Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement
by peter_d_sherman on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:59AM
(#22925078)
Would love to see an Open Source OS/2!
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Probably won't happen. Companies have been willing to buy the IP and support it (Serenity Systems with eComStation, Arca Noae with ArcaOS) because there are legacy installations of OS/2 that need to be supported (and are willing to pay). To get a sense of the companies that still need OS/2 support, see this list from Arca Noae:
Advantech, Austria
Agie Charmilles SA, Switzerland
Bowe, Bell & Howell, U.S.A.
Canadian Coast Guard, Canada
Colgate Palmolive, U.S.A.
Dematic North America, Luxembourg
Federated Insurance, U.S.A.
Johnson and Johnson, U.S.A.
Pepsi Co., U.S.A.
Roos Instruments, U.S.A.
Siemens AG, Germany
Trainitalie, F.S., Italy
Universal Instruments Corp, U.S.A.
Whirlpool Corporation, U.S,A,
One of the reasons why the original OS/2 source wasn't made available by IBM was that there are a lot of 3rd party libraries in it. Many from companies that no longer exist, or firms that have been acquired several times, so it's just too hard to get the release signatures.
Rumor has it that OS/2 or a compatible system is still needed to boot up some legacy IBM mainframes, the OS/2 box is used as a kind of system console.
That was true for IBM mainframes manufactured prior to 2005. The hardware management console computer (kind of like BIOS setup on steroids) was a PC running OS/2. Models since 2005 have used Linux instead, although the management app on Linux was designed to duplicate the visual look of OS/2 (to make existing users feel more comfortable.)
I remember around 2006 or so, watching a service technician replace some faulty hard disk drives in an enterprise SAN. He opens up the front door, and out of this compartment he slides a laptop computer which runs some management software. From the look of the user interface, it appeared to be running Windows 3.1.
Raises hand I have a Multiprise 3000 and this is true for me, or would be if I could get the software that will actually bring up the mainframe hardware.