Bill Gates — "We believe that OS/2 is the platform for the 90s."

OS/2 stands for Operating System 2. IBM and Microsoft developed MS OS/2, the first version of this multi-tasking 16-bit system that was intended to replace and Windows 3.x. Microsoft took part of the code to develop Windows NT 3.x. IBM continued with the development of OS/2 till 1999/2000 releasing versions 2 to 4, which are 32-bit systems. Versions 3 and 4 were released under the name OS/2 Warp. On December 23, 2005, IBM discontinued the OS/2 project. The development of this project was picked up by Serenity Systems International under the name eComStation, which still keeps its GUI similar to the X Windows System.

Many people think that the lack of interest to this OS is the result of weak North American promotion. OS/2 is more popular in Europe than in the US. Many of the sites that I visited are in Russia and/or Germany.

My experiences with this system are limited to OS/2 Warp 4. OS/2 has the same feeling as Windows 3.11 or Linux 1.3 with the chunky taskbar floating on the screen. OS/2 Warp comes in two flavors blue with Windows 3.11 support and red without support. Both versions are fully compatible with , allowing dual-boot. Any flavor of DOS can be installed on the machine. I recommend installing PC-DOS (also developed by IBM) for more compatibility. Most of the shell commands are the same as the ones in DOS, for example E instead of EDIT.

Installing (IBM'S) Operating System 2:

You can install OS/2 over any version of DOS for a dual-boot system on any IBM compatible machine. OS/2 looks for a version of CONFIG.SYS. After installing DOS, follow the instructions on your monitor. Installing OS/2 is similar to installing Windows 3.1, putting diskette after diskette. Be patient.

For my project, I installed DOS 6.3 (also developed by IBM) and OS/2 Warp 4 (red edition, 1994) on an IBM PS/2 Model 90 machine (1993) that I had. I could have used my IBM Aptiva E26 or another machine but IBM PS/2 Model 90 was sold with OS/2 or Windows 3.11. My decision was purely sentimental.

Warp 3 was not fully year 2000 complaint and this meant installing numerous patches. In the other hand, OS/2 Warp 4 is Y2K complaint and supports voice recognition. This version was marketed emphasizing on this issue and often used in telephony.

Of course, in the case of eComStation just follow the instructions of the installation disc and booting with it.

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