ArcaOS 5.1.2 (based on OS/2 Warp 4.52) now available(www.arcanoae.com)
44 pointsby speckx7 hours ago6 comments
  • rcleveng6 hours ago
    It's been super amazing to see how much they could continue to support newer hardware and keep it going considering that I don't believe they have the kernel source.

    It wasn't too long ago I saw OS/2 on some ATM machine that was crashed.

    I used to love OS/2 back when developing DOS applications (since I could crash the app and not the machine). OS/2 got me interested in "real OS's" and then SunOS in college, etc.

    • kjs33 hours ago
      Up til 20 years ago there were a surprising number of ATMs still running OS/2; NCR and Diebold supported old machines for a long time. Especially small market/small regional banks wanted to get the absolute most out of their capex investment. Over the years, I've worked with a couple of those dead-enders on different GRC projects, mostly because I'd actually seen OS/2 before. AFAIK, those vendors stopped supporting OS/2 in the 2000s; I'd be very, very surprised if there were any left now.

      I you're interested in how a very "not Unix" operating system is architected, I really recommend Deitels' "Design of OS/2". Very interesting.

    • kwanbix6 hours ago
      I have heard that many times. Is it know why, if true?

      Seems to ve very weird that IBM will give them a license to keep OS/2 updated but no access to the kernel.

      • ch_1236 hours ago
        It's definitely true that they do not have access to the original OS/2 source - this has been confirmed by people from Arca Noae in various interviews/presentations I've seen. I've never heard a definitive explanation for why, but two reasons are usually speculated:

        1) Due to the amount of third party code in OS/2 (most notably, the DOS and Win 3.x layer) that IBM is unable to license out the code, or unwilling to go to the trouble to figure out the legal implications.

        2) IBM has lost some or all of the source code.

        • TheCondor5 hours ago
          You couldn't convince me that IBM lost it..

          The licensing would be my guess, Microsoft owned some of the code, there may have been other third party code in there too.

        • projektfu4 hours ago
          Did eComStation also lack access to the source? Weird.
          • ch_1233 hours ago
            As far as I know, yes. There were no changes made to eCS which required source - everything was implemented as drivers, or layers on top of the base OS.
  • sillywalk2 hours ago
    Ars Has a good / long article on the history of OS/2.

    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/11/half-...

  • natas5 hours ago
    ArcaOS is great in its own ways, it doesn't phone home, doesn't spy on your files, it's very stable, works on modern hardware, has a working browser, okay, it's not cutting edge, but it's fun and brings some of the joys of old-school computing back.
    • LargoLasskhyfv4 hours ago
      How does it do on 4k-screens? Does it even support the (i)GPUs which can power them?
  • vlod4 hours ago
    First thing I always look for is screenshots.

    https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/arcaos-screenshots/

  • koutakun7 hours ago
    Who is the target audience for this? I can't imagine that many modern applications support OS/2 the way that they support e.g. MorphOS, and $139 is a steep price for a borderline useless OS that doesn't have a community like the Amiga-derived OSes do.
    • nothinggoesaway7 hours ago
      I couldn’t argue with you, but here’s their answer. The arguments appeal explicitly to people “who remember when”:

      > Need more convincing? How about a commercial operating system which doesn’t spy on you, does not report your online activity to anyone, and gives you complete freedom to choose the applications you want to use, however you want to use them? How about an operating system which isn’t tied to any specific hardware manufacturer, allowing you to choose the platform which is right for you, and fits perfectly well in systems with less than 4GB of memory or even virtual machines?

      • nunobrito3 hours ago
        The doesn't spy on me is indeed a strong argument, considering we can't even properly trust linux distributions nowadays.
    • ch_1236 hours ago
      There are roughly three categories:

      1) There's a bunch of commercial software which only runs on OS/2. A lot of it was vertically integrated software either developed for a specific customer by IBM, or developed in an "IBM shop". The ticket machines for the New York subway were powered by OS/2 until relatively recently. There are also supposedly a bunch of banks which have OS/2 dependencies.

      2) There are still hardcore OS/2 fans who use OS/2 as their main OS. As you correctly assume, getting something like a modern web browser to run on OS/2 is a challenge, but some people grin and bear with it anyway.

      3) Strange people like me who run things like OS/2 on spare computers or VMs for the novelty value.

    • kwanbix6 hours ago
      I used to work for IBM and run some servers and my ThinkPad was running OS/2.

      Really nice OS. Which it was a more reasonable $50 for personal use.

  • fithisux5 hours ago
    They could have rebuilt it on top of osFree and have 64bit support.
    • BirAdam4 hours ago
      That would kill half the point.

      OS/2 is amazing as a 32bit pmode OS that can still run DOS and Win16 software while being far more stable than Windows (of the time).

    • koutakun5 hours ago
      And have an unstable base for the supposed commercial applications they sell to?