Keeping the OS/2 Flame Alive

nanday writes "Ever wondered what happened to OS/2? With IBM officially abandoning the operating system last year, users are relying on a third party version of OS/2 -- and, increasingly, using free and open source software to keep it alive." From the article: "According to Haverblad, the main reason that users stay with OS/2 is for 'features that Windows and Linux don't have yet.' He singles out the REstructured eXtended eXecutor (REXX), an interpreted programming language known for its ease of use, a 'rock solid kernel,' 'excellent multitasking,' and low system requirements. Haverblad also claims a lack of viruses and spyware and, referencing a report on OS/2 Warp Server by Secunia, fewer security vulnerabilities." Newsforge is also an OSTG site.

Comments

Re:The problem is...

[Anonymous Monkey]

Small software base, for now. It would be very cool to see OO.o, Firefox & Thunderbird ported over. It would provide another alternative for building 'grandmother computers.' Computers that are used for writing letters and checking e-mail and that's it. No viruses, no spyware, no worms. I would never need to fix grandmas computer again!

I know I could do the same thing with Linux or OS/X, but still, it's OS/2! I declare this Cool Retro OS Day, and will now fire up my B-box, my Amiga, and a PC running PC DOS. I will play Sim City for Dos and tweak autoexec.bat and config.sys. I will load OS2 from flopy, all 27(?) of them! Horay!