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A 21st-Century Version Of OS/2 Warp May Be Released Soon (arcanoae.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the old-OS's dept.

dryriver writes: A company named Arca Noae is working on a new release of the X86 OS/2 operating system code named "Blue Lion" and likely called ArcaOS 5 in its final release. Blue Lion wants to be a modern 21st Century OS/2 Warp, with support for the latest hardware and networking standards, a modern accelerated graphics driver, support for new cryptographic security standards, full backward compatibility with legacy OS/2, DOS and Windows 3.1 applications, suitability for use in mission-critical applications, and also, it appears, the ability to run "ported Linux applications". Blue Lion, which appears to be in closed beta with March 31st 2017 cited as the target release date, will come with up to date Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client, Apache OpenOffice, other productivity tools, a new package manager, and software update and support subscription to ensure system stability. It is unclear from the information provided whether Blue Lion will be able to run modern Windows applications.

9 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Uh, why? by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There have been operating systems which have come and gone which have reasons to exist today, like BeOS. But OS/2 is not among them. Windows 3.1 support? That's not a relevant feature. Please tell me that their actual planned release date is April 1.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Uh, why? by nine-times · · Score: 3

      Windows 3.1 support? That's not a relevant feature.

      Not for most circumstances, no. On the other hand, there may be old legacy systems that ran on Windows 3.1 that people will want to be able to run. I don't know what the current state of compatibility is for Windows 10, but having a modern/updated OS that can run Windows 3.1 apps may be useful to someone.

    2. Re:Uh, why? by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Funny

      and runs on modern windows.

      I don't think anyone would run something as sensitive as an ATM on Windows.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    3. Re:Uh, why? by newcastlejon · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't think anyone would run something as sensitive as an ATM on Windows.

      They can, and do. In the past I've seen crashed ATMs running NT4, XP, XP Embedded, 2k and... OS/2.

      Banks are a bit like the military when it comes to IT: they stick with what works long after others have replaced it with something new.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    4. Re:Uh, why? by dbreeze · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I repair ancient Mazak CNC controls and other industrial controls. All the software is DOS/Win3.1 era stuff. No one wants to bite the bullet for new CNC systems because they can't find the mechanical quality to compare at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, there's probably not a single piece of electronics for these systems left in the world that hasn't already been through one repair cycle. Most of the PCB's I see have been patched, doctored, and abused to near death, but they keep coming. Mazak has quit all support for these dinosaurs, but they're still sitting on most of the schematics, source code, etc.
      My boss would love to see a modern OS with good support for his ancient software packages that all the original vendors have walked away from supporting, and won't release anything for others to work with.

      If Trump wants to impress me, he'll get around to doing something to clean up the copyright/patent fiasco that is killing so many smaller players like us.

      --
      When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
  2. Re:Workplace Shell & virtualisation engine by martiniturbide · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ArcaOS will have all that is on OS/2 Warp 4.52, Workplace Shell, SOM, Presentation Manager, DOS/Win16 (embedded). Running WPS on Linux may be harder, CPI needs to be cloned and open source so PM, SOM and WPS can be run over it. Visit OS2World.com forums if you have more questions.

  3. Competition is good by quonset · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If it can compete against the steaming pile that is Windows 10 and the eye candy which is Macs, this is a good thing. Being able to buy a license for a machine and use it without being forced to "upgrade" or have updates automatically installed whether you want them or not would be a great leap forward.

    Being able to run software which is a few years old but does what you want would also be a big plus.

  4. Seems a bit pointless. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you need your OS/2 apps badly, you can already freely download IBM OS2 Warp 4.0 and run it in a VM or some old metal. As for DOS, FreeDOS reliably runs even on modern hardware though you can also use ReactOS which implements it faithfully. Finally, Win 3.x apps are old hat for WINE. You can SkiFree all day if you want! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Re:Sorry, it's time has passed by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    OS/2 got interrupt handling exactly right. I could format a floppy, play Wolfenstein in a window, and have a mod tracker playing in the background on a 486/25. BeOS got close but was never quite as good.

    My Linux machine today can't copy to a USB hard drive without making the rest of the system unusable.

    It seems like Linux could still learn some tricks from these old OS's.

    --
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    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)