hello everyone,
i feel stupid because i know lots bout windows and im a linux fan but ive heard of os/2 and i want to know what is it?
what is it used for?
where can i buy it?
Will it run on my (fairly) new computer?
Why use it instead of windows?
is it faster, better and why how???
does it run in 32-bit?
Sorry bout all the questions but i have never heard of it until recently and im curious as to what it is and all so if some kind soul could help me and explain to a TOTAL NOOD and can i play games on it???

Thx in advance!!!
Darin Luckie
AMD Athlon 900
256MB DDR 400
20GB hdd
Windows xp professional

OS/2 is a operating system introduced by IBM for their new model IBM PS/2. It's a operating system like DOS. After version 1.1, OS/2 come with the Presentation Manager, a graphical environment like Windows. More later, IBM and Microsoft released OS/2 2.0, a full multitasking 32-bit operating system. When Microsoft gived up IBM, Windows 3.0 was shipped out by Microsoft.

For today you should use ecomstation 1.2. which is an OEM-version of OS/2. What I appreciate with ecomstation/os2 is the greater responsivness, stability and the superior multitasking capability. You could install ecs on every modern system, you could have problems with certain hardware driver, for example for Wifi. Take a look at www.ecomstation.com and www.os2world.com.

Just like Linux can do more with less ( as compared to Winblow$ ) OS/2 could get more out of a platform with 4 meg of mem. than M$ offerings could with 8 meg......Others may argue that OS/2 is dead when in fact it is a live and well.....Look for it on e-bay but be ready to pay a couple dollars for it as people like me still like to use it for different reasons....I once had it installed running a multi-line BBS and when things were set into place ran without a hitch for over 2 year's until I took it down, mind you without any kind of error,lockup,B.S.O.D. you get the picture...plenty of support sights still out there...IMHO the only reason we didn’t see more of it was due to M$ media campaign for its product and the lack of it from Big Blue.......very stable and fun to use, try and scare up a copy and bring an old machine back to life.....

Keep the old stuff running

Check wikipedia for more accurate history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2

In my opinion, OS/2 is a more stable and reliable operating system than Windows XP/2000 or even NT4.0/3.51.

OS/2 will run even with traps, memory leaks, etc. and has 100% uptime and is object orientated presentation manager (~progman.exe)

There is alot of support for the operating system which is why there is currently a petition open to ask IBM a favor to work out the MS/IBM/3rd Party licensing issues to make it public domain. Currently, EcomStation is a more uptodate licensee of the software and their version is more affordable than IBM's version. IBM plans to discontinue sales of Warp 4.51 by this December. EcomStation maintaines that they will continue to offer it as long as it is in demand.

Being a user of Linux and Windows, you may find OS/2 to your liking. There is Win32 support via Odin and Win16 support natively (OS/2 and Warp 3.0 Blue Spine and Warp 4.0 and above) and there are two popular libraries for Linux/X windows API native compatibility. However the Odin libraries is still in development so not all win32 software will work on OS/2.

A historical note is that the JSF file system now popular with linux was originally designed for the OS/400 then OS/2 and IBM released it open source for linux, etc.

Overall, OS/2 is a very conservative/modest operating system when it comes to resources. It is real good at cleaning it self up and keeping swap file small and memory management to par. It can operate in a very tight system, ie 4mb of system memory and 80mb HD (warp 4.0) or 20mb (OS/2 2.x)

You will find alot of software for OS/2 at Hobbes:

Some other hard to find software you may find elseware, however Hobbes has maintaned to be a central location for hosting OS/2 and Win/OS2 software and multimedia files:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/

Regards,

Jason Page

My sigma Foveon photos:
www.pbase.com/jasonpage
Sigma community:
www.pbase.com/sigmasd9