OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement

Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement by hvs on Monday April 20, 2020 @02:19PM (#22926706)

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,

http://ecomstation.com/index.phtml https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/

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Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement by chiph on Monday April 20, 2020 @08:12PM (#22930417)

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.

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Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement by zozbot234 on Monday April 20, 2020 @02:28PM (#22926789)

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.

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Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement by skissane on Monday April 20, 2020 @09:53PM (#22931079)

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.

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Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement by cptnapalm on Monday April 20, 2020 @05:07PM (#22928568)

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.

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Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement by unixhero on Monday April 20, 2020 @02:30PM (#22926814)

Yes, it uses ThinkPad laptops to coordinate the bootup of the machine, in the past these ran OS/2. Beautiful.

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