I see the other forums at www.computing.net and they have thousands of messages but the OS/2 forum no more than 700. Who uses OS/2? Does anyone use OS/2 at work, besides phone system companies like OCTEL? Is OS/2 a nerd/techie/hobbist/student thing? I might be included on all four. I just think that OS/2 is another dead OS that people learn to be cool. On a personal level, I started playing with it because IBM was involved in the development and I wanted to do some reseach.

OS/2 is no longer being produced by IBM, but there are still a few companies that rely on it to do their daily business, most of which are in the process of moving to Windows 2000. However, the production of future vOS/2 isn't supported by IBM anymore, because they sold the license to another company, Serenity Systems International, which has renamed it eComStation. Nevertheless, if you can handle the often difficult installation procedure, I've heard OS/2 Warp is well worth the effort. Some advantages to OS/2 Warp: It hardly ever crashes. It's arguably more stable than Windows 2000. Driver support is fairly good, but I would recommend calling your graphics card company about compatibility. IBM probably has a driver for it, but it may be just good enough to give you 640x480 with 256 colors. A lot of developers that are now focused on Linux have experience with OS/2, and ported versions of many programs (GIMP, McIDAS, PageMaker) exist and are being updated. You can run most Windows programs in OS/2 if you have the right DLLs (similarly, you can run surprisingly many OS/2 programs in Windows NT4). I've heard that even MS Office 2000 will work. OS/2 Warp uses the HPFS file system, which is similar to Windows' NTFS but probably superior. The little-known OS/2 Warp 5.0 and eComStation use an even better file system called JFS, which is a journaling file system, similar to ReiserFS for Linux. OS/2 has a powerful Command-Line User Interface (CLUE) that allows the user to do much more than the DOS shell will allow. You can even run the command prompt full screen if this pleases you. Despite its powerful CLUE, OS/2 uses its Graphical User Interface (called "PMS") to perform many tasks that are still text-based in Windows 2000. For example, you can see the actual desktop of one OS/2 computer from another with a Java-based utility called "Desktop On Call". Java is big in OS/2, and the integration is better than with any other OS. There is a chance that if eComStation doesn't turn a profit, the operating system may become open-sourced (in several years, that is), and if this happens OS/2 will be competing with Linux. The manual that comes with OS/2 Warp 4.0 is over 1,200 pages long, so you won't often have to search the Internet for answers to basic problems. Disadvantages to OS/2 Warp: It is incredibly difficult to install and to update. Even in 1994, IBM admitted in their 1,200-page manual that there were bugs in the installer that they didn't have time to fix. You need to have a hard drive with LESS than 8 GB to install Warp ... you can update it after installation to recognize larger drives, but during installation it simply won't work. Linux developers may have OS/2 versions of their programs available, but for the most part the OS/2 user base is concentrated in Germany and a few other European countries, and not in the USA. OS/2 software is very hard to find, even if it's freeware. One version of OS/2 is called "WSOD" ("Warp Server (something something)", which most people know also stands for "White Screen of Death", something that happens when you make a mistake flashing your computer's BIOS. Once IBM's marketing team realized that Microsoft was going to win with Windows, they focused their OS/2 advertisements on large businesses and banks, not individual home users. It is likely that Serenity Systems will do the same. OS/2 Warp 4.0 is out of date ? it's like the counterpart to Windows NT 4.0. Warp 4.0 can usually be bought for $ 30 or so, but the eComStation version costs $ 350 from Serenity. Serenity Systems International is essentially an unknown company with no proven history. IBM has been around for over 100 years. There is a chance that future versions of eComStation will not have support for Windows applications as did OS/2. Judging by Serenity's non-existent reputation, there is a chance that there may not be any future versions of eComStation at all. ersions of what used to be called OS/2 has been handed down by IBM to OS/2 isn't supported by IBM anymore, because they sold the license to another company, Serenity Systems International, which has renamed it eComStation. Nevertheless, if you can handle the often difficult installation procedure, I've heard OS/2 Warp is well worth the effort. Some advantages to OS/2 Warp: It hardly ever crashes. It's arguably more stable than Windows 2000. Driver support is fairly good, but I would recommend calling your graphics card company about compatibility. IBM probably has a driver for it, but it may be just good enough to give you 640x480 with 256 colors. A lot of developers that are now focused on Linux have experience with OS/2, and ported versions of many programs (GIMP, McIDAS, PageMaker) exist and are being updated. You can run most Windows programs in OS/2 if you have the right DLLs (similarly, you can run surprisingly many OS/2 programs in Windows NT4). I've heard that even MS Office 2000 will work. OS/2 Warp uses the HPFS file system, which is similar to Windows' NTFS but probably superior. The little-known OS/2 Warp 5.0 and eComStation use an even better file system called JFS, which is a journaling file system, similar to ReiserFS for Linux. OS/2 has a powerful Command-Line User Interface (CLUE) that allows the user to do much more than the DOS shell will allow. You can even run the command prompt full screen if this pleases you. Despite its powerful CLUE, OS/2 uses its Graphical User Interface (called "PMS") to perform many tasks that are still text-based in Windows 2000. For example, you can see the actual desktop of one OS/2 computer from another with a Java-based utility called "Desktop On Call". Java is big in OS/2, and the integration is better than with any other OS. There is a chance that if eComStation doesn't turn a profit, the operating system may become open-sourced (in several years, that is), and if this happens OS/2 will be competing with Linux. The manual that comes with OS/2 Warp 4.0 is over 1,200 pages long, so you won't often have to search the Internet for answers to basic problems. Disadvantages to OS/2 Warp: It is incredibly difficult to install and to update. Even in 1994, IBM admitted in their 1,200-page manual that there were bugs in the installer that they didn't have time to fix. You need to have a hard drive with LESS than 8 GB to install Warp ... you can update it after installation to recognize larger drives, but during installation it simply won't work. Linux developers may have OS/2 versions of their programs available, but for the most part the OS/2 user base is concentrated in Germany and a few other European countries, and not in the USA. OS/2 software is very hard to find, even if it's freeware. One version of OS/2 is called "WSOD" ("Warp Server (something something)", which most people know also stands for "White Screen of Death", something that happens when you make a mistake flashing your computer's BIOS. Once IBM's marketing team realized that Microsoft was going to win with Windows, they focused their OS/2 advertisements on large businesses and banks, not individual home users. It is likely that Serenity Systems will do the same. OS/2 Warp 4.0 is out of date ? it's like the counterpart to Windows NT 4.0. Warp 4.0 can usually be bought for $ 30 or so, but the eComStation version costs $ 350 from Serenity. Serenity Systems International is essentially an unknown company with no proven history. IBM has been around for over 100 years. There is a chance that future versions of eComStation will not have support for Windows applications as did OS/2. Judging by Serenity's non-existent reputation, there is a chance that there may not be any future versions of eComStation at all. a small company called Serenity Systems, International.OS/2 isn't supported by IBM anymore, because they sold the license to another company, Serenity Systems International, which has renamed it eComStation. Nevertheless, if you can handle the often difficult installation procedure, I've heard OS/2 Warp is well worth the effort. Some advantages to OS/2 Warp: It hardly ever crashes. It's arguably more stable than Windows 2000. Driver support is fairly good, but I would recommend calling your graphics card company about compatibility. IBM probably has a driver for it, but it may be just good enough to give you 640x480 with 256 colors. A lot of developers that are now focused on Linux have experience with OS/2, and ported versions of many programs (GIMP, McIDAS, PageMaker) exist and are being updated. You can run most Windows programs in OS/2 if you have the right DLLs (similarly, you can run surprisingly many OS/2 programs in Windows NT4). I've heard that even MS Office 2000 will work. OS/2 Warp uses the HPFS file system, which is similar to Windows' NTFS but probably superior. The little-known OS/2 Warp 5.0 and eComStation use an even better file system called JFS, which is a journaling file system, similar to ReiserFS for Linux. OS/2 has a powerful Command-Line User Interface (CLUE) that allows the user to do much more than the DOS shell will allow. You can even run the command prompt full screen if this pleases you. Despite its powerful CLUE, OS/2 uses its Graphical User Interface (called "PMS") to perform many tasks that are still text-based in Windows 2000. For example, you can see the actual desktop of one OS/2 computer from another with a Java-based utility called "Desktop On Call". Java is big in OS/2, and the integration is better than with any other OS. There is a chance that if eComStation doesn't turn a profit, the operating system may become open-sourced (in several years, that is), and if this happens OS/2 will be competing with Linux. The manual that comes with OS/2 Warp 4.0 is over 1,200 pages long, so you won't often have to search the Internet for answers to basic problems. Disadvantages to OS/2 Warp: It is incredibly difficult to install and to update. Even in 1994, IBM admitted in their 1,200-page manual that there were bugs in the installer that they didn't have time to fix. You need to have a hard drive with LESS than 8 GB to install Warp ... you can update it after installation to recognize larger drives, but during installation it simply won't work. Linux developers may have OS/2 versions of their programs available, but for the most part the OS/2 user base is concentrated in Germany and a few other European countries, and not in the USA. OS/2 software is very hard to find, even if it's freeware. One version of OS/2 is called "WSOD" ("Warp Server (something something)", which most people know also stands for "White Screen of Death", something that happens when you make a mistake flashing your computer's BIOS. Once IBM's marketing team realized that Microsoft was going to win with Windows, they focused their OS/2 advertisements on large businesses and banks, not individual home users. It is likely that Serenity Systems will do the same. OS/2 Warp 4.0 is out of date ? it's like the counterpart to Windows NT 4.0. Warp 4.0 can usually be bought for $ 30 or so, but the eComStation version costs $ 350 from Serenity. Serenity Systems International is essentially an unknown company with no proven history. IBM has been around for over 100 years. There is a chance that future versions of eComStation will not have support for Windows applications as did OS/2. Judging by Serenity's non-existent reputation, there is a chance that there may not be any future versions of eComStation at all. OS/2 isn't supported by IBM anymore, because they sold the license to another company, Serenity Systems International, which has renamed it eComStation. Nevertheless, if you can handle the often difficult installatioOS/2 isn't supported by IBM anymore, because they sold the license to another company, Serenity Systems International, which has renamed it eComStation. Nevertheless, if you can handle the often difficult installation procedure, I've heard OS/2 Warp is well worth the effort. Some advantages to OS/2 Warp: It hardly ever crashes. It's arguably more stable than Windows 2000. Driver support is fairly good, but I would recommend calling your graphics card company about compatibility. IBM probably has a driver for it, but it may be just good enough to give you 640x480 with 256 colors. A lot of developers that are now focused on Linux have experience with OS/2, and ported versions of many programs (GIMP, McIDAS, PageMaker) exist and are being updated. You can run most Windows programs in OS/2 if you have the right DLLs (similarly, you can run surprisingly many OS/2 programs in Windows NT4). I've heard that even MS Office 2000 will work. OS/2 Warp uses the HPFS file system, which is similar to Windows' NTFS but probably superior. The little-known OS/2 Warp 5.0 and eComStation use an even better file system called JFS, which is a journaling file system, similar to ReiserFS for Linux. OS/2 has a powerful Command-Line User Interface (CLUE) that allows the user to do much more than the DOS shell will allow. You can even run the command prompt full screen if this pleases you. Despite its powerful CLUE, OS/2 uses its Graphical User Interface (called "PMS") to perform many tasks that are still text-based in Windows 2000. For example, you can see the actual desktop of one OS/2 computer from another with a Java-based utility called "Desktop On Call". Java is big in OS/2, and the integration is better than with any other OS. There is a chance that if eComStation doesn't turn a profit, the operating system may become open-sourced (in several years, that is), and if this happens OS/2 will be competing with Linux. The manual that comes with OS/2 Warp 4.0 is over 1,200 pages long, so you won't often have to search the Internet for answers to basic problems. Disadvantages to OS/2 Warp: It is incredibly difficult to install and to update. Even in 1994, IBM admitted in their 1,200-page manual that there were bugs in the installer that they didn't have time to fix. You need to have a hard drive with LESS than 8 GB to install Warp ... you can update it after installation to recognize larger drives, but during installation it simply won't work. Linux developers may have OS/2 versions of their programs available, but for the most part the OS/2 user base is concentrated in Germany and a few other European countries, and not in the USA. OS/2 software is very hard to find, even if it's freeware. One version of OS/2 is called "WSOD" ("Warp Server (something something)", which most people know also stands for "White Screen of Death", something that happens when you make a mistake flashing your computer's BIOS. Once IBM's marketing team realized that Microsoft was going to win with Windows, they focused their OS/2 advertisements on large businesses and banks, not individual home users. It is likely that Serenity Systems will do the same. OS/2 Warp 4.0 is out of date ? it's like the counterpart to Windows NT 4.0. Warp 4.0 can usually be bought for $ 30 or so, but the eComStation version costs $ 350 from Serenity. Serenity Systems International is essentially an unknown company with no proven history. IBM has been around for over 100 years. There is a chance that future versions of eComStation will not have support for Windows applications as did OS/2. Judging by Serenity's non-existent reputation, there is a chance that there may not be any future versions of eComStation at all. n procedure, I've heard OS/2 Warp is well worth the effort. Some advantages to OS/2 Warp: It hardly ever crashes. It's arguably more stable than Windows 2000. Driver support is fairly good, but I would recommend calling your graphics card company about compatibility. IBM probably has a driver for it, but it may be just good enough to give you 640x480 with 256 colors. A lot of developers that are now focused on Linux have experience with OS/2, and ported versions of many programs (GIMP, McIDAS, PageMaker) exist and are being updated. You can run most Windows programs in OS/2 if you have the right DLLs (similarly, you can run surprisingly many OS/2 programs in Windows NT4). I've heard that even MS Office 2000 will work. OS/2 Warp uses the HPFS file system, which is similar to Windows' NTFS but probably superior. The little-known OS/2 Warp 5.0 and eComStation use an even better file system called JFS, which is a journaling file system, similar to ReiserFS for Linux. OS/2 has a powerful Command-Line User Interface (CLUE) that allows the user to do much more than the DOS shell will allow. You can even run the command prompt full screen if this pleases you. Despite its powerful CLUE, OS/2 uses its Graphical User Interface (called "PMS") to perform many tasks that are still text-based in Windows 2000. For example, you can see the actual desktop of one OS/2 computer from another with a Java-based utility called "Desktop On Call". Java is big in OS/2, and the integration is better than with any other OS. There is a chance that if eComStation doesn't turn a profit, the operating system may become open-sourced (in several years, that is), and if this happens OS/2 will be competing with Linux. The manual that comes with OS/2 Warp 4.0 is over 1,200 pages long, so you won't often have to search the Internet for answers to basic problems. Disadvantages to OS/2 Warp: It is incredibly difficult to install and to update. Even in 1994, IBM admitted in their 1,200-page manual that there were bugs in the installer that they didn't have time to fix. You need to have a hard drive with LESS than 8 GB to install Warp ... you can update it after installation to recognize larger drives, but during installation it simply won't work. Linux developers may have OS/2 versions of their programs available, but for the most part the OS/2 user base is concentrated in Germany and a few other European countries, and not in the USA. OS/2 software is very hard to find, even if it's freeware. One version of OS/2 is called "WSOD" ("Warp Server (something something)", which most people know also stands for "White Screen of Death", something that happens when you make a mistake flashing your computer's BIOS. Once IBM's marketing team realized that Microsoft was going to win with Windows, they focused their OS/2 advertisements on large businesses and banks, not individual home users. It is likely that Serenity Systems will do the same. OS/2 Warp 4.0 is out of date ? it's like the counterpart to Windows NT 4.0. Warp 4.0 can usually be bought for $ 30 or so, but the eComStation version costs $ 350 from Serenity. Serenity Systems International is essentially an unknown company with no proven history. IBM has been around for over 100 years. There is a chance that future versions of eComStation will not have support for Windows applications as did OS/2. Judging by Serenity's non-existent reputation, there is a chance that there may not be any future versions of eComStation at all.

Whoops, I guess I should've figured something was wrong when I saw how long the text area with my message in it was. Sorry for the reduplicated post. Also, I meant to mention that some of the things I just said about OS/2 aren't accurate; corrections to some of them are at post number 611.

Well, OS/2 is known to be used in many companies and for infinte goals : in France, the FranceTelecom company uses it, as well as some banks. It also controls cash distributors, automatic machines... Another "big" example : the ministry of public works, transports and housing, where I work, is located in the "Grande arche" in Paris-La Defense, and all the conditioned air system is piloted by OS/2 !

have a look at http://de.os2.org a couple of poeple are using this OS, inlcuding me. Don't give MS a chance!!!!!

latest version is 4.5 from ibm,check software choice. I used it for 6 years, found it much more stable & easier to install than any windows product. my productivity declines no matter what version of windoze i am on

We are IBM OEM Licence Holder and sell OS/2 Version 4 (and up) incl.30 GB Harddrive. ($130 incl. FTP/NFS/APACHE... Server, Secure Software and more) We sell for the next 5 to 10 years. You need Software, we develop for you. Any question, please contact us.