It wasn't too long ago I saw OS/2 on some ATM machine that was crashed.
I used to love OS/2 back when developing DOS applications (since I could crash the app and not the machine). OS/2 got me interested in "real OS's" and then SunOS in college, etc.
Seems to ve very weird that IBM will give them a license to keep OS/2 updated but no access to the kernel.
1) Due to the amount of third party code in OS/2 (most notably, the DOS and Win 3.x layer) that IBM is unable to license out the code, or unwilling to go to the trouble to figure out the legal implications.
2) IBM has lost some or all of the source code.
The licensing would be my guess, Microsoft owned some of the code, there may have been other third party code in there too.
koutakun•2h ago
nothinggoesaway•2h ago
> Need more convincing? How about a commercial operating system which doesn’t spy on you, does not report your online activity to anyone, and gives you complete freedom to choose the applications you want to use, however you want to use them? How about an operating system which isn’t tied to any specific hardware manufacturer, allowing you to choose the platform which is right for you, and fits perfectly well in systems with less than 4GB of memory or even virtual machines?
ch_123•2h ago
1) There's a bunch of commercial software which only runs on OS/2. A lot of it was vertically integrated software either developed for a specific customer by IBM, or developed in an "IBM shop". The ticket machines for the New York subway were powered by OS/2 until relatively recently. There are also supposedly a bunch of banks which have OS/2 dependencies.
2) There are still hardcore OS/2 fans who use OS/2 as their main OS. As you correctly assume, getting something like a modern web browser to run on OS/2 is a challenge, but some people grin and bear with it anyway.
3) Strange people like me who run things like OS/2 on spare computers or VMs for the novelty value.
kwanbix•1h ago
Really nice OS. Which it was a more reasonable $50 for personal use.