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Yep, let us all use Windows because that's the only true way to get the job done. After all, it is the only OS with software support from all major vendors, and the OS with by far the largest variety of supported hardware.

Edited 2011-05-24 14:42 UTC

There are other options. Like Linux. An OS that actually has a future.

eComStation likely does not have a future. There just aren't enough people willing to pay that kind of price for an OS that is effectively 15 years out of date, has virtually no software available anymore (sure you can build a lot of open source apps on it. But if you are gonna do that, you might as well run Linux), and that might suddenly disappear and become unsupported as soon a Serenity figures out it's not economically viable to keep trying to sell OS/2 as commercial software.

I don't think anybody is arguing that it's in a position to challenge Windows on the desktop.

I would like to add that my bank still has some form of OS/2 on the desktop of their PCs. Which means that there is still a market for it. After all, there is still a market for DOS.

Your bank is probably still running OS/2 2.1, or Warp 3 or 4. There are a handful of old ATMs out there that still run OS/2 as well. IBM still provides support and patches for it to business customers who have support contracts for it. But IBM is really pushing the few remaining customers that still use it to migrate to other platforms. IBM really wishes they could completely kill off OS/2.

...and yet a news item about it yields 30 comments (and counting) - and at least half of them are actually on topic. That is a pretty good signal to noise ratio all things considered.

I used OS/2 for about 5 years or so back in the 90s - I have very fond memories. I don't use it anymore - mostly for all the reasons you mentioned. Yet I do not feel the need to derail the discussion about it with "its dead, everyone needs to move on" crap. If you don't want to use it then don't, but a very small and very vocal minority of users still do use it - have a little respect for their feelings.

I'm not arguing your facts or reasoning are flawed - I just don't think anyone who is actually using ecom station is going to be the least bit swayed by your post. I think they already know they are using an OS that has already seen its better days - but they just got a new release, let them have their fun with it.

So, the life & death of an OS depends on the features of it's GUI & not the OS's actual performance???

There's a difference between all-dead and mostly-dead.

Some OSes really are all-dead, but it's surprising how few. Older versions of classic Mac OS are all-dead, for example, because there are no new ports, little or no maintained software and no new releases. It's easier to all-dead a commercial OS because there's a finite set of sources for improvements. Open source OSes never really die at all.

Amiga? Not dead. DOS? Certainly not dead. CP/M is still alive, though his breathing is quite shallow. By comparison to these eComStation is as healthy as they come.

Think of all the OSes you've ever used or seen used. How many are running on real hardware right this minute? If nobody runs them at all any more, they're dead. How many have at least two people maintaining software that runs on them? If someone is maintaining and updating user software for an OS, it's not dead. How many still receive updates to the core OS? If the OS still receives updates, even if only once or twice a decade, it's not dead.

It's damn hard to kill an OS. It's much easier to kill off the hardware it runs on and the people who created it. Time alone will probably do both.