Ah, the memories of OS/2! I was into OS/2 in a big way. I was probably even passionate about OS/2. I was all-in on it. OS/2 Productivity apps: DeScribe (word p

Ah, the memories of OS/2! I was into OS/2 in a big way. I was probably even passionate about OS/2. I was all-in on it. OS/2 Productivity apps: DeScribe (word processor), Lotus 1-2-3 (spreadsheet), IBM DB2/2 (database), Golden Compass (CompuServe offline reader that would do online sync), etc. OS/2 Development apps: IBM C Set++ (C/C++), IBM VisualAge C++ (C/C++), Borland C++ for OS/2, Watcom VX-REXX Windows apps: WordPerfect for Windows, Borland C++ DOS apps: Turbo Pascal, Turbo C++ One of the most impressive things folks would do with OS/2 was format a disk (3.5" or 5.25") while simultaneously playing a game (without any hiccups in the game). This was essentially unheard of at the time. It wasn't all fun and games though: - You want to write code for OS/2 using sockets? IBM will sell you their IBM TCP/IP Development Kit for OS/2 for $75 - OS/2 PM (graphical desktop) had a fundamental flaw with its synchronous input queue (SIQ) that could lock-up the graphical desktop with a misbehaving app. The base OS was still running just fine, but the graphical desktop was hosed. There were some hacks like using a joystick button to try to reset PM. Occasionally it worked. - IBM's marketing was inept at best. A common tag-line from frustrated OS/2 developers was: "Annoy IBM, support OS/2!" - The "better Windows than Windows" was mostly true. This caused most application developers to just create Windows applications since both Windows and OS/2 users could run it. I spent countless hours in the 'Canopus' room on CompuServe where OS/2 advocates (and some detractors) would discuss current happenings in the OS/2 community. When my OS/2 world crashed and burned I had nothing else to fall back on because I was all-in on OS/2. This was a painful and valuable lesson to me about putting all my eggs in one basket. It was also a painful lesson about being a passionate developer. From that point on, I refused to be passionate about any one technology. I concluded that it was foolish to do so -- everything comes and goes. Additionally, passion clouds rational judgment.