Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | OS/2 /O S too/ n. The anointed successor to MS-DOS for Intel 286- and 386-based micros; proof that IBM/Microsoft couldn't get it right the second time, either. Often called `Half-an-OS'. Mentioning it is usually good for a cheap laugh among hackers -- the design was so baroque, and the implementation of 1.x so bad, that 3 years after introduction you could still count the major apps shipping for it on the fingers of two hands -- in unary. The 2.x versions were said to have improved somewhat, and informed hackers rated them superior to Microsoft Windows (an endorsement which, however, could easily be construed as damning with faint praise). In the mid-1990s IBM put OS/2 on life support, refraining from killing it outright purely for internal political reasons; by 1999 the success of Linux had effectively ended any possibility of a renaissance. See monstrosity, cretinous, second-system effect. Source: Jargon File. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
OS/2 is an operating system developed by IBM. The name stands for "Operating System/2", because it was intended as the preferred operating system for IBM's "Personal System/2 (PS/2)" line of second-generation Personal Computers. It was originally intended as the successor to MS-DOS and developed together by IBM and Microsoft. As such, in terms of look, feel and features, it is not unlike Windows in many ways; but it also shares similarities with Unix. OS/2 1.0 was released in 1987.
The collaboration between IBM and Microsoft unravelled around the time of the development of version 1.3, when IBM took full responsibility for the project. Microsoft and IBM had originally compromised that IBM would develop OS/2 2.0, while Microsoft would develop OS/2 3.0; but the deal then completely fell apart. Microsoft released Windows 3.1 as its response to IBM's OS/2 2.0. Both Windows 95 and OS/2 eventually supported 32-bit APIs. For details and feature comparisons, see the History of Microsoft Windows page.
Overall, OS/2 failed to catch on in the consumer market, and is today little used outside certain niche markets where IBM traditionally had a stronghold. For example, many banks, especially Automated Teller Machines, run OS/2 with a customized user interface. Nevertheless, it still maintains a small and dedicated community of followers.
Although shortly after the release of Warp 4 in 1996, IBM began indicating that OS/2 would eventually be withdrawn, the company has not published a definite end of support date so far. The lastest IBM version is 4.52 which was released for both desktop and server systems in December 2001. The latest Serenity Systems version, known as eComstation, is 1.1, released in May 2003. IBM is still delivering fixes and updates on a regular basis. IBM urges customers to migrate their often highly complex applications to e-business technologies such as Java, browsers in a platform-neutral manner. Once application migration is completed, IBM recommends to migrate to a different operating system without giving any specific recommendations.
Even though some people had hoped that IBM would release OS/2 as open source, this is unlikely to happen since OS/2 contains much third-party code, most of all, from Microsoft. However, open source operating systems such as Linux have already profited from OS/2 indirectly through IBM's release of the JFS file system, which was ported from the OS/2 code base.
OS/2 continues to be developed and sold, with IBM's blessing, by Serenity Systems under the new name eComStation or eCS.
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External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "OS/2."
Crosswords: OS/2 |
| Specialty definitions using "OS/2": 32-bit application ♦ Advanced Computing Environment ♦ CA-Telon, CLISP ♦ dahmum, Digital Equipment Corporation ♦ emTeX, EMX, Eudora ♦ FDISK ♦ GCC, GMD Toolbox for Compiler Construction, gzip ♦ High Performance File System, high-performance file system, hybrid multiprocessing ♦ I-Comm, installable file system ♦ Lan Manager ♦ Marlais, Moscow ML ♦ Novell NetWare ♦ Open DataBase Connectivity, OS2 ♦ pasos2, PowerPC Platform, pre-emptive multitasking, Presentation Manager, Purdue Compiler-Construction Tool Set ♦ Restructured EXtended eXecutor, RLaB ♦ SCM, SETL2, siod, software bloat, SWI-Prolog, symmetric multiprocessing ♦ UUPC ♦ virtual 86 mode, Virtual Machine ♦ Watcom C/C , Watcom International, Watcom VX*REXX, Windows NT, wintel ♦ XFree86 Project, Inc.. (references) |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "OS/2" is generally used as an unclassified items -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "OS/2" is used about 524 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Unclassified Items | 100% | 524 | 11,646 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "/-2-o-s" | |
-2 letters: os, so. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4F 53 2F 32 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001111 01010011 00101111 00110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)O S / 2 |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004F 0053 002F 0032 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)49531720 |
| 1. Crosswords 2. Usage: Commercial 3. Usage Frequency 4. Anagrams | 5. Orthography 6. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
