5 ms·

i love this site. os/2 was such a huge part of my life in the 90s and the sole reason i love computers back then. it's great that this site has preserved so muc

i love this site. os/2 was such a huge part of my life in the 90s and the sole reason i love computers back then. it's great that this site has preserved so much history of it.

kzrdude 6y ago
Serious question, what was OS/2 and who used it?
- TazeTSchnitzel 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2
- LeoPanthera 6y ago
  Wikipedia's OS/2 article is comprehensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 tl;dr A graphical OS developed by IBM that succeeded DOS and competed with Windows. Notably, it featured pre-emptive multitasking before Windows did. It was not a success in the home market but was reasonably successful in big business, especially finance, for a short amount of time.
  - Lammy 6y ago
    And still exists today as ArcaOS! https://www.arcanoae.com/ https://www.arcanoae.com/
    - projektfu 6y ago
      Much better name than eComStation
    - benibela 6y ago
      I have an open source project, where someone decided to compile it on OS/2. They send me the binaries for OS/2 for every release till 2016 Apparently modern C++ and Qt run there without issues
  - Narishma 6y ago
    I think the first version wasn't graphical.
    - LeoPanthera 6y ago
      Actually that's right! The GUI, called "Presentation Manager", debuted with OS/2 1.1.
  - skissane 6y ago
    As a tween/teen, I learnt a lot from OS/2. Up until then I had only used DOS and Windows 3.x. And then my Dad bought me a copy of OS/2 2.0, and also the Walnut Creek Hobbes OS/2 CD-ROM. And I discovered EMX (the OS/2 equivalent of Cygwin). And I started playing with bash, EMACS, GCC, etc. Next thing you know, I was installing Slackware Linux. At which point I largely lost interest in OS/2. But EMX was an important stepping-stone for me in getting in to Linux.
  - kelnos 6y ago
    I think it's important to note (even in a tl;dr) that for a time OS/2 was a joint venture between IBM and Microsoft, and that MS sabotaged that relationship while secretly working on WinNT. On a related note, "Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" is a surprisingly entertaining story, and reads more like a novel than a documentary/memoir.
    - WalterGR 6y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 : As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 relative to Microsoft's new Windows 3.1 operating environment, the two companies severed the relationship in 1992 and OS/2 development fell to IBM exclusively. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT : Windows 3.0 was eventually so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM and the collaboration ultimately fell apart.
- walterbell 6y ago
  People who wanted an object-oriented graphical desktop ATM machines.
- thrownaway954 6y ago
  an operating system made through a joint venture between microsoft and ibm. it was the predecessor to WinNT. it could run dos, win16, win32, posix as well as os/2 native apps. it really was an amazing operating system at the time with a VERY passionate community behind it. watch some of the videos for a good take on it: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-videos-1987/ http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-videos-1987/
  - uryga 6y ago
    i learned about OS/2 from the 'Doing Windows' series. really recommend it, it's a great read about the history behind all this stuff, the computing landscape of that period, and why OS/2 was a huge achievement. https://www.filfre.net/2018/06/doing-windows-part-1-ms-dos-and-its-discontents/ https://www.filfre.net/2018/06/doing-windows-part-1-ms-dos-a... the road to "run DOS stuff [without being DOS]" was very long, and paved with many gravestones... i think OS/2 comes in in part 5 or 6, but i really recommend reading the whole thing.
- som33 6y ago
  It was the days where people owned their own software and DRM had not made it's way into games, since the internet has enabled PC game theft on a massive scale, by valve, ea and activision. OS/2 was an alternative Operating system oriented towards businesses that could run apps from different operating systems under one unified framework.

i love this site. os/2 was such a huge part of my life in the 90s and the sole reason i love computers back then. it's great that this site has preserved so much history of it.

kzrdude 6y ago

Serious question, what was OS/2 and who used it?

TazeTSchnitzel 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2
LeoPanthera 6y ago
Wikipedia's OS/2 article is comprehensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 tl;dr A graphical OS developed by IBM that succeeded DOS and competed with Windows. Notably, it featured pre-emptive multitasking before Windows did. It was not a success in the home market but was reasonably successful in big business, especially finance, for a short amount of time.
- Lammy 6y ago
  And still exists today as ArcaOS! https://www.arcanoae.com/ https://www.arcanoae.com/
  - projektfu 6y ago
    Much better name than eComStation
  - benibela 6y ago
    I have an open source project, where someone decided to compile it on OS/2. They send me the binaries for OS/2 for every release till 2016 Apparently modern C++ and Qt run there without issues
- Narishma 6y ago
  I think the first version wasn't graphical.
  - LeoPanthera 6y ago
    Actually that's right! The GUI, called "Presentation Manager", debuted with OS/2 1.1.
- skissane 6y ago
  As a tween/teen, I learnt a lot from OS/2. Up until then I had only used DOS and Windows 3.x. And then my Dad bought me a copy of OS/2 2.0, and also the Walnut Creek Hobbes OS/2 CD-ROM. And I discovered EMX (the OS/2 equivalent of Cygwin). And I started playing with bash, EMACS, GCC, etc. Next thing you know, I was installing Slackware Linux. At which point I largely lost interest in OS/2. But EMX was an important stepping-stone for me in getting in to Linux.
- kelnos 6y ago
  I think it's important to note (even in a tl;dr) that for a time OS/2 was a joint venture between IBM and Microsoft, and that MS sabotaged that relationship while secretly working on WinNT. On a related note, "Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" is a surprisingly entertaining story, and reads more like a novel than a documentary/memoir.
  - WalterGR 6y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 : As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 relative to Microsoft's new Windows 3.1 operating environment, the two companies severed the relationship in 1992 and OS/2 development fell to IBM exclusively. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT : Windows 3.0 was eventually so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM and the collaboration ultimately fell apart.
walterbell 6y ago
People who wanted an object-oriented graphical desktop ATM machines.
thrownaway954 6y ago
an operating system made through a joint venture between microsoft and ibm. it was the predecessor to WinNT. it could run dos, win16, win32, posix as well as os/2 native apps. it really was an amazing operating system at the time with a VERY passionate community behind it. watch some of the videos for a good take on it: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-videos-1987/ http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-videos-1987/
- uryga 6y ago
  i learned about OS/2 from the 'Doing Windows' series. really recommend it, it's a great read about the history behind all this stuff, the computing landscape of that period, and why OS/2 was a huge achievement. https://www.filfre.net/2018/06/doing-windows-part-1-ms-dos-and-its-discontents/ https://www.filfre.net/2018/06/doing-windows-part-1-ms-dos-a... the road to "run DOS stuff [without being DOS]" was very long, and paved with many gravestones... i think OS/2 comes in in part 5 or 6, but i really recommend reading the whole thing.
som33 6y ago
It was the days where people owned their own software and DRM had not made it's way into games, since the internet has enabled PC game theft on a massive scale, by valve, ea and activision. OS/2 was an alternative Operating system oriented towards businesses that could run apps from different operating systems under one unified framework.