On Tuesday, IBM formally announced that it would cease marketing OS/2 at the end of next year.

This might cause wry amusement among the operating system's remaining enthusiasts, who maintain that IBM really never started marketing OS/2 in the first place.

IBM has told its customers they'll continue to receive support, provided they pay for it - unlike Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000, we might add. That's because IBM tries to stick by Thomas Watson's 1956 edict that the company will honor a promise to its customers "no matter what the cost" - and one global credit card company continues to rely on OS/2.

(Microsoft's equivalent promise seems to be "start a weblog about it, regardless of the cost". But that's touchy-feely modern marketing for you, where what you say is supposed to carry more weight than what you actually do.)

We tracked down one OS/2 developer today in the twilight world of embedded networking systems, where OS/2 has lived on. It's no big deal, he told us.

"I mean TCP/IP and SNA are not going to stop working, are they?," he told us. "Well, I bloody hope not."

German vendor eComStation continues to provide extended support.

IBM agreed damages with Microsoft over the latter's exclusionary tactics designed to keep OS/2 from being a success. ®

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