I thought that it was something else, altogether. My mis impression is that the PC manufacturers were looking at it as an alternative to Windows and it was getting a lot of development from geeks.
Ubuntu is ready for prime time and OS2 looks like it is barely alive. It would be better to not clutter up a Linux help site with a lot of OS2 attention. Mark On Wed, 2010-07-28 at 20:26 -0400, David wrote: > See Comments below - I hope they help. > > On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 7:53 PM, Mark Wallace > <[email protected]> wrote: > I did a google search but am concerned that the information > about OS2 is > either dated or slanted. > > Search results revealed the following. Somebody please > comment on the > accuracy. > > OS2 is not totally open source because some of the code that > it uses is > Microsoft proprietary code. Although something called OSFree > is being > developed, it is not ready for prime time. That means that it > is not > GPL. > > IBM and Microsoft were working on it together until 1990, but > them > Windows took off and left IBM flat. IBM stopped supporting it > in 2006. > > OS2 will not work on an x86 processor (true?) - Not true. I am > a former OS/2 user. I ran it on i386 and i486 computers > > OS2 is the dominant operating system for ATM machines. - This > used to be true for older generation ATM machines. New > machines are Windows based. Not sure about Linux. > > It looks like there were significant periods of time in which > no OS2 > development took place. The group of people working on OS2 or > OSFree, > I'm not sure which, are doing it on their own time. > > It may have technical advantages or drawbacks vis a vis linux > and > Windows. But it isn't ready for prime time, so Ubuntu is the > most > viable free replacement system for Windows. Only a programmer > could get > a desktop up, running and productive in OS2 - - I started with > OS/2 2.0 beta cycle (on floppies) and the install was just as > easy as Windows. Why anyone would want to use OS/2 now when we > have Ubuntu is strange to me. > > Again, to the subscribers who aren't familiar with OS2, I am > not sure if > any of the above is correct. I am seeking comment from the > chat > subscribers to verify all of the above. > > A presentation on OS2 might be a good topic for a future > meeting, > especially if it is at the point that CD's could be handed out > and > non-techies could self install. > > Mark > -- > Robert Mark Wallace > 60 Delaware Road > Newburgh, NY 12550-3802 > Telephone: (845) 566-0586 > > Visit my Blog, Mark Wallace Following Christ, at > > > > http://markwallacefollowingchrist.blogspot.com/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group > http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS > Auditorium > Aug 4 - Samba > Sep 1 - BOINC > Oct 6 - Creating Firefox Extensions > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > Aug 4 - Samba > Sep 1 - BOINC > Oct 6 - Creating Firefox Extensions -- Robert Mark Wallace 60 Delaware Road Newburgh, NY 12550-3802 Telephone: (845) 566-0586 Visit my Blog, Mark Wallace Following Christ, at > http://markwallacefollowingchrist.blogspot.com/ > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Aug 4 - Samba Sep 1 - BOINC Oct 6 - Creating Firefox Extensions
