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OS/2
OS/2 Warp 4
A typical OS/2 Warp 4 desktop
Company/
developer		 Microsoft, IBM
Programmed in  ?
OS family OS/2
Source model Closed source
Latest stable release 4. The software industry comprises businesses involved in the development, maintenance and publication of Computer software. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. 52 / December 2001
Marketing target Professionals, servers
Available language(s) English, German
Available programming languages(s)  ?
Supported platforms x86
Kernel type Hybrid kernel
Default user interface Workplace Shell Graphical user interface
License Proprietary
Working state Now developed as eComStation

OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. In the Philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is a Language that is spoken or written in phonemic-alphabetic or phonemically-related A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS Hybrid kernel is a kernel architecture based on combining aspects of Microkernel and Monolithic kernel architectures used in Computer The user interface (or Human Computer Interface) is the aggregate of means by which people&mdash the users '&mdash interact with the System The Workplace Shell (WPS is an award-winning Object-oriented desktop shell produced by IBM 's Boca Raton development lab for OS/2 2 A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software eComStation is a PC Operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems, USA An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 (PS/2)" line of second-generation Personal Computers. The Personal System/2 or PS/2 was IBM 's third generation of Personal computers The PS/2 line released to the public in 1987 was created by IBM in an A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated OS/2 is no longer marketed by IBM, and IBM standard support for OS/2 was discontinued on December 31, 2006. Events 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. [1] Currently, Serenity Systems sells OS/2 under the brand name eComStation. eComStation is a PC Operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems, USA

OS/2 was intended as a protected mode successor of PC-DOS and Microsoft Windows. In computing protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of X86 -compatible Central processing units (CPU IBM PC-DOS is a DOS operating system for the IBM Personal Computer, sold throughout the 1980s and 1990s Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Notably, basic system calls were modeled after MS-DOS calls; their names even started with "Dos" and it was possible to create "Family Mode" applications: text mode applications that could work on both systems. In Computing, a system call is the mechanism used by an application program to request service from the Kernel. Text mode is a kind of computer display mode in which the content of the screen is internally represented in terms of textual characters rather [2] Because of this heritage, OS/2 is like Windows in many ways, but it also shares similarities with Unix and Xenix. Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer Xenix is a version of the Unix Operating system, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s

OS/2 is also remembered for being one of the first major operating system to have its own advocacy group. An interest group (also advocacy group, lobby group, pressure group or special interest group) is an organized collection of people who seek Team OS/2 was a grassroots, ad-hoc organization of volunteers, who promoted and supported the operating system and applications designed for it. Team OS/2 is an advocacy group formed to promote IBM 's OS/2 operating system

Contents

Development history

Enthusiastic beginnings

The development of OS/2 began when IBM and Microsoft signed the Joint Development Agreement in August 1985. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) [3] It took two years for the first product to be delivered.

OS/2 1. 0 was announced in April 1987 and released in December as a text mode-only OS. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Text mode is a kind of computer display mode in which the content of the screen is internally represented in terms of textual characters rather However, it featured a rich API for controlling the video display (VIO) and handling keyboard and mouse events so that programmers writing for protected-mode no longer had to call the BIOS or access hardware directly. A display device is an Output device for presentation of Information for Visual or Tactile reception acquired stored or transmitted In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys In computing protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of X86 -compatible Central processing units (CPU In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs In addition, development tools included a subset of the video and keyboard APIs as linkable libraries so that family mode programs were able to run under MS-DOS. A task-switcher named Program Selector was available through the Ctrl-Esc hotkey combination, allowing the user to select among multitasked text-mode sessions (or screen groups; each could run multiple programs). A keyboard shortcut (or accelerator key, shortcut key, hot key, key binding, keybinding, key combo, etc [4]

Communications and database-oriented extensions were delivered in 1988, as part of OS/2 1. 0 Extended Edition: SNA, X.25/APPC/LU 6. Systems Network Architecture ( SNA) is IBM 's proprietary networking architecture created in 1974 X25 is an ITU-T standard Network layer protocol for packet switched Wide area network (WAN communication In Computing, Advanced Program to Program Communication or APPC is a protocol which Computer programs can use to communicate over a network 2, LAN Manager, Query Manager, SQL. The LAN Manager (not to be confused with NTLM) was a Network Operating System (NOS from Microsoft developed in cooperation with 3Com. Query Management Facility is a Query tool invented by IBM, for interfacing with their DB2 system

The promised GUI, Presentation Manager, was introduced with OS/2 1. 1 in November 1988. Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) [5] It had an almost identical user interface to Windows 2.1. Windows 21x is a family of Microsoft Windows Graphical user interface -based Operating environments Less than a year after the release of

The Extended Edition of 1. 1 sold only through IBM sales channels introduced distributed database support to IBM database systems and SNA communications support to IBM mainframe networks.

Version 1. 2 introduced Installable Filesystems and notably the HPFS filesystem. HPFS or High Performance File System is a File system created specifically for the OS/2 Operating system to improve upon the limitations In Computing, a file system (often also written as filesystem) is a method for storing and organizing Computer files and the data they contain to make HPFS provided a number of improvements over the older FAT filesystem, including long filenames and a form of alternate data streams called Extended Attributes. Templateinfobox filesystem whilst covering all 3 file systems please make any style changes to both at the same time In computer File systems a fork is additional data associated with a file system object Extended file attributes is a File system feature that enables users to associate Computer files with Metadata not interpreted by the filesystem whereas [6] In addition, extended attributes were also added to the FAT filesystem. [7]

Installation Disk A of Microsoft OS/2 1.3 (3.5" floppy disk).
Installation Disk A of Microsoft OS/2 1. 3 (3. 5" floppy disk).

The Extended Edition of 1. 2 introduced TCP/IP and Ethernet support. The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of Communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs

OS/2 and Windows-related books of the late 1980s acknowledged the existence of both systems and promoted OS/2 as the system for the future. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. [8]

Breakup

The collaboration between IBM and Microsoft unraveled in 1990, between the releases of Windows 3.0 and OS/2 1. Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) 3. Initially, at least publicly, Microsoft continued to insist the future belonged to OS/2. Steve Ballmer of Microsoft even took to calling OS/2 "Windows Plus". Steve Anthony Ballmer (born March 24 1956 is an American Businessman. [9] However, during this time, Windows 3. 0 became a tremendous success, selling millions of copies in its first year. [10] Much of its success was due to the fact that Windows 3. 0 (along with MS-DOS) was bundled with most new computers. [11] OS/2, on the other hand, was only available as an expensive stand-alone software package. In addition, OS/2 lacked device drivers for many common devices such as printers, particularly non-IBM hardware. In computing a device driver or software driver is a Computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a Hardware device [12] Windows, on the other hand, supported a much larger variety of hardware. The increasing popularity of Windows prompted Microsoft to shift its development focus from cooperating on OS/2 with IBM to building a franchise based on Windows. [13] Several technical and practical reasons contributed to this breakup:

Given these issues, Microsoft started to work in parallel on a version of Windows which was more future-oriented and more portable. The hiring of Dave Cutler, former VMS architect, in 1988 created an immediate competition with the OS/2 team, as Cutler did not think much of the OS/2 technology and wanted to build on his work at Digital rather than creating a "DOS plus". David Neil Cutler Sr (born March 13, 1942) is a noted American Software engineer, designer and developer Open Virtual Memory System ( OpenVMS) initially known just as Virtual Memory System ( VMS) is the name of a High-end Computer server Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) His "NT OS/2," was a completely new architecture. [17]

The OS/2 2.0 upgrade box.
The OS/2 2. 0 upgrade box.

IBM grew concerned about the delays in development of OS/2 2. 0 and the diversion of IBM funds earmarked for OS/2 development towards Windows. Initially, the companies agreed that IBM would take over maintenance of OS/2 1. 0 and development of OS/2 2. 0, while Microsoft would continue development of OS/2 3. 0. In the end, Microsoft decided to recast NT OS/2 3. 0 as Windows NT, leaving all future OS/2 development to IBM. Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 From a business perspective, it was logical to concentrate on a consumer line of operating systems based on DOS and Windows, and to prepare a new high-end system in such a way as to keep good compatibility with existing Windows applications. While waiting for this new high-end system to develop, Microsoft would still receive licensing money from Xenix and OS/2 sales. Windows NT's OS/2 heritage can be seen in its initial support for the HPFS filesystem, text mode OS/2 1. HPFS or High Performance File System is a File system created specifically for the OS/2 Operating system to improve upon the limitations x applications, and OS/2 LAN Manager network support. Some early NT materials even included OS/2 copyright notices embedded in the software. One example of NT OS/2 1. x support is in the WIN2K resource kit. OS/2 support also includes Presentation Manager support with the addition of the Windows NT Add-On Subsystem for Presentation Manager. [18]

32-bit era

OS/2 2. 0, released in April 1992, was touted by IBM as "a better DOS than DOS and a better Windows than Windows". Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) [19] For the first time, OS/2 was able to run more than one DOS application at a time. This was so effective that it allowed OS/2 to actually run a modified copy of Windows 3. 0, itself a DOS extender, including Windows 3. Developed in the 1980s to cope with the memory limitations of MS-DOS and its derivatives DOS extenders are programs which enable software to run under the Protected mode 0 applications. Also new in version 2. 0 was the Workplace Shell, a true object-oriented environment.

OS/2 2. 0 was, unlike its predecessor, a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit operating system although performance did not notably degrade on the Pentium Pro,[20] an Intel CPU renowned for poor 16-bit performance at the time. [21] The graphics subsystem (Gre) and multimedia (MMPM/2) were updated in a servicepack (and bundled into OS/2 2. 1), Warp 3 brought about a fully 32-bit Windowing system, whilst Warp 4 introduced the object-oriented 32-bit GRADD display driver model.

DOS compatibility

Because of the limitations of the Intel 80286 processor, OS/2 1. The Intel 286, introduced on February 1, 1982, (originally named 80286, and also called iAPX 286 in the programmer's manual x could run only one DOS program at a time, and did this in a way that allowed the DOS program to have total control over the computer. A problem in DOS mode could crash the entire computer. In contrast, OS/2 2. 0 could benefit from the virtual 8086 mode of the Intel 80386 processor in order to create a much safer virtual machine in which to run DOS programs. In the 80386 Microprocessor and later Virtual 8086 mode, also called virtual real mode or VM86, allows the execution of Real mode In Computer science, a virtual machine (VM is a Software implementation of a machine (computer that executes programs like a real machine This included an extensive set of configuration options to optimize the performance and capabilities given to each DOS program. Any real mode operating system (such as Xenix) could also be made to run using OS/2's virtual machine capabilities, subject to certain direct hardware access limitations. Xenix is a version of the Unix Operating system, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s

Like most 32-bit environments, OS/2 could however not run protected-mode DOS programs using the older VCPI interface, unlike the Standard mode of Windows 3. In computing the DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI is a specification introduced in 1989 which allows a DOS program to run in Protected mode, granting access to 0 and 3. 1; it only supported programs written according to DPMI. In computing the DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI is a specification introduced in 1989 which allows a DOS program to run in Protected mode, granting access to

Unlike Windows NT, OS/2 also always gave DOS programs the possibility of masking real hardware interrupts, so any DOS program could deadlock (crash) the machine this way. OS/2 could however use a hardware watchdog on selected machines (notably IBM machines) to break out of such a deadlock. Later, release 3. 0 leveraged the enhancements of newer Intel 486 and Intel Pentium processors—the Virtual Interrupt Flag—to solve this problem. The Intel 486, otherwise known as the 80486 i486 or just 486 was the first tightly pipelined X86 design The Pentium brand refers to Intel 's single-core x86 Microprocessor based on the P5 fifth-generation Microarchitecture.

Windows 3. x compatibility

Compatibility with Windows 3. 0 (and later Windows 3. 1) was achieved by adapting Windows user-mode code components to run inside a virtual DOS machine. Virtual DOS machine (VDM is Microsoft 's technology that allows running legacy MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows programs on Intel 80386 or higher computers Originally, a nearly complete version of Windows code was included with OS/2 itself: Windows 3. 0 in OS/2 2. 0, and Windows 3. 1 in OS/2 2. 1; however, IBM later developed versions of OS/2 that would use whatever Windows version the user had installed previously, patching it on the fly, and sparing the cost of an additional Windows license. [22] It could either run full-screen, using its own set of video drivers, or "seamlessly," where Windows programs would appear directly on the OS/2 desktop. The process containing Windows was given fairly extensive access to hardware, especially video, and the result was that switching between a full-screen WinOS/2 session and the Workplace Shell could occasionally cause issues. [23]

Because OS/2 only ran the user-mode system components of Windows, it was not compatible with Windows device drivers (VxDs) and applications needing them. VxD is the Device driver model used in Microsoft Windows/386, the 386 enhanced mode of Windows 3

Multiple Windows applications ran in a single Windows process, just as they would under native Windows. To achieve true isolation between Windows 3. x programs, OS/2 could run multiple copies of Windows in parallel. This approach required considerable system resources, especially memory. It was possible to use DDE between OS/2 and Windows applications, and OLE between Windows applications only. Dynamic Data Exchange ( DDE) is a technology for communication between multiple applications under Microsoft Windows or OS/2. [24]

Native features

OS/2 2. 0 provided a 32-bit API for native programs, though the OS itself was a mixture of 16-bit and 32-bit code. It also included a new GUI environment called the Workplace Shell. The Workplace Shell (WPS is an award-winning Object-oriented desktop shell produced by IBM 's Boca Raton development lab for OS/2 2 This was a fully object-oriented GUI that was a significant departure from the previous GUI. Rather than merely providing an environment for program windows (such as the Program Manager), the Workplace Shell provided an environment in which a user could manage programs, files and devices by manipulating objects on the screen.

The "Warp" years

The OS/2 Warp 3 startup screen.
The OS/2 Warp 3 startup screen.

OS/2 version 3. 0, released in 1994, was labelled as "OS/2 Warp" to highlight the new performance benefits, and generally to freshen the product image. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) "Warp" had originally been the internal IBM name for the release: IBM claimed that it had used Star Trek terms as internal names for past OS/2 releases, and that this one seemed appropriate for external use as well.

At the launch of OS/2 Warp in 1994, Patrick Stewart was to be the Master of Ceremonies; however Kate Mulgrew of the then-upcoming series Star Trek: Voyager was substituted at the last minute. Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE (born 13 July 1940 is an English Film, Television and stage Actor. Katherine Kiernan "Kate" Mulgrew (born April 29 1955 is a American Actress, most famous for her roles as Mary Ryan on Ryan's Hope

OS/2 Warp offered a host of benefits over OS/2 2. 1, notably broader hardware support, greater multimedia capabilities, Internet-compatible networking, and it included a basic office application suite known as IBM Works. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks IBM Works was an office suite for the IBM OS/2 Operating system. It was released in two versions: the less expensive "Red Spine" and the more expensive "Blue Spine" (named for the color of their boxes). "Red Spine" was designed to support Microsoft Windows applications by finding and using Windows already installed on the computer's hard drive. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. "Blue Spine" included Windows support in its own installation, and so could support Windows applications without a Windows installation. As most computers were sold with Microsoft Windows pre-installed, "Red Spine" was the far more popular product. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. OS/2 Warp Connect, which had full network support built-in, followed in mid-1995, again in "Red Spine" and "Blue Spine" versions. [5]

Mozilla 1.7.13 for OS/2 Warp 4.
Mozilla 1. 7. 13 for OS/2 Warp 4.

In 1996, Warp 4 added Java and speech recognition software. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Speech recognition (also known as automatic speech recognition or computer speech recognition) converts spoken words to machine-readable input (for example to keypresses IBM also released server editions of Warp 3 and Warp 4 which bundled IBM's LAN Server product directly into the operating system installation. A personal version of Lotus Notes was also included, with a number of template databases for contact management, brainstorming, and so forth. Lotus Notes is a Client-server, collaborative application developed and sold by IBM Software Group The UK-distributed free demo CD-ROM of OS/2 Warp essentially contained the entire OS and was easily, even accidentally, cracked, meaning that even people who liked it didn't have to buy it. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable Software cracking is the modification of Software to remove protection methods Copy prevention, trial/demo version serial number hardware key CD check This was seen as a backdoor tactic to increase the number of OS/2 users, in the belief that this would increase sales and demand for third-party applications, and thus strengthen OS/2's desktop numbers. This suggestion was bolstered by the fact that this demo version had replaced another which was not so easily cracked, but which had been released with trial versions of various applications. In 2000 the July edition of Australian Personal Computer magazine bundled software CD-ROMs, included a full version of Warp 4 that required no activation and was essentially a free release. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable

IBM also released a version of OS/2 that ran on its PowerPC workstations, and promised to produce low-cost PC style machines with the PowerPC processor. PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM However, the PowerPC version of OS/2 was dropped less than a month after its release, and plans for supporting machines were scuttled. Such moves were seen in the industry as indicative of IBM's lack of long-term commitment to the operating system. Ironically, Microsoft Windows NT provided support for PowerPC — a chip co-developed and promoted by IBM — for over 5 years. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993

Warp 4 was the last widely distributed version of OS/2, and IBM soon announced the end of marketing the operating system to individual users.

Fading out

Overall, OS/2 failed to catch on in the mass market and is today little used outside certain niches where IBM traditionally had a stronghold. For example, many bank installations, especially Automated Teller Machines, run OS/2 with a customized user interface; French SNCF national railways used OS/2 1. SNCF ( Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) (French National Railway Company is a French public enterprise x in thousands of ticket selling machines. Telecom companies such as Nortel use OS/2 in some voicemail systems. Nortel Networks Corporation () formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, is a multinational Telecommunications Nevertheless, OS/2 still maintains a small and dedicated community of followers. IBM, unlike Microsoft, charged ISVs for the OS/2 development kit (Microsoft gave the Windows SDK away for free). Independent software vendor (ISV is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling Software, designed for Mass marketing or for Niche markets A software development kit ( SDK or " devkit " is typically a set of development tools that allows a Software engineer to create applications

Although IBM began indicating shortly after the release of Warp 4 that OS/2 would eventually be withdrawn, the company did not end support until 2006-12-31. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia. [25] Sales of OS/2 stopped on 2005-12-23. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 962 - Byzantine-Arab Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed the city The latest IBM version is 4. 52, which was released for both desktop and server systems in December 2001. December 2001: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - A company called Serenity Systems has been reselling OS/2 since 2001, calling it eComStation. eComStation is a PC Operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems, USA The latest stable version is 1. 2, released in 2004. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Version 2. 0 was due for release early in 2007[26], but release candidate 4 for version 2. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. eComStation is a PC Operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems, USA 0 was not released until December 2007.

IBM is still delivering defect support for a fee. [27] IBM urges customers to migrate their often highly complex applications to e-business technologies such as Java in a platform-neutral manner. Electronic Business, commonly referred to as " eBusiness " or " e-Business " may be defined as the utilisation of information and communication Once application migration is completed, IBM recommends migration to a different operating system, suggesting Linux as an alternative. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks

Virtualization

As of 2008 virtualization support for OS/2 appears to be improving in a number of third-party products. OS/2 has historically been more difficult to run in a virtual machine than most other legacy x86 operating systems because of its extensive reliance on the full set of features of the x86 CPU. See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal During a pre-launch session (ESX3) with VMware in Oslo, Norway, December 2005, they specifically said that OS/2's use of the CPU's ring 2 was the reason that it would not run in VMware.

A side effect of this is that it is difficult to run OS/2 inside of the popular VMware software product. VMware Inc ( is a Software developer and a global leader in the Virtualization market A beta of VMWare Workstation 2. 0 released in January 2000 was the first hypervisor which could run OS/2 at all. In Computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine monitor, is a virtualization platform that allows multiple Operating systems to run on Later, the company decided to drop official OS/2 support,[28] presumably because it would require serious work that cannot be economically justified. It is still possible to boot OS/2 by setting guestOS = "os2experimental" in the . vmx file of the VM (checked with VMware Workstation 3. 0 and 5. 5), but trying to run different versions of OS/2 leads to frustrating problems most of the time. Specifically, one can run OS/2 Warp 4 at Fixpack 5, but installing later Fixpacks will make the virtual machine unusable. Ecomstation 1. 2 and 2. 0 beta 4 will not install. [29] Versions 1. x will crash immediately with a "TRAP 0000". Versions 2. x are too ancient to recognize the simulated IDE CD-ROM, do not recognize the virtual SCSI hardware and can crash with "TRAP 000C" after some operations.

Version 3. 0 (Red) and Version 4. 0 (Warp 4) seems to work fine under VMWare Server 1. 04, however the 'guestOS = "os2experimental"' will flash an error and change the vmx file to guestOS = "other". This seems to work just fine for both of these versions.

The lack of official VMware support for running OS/2 created the opportunity for a new virtualization company. A large German bank needed a way to use OS/2 on newer hardware that OS/2 did not support. As virtualization software is an easy way around this, it desired to run OS/2 under a hypervisor. In Computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine monitor, is a virtualization platform that allows multiple Operating systems to run on Once it was determined that VMware was not a possibility, it hired some Russian developers to write a host-based hypervisor that would officially support OS/2. Thus the Parallels, Inc. company and their Parallels Workstation was born. Parallels Inc is a privately-held Virtualization technology company with offices all around the world (USA Germany, UK, France, Japan Parallels Workstation is the first commercial software product released by Parallels Inc [30]

Microsoft continues to support OS/2 as a hosted operating system in its Virtual PC product. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Virtual PC is a Virtualization suite for Microsoft Windows Operating systems and an Emulation suite for OS/2 and eComstation can both be installed in Microsoft VirtualPC (checked with VPC 2004) although a virtual machine built in VPC 2004 would not run in VPC 2007.

VirtualBox from Innotek currently supports OS/2 as a guest. VirtualBox is an X86 virtualization software package originally created by German software company innotek now developed by Sun Microsystems as part VirtualBox is an X86 virtualization software package originally created by German software company innotek now developed by Sun Microsystems as part Innotek also developed the “additions” code in both Virtual PC and Virtual Server which greatly improves host-guest OS interactions in OS/2. VirtualBox is an X86 virtualization software package originally created by German software company innotek now developed by Sun Microsystems as part Microsoft Virtual PC is a Virtualization suite for Microsoft Windows Operating systems and an Emulation suite for

QEMU and Bochs also support running OS/2 as they're full x86 system emulators and not virtualization software, and thus emulates the entire x86 architecture instead of relying on the host CPU, essentially allowing OS/2 unrestricted access to Ring 2, albeit an emulated one. QEMU is a processor Emulator that relies on dynamic Binary translation to achieve a reasonable speed while being easy to port on new host CPU architectures Bochs is a portable X86 and AMD64 PC Emulator and Debugger mostly written in C++ and distributed as Free software

ATMs

ATM vendors NCR Corporation and Diebold Incorporated have both adopted Microsoft Windows XP as their migration path from OS/2. NCR Corporation ( is a technology company specializing in products for the retail and financial sectors Diebold Inc ( (ˈdiːboʊld is a United States -based security systems Corporation that is engaged primarily in the sale manufacture installation and service Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and

Diebold Incorporated initially shipped XP Home Edition exclusively but following extensive pressure from customer Banks to support a common OS had them switch to support XP Professional to match their primary competitor NCR Corporation. Diebold Inc ( (ˈdiːboʊld is a United States -based security systems Corporation that is engaged primarily in the sale manufacture installation and service NCR Corporation ( is a technology company specializing in products for the retail and financial sectors

Security niche

OS/2 has very few native computer viruses. A computer virus is a Computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user [31] Its design possibly could have made it as vulnerable as Windows, but its reduced market share appears to have discouraged virus writers. There are, however, OS/2-based antivirus programs, dealing with DOS viruses and Windows viruses that could pass through an OS/2 server.

Future

There is a community of OS/2 users and developers, along with loyal company customers, hoping that IBM will release OS/2 or a significant part of it as open source. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge Petitions to that end were made in 2005 and 2007, but IBM declined, citing legal, technical and strategic reasons. [32] It is unlikely that the entire OS will be open at some point in the future, because it contains third-party code, much of it from Microsoft. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer

Version 2. 0 had such a long design cycle that its design started while OS/2 1. 1 was still under development, and thus, portions of it were developed in conjunction with Microsoft, even though Microsoft never released a branded version of 2. 0 (although they did release a beta in their name). IBM's contribution to versions 1. 2 and earlier mostly resides in the GUI components; however, bug fixes and substantial performance changes to the entire system in 1. 3 were made by IBM, and much more of the overall system (including the kernel) for 2. 0 was developed by IBM.

The aborted PowerPC port did not involve Microsoft at all, and has been proposed as the basis for an open-source 64-bit version of OS/2. PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM

Still, the community has suggested that, even if only the IBM portion of it is made open, the missing parts could be written by the same community to form a next-generation version of the OS. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Code could perhaps be integrated from the Wine or ReactOS projects. Wine is a free Software application which aims to allow Unix-like computer Operating systems on the X86 architecture to execute ReactOS is a computer Operating system intended to be binary-compatible with Application software and Device drivers made for Microsoft Many developers believe that these missing parts include many of the legacy 16-bit components not revised since OS/2 1. x, and are exactly the parts that should be rewritten anyway. There is an ongoing petition to open parts of the OS arranged by OS2World. com. [33]

With the possibility of an open-source future for OS/2, the OS may be given a new lease of life. IBM's current and heavy involvement with several open source projects indicate that opening parts of OS/2 will not be difficult for the company. But until then, OS/2's future remains in limbo.

Open source operating systems such as Linux have already profited from OS/2 indirectly through IBM's release of the improved JFS file system which was ported from the OS/2 code base. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Journaled File System or JFS is a 64-bit Journaling filesystem created by IBM. In Computing, a file system (often also written as filesystem) is a method for storing and organizing Computer files and the data they contain to make

OS/2 programs will eventually use emulators and compatibility layers for running programs dedicated for OS/2. An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of the functions of one System using a different system so that the second system behaves like (and appears to A compatibility layer is a term that refers to components that allow for non-native support of components

Technology

The graphic system has a layer named Presentation Manager that manages windows, fonts, and icons. Presentation Manager (PM is the graphical user interface ( GUI) that IBM and Microsoft introduced in version 1 This is similar in functionality to a non-networked version of X11 or the Windows GDI. On top of this lies the Workplace Shell (WPS) introduced in OS/2 2. The Workplace Shell (WPS is an award-winning Object-oriented desktop shell produced by IBM 's Boca Raton development lab for OS/2 2 0. WPS is an object-oriented shell allowing the user to perform traditional computing tasks such as accessing files, printers, launching legacy programs, and advanced object oriented tasks using built-in and 3rd party application objects that extended the shell in an integrated fashion not available on any other mainstream operating system. Object-oriented programming (OOP is a Programming paradigm that uses " objects " and their interactions to design applications and computer programs In computing a shell is a piece of software that provides an interface for users WPS follows IBM's Common User Access user interface standards. Common User Access ( CUA) is a standard for User interfaces to Operating systems and Computer programs It was developed by IBM and first

Hardware vendors were reluctant to support device drivers for alternative operating systems including OS/2 and Linux, leaving users with few choices from a select few vendors. To relieve this issue for video cards, IBM licensed a reduced version of the Scitech display drivers, allowing users to choose from a wide selection of cards supported through Scitech's modular driver design. UniVBE (short for Universal VESA BIOS Extension) is a Software driver that allows DOS applications written to the VESA BIOS

WPS represents objects such as disks, folders, files, program objects, and printers using the System Object Model (SOM), which allows code to be shared among applications, possibly written in different programming languages. For the similarly-named executable file format in the HP-UX operating system see System Object Model (file format In computing the System Object A distributed version called DSOM allowed objects on different computers to communicate. DSOM is based on CORBA. The Common Object Requesting Broker Architecture (CORBA is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG that enables software components written SOM is similar to, and a direct competitor to, Microsoft's Component Object Model. Component Object Model ( COM) is an interface standard for Software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993 SOM and DSOM are no longer being developed.

OS/2 also includes a radical advancement in application development with compound document technology called OpenDoc, which was developed with Apple. OpenDoc was a multi-platform Software componentry framework standard for Compound documents inspired by the Xerox Star system and intended as an alternative OpenDoc proved interesting as a technology, but was not widely used or accepted by users or developers. OpenDoc is also no longer being developed.

The multimedia capabilities of OS/2 are accessible through Media Control Interface commands. The Media Control Interface, MCI in short is an aging high-level API developed by Microsoft and IBM for controlling multimedia peripherals connected The last update (bundled with the IBM version of Netscape Navigator plugins) added support for MPEG files. Netscape Navigator and Netscape are the names for the proprietary Web browser popular in the 1990s and the Flagship product of the Netscape The Moving Picture Experts Group, commonly referred to as simply MPEG, is a Working group of ISO / IEC charged with the development of video and Support for newer formats like PNG, progressive JPEG, DivX, Ogg, MP3 comes from third parties. Portable Network Graphics ( PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs Lossless data compression. DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX Inc (formerly DivXNetworks Inc To learn how to create video or audio files for Wikipedia and its sister projects check WikipediaCreation and usage of media files. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression Sometimes it is integrated with the multimedia system, but in other offers it comes as standalone applications.

The TCP/IP stack is based on the open source BSD stack. The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of Communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge

Problems

Some problems were classic subjects of comparison with other operating systems:

Quotations

During the next 10 years, millions of programmers and users will utilize this system. Bill Gates, November 1988 (in the Foreword to the Inside OS/2 book by Gordon Letwin, Microsoft's architect for OS/2). If you would like to experiment with Wikipedia please copy Gordon Letwin is an American

This quotation could be compared with another one, by Dave Cutler and coming from his introduction to the Inside Windows NT book:

"In the summer of 1988, I received an interesting call from Bill Gates at Microsoft. Dave Cutler may refer to Dave Cutler (software engineer, software engineer designer and developer of several operating systems Dave Cutler He asked whether I'd like to come over and talk about building a new operating system at Microsoft for personal computers. [. . . ] What Bill had to offer was the opportunity to build another operating system, one that was portable [. . . ]. "

However, as "Inside Windows NT" says in chapter one, section 1. 1, "An Operating System for the 1990s":

"Originally, the plan also called for NT to have an OS/2-style user interface and to provide the OS/2 application programming interface (API) as its primary programming interface. Midway through the development of the system, however, Microsoft Windows 3. 0 hit the market and was an instant success, in contrast to OS/2, which had not caught on with large numbers of users. "

Historical uses

OS/2 was widely used in Brazilian banks. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Banco do Brasil had a peak 10,000 machines running OS/2 Warp in the 1990s. Banco do Brasil SA ( English: Bank of Brazil; BOV: BBAS3SA is a major Brazilian bank headquartered in Brasília. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 OS/2 was used in automated teller machines until 2006. The workstations and automated teller machines have been migrated to GNU/Linux. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks [36]

OS/2 also was widely adopted by accounting professionals and auditing companies. Accountancy or accounting is the measurement statement or provision of assurance about financial information primarily used by Lenders managers, The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product In mid-90's native 32bit accounting software were well developed and serving corporate markets.

OS/2 was used by radio personality Howard Stern. Howard Allan Stern (born January 12 1954 is an American radio host and Television personality. He once had a 10 minute on-air rant about OS/2 vs Windows 95 and recommended OS/2. He also used OS/2 on his IBM 760CD laptop.

See also

References

  1. ^ IBM (July 12, 2005). The Graphical user interface, understood as the use of graphic icons and a pointing device to control a computer has over the last four decades a steady history of incremental Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Changes in support for IBM OS/2 Warp 4 and OS/2 Warp Server for e-business. ibm. com.
  2. ^ Michal Necasek (2001-09-08). Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Events 70 - Roman forces under Titus sack Jerusalem. 1264 - The Statute of Kalisz OS/2 1.3: Ten Years Ago. The History of OS/2.
  3. ^ Michal Necasek (2004-06-24). "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Events 972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces takes place Microsoft Operating System/2 With Windows Presentation Manager Provides Foundation for Next Generation of Personal Computer Industry. The History of OS/2. — a copy of Microsoft's 1987-04-02 press release announcing OS/2
  4. ^ Michal Necasek (2001-07-16). Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Events 68 - Galba, Governor of Hispania, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani, breaking the line of Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and OS/2 1.0. The History of OS/2.
  5. ^ a b David Both (1996-12-19). Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Events 324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor. A Short History of OS/2. DataBook for OS/2 Warp.
  6. ^ H. Gilbert (1995). HPFS. Das Boot. PC Lube and Tune.
  7. ^ Bob Eager (October 28, 2000). Events 306 - Maxentius is proclaimed Roman Emperor. 312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Implementation of extended attributes on the FAT file system. Tavi Systems.
  8. ^ Iacobucci, Ed; with foreword by Bill Gates (1988). "Foreword", OS/2 Programmer's Guide. Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media. ISBN 0-07-881300-X.  “I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time. As the successor to DOS, which has over 10,000,000 systems in use, it creates incredible opportunities for everyone involved with PCs. ” 
  9. ^ Dennis Barker. Blasts from the Past. BYTE. com.
  10. ^ Mary Bellis. The Unusual History of the Microsoft Windows. about. com.
  11. ^ Thomas Hormby (May 25, 2005). Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Windows History (1985–1994). osviews. com.
  12. ^ Michal Necasek (2001-10-29). Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Events 437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II OS/2 1.1 and 1.2: The Early Years. The History of OS/2.
  13. ^ Paul Thurrott (January 24, 2003). Events 41 - Gaius Caesar (Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel Despotism, is Assassinated by his disgruntled Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Windows Server 2003: The Road To Gold. winsupersite. com.
  14. ^ Gates, Bill; Nathan Myhrvold, and Peter Rinearson. The Road Ahead. ISBN 0-670-77289-5.  
  15. ^ Gordon Letwin. "What's happening to OS/2," a Usenet post by Gordon Letwin from August 1995, the point of view of a Microsoft employee. Google Groups.
  16. ^ David Allison. Bill Gates Interview. National Museum of American History.
  17. ^ Microsoft (2000). Inside Out, Microsoft—In Our Own Words. Warner Business Books. ISBN 0-446-52739-4.  
  18. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/prork/pric_run_jzxd.mspx?mfr=true
  19. ^ Robert X. Cringely (April 27, 2006). Events 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland. 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Killer Apps: For Apple's Windows Strategy to Work, It Must Replace Microsoft Office and Buy Adobe Systems. pbs. org.
  20. ^ The Wintel World.
  21. ^ CPU-INFO.COM Intel Pentium Pro.
  22. ^ Christian Alice Scarborough (September 15, 1998). Events 668 - Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse Italy. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Team OS/2 Frequently Asked Questions.
  23. ^ OS/2 Games Setting Archive. Game Zero magazine (March 6, 1995). Game Zero Magazine was a US based video game magazine published from 1992 to 1998 (although primary publication stopped in 1996 Events 1079 - Omar Khayyám completes the Iranian calendar. 1454 - Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995
  24. ^ Timothy F. Sipples (February 20, 1995). OS/2 Warp Frequently Asked Questions List.
  25. ^ IBM. End of Standard Support.
  26. ^ Serenity Systems. eComStation v2.0.
  27. ^ IBM. End of Standard Support.
  28. ^ The VMware Team. A Notice to OS/2 Users.
  29. ^ checked with VMware Workstation 5. 5
  30. ^ Timothy Prickett Morgan. Breaking News--Parallels Joins the PC and Server Virtualization Fray. itjungle. com.
  31. ^ John F. Morar, David M. Chess. the effect of computer viruses on OS/2 and Warp. research. ibm. com.
  32. ^ Slashdot: IBM Won't Open-Source OS/2.
  33. ^ OS2World. com Staff (April 2005). Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. OS2World.com Petition. OS2World. com.
  34. ^ see IBM Developer Connection for OS/2, Internal Fixpack 12J
  35. ^ KbdGetConsole() and DosWaitMuxWaitSem(), see Control Program Programming Guide and Reference, IBM OS/2 Toolkit
  36. ^ Brazilian banks look to Linux for ATMs.

Further reading

External links

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