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Would love to see an Open Source OS/2!

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
hvs 7y ago
Probably won't happen. Companies have been willing to buy the IP and support it (Serenity Systems with eComStation, Arca Noae with ArcaOS) because there are legacy installations of OS/2 that need to be supported (and are willing to pay). To get a sense of the companies that still need OS/2 support, see this list from Arca Noae: Advantech, Austria Agie Charmilles SA, Switzerland Bowe, Bell & Howell, U.S.A. Canadian Coast Guard, Canada Colgate Palmolive, U.S.A. Dematic North America, Luxembourg Federated Insurance, U.S.A. Johnson and Johnson, U.S.A. Pepsi Co., U.S.A. Roos Instruments, U.S.A. Siemens AG, Germany Trainitalie, F.S., Italy Universal Instruments Corp, U.S.A. Whirlpool Corporation, U.S,A, http://ecomstation.com/index.phtml http://ecomstation.com/index.phtml https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/ https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/
- zozbot234 7y ago
  Rumor has it that OS/2 or a compatible system is still needed to boot up some legacy IBM mainframes, the OS/2 box is used as a kind of system console.
  - unixhero 7y ago
    Yes, it uses ThinkPad laptops to coordinate the bootup of the machine, in the past these ran OS/2. Beautiful.
  - cptnapalm 7y ago
    Raises hand I have a Multiprise 3000 and this is true for me, or would be if I could get the software that will actually bring up the mainframe hardware.
  - skissane 7y ago
    That was true for IBM mainframes manufactured prior to 2005. The hardware management console computer (kind of like BIOS setup on steroids) was a PC running OS/2. Models since 2005 have used Linux instead, although the management app on Linux was designed to duplicate the visual look of OS/2 (to make existing users feel more comfortable.) I remember around 2006 or so, watching a service technician replace some faulty hard disk drives in an enterprise SAN. He opens up the front door, and out of this compartment he slides a laptop computer which runs some management software. From the look of the user interface, it appeared to be running Windows 3.1.
- chiph 7y ago
  One of the reasons why the original OS/2 source wasn't made available by IBM was that there are a lot of 3rd party libraries in it. Many from companies that no longer exist, or firms that have been acquired several times, so it's just too hard to get the release signatures.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

hvs 7y ago

Probably won't happen. Companies have been willing to buy the IP and support it (Serenity Systems with eComStation, Arca Noae with ArcaOS) because there are legacy installations of OS/2 that need to be supported (and are willing to pay). To get a sense of the companies that still need OS/2 support, see this list from Arca Noae: Advantech, Austria Agie Charmilles SA, Switzerland Bowe, Bell & Howell, U.S.A. Canadian Coast Guard, Canada Colgate Palmolive, U.S.A. Dematic North America, Luxembourg Federated Insurance, U.S.A. Johnson and Johnson, U.S.A. Pepsi Co., U.S.A. Roos Instruments, U.S.A. Siemens AG, Germany Trainitalie, F.S., Italy Universal Instruments Corp, U.S.A. Whirlpool Corporation, U.S,A, http://ecomstation.com/index.phtml http://ecomstation.com/index.phtml https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/ https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/

zozbot234 7y ago
Rumor has it that OS/2 or a compatible system is still needed to boot up some legacy IBM mainframes, the OS/2 box is used as a kind of system console.
- unixhero 7y ago
  Yes, it uses ThinkPad laptops to coordinate the bootup of the machine, in the past these ran OS/2. Beautiful.
- cptnapalm 7y ago
  Raises hand I have a Multiprise 3000 and this is true for me, or would be if I could get the software that will actually bring up the mainframe hardware.
- skissane 7y ago
  That was true for IBM mainframes manufactured prior to 2005. The hardware management console computer (kind of like BIOS setup on steroids) was a PC running OS/2. Models since 2005 have used Linux instead, although the management app on Linux was designed to duplicate the visual look of OS/2 (to make existing users feel more comfortable.) I remember around 2006 or so, watching a service technician replace some faulty hard disk drives in an enterprise SAN. He opens up the front door, and out of this compartment he slides a laptop computer which runs some management software. From the look of the user interface, it appeared to be running Windows 3.1.
chiph 7y ago
One of the reasons why the original OS/2 source wasn't made available by IBM was that there are a lot of 3rd party libraries in it. Many from companies that no longer exist, or firms that have been acquired several times, so it's just too hard to get the release signatures.