June 19, 20196 yr OS/2 still in use and still supported ???? https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmp8gy/the-forgotten-operating-system-that-keeps-the-nyc-subway-system-alive For those who are too young to remember OS/2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 "I don't want to know why you can't. I want to know how you can!"
June 19, 20196 yr My last project as a software engineer was based on OS/2 and token ring technology. I wrote low level software that interfaced with a telephone switch and custom hardware in fire stations for the city of Los Angeles Fire Dept. I was surprised to hear it is still supported. There is one error in that Vice article. At the time we started developing the OS/2 code, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 which was pretty crappy but successful. That project had some impressive features that would look rather unsophisticated today. Frustration with poor project management decisions motivated me to leave the company and temporarily change careers. The career change became permanent, led to me meeting my Thai wife in Las Vegas which now leads to us retiring to Chiang Mai in a couple of months.
June 19, 20196 yr OS/2 was pronounced by lots of IT professional OS half... It lost against Window NT - which is the ancestor of all modern Windows versions including 10. I started using Windows NT in 1994 with 16MB (= 0.016GB) RAM. It was really exiting at that time.
June 19, 20196 yr 16 hours ago, gamb00ler said: Microsoft released Windows 3.1 which was pretty crappy but successful I got caught in that as well. OS/2 was originally supposed to be able to run Windows programs, then MS decided to arrange so that was not so. The first piece of software to fall victim to this was MS's new development environment (at the time), Visual C++ , if I recall the name correctly. Ah, 1993, what a year for my career: I was moving up as a NeXT developer, then you-know-who shut down the company. A few months later I put together a power system (well, for that time) to do OS/2 development, and again the old testicles flapping the wind... I can't recall any company committed to OS/2 commercial apps. Too bad, it was a pretty solid piece of work. I don't think there was a solid PC-based Unix yet, but I recall stuff like Xenix, Minix, ..., but forget about them running Xwindows. Then there was Sun's Solaris PC, which I had a gig doing QA on -- hey, don't blame me! I filed the bugs and did my job. Some guys think back on their old girlfriends, some on their old operating systems I guess.
June 21, 20196 yr On 6/20/2019 at 1:26 AM, bendejo said: I got caught in that as well. OS/2 was originally supposed to be able to run Windows programs, then MS decided to arrange so that was not so. The first piece of software to fall victim to this was MS's new development environment (at the time), Visual C++ , if I recall the name correctly. Ah, 1993, what a year for my career: I was moving up as a NeXT developer, then you-know-who shut down the company. A few months later I put together a power system (well, for that time) to do OS/2 development, and again the old testicles flapping the wind... I can't recall any company committed to OS/2 commercial apps. Too bad, it was a pretty solid piece of work. I don't think there was a solid PC-based Unix yet, but I recall stuff like Xenix, Minix, ..., but forget about them running Xwindows. Then there was Sun's Solaris PC, which I had a gig doing QA on -- hey, don't blame me! I filed the bugs and did my job. Some guys think back on their old girlfriends, some on their old operating systems I guess. NeXT - that was very impressive at that time. I only saw it. I never worked on it. About PC-based UNIX: SCO UNIX was strong at that time. I worked in a small SW company at that time and our head developer didn't even want to look at Windows. I bought and read a book about the new Windows NT (New Technology) and told him about it. Years later he told me I inspired him to have a look at NT and he became a NT specialist - all long time ago.
June 21, 20196 yr On 6/20/2019 at 1:26 AM, bendejo said: I got caught in that as well. OS/2 was originally supposed to be able to run Windows programs, then MS decided to arrange so that was not so. The first piece of software to fall victim to this was MS's new development environment (at the time), Visual C++ , if I recall the name correctly. Ah, 1993, what a year for my career: I was moving up as a NeXT developer, then you-know-who shut down the company. A few months later I put together a power system (well, for that time) to do OS/2 development, and again the old testicles flapping the wind... I can't recall any company committed to OS/2 commercial apps. Too bad, it was a pretty solid piece of work. I don't think there was a solid PC-based Unix yet, but I recall stuff like Xenix, Minix, ..., but forget about them running Xwindows. Then there was Sun's Solaris PC, which I had a gig doing QA on -- hey, don't blame me! I filed the bugs and did my job. Some guys think back on their old girlfriends, some on their old operating systems I guess. OS/2 had Windows libraries and DOS integrated into it. "Better windows than Windows, Better DOS that DOS" was the slogan back then. In fact, you could run seamless Windows on the OS/2 Desktop. Over 30 years ago... Now I run seamless Linux X application windows on the Windows desktop...
June 21, 20196 yr I still have the binaries for OS/2 Warp and Merlin lying around. Tried to install it several times virtualized in VMware, but it boots from diskettes, and I haven't been able to mount the OS/2 boot diskette images. There is also a problem with HDD drivers....
June 21, 20196 yr 2 minutes ago, tomazbodner said: I think I still have installation floppy discs for it somewhere in the drawers... But no floppy drive ???? I have a USB floppy drive! Let's get together!
June 22, 20196 yr 12 hours ago, tomazbodner said: I think I still have installation floppy discs for it somewhere in the drawers... But no floppy drive ???? In the process of packing for our move to CM I just tossed out my last floppy drive. I've been a bit of a pack rat when it comes to computer components.
June 23, 20196 yr On 6/22/2019 at 12:25 AM, tomazbodner said: I think I still have installation floppy discs for it somewhere in the drawers... But no floppy drive ???? If you really want one send me a PM. I am pretty sure I will have one somewhere, including a floppy drive cable...
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