By Dawn Kawamoto, 18 July 2005 08:38
NEWS IBM will stop selling the OS/2 operating system at year's end, marking an end of an era for Big Blue.
IBM, which made the announcement this week, said it will discontinue OS/2 products by 23 December and withdraw standard support for OS/2-related products as of 31 December 2006.
Support for OS/2 will only be available under a service contract after 2006.
"We're making official what has been going on for quite some time," said Steve Eisenstadt, an IBM spokesman. "We haven't released a new version of OS/2 in nine years."
Big Blue is directing its OS/2 customers to switch to the Linux OS.
OS/2, which debuted in April 1987, struggled to gain the wide acceptance that Microsoft's Windows enjoyed. While OS/2 may have been considered technically superior to Microsoft's early versions of Windows, the operating system failed to prosper due to a lack of applications written for it.
Concerns about the future of OS/2 arose at least three years ago.
OS/2, which was the first Intel-based 32-bit multitasking operating system aimed at the PC market, currently has fewer than 80 customers that hold more than 10 licences, Eisenstadt said.
Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
There is a petition that will be sent to IBM requesting to Open Source OS/2. Anybody interested should sign:
http://www.os2world.com/petition
2. 666
The main mistake of OS/2 was that it was originally developed for the 16-bit 286 & not the 32-bit 386. Plus it had 200+ coders hacking it.
Instead of WinNT which originally had only 50 coders and the only "brand new" OS developed brand new for 386, unlike Linux which is rehash of UNIX.
These are some of the reason we are here to pay our eulogy to OS/2 and will never see an OS/3 or PL/2 etc...
3. anonymous
Open Source OS/2 Petition!!!
Everybody can sign it at http://www.os2world.com/petition
4. John L Bon
The New OS/2 is eComStation
Any supported of OS/2 had the option to switch to eComStation that is OS/2 based. It had planned updates till 2007, so it is a good option for OS/2 users.
http://www.ecomstation.com