MS os/2 2.0 kernel

[Leonardo]

I've seen the news on the MS OS/2 2.0 SDK and I got a bit confused. It says that it's a 32 bit kernel running and comes packed with compilers and tools and that's able to run DOS in independent VMs... etc etc.

I was under the impression that all those features were added later by IBM only. I thought the kernel was of IBM making only. This looks like OS/2 2.0 from 1992 without WPS.

Is this the same kernel that evolved into IBM OS/2 2.0 (probably) or is it a different kernel? and are the tools of any use today?

Does anyone knows

[Dave Yeo]

My understanding is that it is the kernel that evolved into the current kernel. IBM likely modified it quite a bit and MS may have had functions in it that were removed. Trapping int0x21 calls is one possibility as MS was planning on supporting Win16 apps similar to NT's WOW, with WLO so they would have run more native then IBM's solution.
The compiler etc probably aren't very useful, LX binaries weren't even supported, and they were beta quality. Though IBM may have used the cl386 compiler for the kernel.
You could always ask on http://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-future-that-never-was/, Michal is pretty knowledgeable and usually answers comments. It is where much of my incomplete knowledge comes from.

[Neil Waldhauer]

As I remember the transition, the 2.0 kernel did everything the 1.3 kernel did. So, they pretty much have to be the same kernel, with the 32-bit stuff added on for the 2.0 version.

[Dave Yeo]

Couple of contemporary articles about the new 32 bit OS/2 from os2museum's comments,
https://books.google.ca/books?id=u7WbsmbttwYC&lpg=PT101&vq=os/2&pg=PT368&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=os/2&f=false
https://books.google.ca/books?id=cSMUxSP5pKgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PT433&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false