/O S too/ IBM and Microsoft 's successor to the MS-DOS operating system for Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 -based microprocessors . It is proof that they couldn't get it right the second time either. Often called "Half-an-OS". The design was so baroque , and the implementation of 1.x so bad, that 3 years after introduction you could still count the major application programs shipping for it on the fingers of two hands, in unary . Later versions improved somewhat, and informed hackers now rate them superior to Microsoft Windows , which isn't saying much. See second-system effect .
On an Intel 80386 or better, OS/2 can multitask between existing MS-DOS applications . OS/2 is strong on connectivity and the provision of robust virtual machines . It can support Microsoft Windows programs in addition to its own native applications. It also supports the Presentation Manager graphical user interface .
OS/2 supports hybrid multiprocessing (HMP), which provides some elements of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), using add-on IBM software called MP/2 . OS/2 SMP was planned for release in late 1993.
After OS/2 1.x the IBM and Microsoft partnership split. IBM continued to develop OS/2 2.0, while Microsoft developed what was originally intended to be OS/2 3.0 into Windows NT . In October 1994, IBM released version OS/2 3.0 (known as "Warp") but it is only distantly related to Windows NT . This version raised the limit on RAM from 16MB to 1GB (like Windows NT).
IBM introduced networking with "OS/2 Warp Connect", the first multi-user version. OS/2 Warp 4.0 ("Merlin") is a network operating system .
http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/os2/os2world.html .
[Dates?]
[ Jargon File ]
(1995-07-20)