OS/2

O perating S ystem 2 introduced by IBM Corporation in 1992 and upgraded to OS/2 Warp in 1994. This is the first 32-bit processing system designed for PCs. It beat its rival Microsoft Windows 2000 to the market by almost two years. In early 1994, neither Windows 2000 nor OS/2 have made a huge dent in the DOS and Windows market. For example, there were only four million OS/2 adopters and 250,000 Windows 2000 adopters at the end of 1993 in comparison with over 40 million Microsoft Windows adopters. As older PCs are replaced by higher speed PCs with more memory, 32-bit processors will become more popular. OS/2 gets some high praises when compared with current 32-bit alternatives in PC/Computing Special Report (1994). At issue is whether OS/2 or Windows 2000 or Pink or some other operating system will saturate the market (after DOS, Windows, Apple/Mac, and Windows Chicago stubbornly fade from the scene). OS/2 is a very reliable operating system that requires less PC capacity than Windows 2000. However, Windows 2000 has more networking utilities that may give it the competitive edge in the future. Until software vendors offer a wider array of options for either OS/2 or Windows 2000, the operating systems most widely used worldwide will continue to be DOS, Windows, and Windows Chicago. An alternate IBM operating system called Workplace OS combines the object-oriented Workplace with the OS/2 operating environment. Since OS/2 Warp has such a small market share, developers are not generating significant native software applications that run more efficiently in OS/2 vis-a-vis Windows. In CD-ROM Today, February 1995, pp. 40-51, OS/2 Warp performance is evaluated and a forecast is made that IBM will abandon OS/2. Although OS/2 Warp runs DOS applications better than MS-DOS itself, it is very slow when trying to run Windows applications. Neither Apple Corporation nor IBM Corporation have been able to significantly gain market share against Microsoft Windows. (See also Ultimedia Video , Operating system , DOS , Windows , Windows Chicago , and Windows 2000 )