OS/2 Research Outline

This is a set of wiki pages dedicated to researching the rise and fall of OS/2, with the intent on creating a larger record of the 16-bit and early 32-bit era of IBM's ill fated operating system, with stream ideas, research notes, discussion and more.

This is an effort to fundamental answer is to document the reasons as to why despite IBM's best efforts, OS/2 failed in the marketplace in favor of Windows 3.0, an operating system that is technically inferior in almost all regards.

Goals Of This Project

The fundamental goal of this project is to create a pretty definitive guide to the early history of OS/2, including showing how it worked, functioned, and more as a primary source, and should interest remain, the creation of multiple realtime videos and/or documentaries to document one of the more pivotal moments of the late 1980s, and early 1990s.

This wiki page should use citations for all major facts and statements, as they will be cited in any video. It's expected that each top level section will become its own "realtime video" at some point.

Overview of the 16-bit Era of OS/2

Because the level of general knowledge of OS/2 is so low, a basic understanding has to be established about the 16-bit era needs to be established. The closest thing to a canonical document on this era exists at the OS/2 Museum, but setting up usable and working systems with native apps is essential ...

Later OS/2 Era Stuff Worth Researching

• OS/2 on PowerPC
• Embedded OS/2 such as on the New York City Subway
• eCommStation and AcraOS