![]() Posted in Retrocomputing Tagged ibm, new york, os/2, retrocomputing, subway Post navigation If you think OS/2 is the oldest tech running the subway system, you’d be wrong about that. If you want a look at modern OS/2 emulation, that does exist. Its failure to take hold wasn’t so much about the technology as it was about business decisions and the market conditions of the day. ![]() While OS/2 doesn’t get the same retrocomputer love as some other operating systems, it was actually ahead of its time. In 2006, IBM discontinued the operating system and sold off OS/2 support to Serenity Systems and later acquired by Arca Noae. Some old ATM machines still use it and there are probably some other hold outs. It seems OS/2 isn’t just the subway system, either. We might have suggested QNX, as both operating systems were robust and used a microkernel architecture which had many advantages, especially when fighting hardware limitations. MSDOS was hardly suitable for any sort of reliable system, with a patchwork of hacks to get more memory, and multitasking including early versions of Windows which were little more than shells over MSDOS. Unix wasn’t very commercial, for the most part, and the commercial versions like Xenix and SCO were often encumbered with odd and changing licensing arrangements. However, you have to remember the operating system landscape back then. post covers just how the conversion to a card-based system pushed OS/2 underground all over the Big Apple, and it is an interesting read. OS/2 was completely eclipsed by other operating systems, notably Windows and - mostly - has sunk from the public view. Why not? It was robust and we used to always say “no one ever got fired for buying IBM.” Back in the 1990s the transit authority decided to adopt IBM’s new OS/2 operating system. A case in point is the New York City subway system. This is especially true if you are building something with a long life span. Next thing you know, that hot new part or piece of software is hard to get or unmaintained. One problem with building things using state-of-the-art techniques is that sometimes those that look like they will be “the next big thing” turn out to be dead ends.
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