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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/15/os2_dead_again/

OS/2: dead again

IBM's issues annual end of life notice

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco (andrew.orlowski@theregister.co.uk)

Posted in Operating Systems, 15th July 2005 02:01 GMT

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On Tuesday, IBM formally announced that it would cease marketing [1] 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.

These death notices are almost an annual occurrence now. IBM ceased serious development on OS/2 in 1996, told regular users to shove off [2] five years ago, and we've already run our valedictory [3], which leaves little more to add.

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. ®

Related stories

Microsoft uses $850m to kiss and make up with IBM [4]
So farewell then, OS/2 - Windowed to death, finally [5]
IBM to OS/2 users: Achieve neutrality! Change OS! [6]
Wicked IBM execs bayonet ailing OS/2 [7]
Bill's vision for the future of the PC, c1980 - er, Xenix [8]
Microsoft gets green light to punish OS-less PC vendors [9]

From the trial vaults:


Killing OS/2 by quotas: how MS Win95 deals stifle rivals [10]
Cut a deal or you don't get Win95: IBM faces PC suicide [11]
The day Bill Gates screamed IBM's house down [12]
IBM witness: the inside poop on MS and IBM killing OS/2 [13]
IBM exec outlines MS plan to throttle OS/2, Lotus [14]
Justice throws Microsoft OS/2-shaped lifebelt [15]