Star IBM Officially Kills OS/2, Suggests Switch To Linux
Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Thu 14th Jul 2005 20:57 UTC, submitted by Kelly
OS/2 and eComStation IBM has hammered the final nails into OS/2's coffin. It said that all sales of OS/2 will end on the 23rd of December this year, and support for the pre-emptive multitasking operating system will end on the 31st December 2006.
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Sabon
Member since:
2005-07-06

So, since they won't sell it anymore, and obviously won't support it, it's now offically free to copy and pass on to others?

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Member since:

No! Any discontinued software (Atari, Amiga, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Zork, whatever) is still covered by copyright for about 50 years and probably a license too. Therefore, it is not legal to duplicate it or distribute it.

There are two exceptions
1. About 50 years pass and the owner does not renew the copyright.
2. The owner makes it freely distributable (maybe open source or just free of charge).

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Member since:

Go back and read the announcement again. It says that anyone who wants to get furthher support can apply to IBM to get further support on a fee basis. This means,of course,that one has to have deep pockets. Serenity Ststems International just signed a new contract a couple of months ago with IBM. They market Ecimstation,which runs on OS2.

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