Since then, OS/2 has been developed, supported and sold by two different third-party vendors under license from IBM – first by Serenity Systems as eComStation since 2001, and later by Arca Noae LLC as ArcaOS since 2017. IBM discontinued its support for OS/2 on 31 December 2006. While OS/2 was arguably technically superior to Microsoft Windows 95, OS/2 failed to develop much penetration in the mass market consumer and stand-alone desktop PC segments

OS/2 sales were largely concentrated in networked computing used by corporate professionals however, by the early 1990s, it was overtaken by Microsoft Windows NT. Up to $990 million per year was spent developing OS/2 and its replacement. Because of this heritage, OS/2 shares similarities with Unix, Xenix, and Windows NT. Notably, basic system calls were modeled after MS-DOS calls their names even started with 'Dos' and it was possible to create 'Family Mode' applications – text mode applications that could work on both systems. OS/2 was intended as a protected-mode successor of PC DOS targeting the Intel 80286 processor. The first version of OS/2 was released in December 1987 and newer versions were released until December 2001. The name stands for 'Operating System/2', because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's ' Personal System/2 (PS/2)' line of second-generation personal computers. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 relative to Microsoft's new Windows 3.1 operating environment, the two companies severed the relationship in 1992 and OS/2 development fell to IBM exclusively. OS/2 ( Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. Ĥ.52 / December 2001 21 years ago ( 2001-12)Ĭhinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Slovenian, Portuguese, Russian This version was released on 25 September 1996.

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