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Article: Is IBM considering an OS/2 redo?

Started by miturbide, 2010.04.12, 23:35:01

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miturbide

http://www.os2world.com/content/view/19835/2/
QuotePosted by Martin Iturbide - Monday, 12 April 2010


I found thi. .. .

I had read the article and I consider it very unlikely to happen.


If IBM wanted to take another run at Microsoft on the desktop--and believe it, there are still people hurting from the last go-round--this could be one way to make Linux more user friendly Basanta reasoned.

Sound nice..but wait... WPS is not open source, Linux users will not use it.

"Look, I'm sure someone at IBM is fighting this old battle. ... Someone who wants and hopes this will happen. The question is whether that person has the power to make it happen? I doubt it," he said.

..uhm...

If IBM has some interest on OS/2 I think it will not be to charge again against MS on a PC OS war. It will be more interest to try to embedded it to other hardware devices.
Martín Itúrbide
OS2World.com NewsMaster
Open Source Advocate

Skype - martiniturbide
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RobertM

Quote from: miturbide on 2010.04.12, 23:35:01

..uhm...

If IBM has some interest on OS/2 I think it will not be to charge again against MS on a PC OS war. It will be more interest to try to embedded it to other hardware devices.


Which they did a great job at a while back with set-top internet boxes to compete with WebTV's rather horrendous appliance. Sadly, TV based internet was doomed to fail anyway.



This part seems familiar:
QuoteAccording to the integrator, IBM's nascent plan is to repurpose OS/2 "services" atop a Linux core.

The obvious question is why? And the answer is despite Windows' spanking, IBM shops still run quite a bit of OS/2 -- not that they've advertised that fact. In theory these companies can drop this Linux-OS/2 amalgam in to replace aging installations with minimal disruption.


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Fahrvenugen

It could be a few things.

I could see IBM possibly looking at what it would take to get the API running on Linux.  As we know, there are still some rather large hold outs running OS/2 - if IBM could offer them a Linux system where their OS/2 apps would run, I could see this as very attractive.  The question is, how much of that API dates back from the Microsoft days and has MS code in it?

The WPS has also been mentioned.  Admittedly I'd love to see it on Linux, but who knows if that would ever happen, I could be wrong but I'm guessing there might be issues with licensing / microsoft.  Recall that WPS requires Presentation Manager and SOM (as I recall, WPS is essentially a SOM object).  While there are already *nix versions of SOM (IBM ported it to AIX years ago), PM was (again if my history is correct) done mostly by Microsoft.

Of course if there is any amount of  truth to this article (which I have my doubts) it is possible that the PowerPC version/code is being looked at.  From what I've read most of that code is all IBM, however I've also read that some of that code was just re-compiled with the PPC as the target platform. 

While I'd love to see a Linux - OS/2 combination, somehow I have my doubts that there's anything to be taken too seriously from this article.

RobertM

Quote from: Fahrvenugen on 2010.04.13, 00:32:12
It could be a few things.

I could see IBM possibly looking at what it would take to get the API running on Linux.  As we know, there are still some rather large hold outs running OS/2

PepsiCo being one of them....  ;D

Who, btw, wants a Linux solution with as much compatibility with their current OS/2 setup as possible.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
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Saijin_Naib

OS/2 apps + Linux Hardware Support + Linux Apps + WINE = What isn't to like?

RobertM

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2010.04.13, 01:58:38
OS/2 apps + Linux Hardware Support + Linux Apps + WINE = What isn't to like?

LoL, if the motivation is coming from where I suspect it is, then I doubt WINE will be any more than it currently is. Doubt it will be a priority.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
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Saijin_Naib

It doesn't have to be any more than it is, it works pretty well for most of the apps I've run on my netbook. Not nearly 100%, but it does allow me to at least open Steam and play some simple games and work with some productivity software I need/use.

Blonde Guy

Quote from: RobertM on 2010.04.13, 01:07:48

PepsiCo being one of them....  ;D

Who, btw, wants a Linux solution with as much compatibility with their current OS/2 setup as possible.

1. Find 5 or 10 large organizations that have refused to move on from OS/2
2. Refactor OS/2 into something that would run, at least on some modern hardware?
3. Profit

Wait, that's Serenity's/Mensys's plan.

Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

Saijin_Naib

^ It may be their plan, but do we know if they have actually gotten the companies on board, or is the large part of their clientbase end users?

RobertM

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2010.04.13, 04:59:11
^ It may be their plan, but do we know if they have actually gotten the companies on board, or is the large part of their clientbase end users?

Good question...  ;D  ;)


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
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sXwamp

#10
QuoteSound nice..but wait... WPS is not open source, Linux users will not use it.

It's all about branding, think Apple and FreeBSD or when Novell layered NetWare services atop Linux to create its Open Enterprise Server   =  OS/2 WPS (re-branded name) and Linux.   Who cares about Linux users - no profit, IBM would get an established operating system for free with an IBM branded name for big businesses. IBM received 1 billion dollars from MS after the OS/2-WIN settlement.   If IBM wanted to bring back OS/2 on Linux it could, however it won't be for Linux users. It will be all about profit and always will be about profit.

I started to write an article about WPS and Linux however, I think that it is a very long shot to see this happen. :(




Fahrvenugen

Quote from: sXwamp on 2010.04.13, 07:23:19
QuoteSound nice..but wait... WPS is not open source, Linux users will not use it.

It's all about branding, think Apple and FreeBSD or when Novell layered NetWare services atop Linux to create its Open Enterprise Server   =  OS/2 WPS (re-branded name) and Linux.   Who cares about Linux users - no profit, IBM would get an established operating system for free with an IBM branded name for big businesses. IBM received 1 billion dollars from MS after the OS/2-WIN settlement.   If IBM wanted to bring back OS/2 on Linux it could, however it won't be for Linux users. It will be all about profit and always will be about profit.

The thing is - it isn't as easy as suggested, mainly due to Linux being licensed under the GPL V2.  If IBM wanted to get the OS/2 api running under Linux, I'm sure from a technical standpoint it could be done.  But if IBM wanted to release a particular build of Linux that allowed for the OS/2 API to run on it, if there is any type of integration into the OS then they'd possibly be bound to release that code under the GPL.



chennecke

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2010.04.13, 04:59:11
^ It may be their plan, but do we know if they have actually gotten the companies on board, or is the large part of their clientbase end users?

I can tell you the following: So far 2009 has been the best year in sales to enterprise customers for Mensys. That's an official statement Mensys made in a letter to OS/2 and eCS customers sent out a few days ago.

warpcafe

Harhar,

...when I put 2 and 2 together, I can almost smell the presence of IBM scavengers here:
Would the following be a possible scenario?
- IBM didn't want to invest into OS/2 maintenance any longer so they stopped it
- Serenity/Mensys jumped on the train, invested into eCS
( -> now we have an OS/2 that installs on modern hardware (more or less, but anyway...) )
- and _NOW_ IBM sees the amount of corporate licenses sold
- All these companies that didn't want to move from OS/2 but simply needed a version to install on modern hardware...

Now, the big wakeup at Armonk happens:
- IBM gets aware that there are companies that need the "new OS/2" because they still RUN OS/2 but todays hardware is changed
- IBM suddenly realizes that they actually HAVE such a new OS/2 (thanks to Mensys and Serenity)
- Now IBM thinks "heck. We have something ready and there is demand... why not make money of it?"
-> IBM "takes back" eCS, maintenance is delivered by Serenity/Mensys
-> IBM sells the product (and support contracts) to corp users
-> Mensys/Serenity are generously allowed to serve the end-user market

Does that make sense?

In the long run, IBM could also simply wait until things have matured into a feasible replacement of the OS/2 kernel by L4 or Linux... and again sell this as the next OS/2 to companies who want to stay with OS/2 but need support for whatever will be hot then... Terabyte RAM and bootable whatever-latest-architecture storage devices... simply because:
- The get hardware support developed for free by the Linux community
- They can sell to their existing customer base (more or less for free...)
- They can stay in contact with corp customers and may be able to persuade them into new hardware and services
  (even if that leads to kill the OS/2 instances there... who cares, as long as there's a profit...)

Still, I have to agree that it would take the RIGHT people within IBM to walk the walk.
This means the RIGHT tech knowledge stakeholders, marketing people and above all this: The people who have the power to decide.
And frankly, I can imagine a trunkload of reasons why this would never happen. Funny enough though, I can also think of the possibility that the generation of people inside IBM has changed by now ...and that there are indeed reasons why it could happen.

What do you think?
Cheers, Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

lewhoo

While any OS/2 is better than no OS/2, thinking on OS/2 atop linux is a very sad thought. We than derive most of the problems of the system, which, in it's very base was never intended for an end-user, has an archaic kernel (although I am far from being specialist, this kernel seems to be much more archaic than old, OS/2 kernel) and is developed in means of walk-arounds instead of rewrites, where it seems necessary. I even don't want to mention problems with installing and maintaining software on linux, the mess with the file system structure etc., which, at least for me are superior on OS/2. For me, OS/2 is not only WPS, as some of people like to claim.