OS/2 Box Collection Wiki - Questions

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

Any idea how can I recognize if this OS/2 Warp 3 Media Packages boxes represent the Red or the Blue spine?

- IBM OS/2 Warp 3 - German - 24H1371
- IBM OS/2 Warp 3 - Italian - 24H1146
- IBM OS/2 Warp 3 - Italian - 24H1300
- IBM OS/2 Warp 3 - UK English - 24H1143

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Good. I got a little help and also with the catalog and the part numbers I was able to find it out if those where Red or Blue.
Thanks.

[RTAN]

Martin - you very helpfully have many pages on the OS/2 Wiki with box shots and part numbers. Thank you for your continued efforts on that. And I know that recently you’ve asked people to help supply box shots for some of the rarer releases. Is there an easy way to see:

• All current box shots (i.e. what you already have)
• all missing box shots (i.e. what you still need)

That way we could perhaps more easily help you fill in the blanks if any of us happen to come across the rarer items from time to time.

Best,
Richard.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello Richard.

First of all I'm sorry for the way the OS2World wiki is organized. The good and bad thing of a wiki is that it allows you to create articles freely, and sometimes you forget about the structure. The way I know to create organization structure on the Wiki is 1)Linking the pages 2) With pages categories.

1) Linking the Pages
I tried to like the boxes to the main page of the OS/2 version.
-- Like: https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=IBM_OS/2_Warp_3
There you can see links to part numbers and you will get to the media box page.

2) The Articles Category
For each box I had set a category based in the OS/2 version
-- Like: https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:IBM_OS/2_Warp_3
And it is also good. Because what if I have some picture of a Warp 3 box and I don't have the part number to link it right, so, I just put there on the [[Category:IBM OS/2 Warp 3]]. (Ex. the Finnish version of Warp 3)

What I'm missing are the overseas version of OS/2 in different languages.

Just imagine that years ago we could not get all those picture because of the low resolution of the cameras and big image file sizes. Now we can have all the details of the box online.

Regards

[RTAN]

Hi Martin,

No apologies necessary, you do an amazing job maintaining the Wiki! I'll take a look through the photo gallery of each one and if you don't have pictures for any of the ones that I have then I'll send them to you for inclusion in the Wiki.

It sounds like you'll very likely have them all though since mine will all be either English (UK) or English (US) versions.

Best,
Richard.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

It sounds like you'll very likely have them all though since mine will all be either English (UK) or English (US) versions.

What it will be helpful, if you have  it in your collection and can easily identified which version are English (UK) or English (US), please double check if the I had mark them correctly on the Wiki.

Regards

[RTAN]

Hi Martin,

I'll do my best! I *think* that one way to identify the English (UK) version is by starting the installation process (which I'm obviously happy to do!) because I believe that when I've installed some of them it's defaulted to a keyboard layout of "English (UK)" without me having to change it from the usual default of "English (US)". I'll let you know how I get on!

Richard.

[nathana]

Hi

It sounds like you'll very likely have them all though since mine will all be either English (UK) or English (US) versions.

What it will be helpful, if you have  it in your collection and can easily identified which version are English (UK) or English (US), please double check if the I had mark them correctly on the Wiki.

I *think* that one way to identify the English (UK) version is by starting the installation process (which I'm obviously happy to do!) because I believe that when I've installed some of them it's defaulted to a keyboard layout of "English (UK)" without me having to change it from the usual default of "English (US)".

I am not 100% sure about OS/2 2.x, and I don't actually own any U.K. releases to compare in person, but at least for Warp 3.0, I have noticed the following obvious factors in online pictures over the years:

• Physically, the U.S. boxes for Warp 3 are like the OS/2 2.1 boxes, where they are two-piece and they sit on their back while you remove the front (like a shoe box).  But the U.K. Warp 3 boxes are like the other European Warp 3 boxes, where they are one-piece boxes and stand up straight while you open a flap at the top (like a cereal box).
• Prior to the updated wavy Warp logo (Connect-style), the slogan in the upper-left of the front of the box is different between U.S. and U.K.  For U.S. boxes, this reads "Your on-ramp to the information superhighway."  For U.K. boxes, this reads "World's most-popular 32-bit PC operating system".  I believe other European releases say the same as the U.K. ones but just translated into the target market language.  When the new logo refresh happened, both U.S. and U.K. standardized on "The totally cool way to run your computer" (or, with Connect, they add "...to run and network...")
• For OS/2 Warp Red Spine specifically, the back of the U.S. box actually doesn't use the word Warp anywhere in the marketing copy.  It says "OS/2 v3" at the top.  I believe this was related to the very last-minute decision to use the OS/2 3.0 internal codename in the actual product name.  This was finally corrected for Warp Blue Spine in the U.S., but did not get fixed for U.S. Red Spine until the wavy logo refresh occurred (though Warp Connect Red Spine also said "OS/2 Warp" on the back).  For U.K. and Europe, I believe all copies of all variants/editions say "OS/2 Warp" on the back.
• Inside the box, the printed manuals for U.K. and Europe are taller than the U.S. manuals.  Think Letter vs. A4 paper size kind of proportional difference.
• U.K. and Europe CD-ROM releases all seem to use plastic jewel cases to house the compact disc, while U.S. releases use paper or cardboard sleeves for the disc.
• Software-wise, the non-U.S. releases (except for some Japanese ones, curiously...but this at least seems to hold true for all European continent releases) do not seem to include the U.S. gov't centric text in the boot screen, or printed on the media labels: "US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication, or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp." (included on U.S. release, omitted from U.K. and European copies)

I think all OS/2 2.0 boxes were single-piece, top-flap-opened boxes, and that IBM moved back to standardizing on that box style internationally with Warp 4 as well.  OS/2 2.1 in the U.S. is I believe where the box styles started to diverge between U.S. and rest of the world, until Warp 4.  The text and layout for OS/2 2.0 between U.S. and U.K. / Europe I believe is notably different, however, but by Warp 4, it seems that IBM finally managed to unify most of the packaging across the board (with possible exception of Asian markets).

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks Nathana, excellent observations, those helps me a lot.

[RTAN]

Thanks for such a detailed write-up and explanation NathanA.

Do you, or does anyone else, know in what file the "US Government Users" statement resides? I guess I could do a text search across *all* files but I'm not actually sure if it's real text or whether it's part of the boot screen graphic.

[nathana]

Do you, or does anyone else, know in what file the "US Government Users" statement resides? I guess I could do a text search across *all* files but I'm not actually sure if it's real text or whether it's part of the boot screen graphic.

I can confirm, by opening it up in PMView, that C:\OS2LOGO does not contain the text.

Limiting a file content search just to those on the boot diskette reveals that it is contained within OS2LDR.MSG.

Code: [Select]

# mount -r -t vfat -o loop ./disk00.img os2disk/
# cd os2disk
# grep -H "US Government" *
Binary file OS2LDR.MSG matches
#

[RTAN]

Good idea, I didn't think to limit the search to just the boot diskettes!

I'm not sure if Archive.org has a non-US copy of those, I'll take a look. Unfortunately most of my copies of OS/2 (any version) are US even though I live in the UK because I've purchased them over the years on eBay. I know I have a Warp 4 (UK) pack, but that doesn't have the same boot logo of course.

[nathana]

I'm not sure if Archive.org has a non-US copy of those, I'll take a look. Unfortunately most of my copies of OS/2 (any version) are US even though I live in the UK because I've purchased them over the years on eBay.

Every once in a while, I will take a peek at ebay.co.uk just to see what's out there, and still find copies of UK releases on there from time to time.  I don't doubt, though, that US releases are far more common in the wild.

OS2LDR.MSG appears to be human-readable versions of various system messages and error codes, and does seem to be localized to the language of the region.  Interestingly, it only makes an appearance on the Installation (boot) Diskette and not on Diskette 1, so the whole thing is getting slurped up into RAM at boot (by bootloader, or by kernel?).  Haven't dug in deep enough to determine if this file just contains human-readable boot messages, or more than that.

The OS2World.com Wiki appears to have a screenshot of a non-US English (possibly UK) version of Warp 3 on the main page for the article on Warp 3 (right side).  The fidelity of that particular screenshot isn't great, but you can at least make out that it's in English but omits the US Government GSA ADP Contract language below the copyright statement.

I downloaded Installation Diskette and Diskette 1 images from this Internet Archive upload of a German Warp 3 copy, and booted them.  Here is a screenshot of what the boot screen for this German release looks like.  The English copyright statement at the beginning is retained, but an additional German copyright statement is located where the US Government GSA statement is located on the US release.

[Conradc1234]

Hi Martin. I was just looking through the OS/2 boxes I have on my shelf and was wondering if pictures from a couple of them would be of any use to you. One is French v 1.30 PN: 70F7416, and the other is German V3 - PN appears to be 28H6733.
I do have quite a few other boxes but they appear to be the standard US/UK releases.
Take care,
Conrad.

[Conradc1234]

Just found another one Version 3 again, Dutch this time, labelled CDPak, containing red CD, both Dutch and English installation CDs, and a BonusPak CD. PN: 28H8196.
Conrad.