Re:OsFree project: OS/2 Replacement
by badsectoracula on Monday April 20, 2020 @02:49PM
(#22926997)
I've only played a bit with eComStation (recent OS/2 "distribution"), but my understanding of OS/2 is that it is a very modular system which is also how people still keep adding features to it despite using the same base since the 90s. Also it seems to be thoroughly documented.
I think both of these, combined with the fact that OS/2 is not a moving target anymore (unlike Windows), can make it much easier to make an open source OS/2 replacement by replacing its systems bit by bit. If anything, if you check eComStation (and i also guess Arca OS), it has a lot of newer parts than what was originally in OS/2 at all stages of the "stack" - from the bootloader, to graphics drivers, to UI, many of which seem to be open source.
TBH i think the main reason there haven't been already a working OS/2 replacement is that there doesn't seem to be enough of a technical know-how in the current community and there doesn't seem to be any new interest for it by people.
Haiku was pretty much in the same position, but the difference that somehow Haiku managed to get enough knowledgeable people on board despite BeOS being released on PC only a couple of years after OS/2 Warp. I guess the release of BeOS Personal for free helped spread it much further and OS/2 never had something like that.
I think both of these, combined with the fact that OS/2 is not a moving target anymore (unlike Windows), can make it much easier to make an open source OS/2 replacement by replacing its systems bit by bit. If anything, if you check eComStation (and i also guess Arca OS), it has a lot of newer parts than what was originally in OS/2 at all stages of the "stack" - from the bootloader, to graphics drivers, to UI, many of which seem to be open source.
TBH i think the main reason there haven't been already a working OS/2 replacement is that there doesn't seem to be enough of a technical know-how in the current community and there doesn't seem to be any new interest for it by people.
Haiku was pretty much in the same position, but the difference that somehow Haiku managed to get enough knowledgeable people on board despite BeOS being released on PC only a couple of years after OS/2 Warp. I guess the release of BeOS Personal for free helped spread it much further and OS/2 never had something like that.