IBM officially kills OS/2, suggests switch to Linux

BIG BLUE has hammered the final nails into OS/2's coffin. It said that all sales of OS/2 will end on the 23rd of December this year, and support for the pre-emptive multitasking operating system will end on the 31st December 2006.

Not bad, it lived 20 years - but no one could ever say it had a peaceful childhood. From the days of OS/2 Presentation Manager through its switch to Warp, the OS was always be-devilled by Microsoft, which seemed to have its own agenda.

It looks like it's gone then, unless OS/2 is a bit like a corpse in an Edgar Allen Poe novel, and it's being buried while it's still alive. And it will wake up screaming in its coffin shouting "Warp! Warp!".

It's doubly ironic that IBM has rather kindly posted a migration page for existing OS/2 users, so that they can easily move to Linux.

Not that IBM is likely to move to Linux from Windows any time soon now, especially given the "Windows vouchers" it got as a result of a court settlement with the Vole.

So, OS/2. May you rest in peace. And please stop scratching the coffin from the inside. It upsets the bereaved. µ

L'INQS
Dead
Dead
But not forgotten