
Blue Lion, a new OS/2 distribution - bane
https://www.arcanoae.com/blue-lion-go/
======
protomyth
I tried OS/2 back in the day. Ordered OS/2 Warp for a DEC PClone (428?). Got
the disks and found out I needed a graphic driver for the S3 card in the DEC.
Called DEC and the extremely helpful service rep couldn't find anything, so he
called IBM's OS/2 support with me still on the phone line. IBM said such a
driver exists but I would need to sign an NDA before they sent it to me. I
remember asking a lot of "why" with the DEC rep being equally confused. After
hanging up on the OS/2 support person, the DEC rep (surrounded by other reps
given the laughter and commentary I could overhear) comped me a free Windows
NT. I'm still amazed that I got NeXTSTEP running and not OS/2.

~~~
raverbashing
Yeah, pretty much this

No IBM "product" can work without some 10 consultants meddling with it and/or
huge amounts of red tape

~~~
YZF
I had a good out of the box install experience with OS/2\. Installed and ran
with absolutely no problems. I don't remember details of the machine I was
using... Used it for a few months.

It had a a lot of nice features. The network stack was very nice (compared to
trumpet(?) or whatever Windows used to have back then which had gaping holes).
Multitasking. Rexx as the system interpreter...

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danboarder
I used OS/2 on a BBS system running Wildcat that was set up and included an
internet email gateway (dial up users could send/receive internet mail) around
1991. Each 9600 or 14.4 high speed modem had it's own instance of the app
running in a dos box. We grew it up to 8 56k dial-up lines running on that one
PS/2 machine before usage tapered off with the rise of ISPs and full web
access. I think we shut it down around 1995/6\. OS/2 was way ahead of Windows
with multitasking capability and memory management, I don't think Windows
caught up until Windows NT/2000.

~~~
pseudosavant
OS/2's multi-tasking was incredible for the time. I used it for BBSing too. I
didn't host one with it though. I could zmodem download files (which could
take hours) in Telemate in the background while I played Doom 2. Doom played
at full speed with no issues and the download would maintain the same speed.
This was on a 386DX-40 with 4MB of RAM and a 14.4k modem.

OS/2 Warp holds a special place in my geek heart along side BeOS. The only
OSes I've ever used that just did things that didn't seem possible in the
contemporary operating systems of the time.

~~~
icedchai
You ever try an Amiga? It was about 10 years ahead of anything else.

~~~
rbanffy
Two key features the Amiga lacked were virtual memory and memory protection.
OS/2 offered both.

~~~
icedchai
Yes, I first learned C programming on the Amiga, and it was a fun experience.
Deference an invalid pointer and meet the Guru!

I remember installing a program on my later Amiga (a 3000 with a 68030/ MMU)
that made the first page write only. This definitely improved stability...

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orionblastar
I worked in a college computer lab with PS/2 systems that had OS/2 1.X on them
with the option of booting up PC-DOS as well.

After that I worked at a tools company that had OS/2 2.X systems on PS/2
systems and we upgraded them with Kingston Microchannel cards that added more
RAM and used IDE hard drives. Using Client Access/400 for DOS/Windows ate up
the 640K of DOS RAM, but in OS/2 it used the memory above 640K so more of it
was free. It was the AS/400 client software that we needed to access DB2
databases and other things. We also used Token Ring and was a big IBM shop.
Until management decided to switch to MS-DOS 6.X and Windows for Workgroups
3.11 with MS-Office 4.3 to get everyone on it standardized because they got a
bulk discount from 800 Software. The IBM PS/2 systems got replaced with Compaq
and Gateway 2000 systems that were cheaper. We also used Windows NT 3.1 and
switched to Windows 95. I was downsized in 1995 before the Windows 95 roll-
outs.

But I had OS/2 experience that got me a lot of job interviews, like Enterprise
Rent-A-Car used OS/2 and I almost got hired there. OS/2 was phased out and in
1995 I couldn't get OS/2 3.0 Warp working with my 486DX PC clone so I got
Slackware Linux instead. OS/2 3.0 Warp lacked driver support for certain
hardware and that was the downfall of OS/2 from 1995 and on.

Edit:Typo

~~~
protomyth
Client Access is probably the single piece of software that has caused the
most alcohol to be consumed.

~~~
orionblastar
I used to have to manage memory in MS-DOS for CA/400 for DOS, Netware client,
and MS LAN Manager.

Things got easier with MS-DOS 6.X and memmaker but MS-DOS 5.0 I had to managee
upper memory by hand.

I had to configure adapter card ROM memory to fit into the same 64K C000 block
so that there was 64K free D000 for an upper block to more the network drivers
into to keep more conventional memory free.

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andersthue
I worked as a student supporter in IBM Denmark, doing support on OS/2 and
working with it every day (I still drink my coffee from a OS/2 cup :)

I also ran the Danish OS/2 BBS and since it haf one of the largest collection
of OS/2 drivers and OS/2 software I even helped create a redbook with CD's of
drivers, all at the age of 25!

I loved the OS and had great fun working with the lavs in the US, the
engineers really wanted OS/2 to succeed when management did not.

~~~
yuhong
At least it is nothing compared to how MS attacked it. That OS/2 2.0 fiasco is
one of my favorite topics BTW.

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linohh
When OS/2 was discontinued end 2006, I had the opportunity to migrate critical
infrastructure in several financial institutions around the country to modern
environments. I hope no-one hopes expanding the lifetime of non-migrated
infrastructure with this.

The 'best' client called christmas eve announcing that end of the year their
datacenter UPS will be replaced and last time the power went out their $(very
important piece of banking infrastructure) wouldn't even boot. Well, at least
jobs like that paid good money.

But for fun and entertainment I think it's a great idea.

~~~
Twirrim
> I hope no-one hopes expanding the lifetime of non-migrated infrastructure
> with this.

LOL.. you can pretty much guarantee this is why it's happening, and why there
is funding for it.

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chx
Unlike Microsoft, IBM translated OS/2 Warp with the help of a broader team of
first language speakers. At that time I was a columnist at Hungary's biggest
computer monthly and I was helping the Hungarian translation team. We tried to
(pun intended) not to warp the language too badly. It is very very interesting
to participate in changing the language directly. I still remember the debates
in '95-'97 and the horrible word concoctions for the translation of "website"
to Hungarian...

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ch_123
Seems to have been formed from ex-eComStation people (see
[https://www.arcanoae.com/about/](https://www.arcanoae.com/about/)). I wonder
if they have to start from scratch with whatever enhancements were added to
eCS, or if they are able to access the eCS source by some means.

~~~
orionblastar
Apparently IBM made some changes to OS/2 4.5.2 or whatever the last version
was to add in support for modern hardware and that is what Serenity licensed
as an OEM to make eComStation. It seems to be what Arcanae licensed as well as
an OEM.

I see competition as a good thing, you got two OEMs trying to offer a modern
day OS/2, of course they are going to work to make their own version better
than the other one.

It is not uncommon for employees to leave one company to form another that
competes with the former company. Usually they had a different vision than the
managers had, and want to take OS/2 into a different direction than Serenity
is currently doing.

I hope they offer open source bounties for porting open source programs to
OS/2 from Linux and Windows and other operating systems. I hope they do the
same for drivers to get modern hardware support.

OS/2 runs faster because it has a smaller Kernel than Windows 10 does and it
was designed for earlier systems to use less system resources.

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treve
I'm curious what sort of problems this new distribution would solve. Is it
mainly for running legacy software, or are there other applications?

~~~
tw04
It's to continue providing security and hardware support to all the companies
still running it.

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jmspring
When I worked at Netscape, my main work machine was OS/2 based. Great for OS/2
builds as well as win16. Ran OS/2 until the late 90s. The multitasking worked
well and I liked the speed and WPS.

Of course, I still have an Ecom Station VM for purposes of playing Galactic
Civilizations. Stardock Systems started our on OS/2.

------
Twirrim
2016 - The Year of the OS/2 Desktop!

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ImTalking
I used OS/2 for some telephony software back in the 80s. I found the OS quite
quick and robust, processes/threads very lightweight. Of course, then Linux
appeared and changed everything for me.

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frozenport
Wow 8 months to write an OS. These guys must be good!

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dang
Url changed from
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/03/os2_returns_arca_noa...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/03/os2_returns_arca_noae/),
which points to this.

~~~
mikestew
Though one might to click the original link while waiting for the company's
page to load. Seems they've been getting some press, and their servers are a
bit slow dishing up the pages (though no 500s or anything when I was clicking
around their site, just have to be patient).

~~~
lectrick
Perhaps they are being served up by PS/2's...

