Unfortunately, OS/2 had a crucial flaw in its design: a Synchronous Input Queue (SIQ). What this meant was that all messages to the GUI window server went through a single tollbooth. If any OS/2 native GUI app ever stopped servicing its window messages, the entire GUI would get stuck and the system froze.
In 1996, IBM released OS/2 Warp 4, which included a revamped Workplace Shell, bundled Java and development tools, and a long-awaited fix for the Synchronous Input Queue. It wasn’t nearly enough. Sales of OS/2 dwindled while sales of Windows 95 continued to rise.
Windows 95 was a smash success, breaking all previous records for sales of operating systems.
So to clarify it was OS/2 Warp 4 that finally delivered on the promise of Windows Better than Windows, but unfortunately it just came too late.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/half-...
From that page:
Unfortunately, OS/2 had a crucial flaw in its design: a Synchronous Input Queue (SIQ). What this meant was that all messages to the GUI window server went through a single tollbooth. If any OS/2 native GUI app ever stopped servicing its window messages, the entire GUI would get stuck and the system froze.
In 1996, IBM released OS/2 Warp 4, which included a revamped Workplace Shell, bundled Java and development tools, and a long-awaited fix for the Synchronous Input Queue. It wasn’t nearly enough. Sales of OS/2 dwindled while sales of Windows 95 continued to rise.
Windows 95 was a smash success, breaking all previous records for sales of operating systems.
So to clarify it was OS/2 Warp 4 that finally delivered on the promise of Windows Better than Windows, but unfortunately it just came too late.