibm.com]. That'd be like saying Sun is still supporting the UltraSparcs long past its useful limit. :)
    • I thought it was a typo, Today is a great day for that OS/2 user.
  • OS 3/2?

    (Come on, someone had to make that joke!)

  • As a former OS/2 user... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Spoing ( 152917 ) on Sunday April 07, 2002 @01:43PM (#3299761) Homepage
    ...I'm deeply puzzled who would buy this now. I can see some sales to specific customers, but not enough to field a COTS product release. Anyone want to enlighten me?

    (BTW...the file system monitor tools fam and imon add a feature to Linux that was missing for way too long; generic and instant update of file status for X. This effectively ties the desktop and the current file system state together eliminating the need to 'refresh' an application to find out what's really there. After having this under OS/2 and seeing how poorly it was handled under Windows (9x & NT forks), I was glad to see SGI port and support this for Linux and IRIX [sgi.com] (other Unix-like systems can add this support as well if they don't have something like it already).)

    • ...because you are too North American centric perhaps?
      Innotek is based in Germany, I believe, and way over in that island called Europe, there are apparently a lot of OS/2 users (i.e. companies) with deep enough pockets to fund this.

      If you were still an OS/2 user, you'd know that IBM still offers updates to OS/2, and the past few rounds, they have been heavily subscribed that they can't press enough CD's in time.
      • If you were still an OS/2 user, you'd know that IBM still offers updates to OS/2, and the past few rounds, they have been heavily subscribed that they can't press enough CD's in time.

        Were is the operative word. Over a year ago -- well after IBM promoted migration strategies and recommended customers move off of OS/2 -- I posted a few messages to a local news group offering all my OS/2 software. After about a week, and a couple bites from non-local current OS/2 users, one person who is local to me (Washington DC-Metro) agreed to drop by and take the box of software off my hands. I think I handed over a dozen titles plus 3 boxed versions of OS/2.

        At the point that I dumped my OS/2 software, I hadn't used any of it for three or more years.

        Since then, I've had zero interest in following OS/2; it's just not a viable platform for any new development. The argument that Europeans use it isn't convincing; I didn't see it at all in three seperate European countries where I worked on banking projects over the past 10 years. The 'OS/2 is popular in Europe' argument has also been used by Amiga advocates yet I noticed only a one Amiga used for slide shows in a public lobby over those same 10 years.

        Admitedly none of those contracts delt with automatic teller machines, so maybe OS/2 is still widely deployed there. Personally, I don't care.

        If you see OS/2 as viable now, even when IBM hasn't for many years, you'd have a hard time convincing me.

        I liked OS/2, I used OS/2, and some of it's features are still not duplicated properly on any other OS. None of the remaining features are compelling, though.

        • I dunno these guys [ecomstation.com] seem to think it's viable. Heck I've seen more activity in the last year for OS/2 then the 2 before that.
        • They are just recommending desktop users moving off. IBM is still selling OS/2 and actively supporting it. I worked for IBM years ago and they are very technology-oriented in a sense that they don't mind using legacy/old/obsoleted(so to say) system, as long as it fits for a particular purpose. I once assigned to 'reactivate' for inhouse development an pretty old RDBMS system on VM which has only 2 sales records since its birth(RDBMS/2 users hehe), and to my surprise it's much more powerful than any off the shelves RDBMS existed on that days.

          OS/2 is sound and healthy and they still generate profit, if we count the OS/2 cashiers and ATM they are selling in bulk.
    • Last time I was in an Ingles Supermarket, I saw a cash register that had apparently dropped out of the register software. I was surprised to see that the OS present was OS/2. It's still in use in the US too.

  • OS/2 dead? (Score:5, Informative)

    by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Sunday April 07, 2002 @01:47PM (#3299776) Homepage Journal
    Well, perhaps as a product directly available from IBM, or retail chains, but you can still get OS/2 under it's new name e-com station, from the people woh convinced IBM that it would be a good idea to continue selling it even if IBM wasn't the marketing force behind it.

    That company is Serenity Systems, http://www.serenity-systems.com

    Whether or not you or I consider it to be a viable product is not really relevent. If Serenity Systems can survive on it, then for them it is a viable product.

    BeOS is the only PC based OS that I have used that has handled threads as well as OS/2 does. This is coming from a user running Linux for the most part now. Your own experience may vary. And if you have political arguments against OS/2, BeOS, et all, because they were proprietary OS's, that's fine. That is one of the main reasons I have converted almost completely to Linux. In my own opinion, proprietary does not necesarily mean does nothing right. But you may take that position if you choose.

    Then again this in my opinion. I get the option of being wrong.

    -Rusty
  • This is good news, considering the effort Microsoft went to kill OS/2 when they released Windows 3.0, this is really funny, the thought of OS/2 users being able to run XP without rebooting...priceless.

    And lest we forget...

    If it wasn't for OS/2 development, the old Amiga would never have had REXX, that was one cool programming language.

    OS/2 2.0 was a better Windows than Windows at the time, and using its Virtual Dos Machines it had the most stable version of Dos.

    Wouldn't life had been so much easier if Windows had died, an everyone used OS/2, too bad its a legacy system now.

    • using its Virtual Dos Machines it had the most stable version of Dos

      Not to be too anal, but, Dos itself wasn't more stable, the computer was. Dos still crashed. I remember when i was learning to program in C, I used Borlands IDE in DOS running under OS/2. When I segfaulted, borland would scroll the dead system register info on the screen and request a reboot. All I had to do was hit ctrl-esc and kill the process and restart it. This meant no more crazy DOS bugs! My favorite was the one that caused the system to reboot (without a sound) or the ones that write to video and screw up the screen. Oh, *sigh*, the days of unprotected memory.

      -Sean
      • I wished I'd learnt C the same way as you, my friends ran Dos or OS/2 whilst I had my Amiga 2000

        My introduction to see was for my Amiga, where trying to learn about pointers and the miggies Intuition GUI at the same time led to some very 'interesting' crashes.
    • "Wouldn't life had been so much easier if Windows had died, an everyone used OS/2, too bad its a legacy system now."

      I really liked OS/2, but there were just too many problems. Installation was a pain, hardware support was iffy .... it was a good product but the incompetent retards at IBM couldn't get their act together. In 1990 (when Win 3.0 was released) Microsoft didn't have nearly the monopoly they have today. IBM had a shot and blew it.

      • I really liked OS/2, but there were just too many problems. Installation was a pain, hardware support was iffy

        The same is true with every operating system. If OS/2 had had the support that Windows had, issues like installation and hardware support would no longer be a problem.

        Although frankly, with eComStation, installation and hardware support are not a problem for me anymore.

    • ...and and don't foget, we wouldn't have the glorious OS/2 PM GUI if it wasn't for Amiga (this was the trade IBM got for them porting REXX)!

  • Innotek (Score:1, Troll)

    by cscx ( 541332 )
    Word has it they are working on a new version of NCSA Mosaic for OS/2, considering they are living in a time machine.

    Makes you wonder what ever happened to those Apple ][ developers...
  • eComStation, NetLabs, Odin, Hobbes, UnixOS/2, XFree86. X on OS/2 is pretty cool. Pretty much everything(of consequence)in Linux has been ported to OS/2. If you can get past the sloppy install or use eComStation or eCommerce Warp Server they are solid as hell with a proven industrial grade kernel.
  • Normally I don't complain about the lack of checking of facts and figures for stories. Shouldn't Slashdot have checked to make sure there were multiple people with OS/2 installed on their system before pluralizing users in the story? Maybe they called both users to see if they were happy about the announcement....

  • OS/2 Guest Support (Score:4, Interesting)

    by QuantumG ( 50515 ) <qg@biodome.org> on Sunday April 07, 2002 @02:18PM (#3299903) Homepage Journal
    That's no easy feat. At VMWare they use OS/2 as a part of the internal test suite. If you changed something in the monitor (the core of a virtualizer) you had to boot/halt OS/2 and a bunch of other operating systems before you could check it into cvs. Apart from the business case, the main reason OS/2 isn't supported on VMWare is because it is so damn wacky that it was considered too unstable to publically support. Virtual PC on the other had can support it because they have dual operation modes. They virtualize the processor until something breaks, you get a popup box saying the VM is going to reboot and then it starts up in 100% emulation mode (ie slow). I figure it must have taken a hell of a lot of effort to keep OS/2 running to be able to release it as a product, or maybe it is just especially dodgy/slow.

    • Re:OS/2 Guest Support (Score:2, Interesting)

      by 3rdof5 ( 571849 )
      It's neiter slow nor does it run in 100% emulation mode. But fact is the VMWare has a bad design it doesn't realy inherit to the V in it's name while VPC does. Yes this might steal some performance but with 2Ghz on every desk who cares about 20% perf. los. The problems VMware had with OS/2 is that OS/2's kernel uses every litle trick in the book that some intel attendum mentioned on page 378 in the fineprint, some of these are even patented. Also keep in mind that even VMware might exist longer on the PC but Connectix has more than 10 years exp with virtualizing Intel CPUs. And just for the Fun I once installed VPC/2 on OS/2 in it run WinNT in that run VPC/Windows which run OS/2 which did run VPC/2 which did run linux. So their design is rock solid. And Connectix only needed to fix 2 things they didn't virtualise properly to get OS/2 running. Inital porting it from Windows to OS/2 was done in less then 3 months.
      • Virtualizing? Do you know what the word means? How can they have 10 years experience virtualizing x86 when their product has always been an x86 _emulator_ on Macs? Their port to windows was quick cause their technology is slow and boring. Who cares about 20% perf loss? Well, *me*. Not that you're better off going with vmware for desktop use however, they're focusing on server applications.
  • How similar is this to VMWare [vmware.com]? I assume they have a similar function, but i tried VMWare out on Mandrake 8.0 and it does run windows faster than native, as advertised.
    How does this functionality compare with VPC?
    Are they architecturally similar?
  • Alot of banks seem to run OS/2 and even Lotus software. Too bad they wouldent have all that much need for software like this though.
  • I knew there was a reason I kept my OS/2 CDs ... I got it for my birthday one summer about 7 years ago (approx) and eventually killed it as soon as I discovered Trumpet Winsock for Windows 3.1. Alas, I did not know very much about partitioning and had to trick its own installer into killing its own partition so I could use Windows again (since fdisk would not kill off that autocratic OS/2 boot manager.)
  • I don't mean to start a fight or offer flaimbait... but what exactly is the point of "hanging on" to an outdated operating system?

    Or maybe I'm mistaken. Is OS/2 still a big deal and is widely used? If so, where is it being used so much?

    From my perspective this is "cool" I guess but not necessarily too useful...
    • "Outdated" in what way, specifically?

      Unix predates OS/2, Windows, and Dos among others. Does that make it "outdated"?

      • Unix predates OS/2, Windows, and Dos among others. Does that make it "outdated"?
        If you mean System I, II, III, VII and the like, then yes, they're horribly outdated. If you mean stuff like Linux, the various flavours of System V, Release 4, then, it's debatable.
    • Of course I'm a troll for merely posing a question, but I still don't have much of an answer. Thanks for not only modding me down, but also ignoring my very question and labeling me a troll. Much appreciation.

  • Okay... (Score:1, Troll)

    by AnimeFreak ( 223792 )
    I beleive those two OS/2 Warp users out there will be pleased to hear this.

    I beleive they're still waiting for Quake II to be ported for them.

  • Not dead? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So if I make a new hat for Napoleon does that mean he is not dead?
  • do that and then i'll be impressed..
  • Actually, I saw a retailer selling OS/2 five years ago. It was in a place that was easier to see than the Winblows section. I took a peek, but it really wasn't something I needed(or could run). IBM wants to get rid of OS/2, probably. They probably don't even use it anymore on any major machines. IBM would probably want everyone to drop OS/2 in favor of POSIX-compatiable systems.

    • Re:OS/2 Sightings (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Hyped01 ( 541957 )
      IBM cant get rid of OS/2 quite just yet even if they wanted to as some of their big or mid sized metal run "controllers" inside of them that run OS/2 (I think the z/Series for one, including it's previous incarnation). The "controller" is actually a very specialized PC that runs all the busses (hardware, memory, disk, networking, "BIOS", etc) of the machine... it sort of acts like a bus mastering chip and I/O controller. It runs OS/2 and has for ages.

      I doubt IBM is yet ready (especially since the other OS alternatives out there have been as mature as they are long enough for the deed to have been done already) to switch those controllers from OS/2 to something else. The machines need 100% uptime (or at least IBM's guaranteeed 99.997%) so the controllers that make them run need to be neat little boxes that sit inside the machine, keep running and nobody needs to know about, running an OS that they have full control over to interact with their proprietary hardware and big metal OS.

      I think they'll be keeping it around at least till the promised 2007 via maintenance, etc. And many OS/2 divisions in IBM seem to have decided it's worth more than just keeping it around... OS/2 just got fingerprint login recognition last week from IBM Germany who has been regulary cranking out OS/2 related things (and just recently started training seminars on it, and the new networking components... not things you'd expect for an OS you'd think they are trying to kill...)

      Just my 1/2 pence

      Robert

      • By and large, old operating systems never die. Well, Multics did, but I have seen DOS 1.0 and 2.0 still going in strange places. CNC machines and other things. Never throw old OS media out, you just never know when it might be useful
  • For most americans OS/2 IS used in Most ATM's, Several Brands Of Gas Pumps, And A healthy Chunk of All Point of Sales Apllications. Any Update to Such a stable OS Is definatly Welcome.
  • Looking at the storys that are posted today, with the exception of John Katz, who is always foolish ;) These stories all sound like pranks.
  • These people and companies taht keep telling OS/2 IS not dead are like people who insist Elvis isn't dead. Why don't you guys see the reality? I Have to say that i used os/2 and it was in fact my favorite OS. But IBM's mistakes killed it and it is dead now. A couple of days ago I also saw a company that was making something called Free DOS. They also stated that DOS isn't dead.
    Though I haven't seen anyone stating that CP/M isn't dead; I wouldn't be surprised to see one!
  • I'm curious. Are there areas where OS/2 still enjoys a lot of popularity? Are there any tasks to which OS/2 is still better suited than most other choices?

    Stability and near POSIX compliant shell support were strong draws for OS/2 seven years ago, but free UNIXes and NT/Cygwin (and more recently, Mac OS X) have caught up in these areas. It's surprising to find that OS/2 has still got a relatively large following.

    • Well it's practically the most secure OS out there. How many crackers do you think will try to crack OS/2 boxes? Not many.
      • > How many crackers do you think will try to crack OS/2 boxes? Not many.

        Actually, the number is pretty high. And, it's not script kiddies either. It's real "pros" interested at a way in the largely-run-on-OS/2 banking and insurance networks.

        To date number of vulnerabilities found? One. A certain attack on the first release of Warp Server for e-Business would make it shut down the TCP/IP stack and possibly crash the machine (no security or data jeopardized). It was fixed in 18 hours of being reported and the patch was made available that Saturday.

        It's not like people dont try... they just dont succeeed... and very few companies run around reporting failed hack attempts. My servers get attacked around the clock with every means I can imagine and many I cant even find references of to break them. They were attacked with Code Red like virii long before it was released... (some of our servers are adult in nature, and it seems serious efforts are made to kill the competition... in talking with other small site owners, they notice the same problems... as ours is getting decent exporse, the attacks have occassionally hit 6 digits worth in a day. Including IRC spawned: DDOS, password and OS exploit hacks the likes of what Steve Gibson of grc.com reported months ago.)

        What do I do? Nothing. I watch. I zip the log files. I laugh.

        Well, not entirely true. Twice they managed to accumulate multiple gigabytes of httpd error logs in a day filling the log drive, which the server is then set to stop sending data out (in the event of). Changed that.

        And I am changing my authentication engine from DominoGoWebserver's to something of my own devising (using a MySQL back end if it can keep up, and if not, then using a DB/2 back end).

        There are still definitely things OS/2 does better - like be more secure. And play DiVX's - at least better than comparable Win__ hardware. Dunno about how Linux plays them...

        Robert

    • I've seen it running everytime I update my car tags.
  • When OS/2 WARP 4 first came out, I wanted to try it out. I checked plenty of computer stores but they didn't have it. Then one of my friend's father had won a copy of OS/2 WARP 4 in a tournament. Only problem is that my friend lived pretty far away and I didn't have a car. So I took a three hour bus/subway/bus/bus ride to get there.

    Yes, I wasted a whole day just to get my hands on OS/2, an impressive OS especially at the time. Unfortunately, IBM killed OS/2. I vowed to never trust IBM. They don't give a damn about marketing. They don't take risks.
  • Our voice response system runs on OS/2 Warp, and IBM has stated they have a contract for driver and os support until 2015!


    In other news, here in Texas the state ordered an OS/2 solution for their license plate services. Partly because it was cheaper than a proposed UNIX solution (good, because it was OpenServer), and partly because they figured people wouldn't attempt to install software from home on the machines (OS/2 does not run most Windows stuff now).

    • partly because they figured people wouldn't attempt to install software from home on the machines

      You have to hand it to them, that's intelligent thinking. Rather than buy Windows and spend a fortune in time and money trying to lock it down, just buy something that there's not much of a software market for that does the job.

  • Once I worked as admin in a company near my home. OS/2 was the OS on the servers and I always thought if was a great product... it almost never crashed (I saw it crashing once and i dont even remember how it was... BSOD? :)))... ok, it was almost a decade ago I really dont remember) we used to compile some unix softwares on it... it was great... our system was a dual-boot of OS/2 and windows NT (i dont even remember de version, one of the first maybe) and OS/2 was hell lot faster! much more reliable (in terms im not even going to mention)! and much, much, much more easy to deal with!

    great product! :)))
  • In my 'every pc I have needs to triple boot' days, I took a P200, purchased OS/2 Warp 3 and then installed it. I was able to boot, and use it. To get it to work on the network, I had to 'hack' the OS. Luckily the network card was one of the 3 that were supported by the hack. I could get onto the NT network, and map drives. Internet? Nope. So I would download files to one computer and then xfer them to that computer. Within about 3 days it was completely tripped out with UI enhancements, Star Office, Netscape, etc, etc.

    I wasn't a big fan of it. I didn't like the CDE like bar it used. Plus, it has 2 versions of DOS on it- one DOS and one OS/2 DOS. The windows 3.1 compatibility package was cool, but I hate windows 3.1. I simply yelled 'gyaaaah!' and closed it....too many GPFs that still haunt my memory.

    There is a lot of software out there, and it seemed at the time that there were a lot of linux hackers that also played with OS/2. Warp 3 was worthless without the internet, and unless I spent another $100 on either Warp 3 Connect or Warp 4, I was SOL.

    Nah, back to windows, linux, beos, bsd, solaris, and whatever I had then.
  • In the near future all computers will be OS/2. Prepare to be absorbed into the collective.

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