Os/2

So, I recently acquired an old IBM Thinkpad 365XD (16mb RAM, 1gb HDD, floppy, cdrom, 2 pcmcia slots), and in trying to figure out what OS I should install on it, I figured I would relive the glorious days of IBM's OS/2 as the drivers for this laptop were available for OS/2.

Installation was easier than I remember, as was the driver installation process. I had forgotten IBM Works, what a delight. I had forgotten the built-in DOS and Win3x emulators as well. Further, I had totally forgotten about the voice recognition software that shipped in the bonus pack.

I was wondering if any of you had used OS/2 recently or in the past, and whether or not you have any thoughts on this long forgotten operating system (that was poorly stabbed in the back by Microsoft's NT, ending its life prematurely).

fistfullofroses said:

I was wondering if any of you had used OS/2 recently or in the past, and whether or not you have any thoughts on this long forgotten operating system (that was poorly stabbed in the back by Microsoft's NT, ending its life prematurely).

Used it very long ago and it was great. I would heave prefered to see os/2 survive instead of windows.

I've used eComStation, which is a continuation of OS/2. I'd buy it if it wasn't so expensive.

Unfortunately I managed to miss out on the Os/2 experience.

A friend who knew me from the Amiga days where I was very much into scripts, said I would have liked Os/2, as it too made good use of scripts.

It was a good OS, used it in a financial transaction processing company. The transaction processing software used to run on OS/2.

Unfortunately they used crummy hardware so OS/2 had a lot of issues, but on the proper hardware, it sang.

mips said: used it very long ago and it was great. I would heave prefered to see os/2 survive instead of windows.

+1

Used OS/2 from v2.1 to 4.0. Absolutely loved it. When I moved last year I unearth my O2/2 installation disks, I am so tempted to install it on something.

I am glad to see that you all have loved OS/2 as much as I. I too would have loved to see OS/2 survive instead of Windows. There are several amazing web sites for OS/2 out there.

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/ http://www.os2site.com/ http://www.os2world.com/os2files/os2/tipsandtricks.html

Many people have been using X on OS/2 and further have ported several libraries to OS/2 allowing the use of many UNIX and Linux applications in OS/2.

New lease on life = good.

I used OS/2 from version 2.1 though 4.0 and loved it. I ran it on a 486, a Pentium I 120mhz, and a Pentium II 400mhz. I finally had to give it up due to lack of cd-rw support and the lack of USB support for printers and scanners. I used OS/2 as my primary desktop from 1993 through 2000 when I finally made the jump to Windows 2000. I miss OS/2 but I have been running Linux as my main home OS since 2004-2005.

fistfullofroses said: So, I recently acquired an old IBM Thinkpad 365XD (16mb RAM, 1gb HDD, floppy, cdrom, 2 pcmcia slots), and in trying to figure out what OS I should install on it, I figured I would relive the glorious days of IBM's OS/2 as the drivers for this laptop were available for OS/2.

Installation was easier than I remember, as was the driver installation process. I had forgotten IBM Works, what a delight. I had forgotten the built-in DOS and Win3x emulators as well. Further, I had totally forgotten about the voice recognition software that shipped in the bonus pack.

I was wondering if any of you had used OS/2 recently or in the past, and whether or not you have any thoughts on this long forgotten operating system (that was poorly stabbed in the back by Microsoft's NT, ending its life prematurely).

I used OS/2 for quite a few years (hence my screen name). In summer 2007 I did the thing I'd been putting off for years, i.e. moving to Linux (Microsoft software is not something I'd consider). I enjoy Linux very much, but also I miss OS/2's WPS a LOT. There's nothing remotely like it in any of the DEs I'm aware of, which is understandble, I guess.

Have you read this article: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7822082064.html ? If only it could be.

[size=5][color=Red]Merry Christmas to all ^_*[/color][/size]