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Where Have the OS/2 Junkies Gone? 99

Posted by Cliff from the long-lamented-never-forgotten...at-least-I-haven't dept.
Nick writes "We all remember OS/2, such a fine operating system that was once much heralded in certain circles and had alot of promise. What most people don't know is that it still is alive and kicking. Many of you may even know its history. What gets me, however, is how its popularity dropped off solely on marketing even though OS/2's performance outweights any version of Windows I've ever used (unfortunately OS/2 is no longer cool and elite like the many unix-like operating systems out there). So how many of us Slashdotters still run and use OS/2?" Every so often, I still pine for the WPS, but KDE makes things almost as easy, so life is good. I remember OS/2 was always more popular over in Europe. Is it still in use there, or has its use faded as it has here in the US?
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Where Have the OS/2 Junkies Gone? More

Where Have the OS/2 Junkies Gone?

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  • OS/2 isn't dead... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Friday November 02, 2001 @11:49PM (#2515326)
    ...it just smells that way.

    FYI - I went from Apple //e to Amiga to OS/2 to Windows & Linux. Soon I'll go from Windows & Linux to ... Linux. ;^)

    OS/2 may not be dead, but it's not for lack of IBM's trying to kill it off. IBM, CBM, what is it with companies named xBM and the complete inability to market superior technology?!

  • Open Source (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MindStalker ( 22827 ) <mindstalker@@@gmail...com> on Friday November 02, 2001 @11:54PM (#2515343) Journal
    What we need it a campain to get ibm to donate OS/2 code to linux, I'm sure alot of it could be used.
    • Now that is the best idea I have heard in along time. Man that would be the OS of OSes there. Combo linux and os/2 together? What a killer idea.
    • Unfortunately, too much of the OS/2 source code is "protected" by patents and copyrights held by companies other than IBM. Also, a lot of IBM's OS/2 customers think "open source == bad" and would get upset if IBM did release the source code. Believe it or not, IBM actually makes a profit on OS/2 still.

    • Re:Open Source (Score:2, Informative)

      by Alt-kun ( 105561 )
      IBM has donated some source code to Linux. The IBM Logical Volume Manager (a.k.a. EVMS) is a direct port of the OS/2 LVM. (The OS/2 reference code is even sitting in the CVS tree.)

      And, of course, where do you think JFS came from? :) It's not the AIX version that Linux users are getting...

      ISTR a quote from an IBM executive saying that whatever the Linux community asks for, IBM will look into open sourcing.

      OTOH, the kernel, the graphics API, some of the file system drivers, and the networking subsystem undoubtedly all still fall under the joint copyright with Microsoft that IBM signed a decade ago. Probably Microsoft would need to give its permission for any of those to be open sourced, and we can guess how likely that is...

      Of course, the Workplace Shell also includes a bunch of third-party technology, like NeXTstep design elements, TrueType, Adobe TypeManager, etc.

      It would probably take IBM years of coding effort and legal wrangling to open-source OS/2's innards. And frankly, I doubt that IBM management would consider it worth the effort. A great pity, but there you have it...

  • There are still a few nutcases out there.... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.os2hq.com/archives/arch25.htm [os2hq.com]

    Check that guy out. He's a consultant that wants to force his clients to use OS/2, even though there are virtually no apps for it. He also claims Windows will wear out your processor faster.

    I was first impressed with Mac zealots. Generally pretty clueless, but quite dedicated and commanded several BUZZWORDS. Then came the Linux zealots - typically much smarter, but too bent on "world domination" to remain objective and convincing. But the OS/2 zealots - maaaaaan, they take the cake.

    I think lack of APPLICATIONS and updates had a lot more to do with its demise than lack of marketing, too. Maybe. Just maybe. Slight possibility there.
    • Holy cow. That's the most beautifully crazy thing I think I've yet read.

      However, I have to think that the Amiga people are at least comparably loony. And I once had a Mac advocate explain why his black and white Macintosh was "better" than a color one. Truly, a nutball.

      (jfb)
    • and they all run well concurrently ;-}
      including all those most excellent DOS apps for which there is no superior substitute.
      OS/2 is not "dead"; it hasn't left, and isn't saying "Good Bye".
      Thanks for caring ;-}
    • Well, I can't say I agree with the whole article, but there is definitely some truth to it. For instance, cyrix based CPUs (which ran quite hot) had a suspend on halt setting which would put the CPU into power save mode whenever it got a halt intruction. Without a special utility Windows would not do this, but OS/2 would by default. So an idling OS/2 machine would run a hell of alot cooler than an idling Windows machine. Which would cause undo wear on the processor. However I would not suggest that this is a good reason to run OS/2 over Windows. There are tons of better reasons than that.

      In any case OS/2 still is feasible on the desktop, and servers. I work at a software company and I have been porting and rewriting our networking software so it is crossplatform.

      I wrote a Linux, Windows NT/2K/XP device driver and maintain the OS/2 driver. I am also working on ports of it to Solaris and FreeBSD. (the usermode applications are already ported). And by far my favorite of them all os OS/2. And I can't see that changing anytime soon.

      The only thing I can see causing me to change my main development environment away from OS/2 is a complete divergence from hardware that will run OS/2. Basically if everything switches to IA64, Sparc64, Sledgehammer, or other platform that will not run OS/2. But even if that happens I am still relatively confident that OS/2 will be ported to those platforms. It hasn't let me down in the almost a decade I've been running it... so I can't see it letting me down then either. :)

      We aren't going anywhere! :)

      Brian Smith

  • we use OS/2 warp... for now... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spike666 ( 170947 ) on Saturday November 03, 2001 @02:21AM (#2515607) Journal
    i work for a small but lively midwestern company (i never thought i'd be writing this)

    one of our subsidiary companies uses a custom version of OS/2 Warp for some of their major servers.

    i'm actually on a project to kill them off tho. unfortunately, we're replacing them with win2k servers. our management isnt that hip to listening to our techincal input, so they'd rather pay millions to redmond in licensing fees.

    get this. we have to pay a license for a serially connected scanner device that has NO computing inside it. just cuz its gonna access a sql2000 database. sheesh.

  • OS/2 is great (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Matthew Weigel ( 888 ) on Saturday November 03, 2001 @03:13AM (#2515687) Homepage Journal

    but it doesn't run on my iBook :-( When I was buying my laptop, I had to decide between running OS X, and OS/2, and OS X won.

    It's still a great operating system, and if I ever have real PC hardware again I'd be happy to run it again. Macs have Applescript, and it is powerful, but it's just not the same as REXX.

    And of course, the Finder has nothing on the WPS. But still... :-(

  • eComStation == OS/2 (Score:2, Informative)

    by cymen ( 8178 )
    You can still buy OS/2 but the package now says "eComStation" - eComStation.com [ecomstation.com]. Just do a google search for "eComStation" and you'll get lots more info.
  • I still support several embedded systems (data acquisition and telecommunications) that run on OS/2. It may be obsolete but it works.

    The new stuff is targetted at NT and Linux.

  • the bank, my father works for. Their complete networking infrastructure is based on OS/2. Nobody really likes it all, but they have to use it, beacuse the "Rechenzentrum" use it.
    Anyone knows how the compatibilty between OS/2 and this eComStation is?
    • eComStation is a VAR version of OS/2 Warp. It uses the OS/2 Warp Server for eBusiness (WSeB) kernal (which IBM introduced to the desktop version of OS/2 with FixPack 13) along with the Journaled File System (JFS) and Logical Volume Manager. It is also bundled with a "Mess O' Apps" such as Lotus SmartSuite 1.6 for OS/2 *AND* StarOffice for OS/2. It also contains some WPS customizations and a network-managed client/network manager tool called "WiseMachine."

      Compatibility between OS/2 and eComStation is a non-issue. eComStation is a superset of IBM's OS/2.
    • Nobody really likes it all, but they have to use it

      possibly because they don't get BSOD breaks?

      or might it be because they can't install the latest windows "time waster" program?

  • It's mainly used in professional networking (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have worked for Bosch qnd I am working for Volkswagen now. I have a look into what is being done by IT-folks in financial sector. OS/2 still is a lot around here and there because it is up and running at low maintenance since decades. Its perfectly stable and much more secure than any Microsoft today. To your surprise there are many companies porting to OS/2 latest flavors (WSeB, ECS, ACS, WCS, ...).
    Native Win32-support in OS/2 is available today. VNC-server and Virtual-PC are nearly done. IBM is changing their business-model to only support-per-pay in 5 years; a limitation you have to suffer from at Microsoft since years. SOHO-users may choose ECS.

    ... alive and kicking, but the players are professionals.

  • OS/2 is alive and kicking (Score:5, Informative)

    by LordNimon ( 85072 ) on Saturday November 03, 2001 @09:07AM (#2516054)
    I'm really surprised that a Slashdot reader has to ask this question. It's not like we OS/2 users have been hiding from everyone. It's extremely easy to find all sorts of information about OS/2 on the Internet.

    In short, there are plenty of OS/2 users today, although most of them are in Europe. In fact, if Slashdot weren't so US-centric, then the editors would have realized how stupid this "Ask Slashdot" is. Why? Because the biggest OS/2 conference of the year [os2.org] is being held right now in Belgium! The 2nd-biggest [warpstock.org] was held last month in Toronto.

    There are actually two versions of OS/2 available today: the Convenience Pack (CP) from IBM and eComStation [ecomstation.com] from Serenity Systems. eCS is a VAR version of the CP, meaning that it's basically the CP code base, with an enhanced installer, lots of third-party apps built-in, and a bunch of other enhancements. I'm running it right now on a dual Athlon system - the Tyan Tiger MP works great for OS/2, and yes, OS/2 does support SMP systems.

    There have been lots of advances in OS/2 over the past year. Project Odin [netlabs.org] is serious competition for Wine, and can run many Windows apps that Wine doesn't. Plus, Virtual PC for OS/2 [connectix.com] was just announced and will be available in a couple months.

    Device support has also improved significantly. The only major category of devices that isn't supported is Firewire, but everything else is very thoroughly supported. In fact, video support is phenomenal, thanks to the SciTech Display Doctor [scitechsoft.com] video drivers. With these drivers, OS/2 can do what Windows and Linux can't: you can change your video card without reinstalling or reconfiguring any drivers!

    I could go on for hours, but I'm going to let other OS/2 users fill in the rest.

    • A lot of the slashdot crowd seems to be Linux or else. What few OS/2 articles I've seen tend to follow the normal windows media bias - ie the annual OS/2 is dead... really... we mean it this time article.

      I'd have given you a list, but the slashdot search breaks OS/2 down to OS 2 and won't return any results because it's now only indexing words 4 characters or longer...
    • I attended the Device Driver session at Warpstock, presented by Oliver Stein of IBM Germany. Firewire support for hard drives is coming soon. Also an OS/2 port of ALSA [alsa-project.org] - think SDD for Audio.

      My short Warpstock Report is available in the OS/2 forum at IWETHEY [iwethey.org], where later down in the thread is information on a wireless NIC with OS/2 drivers :-)

  • Maybe there are less of us than before, and maybe our numbers are dropping, but we're still all out there! Check out the comp.os.os2 heirachy to find a few of us, and a google search will unearth a few more hiding places ;)

    Another place we'll surface is mailing lists for open source projects. With the EMX runtime (on hobbes [nmsu.edu] among other places), we can easily port a lot of cool stuff quite easily. Theres a supprisingly large number of projects out there which will build on os2, just look for #ifdef __EMX__ in the code.

    Apart from os/2 servers, you'll find that most machines running os/2 will dual boot into windows and linux or bsd. Very few of us use only os/2, but we use os/2 because it does most of what we want. Now if only IBM would open source the WPS...

  • I use OS/2, RedHat, AIX, I even have Win98, and Windows XP on other PC's for those Windows moments, and for evaluation.
    I have 19 PC's/Servers, and 1 RS/6000 F50.
    I've been in the game since 1982.

    Whats the computer on my own desk?
    A Dual PIII-1000 with OS/2 :-)

    Cheers
    Happy that even under duress, IBM is still upgrading OS/2, and then there is eComStation.
  • What a question...

    OS/2 still does all my home computing and software development. I am currently running a mix of WSeB (Warp Server for e-Business) Warp 4 MCP (November 2000 release of Warp) eComStation (an OEM release of Warp by Serenity Systems at http://www.ecomstation.com ) on 6 machines, two SMP boxen and 4 UNI boxen.

    Best OS ever!

    Lorne
  • I have used OS/2 on a PC since 1992 and am at fp12, soon to be upgraded to eComStation. Our new portable computer has eCS. OS/2 systems need modern multimedia functions for use on or off the Internet. Otherwise, we just need more publicity to alert the world that Windows is not the "only OS" out there. My experience is that programmers want to make good software if more computer users would realize that OS/2 is still viable.
  • I suppose it's hard to know that Warp 4 has continued to develop because IBM has not been advertising it. Up to now IBM has not been charging for bug fixes or upgrades. Warp 4 client is now at FP 15 - which puts it at the same level at Aurora - Warp Server. Dynamite! Stable, fast and needs less hardware and memory than Winx or any version since Win 3.1.

    What is eCom Station? The new client offered by Serenity Systems. It is based on Warp 4, plus a whole lot more, such as a choice of office suites for starters - Smartsuite 1.6 and Star Office are BOTH included. eCS includes Serenity Systems own software as well, Wise Machine - new, efficient way to install and reinstall software without hassle. The list of included software is too long to itemise. See http://www.ecomstation.com/ or http://ecomstation.mensys.nl/ - other suppliers in Canada, US, Australia...

    Wait for news about when the package in development will be released that puts Winx on the eCom Station desktop for those who cannot do without certain Windows programs.

  • I have OS/2 WSeB on a laptop and will replace Windows 2000 with OS/2 on this gateway box as soon as possible (at the moment the gateway isn't mine) and we're hooked up with ADSL (PPPoE client, if needed, from http://www.fx.dk/ ).

    As to that, I don't see myself as a zealot. I see advantages with many operating systems. I just use what I want and if people ask me I tell people about my experiences and opinions. I can mention disadvantages with Linux, OS/2, Windows, BeOS, MacOS etc, and advantages with them.

    Take care

  • eComStation is OS/2 - just much better (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Red Niels ( 533981 ) on Saturday November 03, 2001 @01:41PM (#2516483)
    OS/2 is alive. The client has been updated, so the Netlabs people are able to run things like Adobe Reader 4.0 and RealPlayer 8.0 on the OS/2 WPS desktop.

    Also at the recent Warpstock 2001 conference in Toronto attendees shaw Windows 95, Windows 98 etc. running in a window on the OS/2 desktop.

    IBM has publicly announced support for the OS/2 desktop for another 5 years. You pay for what you get. IBM's version of the product is called the Mervin Convenience Package or MCP (There is also a server version of this package called the Aurora Convenience Package or ACP). There is also an OEM version, which comes with an new install program and many other commercial programmes. It is called eComstation, and is a product of Serenity Systems. It is been marketed by resellers worldwide, e.g. Mensys in Holland at http://www.mensys.nl. This OEM product comes with a complete office package for less than the price of an upgrade to XP.

    The updated drivers include support for many USB devices as well as support for DVD-RAM.

    The Warpstock 2001 in Toronto last month and the Warpstock Europe 2001 in Belgium this weekend is indications that OS/2 lives on as eComstation.
  • Hey, I still use OS/2...because it works, and it works WELL.

    Maybe some of you "enlightened" people might do to get out and open your mind a bit before criticizing it. How many of you have actually _used_ OS/2 extensively?

    I have used Solaris, HP-UX extensively day in, day out for nearly 10 years. I've used Windows since 3.0 came out...right up to WinXP now. I still have an original Mac Classic. I've been diddling with Linux since back in the RedHat 3.0 days, right up to the the latest version.

    My OS of choice is still OS/2, because it's got the applications to get my work done, it's stable, easy to use and easy to maintain.

    IBM is STILL putting out fixes and updates and new features for it. Right, how many of you can shove in a CD-RW in your drive and format it to UDF format using a single command line like "format s: /FS:UDF"? How many of you have an OS that supports USB CD-RW? Hands up if your OS supports up to _64_ way SMP? Who here can still run a pre-emptive multi-tasking OS complete with GUI on a i486, 16MB and fit the OS in under 150MB? It isn't Linux with X. The list of awesome features goes on and on...

    Do your research before you start flaming away?
  • If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, please check out our new OS/2 and eComStation user group. Our next meeting is November 13. Our web site is http://www.baywarp.org [baywarp.org]
  • because it fits my needs more than the other ones.
    As I'm in the business for 25 years now as programmer and as admin at a German university for the past 10 years, I've seen quite some machinery and operating systems.
    Privately I'm maintaining a small LAN of four OS/2 and one mandrake station.
    At work we are running a heterogenous network comprising one IRIX station and several OS/2 and linux servers while the majority of users sticks to NT4 clients for the known reasons. A 25% minority nevertheless prefers Warp4 clients.
    The OS/2 flavours in use are Warp4, Warp Server Advanced, and eComStation; the languages are German, English, and Greek.
    You might have noticed that I don't mention any MS in my private LAN. The reason for this is ODIN: The only application I ever missed on OS/2 was RealPlayer - now, with a little help from ODIN, using a DSL line, me and my wife get all our favourite radio and TV internet stations within OS/2.
    One word on the notorious mentioning of allegedly missing applications: There are roughly 3 GB of OS/2 SW archived on one of my servers, most of which I didn't even have looked into.
    Finally, there's a fine old non-OS/2 TI-59 still in use - unfortunately, I didn't yet manage to connect it to the LAN:-)
  • I am very much amused by the mindset here at Slachdot. In order to lift up Linux and all its flavours one must put down other OS's and or make people believe other OS'S are near extintions where it is quite the opposite. If you are not using the OS's then why make comments. Every OS has its place, I use eCS/OS/2 because of what it offers and I am able to accomplish what I need to do at my work. I use a Seiko labeler for printing shipping labels, also putting labels on disk...etc... and guess what I am using it with USB, I have eCS - OS/2 installed on a 20 GIG IDE Fujitsu drive, I have a USB HP printer...and it works!, I also connect to a Netware 5.1 server, NO problem and I print to a network printer! I use the latest verison of Realplayer for Win9x, NO problem! I just purchased the latest Yamaha CDburner 20x10x40 SCSI and it works perfectly in OS/2 - eCS. I use OPERA for OS/2, Mozilla 0.9.5 for OS/2. I use a Java app that are current, I use Adobe 5.x for win32. I use Lotus SmartSuite 1.6 and can read all Office 97/office2000 files. So I ask why would still believe Warp is near extinction?...I am able to do my work and not fear lockups on my system, or I don't have to apply kernel updates every so often like Linux users do. I install products with little or no effort, something linux users still look forward to someday having that ease of doing. Warp and eCS is very much updated with current hardware drivers and optimized with pentium support and it comes in a couple of flavours: MCP(Merlin convience pack from IBM) and from Serenity Systems: eCS, eCSpro, eCS with smp...etc. OS/2 is not going away because it still meets the needs of people that come to respect it and rely on its stability and it provides solid solutions today and it works very well!!! Live long and prosper!! Vaughn Bender
  • Without proper support from IBM we have organized in user groups, participating in OS/2 oriented projects and sites like os2.org, voice and others. They aren't hard to find, they're not hiding!
    Today we can still run OS/2 on our desktop machines, even though the newer stuff usually lacks OS/2-drivers (sometimes I have to use my Wintendo partition for certain tasks because of that, sad but true), but many things have changed to the better in the last few years. Some examples:
    We have graphic drivers that adapt themselves dynamically to almost any available hardware (Scitech Display Doctor). We are able to clone one machine to another (using freeware utilities), even when their hardware (mainboard, hdd-controllers, graphics adaptors) are different. We can choose from a large variety of applications including native OS/2, 16-bit Windows, ported from Linux (almost everything from Linux is available for OS/2), 32-bit Windows with Odin, Java (of course;-) and so on.
    A typical OS/2 installation doesn't start with 3 diskettes and end with numerous fixpacs any more - thanks to IBM's convenience pacs featuring a bootable cd and all fixpacs included.
    The next 'consumer' version of OS/2 (called eComStation or eCS) has been distributed to the buyers. It features (among other things) an installation routine that takes only some 10 minutes (!) to set up the whole system, a journalling filesystem (bye bye lost clusters), RSJ (cd-writer) and much more.
    And, of course, it has that bootable cd and all those fixpacs on board.
    No need to install some special mainboard drivers (AMD users running Wintendo know what I mean, don't they?) Just install and get going.

    I'm running OS/2 on two of my machines at home. One is an elderly IBM-Machine with a Pentium II 266 and some 96MB ram. Performs great. The other one is a homebrew Athlon 1200 (previously was a Duron 800, but for game's sake I had to upgrade that one), which runs like hell (well, at least with OS/2, Wintendo 98 only got a little bit faster). Its voodoo 5500 (OK, I know I'm a hardware dinosaur) is fully supported (thx to sdd).

    They are connected to a home lan containing some more machines running Wintendo and/or Linux, and the IBM plays the role of an internet proxy gateway with squid (remember that one) and apache (...).

    If you should have gotten the expression by now that I'm quite happy with my OS/2, you're perfectly right.

    And I intend to keep it that way...
  • Dear Nick
    You obviously have never tried a proper operating system. I have - for the last 7 years and I am NOT a
    junky - I simply want a system which is reliable and easy to use, even if it means very minor inconveniences
    like not being able to run that Micro-soft-in-the-head junk. I can find all the software that I need, such as Lotus
    SmartSuite, from which Organizer is excellent, and Netscape, which has always seemed much more logical to
    use than Explorer and Outlook. Even if IBM took the easy way out and decided to support Linux (why???),
    there is still eComStation, which is a doddle to install and very reliable.
    Nigel MacLeod

  • OS/2 not only still alive but developing ! (Score:4, Informative)

    by E-Durrant ( 450618 ) on Saturday November 03, 2001 @07:48PM (#2517350)
    Although without any great fanfare, except in OS/2 circles, there have been several upgrades to the OS/2 Warp OS in the last 6 months. The first was from BigBlue (IBM) in the form of OS/2 Warp 4 Convienence Pack 1. This is a "round-up" of fixpacks, new hardware drivers (including USB and DVD) and a few new utilities. This is what I am presently running. CP2 is due out in the next 6 weeks and it will include further options that otherwise the user would need to download and install themselves, such as a new IBM Browser based on the NETscape / Mozilla 6 code. These Convienience packs, dont change the look and feel of OS/2's WPS.
    The release in the last few weeks of eCommstation from Serenity Systems (an American IBM Business partner) certainly does change the look of OS/2. eCommstation is based on the IBM Convienience pack base but has several third party (commercial / shareware & freeware) packages integrated into it. Some consider this to be the answer to Windows XP's desktop look.
    There is more OS/2 application software available today than ever before!
    Wordprocessors:
    Lotus have currently V 1.6 of their smartsuite available (this is the equivalent of the Millenium edition on the Windows platform) and are about to relaese version 1.7, with V 1.8 rumoured to be in development also.
    Sun's Star Office V5 is a (IMHO) better office package than Microsoft Office or Lotus Smartsuite and its Freeware. Unfortunately Sun are not going to release V6 for OS/2 however it is reported that the WIN32 version works well via ODIN (see below).
    Browsers:
    Netscape 4.61 is still doing good service.
    Opera have released a beta of their OS/2 version of "the fastest browser on the planet", however Java does not work yet. A fully functional version is expected to be released very soon. This browser can "emulate" IE to sites that refuse to work with anything else!
    IBM have released their new Browser and will be updating it. If has full Java 2 support and has had some speed improvements over the freeware version.
    Mozilla/2 or Warpzilla are two names for the freeware version of the Netscape 6 browser. At present this browser only supports JAVA 1.1 however as new releases come out of this almost every day, I would expect this also to support JAVA 2 very soon.
    CD-Burning:
    As well as the commercial RSJ product, the freeware CDRecord has advanced to a point where it is reliable and works well with all recent CD-R / RW drives IDE or SCSI.
    Scanning:
    HP scanners have always been well supported under OS/2 however through another freeware application SANE/2 many many more scanners are also supported. At present the scanner still needs to be SCSI. Some people have claimed success with some makes of parrallel port scanners but no support is yet available for USB attached scanners, but I can't belive this will stay sop for much longer now that IBM has extended the USB support in OS/2 to cover the OHCI standard as well as the UHCI one.

    Windows 32 Bit application support:
    I guess I saved the best 'til last! If you can't find a native OS/2 application you may be able to run the WIN32 version of a product under OS/2 now thanks to one of two applications. The first has been in development for siome time, getting better and better with every release - this is ODIN (previously know as WIN32-OS2). This "interpretor" takes Windows binary executable code and converts it to OS/2 executable code "on-the-fly" amending calls to apis to address either OS/2's own APIs or those supported by code within ODIN. Although this method obviously slows down the execution of the WIN32 code, it often isn't that much after initial loading (where the code is converted from Win32 to OS/2). What runs is native OS/2 code ! Examples of applications that run well via ODIN are Lotus Notes V5, Star Office 6, Real Player V8 and many, many small Windows utilities like WinZip.
    The second WIN32 under OS/2 option was only announced a couple of weeks ago. The Connectix Virtual PC is going to be extended to support the running of OS/2 under Windows and Windows under OS/2. In this case a full version of Windows will need to be purchased/licensed (this is not needed with ODIN). Beta versions of the Virtual-PC code along with lots of the applications and code described above will be on show at Warpstock Europe this month. Checkout http: //www.warpstock.de for details.

    As has been so often said, If OS/2 is dead, someone ought to tell the 70% of Finanicial institutions and many military, govermental and Nuclear Power companies around the world that rely on it for it stability and performance !

    Cheers/2

    Ed Durrant
  • For Warpstock [warpstock.org], the annual OS/2 user conference. Had a great time too. I've decided to attend Warpstock Europe [warpstock.de] next year as well.
  • Well I use it as only OS on my Machines the past years and I am perfectly happy with it. Mainly because we started an Open Source Project called netlabs.org [netlabs.org] and do the software by ourself.
    We are pretty successful and we have a great community. But we know that IBM won't support it for a long time in the future so we look for things we can do... more soon at netlabs.org about that subject

    cu Adrian

  • That all depends on what their needs where, some have been forced to move to other platforms to be able to use some standard software packages (Win, office :-)

    Others, like me never really moved.

    I am a profesional software developer located in Europe, that has been developing system level software for over 15 years.

    Starting with OS/2 version 1.0 in 1987, I stayed using OS/2 whenever possible.

    As a developer I really liked it, and still do.
    It does not mean I do not work for, or on other platforms like Windows-NT, Linux or other UNIX environments, but whenever the choice is mine I use OS/2 because that is the most convenient and efficient environment for me.

    And yes, OS/2 is dead, it has been killed at least 10 times over the last 8 years and the latest version (4.50) just came out about one month ago :-)

    Whats more, this version is not only marketed by IBM to its large customers that need it for their business (MCP / ACP), it is also marketed by an independant 3rd party company called Serenity Systems as a complete desktop solution called "eComStation". For details see:

    http://www.ecomstation.com

    As a developer of disk-related shareware, OS/2 and now eComstation for me is the ideal platform to develop my softeware even if it is multi-platform like mine.
    I develop mainly on OS/2 and switch to Windows, and Linux only to compile and test their native versions.

    With the upcoming release of Virtual-PC for OS/2 even that will not be needed anymore.
    I will just run Win-whatever and Linux in a window on my eComstation desktop :-) see:

    http://www.inotek.de

    I really expect to be able to develop reliable disk recovery software for many years to come, and the majority of that development will be in an OS/2 environment!

    For some of the DFSee shareware disk recovery and partitioning software have a look at:

    http://www.fsys.demon.nl/dfsee.htm

    Regards, Jan van Wijk
  • Various communication links are my daily business - and Os/2 ist still the strongest platform to do this! TCP/IP, routing for 6 subnets with one adpter, sna, appc - it does it all. Viruses? Worms? I have never seen an OS/2 virus. Duble click on "I love You"? No problem, it will result in "DOS Error 23". Recently i showed to a customer (who believed, that CPU clock is so importatnt) a revitalised, 8 years old notebook (486 CPU at 33 MHz, 20 MB of RAM, 810 MB IDE Disk). I installed Warp 4 an shared the Disk. A second machine (Duron 800 MHz, 512 MB, fastest ATA 100 Disk was driven by Win2000 server. The Result of the mini-Benchmark with loading large Files (100 MB): the new supersystem was not about 10 times as fast, but less than double speed! So OS/2 is still very powerfull, needs less CPU power und much less memory than WinXXXX. Greetings, Fritz
  • Where have we gone? Well, we never left. A lot of us switched over to eComStation when it was released this year, but eCS still runs the same old applications (and the new releases) that OS/2 does.

    It's funny how the "OS/2 is dead" rumours surface each time a new release of Windows appears. We have a political party like that. No policies of their own, or at least none that they care to admit to, so their entire election campaign consists of pointing out what's wrong with the opposition.

    My Linux-using friends keep telling me that there are no applications for OS/2, but how would they know? It's amazing how many people are willing to spread rumours like that without ever checking the evidence. In fact plenty of people, including me, are still releasing new software. Just recently I sold a copy of my mail server software to someone who had been running Linux as a mail server, but had reached the point where it simply couldn't handle the high traffic levels. Installing OS/2 solved the problem. Not all of the migrations are in the "obvious" direction.
  • I've been using OS/2 on my home systems since 2.0. I'm currently OS/2 Warp V4. Having been in the computer software arena for over 30 years, I just can't bring myself to do Windows. I do have Linux which would be my alternative if I had to. As a System administrator for a software company that had to support our products on all the platforms, I saw the unreliable alternatives. I'm so happy to
    see we OS/2'rs are going further with eCom & ODIN.
    You can find many things going on for
    OS/2 on the internet. Hurrah!
  • I can't switch off OS/2, the scheduler is tooooo excellent.

    Professional use: real time data-acquisition and control (where real time means deterministic and time proof)

    Privat use: I can burn a CD-R (no 'burn proof') on my 166 MHz pentium while searching the net for the cover (or creating a cover) and printing it at the same time.

    And beside these features I found the WPS the only usable computer shell (but it took 2 or 3 years to find this out....)

  • I use OS/2 - eCs everyday. I'm an electronic engineer working in an international collaboration, thus communicating is one of my most important tasks. OS/2 works very well in this regard. The only apps that seem to be missing are the latest net communication thingies, like VNC and VRVS, so I boot to Win something when necessary. But I anticpate that becoming unnecessary soon with the release the Connectix product for OS/2. OS/2 may not have all the latest sexiest apps, but I find that a boon to productivity, as I don't waste time tweeking the latest unstable piece of crap just to access some Web site with zero content of value. Most of the new software these days seems to be motivated by creating some propriotary standard. Anything of value, from my point of view, soon becomes available on OS/2 (at a very reasonable price!) cheers, Rusty
  • Just got through setting up OS/2 (Warp 4 w/Convenience Pack) and Linux on my new machine (Athlon XP 1500, 1 Gbyte PC2100 DDR, All in Wonder Radeon). Works nicely, and if IBM would port WPS over to run atop X, I'd be that much happier.
  • OS/2 isn't even nearly gone. Hey, IBM's support guarantee was made for, at the time, six or seven years (not counting time already elapsed). Which version of Windows has remained a supported product for seven years? I use OS/2 every day for all my business and home computing, and for developing software aimed at other platforms. That way I can get my work done without babysitting the OS. G. Bourassa
  • those who know and recognise OS/2 and what it can do are more than happy to continue to use it for their needs. in many cases, these same folk are able to create the apps they want/need to do the work they are required to do. FWIW: i've been running OS/2 since v2.11 was released and have never looked back.
  • Still here after all theese years... :-)

    Windoze x.xx/xx/xx/xx
    LOTS of bells and whistles, but that's it....

    OS/2 --- eCS
    not that many bells and whistles, but just about anything else.

    Get's my job done, and keeps the grey hair's away.
  • Most OS/2 users need not go to linux, so they are still crowded where OS/2 lives:

    http://www.ecomstation.com
    http://www.ecomstation.nl
    http://www.commtalk.de

    et al.

    Regards
    Lutz
  • Of course I do. I still refer to it in Slashdot posts, and use it in my Slashdot nick.

    Yes, it is truly wonderful. It runs very fast on a 486, much better than Windows NT4 (I should know), and its command line is much more powerful.

    And besides, it adds variety .....

  • Use OS/2 Warp 4 and eComStation in my small business as it just does the job so well. Tend to have lots of different applications running at the same time and switching between them OS/2 just simply stays up 24h/7d. I've never had to reinstall, I control what it does instead of it controlling me. As for applications, virtually every type is available and just simply work so more work gets done.

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