I've got an IBM media relations guy checking on that. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Cini, Richard Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 11:47 AM To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: RE: Goodnight, OS/2... OK, the inevitable Slashdot-type question...when will IBM open license OS/2 (if at all)? There have been calls for this for years before IBM finally nailed the coffin shut. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of 'Computer Collector Newsletter' Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 11:42 AM To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: Goodnight, OS/2... http://www-306.ibm.com/fcgi-bin/common/ssi/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype… ppname=Demonstration&htmlfid=897/ENUS905-163 Or for minimalists: http://tinyurl.com/acbp2 ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: http://www.snarc.net Also see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/ Where did PDAs come from? http://www.snarc.net/pda/pda-treatise.htm *** Tell your friends about the (free!) Computer Collector Newsletter - 760 readers and no spam / Publishes every Monday / Write for us! - Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all - W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news at computercollector.com

Cini, Richard wrote: I am afraid this won't happen. Even the recent kernels, and the application set as well, is still full of old "compatibility" 16 bit code stemming from OS/2 1.x which was written by Microsoft. I have seen kernel sources containing "Copyright (c) Microsoft 198x" in most 16 bit assembler files. Besides, compiling the kernel is not a very simple issue because it requires certain versions of MASM, MSC 16 bit, MSC 32 bit, and IIRC also some version of IBM C. Third party code also exists IIRC, the exeunpack code that the loader uses to expand the packed LX format had been a binary-only library linked to the kernel. There are proprietary tools to build the thunking library DOSCALL1 which are available in binary only as well. It is truly amazing that the result from such a code base is still such a stable system. Given the kernel is already such a mess, I do not really want to know what dead bodies are still buried in the PM, WPS, and other subsystems. Let's say it this way: you probably wouldn't touch this code even with a long pole unless it'd make your income. But even if IBM has now - again - buried OS/2 (reminds me of those zombies which you could endlessly put into a grave - they'll despite come up again and again), you could still buy the successor ecomstation which is genuine OS/2 ander a different brand. This is promising, as not everything is lost, but as it shares the same above codebase, it diminishes chances of an open source. Regards Holger

On 15 Jul, 2005, at 11:47, Cini, Richard wrote: There is absolutely no possibility that IBM wil open-source OS/2. Microsoft has joint ownership to part of the code. It would be nice if we could get Workplace Shell upgraded and made available for Linux, I believe IBM have all the rights to that. In the meantime, I am happily running eComStation, which is the current SOHO-distro of OS/2. That is, however, not going to be on-topic for a long time, since it is still marketed and maintained. And as long as several major banks and at least one major credit card company continue to rely on OS/2, IBM will continue to maintain it on a paid basis. Expensive, but probably worth the money when you are in that line of business. -- -bv