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Too many cases of "OS/2 is dead, dying, etc"
JTA:
The most recent article pointed at on these forums (was it Informer?), was typical. In the same article describing how OS/2 is dead, they mentioned ArcaOS, which to me implies OS/2 is anything but dead ... it is still very actively developed and very useful! But, they write the article as if OS/2 were dead anyway.
Hackaday was a tad bit better ... they had this: "The Hobbes OS/2 Archive is a large collection of OS/2 software that has been publicly available for many years, even as OS/2 itself has mostly faded into obscurity." It hasn't faded, it has exploded, but who knows this?
In fact, there is a naming/association problem ... many know the term OS/2, and not as many know the term ArcaOS. So that's an issue ... if OS/2 is considered dead, mentioning ArcaOS in the same article doesn't do anything to resurrect OS/2, and perhaps, ArcaOS is also being considered dead, by association. That is a huge problem.
32-bit OS's are very much alive, and still in use. Millions use 32-bit versions of Windows (XP or older, thru to 8.x) ... they aren't going away, and probably won't switch to anything else until forced to (their hardware dies, and the replacement has Windows 10 or later on it).
Many dozens more use 32-bit versions of Linux distros, or RPi OS's, or whatever ... obviously, I don't know what these numbers are, but I'd guess they are up in the 10's of 1000's, and possibly 100's of 1000's (if not millions).
And of course, many billions use ArcaOS, which is 32-bit ... actually, I don't know what these published numbers are either (anyone?), but if I don't, I'd imagine many others don't either, and the message isn't getting out there to everyone else. At Warpstock '23, I think I overheard that, commercially, many 1000's or 10's of 1000's of copies are in use. What are the official numbers?
So, where's the beef (the articles)? There's some writing to be done ...
1. How do we refute the constant drone of OS/2 is dead, when it is very much alive? Write more articles, ourselves, and figure out how to get them published. Did ArcaOS ever sort out "tech evangelists", as these have an important role as well?
2. What forums, online magazines, and more do we need to target (blanket) with articles showing what we can do with ArcaOS right now? Get the list of such, and determine their "publishing rules" (many of which might block OS/2?). Have to figure out who to send the articles to, what objections that need overcoming, etc.
3. Boilerplate some articles? I can produce a boilerplate article in about 5 seconds; writing content is easy ... cleaning it up, peer review, and revising it is what takes time.
4. ArcaOS - Thrusters on Full (AToF)? All my articles on this are in the Virtualization folder, so they just need reworking into "article-length format". These basically take away any argument that OS/2 can't be used, because of this (only 32-bit), that (no 64-bit app access), or the other (old stuff, when many active ports from the Linux world are everywhere).
... and so on. Need lots of feedback here ...
Martin Iturbide:
Hello JT
Just as a funny note, in some presentation (I don't remember which Warpstock), I listed how many times OS/2 has died:
- 1st: On 1996 when the rumor came out that IBM's Gerstner said it will not longer invest in OS/2.
- 2nd : On 1999 when Warp Server for e-business was released only as a server, everybody said OS/2 was dead.
- 3rd: On 2005 (July), when IBM announced the "Withdrawal from Marketing" and "End of Support" dates of OS/2.
- 4th: On 2005 (December), when the "Withdrawal from Marketing" date was reached.
- 5th: On 2006, when the "End of Support" was reached.
- 6th: When Serenity System dissapeared, and it was transfer to Mensys.
- 7th: On 2013, when Mensys sold eComStation to XEU.
- 8th: On 2014, when we didn't get any eComStation updates from XEU.
- 9th: On 2024, when Hobbes is getting discontinued.
...and I'm sure many others happened too (Maybe when IBM rejected our letter to open source OS/2 (2006?)).
Every little negative news about OS/2 is an opportunity for the press to say "Now it is really, really dead".
Regards
JTA:
Sent a "tip" (ArcaOS article) in to Hackaday.com a day or so ago, via the site's submittal form:
hackaday.com/submit-a-tip/
No idea if it'll get published or not, but others are welcome to try as well. If anything shows up at their main page, we'll know that this site "accepts" ArcaOS (OS/2) articles, vs dropping the submittals for whatever reason, as in, they may not want to publish anything but "OS/2 is dead" types of articles.
Mathias:
Whenever I read an article about "OS/2 is dead", I remember a Saturday night show in DE television, where they announced the death of Karl Ranseier (fictional character) each Saturday as a running gag. --> [Google translated article]
As long as there are articles about "OS/2 is dead", it's not really dead, as people still remember. : )
OS/2 is dead when the majority asks: "What.... is dead???"
Mathias
Martin Iturbide:
Hello
Let's expect the next dead for "April 15th, 2024" when Hobbes NMSU gets disconnected. ;D ;D ;D
Regards
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