“A notice posted yesterday by IBM said that on the 12th of March 2003, IBM will stop marketing OS/2 Warp V4 and Warp Server for e-business programs.” Get the rest at The Inquirer.
“A notice posted yesterday by IBM said that on the 12th of March 2003, IBM will stop marketing OS/2 Warp V4 and Warp Server for e-business programs.” Get the rest at The Inquirer.
DAMN!
Just as I was getting round to reinstalling it!
I don’t think there was an operating system I loved more than OS/2. Well, I don’t use it since more than 5 years ago, but still, it’s sad to hear that, even that I knew it will happen someday. It was nice while it lasted. I remember playing Tie Fighter in a task, having a BBS (Maximus and Squish software, for nostalgics) in another, in 4 MB of ram… Back then, I didn’t know it’s not only the quality of a product that sells it…
Well, now I have Windows 2000 and I love it 🙂 And I will always be angry at IBM for the way OS/2 was managed…
Hey maybe my pristine copies of Warp 3 (red spine)
and Warp 4 will become collectors items valued at
hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Then again…
maybe not.
IBM should’ve called Warp 3 and 4 “FixpakOS”.
They put out enough of them.
My Warp 4 w/ Fixpak 15 is still fun to play with
though. How come no Windows version ever came with
something as useful as VoiceType? Huh, Bill? Huh?
Get ecomstation (http://www.ecomstation.com/). Much better, but not for the weak of wallet …
monty
Will ecomstation be able to continue to sell their version of OS/2, or is the fat lady preparing to break out into song?
Sort of strange that they’d just drop it like that, instead of earning money by managing the decline. Or by selling it to someone who will. Witness Digital’s sale of the old PDP-11 operating systems to Mentec. Fully supported copies of RSTS, RSX-11, et al. are still being sold to those who can’t or won’t move to another platform.
Yours truly,
Jeffrey Boulier
….that IBM could’t decide whether OS/2 was a consumer product with enterprise-cleint capability, or an enterprise client which could also run stand-alone.
I kind of wonder if they’re not taking this bye-bye approach because they couldn’t keep enough enterprise companies around OS/2 long enough to warrant continued support. So they’re dumping it like an old-model refrigerator.
I don’t think they can open-source it, because You-Know-Who did a great deal of the development work.
I seem to remember similar stories over the last few years.
“Back then, I didn’t know it’s not only the quality of a product that sells it…”
You’re right. The rule for system is : the worst it is, the best it is spread ( the worst but minimally running, don’t be silly here ). just remember, DOS/VSE over company’s builded system, Unix over PDP, MVS over VMS, Ms-Dos over Apple ( and Atari and Amiga ), Windows 3.0 ! over OS/2.
And by this yardstick, you can easely projected a great, great, great futur for Linux. Never seen a so worst system. Believe me the planet will be full of Linux ;-)))
Fortunately there is a good company, Red Hat, and a good project, Debian, which are working ( i mean working, not regarding their own navel as the other distro do… ). So we may expect they succed in transforming this thing in a operating system. But for the serious stuff, i’m afraid that we have to continue to pay.
why does ecomm go with os/2 and not linux
and why in the 90’s did ibm bundle windows rather than os/2 with their pcees
to complete with m$ windows?
consider the evidence
free bsd is a server os.
beos is dead.
os/2 is dead.
earlier editions of windows such as win3.1 are dead.
others, like win95 are moribund.
DOS is dead.
it seems the only desktop OS left for today’s performance x86 pc’s is Linux.
osnews should be “linuxnews”
“and why in the 90’s did ibm bundle windows rather than os/2 with their pcees”
Just because Windows was the de facto standard. And also because IBM is a trader, not a stupid integrist.
Standard is more important than open or close or free or not free.
free bsd is a server os.
There’s plenty of FreeBSD users who would argue otherwise. And they’d be right. FreeBSD isn’t exclusively targeted at the server room. In fact, it can run Linux binaries, too!
Besides, lots of other people (myself included) would argue that linux isn’t really in the running as a general purpose x86 desktop for the masses.
As for OS/2…. I have this gut feeling that we may hear from this phoenix again (or at least parts). It will probably have a totally different name then.
Well i never got to play with it, but i am sure it must being a much better Os the win 3.1 for its time.
Any piece of technology is laid to rest.
Sad….but as Jonny Walker Says keep walking dude.
why does ecomm go with os/2 and not linux
Tell me, why would they risk business going with an over-hyped lesser version of UNIX. OS/2 is time tested. It’s been in the trenches since the 80ies. Nice try troll.
Also eComStation 1.1 is in BETA.
OS/2 Warp 4 is still used as the defacto standard for desktop systems at the big banks here in Canada.
I can’t see the banks walking away from OS/2 for Windows.
>….but as Jonny Walker Says keep walking dude.
Yeah I’ll do that.
Sincerely,
dude
os/2 will be alive and kicking just as BeOS is hehehe
Have they considered releasing it… aw, never mind.
Brad Clarke:
“OS/2 Warp 4 is still used as the defacto standard for desktop systems at the big banks here in Canada.”
There are some bank in europa using OS/2 too. Another big deployement is the travel sector ( amedeus project, i am not sure but i think this is deployed in USA, or some joint-venture, i don’t remember ) airplane reservation and so on.
OS/2 is a spreaded system, certainly between 5 or 10 million computers. Not so bad.
But hey, facing 500 million computers running w32, 30 million running Mac, and something between 30 and 50 million crashing Linux, OS/2 can’t be seen as a standard 😉
“I can’t see the banks walking away from OS/2 for Windows.”
You’re right, at least not immediately. And they are very good canditate for a futur mass migration to Linux ( no W32 application ). For sure, they will certainly swith to mandrake. I have recently learned that somebody were ready to pay for mandrake. The best joke of the year ;-)))
eComStation, what will happen. Isn’t that part of OS/2? A modified or an updated OS? Will it be here when IBM stops supporting OS/2?
eCS is OS/2 Warp. They will keep developing it aas serneity systems (the owner) has pledged to develope OS/2 ‘forever’.
OS/2 is not dead, it has just changed its name.
I’ll add my own voice to those mourning the loss of OS/2. I can still remember the look of astonishment on people’s faces (during the WfWG 3.11 days) when they saw that I could play Doom without interfering with any of the lines of my BBS!
As to Marius’ anger at IBM for their management of OS/2 – it’s a sad fact of life in the technology world. OS/2 has forever been compared with the “Beta” of the VCR wars.
I won’t start getting upset with these vendors. If I did, I’d have to go after Atari first… No, wait, what about Amstrad?
And what is with all of the *arius’s on the forum nowadays?
Maybe IBM could open source OS/2?
Thanks Fedorenko for your respsone. I am glad to hear that
That is a real shame. OS/2 is a great OS! I hope IBM still keeps fixpacks and other downloads still available for those who use it…
please don’t make the OS/2 Quebec troll rise up from his quebecois grave and spread terror in osnews
free bsd is a server os.
Hi. I use FreeBSD as my desktop OS also on my laptop. It does many things very well, but could be improved (ACPI, sound support is touchy IMHO). If there comes a time when Windows XP is no longer supported, and the new version of Windows has extensive DRM, or I just don’t like it, I would be quite happy with only FreeBSD.
Yes, Free the code, IBM.!!!
Thats funny I bought OS/2 W4 at the junk store yesterday.
3 cd’s in a box with G”etting to know OS/2 warp 4″
Do you think i paid to Much?
Pssst they have one more copy
Can JFS be done on Warp4 . The main Russian link was dead yesterday.
If they no longer intend to support it, what’s the point in hanging on to the source code? Not just OS/2, but other products that are no longer being sold – release the source code please!
some of that code is ms’ code
I can think of several reasons why IBM isn’t doing this:
1. Some of the code may have been licensed from third parties, and IBM isn’t allowed to release that code.
2. IBM may have some of their own intellectual property embedded in the OS/2 code. Releasing the code may release the intellectual property.
3. IBM may be keeping the code to use in other projects. For example, they make money by licensing the code to the eComStation folks.
4. An open source OS/2 may undermine IBM’s push for Linux acceptance.
First and foremost, HPFS belongs to Microsoft. Secondly, I don’t think there’d be much to gain from seeing OS/2’s code. Maybe some of the WPS stuff might be neat, but I can’t imagine that there are alot of legacy apps that need to be ported to something new (*nix/BSD). Where OS/2 excelled was in running DOS applications. While this was a big deal ten years ago, it doesn’t really matter these days. And WinXP probably does just as good a job of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I seriously dug OS/2 back in the day. But there ain’t anything really interesting there anymore.
why doesn’t ibm offer os/2 for free, including free download?
anyhow, given beos enthusiasts want to clone be os,as in blue-eyed os, why don’t os/2 enthusiasts clone os/2?
when all is said and done, the only x86 desktop alternative to windows is linux
well if you were to clone OS/2 you would probably want to update it to to all the latest features and stuff. Once you done that you pretty much would have Win2k/XP. Aside from when OS/2 first came out it really doesn’t have much advantage over windows. The both were spawned from the same origins. BeOS is much differant. It was a whole new monster. And still has a place in the world as a fast light clean modern OS that puts the user first, not being a server or multi user. Not that mutli user beos would be a bad thing.
OS/2 was the first OS i used at any real level and got to know. But it’s not something i will miss, sorta like win 98. BeOS is something to save. FreeBSD is something to support. If winXP was to suddenly die it would be something to help save. OS/2 i don’t think is very important. unless your a bank or an ATM machine which uses OS/2 as most all do.
With all of the OSs that are out there now in the market i.e Linux,FreeBSD,BeOS Clones,WinXP, etc OS/2 got left behind and although it has it’s place in the market it will be replaced just as it was replacing out dated Dos/Win 3 machines in the 80s and 90s.
-Socratez
You know, one thing they teach you in business school is when to recognize you’ve made a strategic mistake, and what to do to correct it.
Judging from the fanatical user base for OS/2, wouldn’t it make sense to dust it off and start upgrading it, now that everyone is looking for non-windows alternatives? There is no reason that IBM cannot co-market OS/2 and a flavor of LINUX.
IT might provide an important point of differentiation from other IT companies. I’m sure most businesses would stay with windows, but for those who don’t want to take the linux desktop plunge, wouldn’t OS/2 provide a reasonable alternative?
<quote>
beos is dead.
</quote>
Beos is still alive and kicking, there are several openbeos projects in the running (my favour goes to the first of this list)
Check:
http://www.openbeos.org (Beos on NewOs kernel, aims for binary compatibility with R5)
http://www.blueeyedos.com (Beos on Linux kernel, aims for source compatibility with R5)
http://www.cosmoe.com (not sure, but has a simular API to Beos)
I must say, I did chuckle at that. Not at the comment, but at how I had my own system set up.
WPS was a dog. Technologically, it was great, but its speed wasn’t crash hot. I went through a lot of small shells (which led me to do the same in Linux) because of this.
The thing that makes me chuckle is the thought of cloning OS/2. To save time, use the Linux kernel… Then you can add the desktop etc…
But hang on, I jumped at the opportunity to throw on XFree86 for OS/2!
That would be full circle for me!
>Beos is still alive and kicking
It is alive, I’m posting this from Net+, but far from “kicking”.
I’m a bit sceptical about obos and other BeOS clones. I wonder do we need that at all?
BeOS needs apps. Not just big apps, but small ones. Like, there is still no usefull newsreader
for BeOS, or download manager (unfortunately BeGet was nice, but it’s not updated for 2 years)
Most of apps for BeOS are aboundware, half finshed then left. It would be better to take those
apps one by one and finish them up. There is small number of BeOS developers, and most skillfull
are now working on recreating BeOS. Then, we would still have same problems, lack of apps.
OS/2 died because of IBM. First off, marketing. The company didn’t really paid much attention to what the enterprise market really wanted. The enterprise didn’t want expensive hardware. OS/2 was practically IBM-only, sure you could run on clones (just like you could run Mac OS 8.6 (or whateva that version was) on clone Macs), but it wasn’t clone-friendly.
Which itself was a business mistake. But another business mistake was to get rid of OS/2 and go with Windows 95 without giving it a second chance. They could either learnt from their mistake and correct them (something microsoft is famous for). It wasn’t like they didn’t have the money to do so. In fact, had IBM kep OS/2 around, Microsoft wouldn’t be so dominate. Microsoft would be just like Intel, and IBM AMD (or perhaps the other way around).
If they didn’t like that, then maybe they should make OS/2 a niche product. I’m sure if IBM kept premiums ala the Mac, they would have made much more money than they do now with their current PC division. Sure they won’t be dominant, but I rather have profit than no profit, even if I have no dominance.
But it isn’t too late for IBM. It’s not like they are commited to Linux on the desktop or making a huge profit from Windows workstations.
If IBM offer OS/2 for free, it would undermine eCS, whom they may potentially make money from, if they aren’t in the first place (notice there are some folks saying that most banks use OS/2? that’s true, and for the near future, at least for Malaysian banks, they are looking at eCS).
Then on what medium should IBM release OS/2 for free? If via downloads, don’t they also have to pay for bandwidth? What about CDs? Are they free or do they not cost money? (And there is also a possiblity that IBM pays royalties for patented and third party parts).
IBM is not in the busines of *loosing* money. Currently, IBM have no gain in the adoption of their old version of OS/2 with their current strategy.
Hi all!
Hey guys, come on! OS/2, made in half of 90’s, is so modern than any other OS today. BeOS is my great OS. FreeBSD I use to test (oh! It’s great too). IBM wants contribute with the Linux. It’s bad. I would hear that IBM creating several new releases and patches to your OS. On other hand, is Linux that won (and Microsoft too). My bank and several others banks here, in Brazil, still use OS/2 today. Opensource it? Maybe, but with which advantages? OS/2 not have (that I know) some “cool” features that could be copied by others OSs. Some suggestion?
It’s sad, know that IBM no have more interest in your OS. Your users will be sad too. I remeber when my beloved BeOS died…
Michael VinÃcius de Oliveira
BlueEyedOS Webmaster
Well I used OS/2 warp 3 on my old 486 and have long sinced retired it. Personally I think it was long overdue that OS/2 had to go. It was a great operating system but could never compete against M$. Linux on the otherhand is the thorn in Steve’s empire which he knows that Linux could kill Windows on the server end. OS/2 had a great run but when major coporations stopped developing for it in the mid-90’s you knew it was doomed.
Judging from the fanatical user base for OS/2,
What fanatical user base? These folks use it because it works for them. More power to them.
Well, I was looking at it form the OS as a tool standpoint…I guess you could say, yes, OS/2 works for you, but so does Windows XP.
There is a certain doggedness, stubborness, and even a bit of fanaticism that keeps you using the OS despite the dwindling support, software, etc., available to you.
Nothing wrong with that, I wasn’t making a value judegement.Personally, the more OSes the better.
Marius wrotes:
>I don’t think there was an operating system I loved more
>than OS/2. Well, I don’t use it since more than 5 years
>ago, but still, it’s sad to hear that, even that I knew it
>will happen someday. It was nice while it lasted. I
>remember playing Tie Fighter in a task, having a BBS
>(Maximus and Squish software, for nostalgics) in another, >in 4 MB of ram…
Bull… there’s no way you could run OS/2 and play Tie Fighter in a task with only 4Mb of RAM. Even Warp (1994+) needed AT LEAST 4mb just to load (and 16Mb for developping). OS/2 2.1 on a 486/33 (1993) was just swapping even you were just moving the mouse. That didn’t change very much with Warp.
Well, I was looking at it form the OS as a tool standpoint…I guess you could say, yes, OS/2 works for you, but so does Windows XP.
Not only for me but for a lot of people (especially Europeans)
There is a certain doggedness, stubborness, and even a bit of fanaticism that keeps you using the OS despite the dwindling support, software, etc., available to you.
You forgot habits on your list.
Also take note that nowadays most chipsets/peripherals seems to work fine under OS/2 thus the need to migrate elsewhere as diminished.
IBM: OS/2 Alive And Well
..an IBM spokesman said OS/2 is alive and well. “Really, not very much has changed,” the spokesman said. “We are continuing to support OS/2, just as we always have.” ..
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,763064,00.asp
IBM: OS/2 still sold here
…IBM spokesman Steve Eisenstadt said. “As long as our customers want OS/2, we will support them,” he said. “We don’t have plans to withdraw OS/2.”..
http://marketwatch-cnet.com.com/2100-1001-977087.html