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User Group Urges IBM To Open OS/2

axonis writes "A report on Tom's Hardware tells of one of the last active OS/2 user groups, which has announced an initiative to garner support for IBM to release its long-neglected OS/2 operating system into the open source community. IBM announced earlier this month that it will withdraw its operating system OS/2 officially from sale on December 23 this year and will offer support only through 2006." From the article: "Making OS/2 Open Source will benefit all IBM customers that had invested in this OS...Customers that are willing to continue using OS/2 will get the benefits of an open OS that will be continuously developed by individual developers and/or software companies, their ownership fees will decrease and they will have the enhanced security of an OS that will continue to be relevant due to the open-ended nature of open source (following the BSD and Linux examples)."

17 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by xlr8ed · · Score: 1, Funny

    The title of you post overflows with irony....

  2. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 3, Funny
    IBM can't release the source code. So many non-disclosure agreements

    Are you saying that IBM doesn't own OS/2 outright? That doesn't sound like IBM at all.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  3. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by DoctorPhish · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, next thing you know someone will start a petition to open source Solaris!

  4. One IBM developer was heard muttering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "oh, shit, how are we going to explain that it's just a bunch of cats taped together?"

  5. Aw, come on... by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny
    For example (I admit, I don't know), but does OS/2 support: USB? High End Video Cards? Wireless Networking?"

    Aw, come on. No-one really needs anything other than a 25-pin RS-232 serial interface and 16-colour VGA. Wireless networking? Dangerous, man! The waves will cook you. Also, you should really be happy only with a single-speed CD-ROM drive. Anything faster, and the disk melts from the centrifugal force. Cd Burner, yeah right. You really have to pay a lot more in homeowner insurance for that. I won't even touch "firewire", not without asbestos gloves anyway.

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  6. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by EpsCylonB · · Score: 4, Funny

    U read the RTFA ?

    Dude thats cheating !

  7. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by faqmaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yep. Microsoft "owns" the TCP/IP stack they stole from BSD.

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  8. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by DrEldarion · · Score: 3, Funny

    Rule #1 of pointing out grammatical/spelling errors: Make sure your post doesn't have any of its own.

  9. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by springbox · · Score: 3, Funny
    Maybe he just forgot to add commas:
    The title of you, post, overflows with irony....
    Almost makes sense..
  10. Re:OS/2 Info For Fellow Clueless by m50d · · Score: 2, Funny
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    I am trolling
  11. Of course they can't open source it... by afstanton · · Score: 3, Funny

    it has SCO code in it!

    --
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  12. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by stoph+ct · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is ironic the most misunderstood word or what ?

    It's like rain on your wedding day
    It's a free ride when you've already paid
    It's the good advice that you just didn't take
    Who would've thought... it figures

  13. Some scalawags* back in the 60's... by hullabalucination · · Score: 2, Funny
    ...had a parody of IBM's semi-famous bumper sticker/desk plaque/poster. It read: "Thimk."

    *Scalawags are a subspecies of Sperry-Remington engineer. I'm pretty sure.

  14. Re:The Only Stupid Question... by anaesthetica · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, just like in Jurassic Park, when they filled in the dino genome with frog DNA, Open Source folks could fill in the OS/2 code with Linux, thus creating OS/2nix (pron. Oh-Ess-Tunics). This idea can't fail!

  15. Re:You're an idiot by PaxTech · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are you new here too? It's also the slashdot way to wildly generalize about slashdot posters as though they are a single gigantic hive mind. :D

    You're on target with the way you called me names and insulted my intelligence while posting as an AC though, that's definitely also the slashdot way. ;)

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  16. Re:The Alanis Morisette effect by wheany · · Score: 3, Funny

    That song works so much better when you replace all instances of the word "ironic" with the words "a bummer."

  17. Re:Is IBM is stupid? by sharkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, right. That's about as likely as Apple switching to the x86 platform.

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