LOL Yup, I equipped my HX-1000 with a 1200 baud modem, and nearly had a stroke after spending a week after work on CompuServe and receiving the phone bill. BBS's were cool but there was only one in my local calling area... I actually purchased RYBBS software and set up my own BBS for a while, complete with rudimentary games within the "doors". Wildcat was too complex for my needs.
Really great times. I never forget when we (a friend and me) were online the first time. We connected with an acoustic coupler where you put in the handset It failed many times. We’ve had a list with phone numbers of such bulletin boards. Then suddenly it connected. A quick moving cursor ‘draw’ the page. Black background white letters, we were online…and we forgot the time…..I don’t know how long we were online, but the phone bill of my friend’s parents had been more than 500 Mark (Western Germany Deutsche Mark). My pocket money I’ve got from my parents that time was around 40 Mark per month. I started with a ZX spectrum. Then C-64, Amiga…..then my first ‘PC’. An Intel Pentium 90 MHz. This one was the most expensive PC I have ever bought. And the performance/price ratio the worst. I almost cried when I noticed that Commodore died and later there has been the retarding Intel / M$ monopolistic alliance. I started to program BASIC then assembly on the C-64. My first BASIC program could calculate the depth from time a stone needs until you hear the sound of impact. We had a cracking-crew. It was cool to create ‘intros’ made from stolen parts of games. My ‘job’ had been first to make games run as one part exe games by dumping RAM. Then we always put our intro in front of such games and shared them on the schoolyard. This later I used to remove the copy protections. We had self-made stickers we gave away on the schoolyard. We had own yellow 5.25 ‘’ floppies with those stickers and our stuff on them. I dunno where they are and if they still exist, but I would like to watch our intros again on a c-64….. IBM based PCs had no chance for scientific use first time. They were too weak. We got ALPHA RISK CPUs running UNIX. The first X86 connected to a scientific device was the mentioned I486, but without windows. I wanted to do something ‘with PCs’, but my affinity to organic Chemistry was stronger. All PC related stuff remained a hobby, except for scientific use. Finally I want to add. When familiar with history one has to recognize that M$ always fooled the people. Their dream wasn’t in fact to make a PC affordable for everyone as they always stated. People already had the chance to get devices which were far better than a X86 PC. (The 68 Motorola based devices, like Lisa from Apple, or the Macintosh, or Amiga). Real 'windows=multiple desktops' real multitasking, internal 32 bit CPU, many registers, orthogonal command set, branch caches/prediction, protected mode, pipelining/prefetch.... far superior to 8086 that time! M$ wanted to rule the PCs world, therefore they had to downgrade/unify it, they used always the same strategy. Flood the market with bundles which include something own. (for instance new hardware with PC-DOS which was not really own, though, lol) No matter if better or not. Tie people to them and create an imperialistic monopoly. Kill any better competitor. In fact the Intel/M$ monopoly prevented that the PCs became cheaper. M$ never had interest to offer PCs affordable for everyone, they WERE affordable already and were far better. They had interest that anybody runs their stuff, though.
OS/2: Blue Lion to be the next distro of the 28-year-old OS Arca Noae is developing a new full distribution of OS/2 that should ease the pain of upgrading or deploying the OS on modern hardware. The WarpStock convention — the annual gathering of users, developers, and enthusiasts of IBM OS/2 — was held in Wichita, KS on October 23 - 25, 2015. For an operating system whose principal development stopped in 1996, it may be surprising that the OS/2 community is vibrant enough to warrant a convention — and likely even more surprising that it has two, as WarpStock Europe will be held in Cologne, Germany in May 2016. This year's event, however, may well be the most consequential in several years, as it marks the return of OS/2. Blue Lion — The return of OS/2 Arca Noae, an organization run by veterans of the OS/2 ecosystem, obtained a license from IBM to sell a new distribution of that OS, which at present is codenamed Blue Lion. This new distribution will bundle Arca Noae's updated software package, which includes support for modern ACPI versions, USB 1.1 and 2.0, AHCI support needed for Serial ATA disks, the Panorama display driver, the Multimac driver suite for network cards (wireless support is forthcoming), and Uniaud, an ALSA-compatible sound driver. All of these are available now for existing OS/2 deployments, from Arca Noae, with discounts available for users who upgrade to Blue Lion. New features Features new to the Blue Lion distribution include a completely reworked installation process, which will allow for installation from USB drives. The developers are also researching network installation. Like modern installers for Windows or Linux distributions, it would include the ability to connect to the internet during installation to download the latest packages, ensuring that the system is completely up to date, out of the box. Work on correcting SMP support, among other features, is also planned. Release date When it comes to release dates, Lewis Rosenthal, the Managing Member of Arca Noae (and treasurer of WarpStock), was emphatic — though realistic — about the difficulty and workload involved in assembling a new OS distribution. Much of the work for modern device drivers is already done and presently available for purchase. A new installer and fixes for low-level issues that persist in OS/2 Warp 4.52 and e-Business Server will be merged into one product as Blue Lion. According to Rosenthal, Q3 2016 is as fast as humanly possible to reach general availability, while not being half baked. He is also quick to note that this is not vaporware — a sizable upfront investment has been made in this product, the programmers are experienced, and the demand is substantial enough that IBM signed the contracts. Alex Taylor, a Yokohama-based developer for Arca Noae who gave a presentation via Skype at WarpStock, stated in an email that: "We've found that not only are there a surprising number of such customers, but they also want us to make it as smooth and painless as possible for them to keep using, maintaining, and even deploying OS/2 systems. We already provide basic hardware support through our driver offerings; if we can provide them with top to bottom support starting right from operating system installation, it should make things simpler and more cost-effective for all parties. What's more, developing Blue Lion better positions us to address any special requirements of hardware, software, or infrastructure for our customers." A brief history of OS/2 For the uninitiated, the Wikipedia article on OS/2 may be of service, though in short: OS/2 started in 1985 as a joint project of IBM and Microsoft. This partnership was later severed, leaving IBM to develop OS/2, and Microsoft effectively forking the codebase, adding the Windows API, and releasing it as Windows NT in 1993. IBM continued with the project, where it achieved success in enterprises already deploying IBM hardware — the phrase "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" comes to mind — where active development continued until 1996, with the release of Warp 4. Because of IBM's relationship with enterprise customers, OS/2 support and fixes continued long thereafter — IBM still supports the OS, though the company encourages migrating away. As a result of IBM's near-ubiquitous success with enterprise in the early 1990s, OS/2 remains a firmly ingrained part of the IT ecosystem for a variety of large corporations, such as Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and Whirlpool, as well as inside government organizations, like the Kansas Turnpike Authority — members of which were in attendance at WarpStock. In a February 2013 TechRepublic article, Matt Nawrocki previewed eComStation 2.2, which was anticipated to be the newest release of the continuation of OS/2 started in 2000 sold by Serenity Systems and developed by Mensys BV, who took over distribution in 2008. Due to management issues at Mensys, eComStation 2.2 never reached general availability, and the rights to eComStation were sold to XEU, which has been unable to ship a final version of eComStation 2.2. It is possible that XEU could ship a final release of eComStation 2.2 before Arca Noae is ready for release — if so, 2016 could see the existence of two separate OS/2 distributions 20 years after IBM announced the end of the platform. Source: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/os2-blue-lion-to-be-the-next-distro-of-the-28-year-old-os/
Thank you for all your postings telling stories from the past. Keep up the good spirit A movie I've watched yesterday... the quality itself of course isn't exactly HD, but it adds up to the atmosphere and the message it transports. If you have two hours of free time, lean back and watch: Also an interesting read: www.zdnet.com/article/os2-turns-25/ The dirt below the surface... a well known motive. Looking forward to OS2 Blue Lion - this might be a system to test and buy. Let's see what 2016 brings. I'd love to see M$ losing a big market share to this new OS, like a late recoil http://www.arcanoae.com/blue-lion-go/
what lion? lion? the name alone smells to high heaven of apple... and of marketing..the last thing we need now is another closed source distro..with another company behind it!
An old joke about an old operating system... Windows XP - 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that can't stand 1 bit of competition.
In that particular case you need to reconsider: -OS/2 warp is not 'another' new closed source OS. It played a minor role as eComStation all the time...and there were times when it was better than windows already. -Competition is the best for development/innovation -We have seen what happens when an US imperialist such as Google (ab)uses 'open' source... IMHO the issue is because they are capitalistic companies ALL from one country. I'd have no problem with additional closed source OS generally IF they come from the EU or from somewhere else but US.
i cannnot agree, sorry. the trouble is that all commercial companies are out to make a profit, regardless of where they reside.. and they will shamelessly phone home to get our data. we have a choice; to stay away from them. and i think we should. so i will shun this tame commercial lion. it rang nasty apple bells. the naming.... i do not mind to pay for an os.. but i mind paying nasty commercial companies..
I know, nodnar. As long as there are people involved who cannot recognize when to make profit becomes unhealthy, it actually doesn't matter where the company is situated nor if open or closed source. Once we had the command prompt at DOS. It asked for commands, the job of an OperatingSystem Now we are prompted by a huge virtual platform/store ermmm..... I mean modern GUI what we would like to 'have' according to our collected 'needs'.... ...I am curious how this is going on... Anyway there is a law. The more products (competitors) the less profit one alone can make. To support minor brands/products away from mainstream products....
On a second thought it's not amazing at all... many companies are still running OS/2 ... http://gizmodo.com/5898623/ibms-failed-os2-is-25-years-oldbut-it-still-powers-atms-and-checkouts Niche? Mostly, ses - but what other OS is so widely used 25 years later?
Hody, Ancestor. I work with OS/2 long tine ... nice OS. @but what other OS is so widely used 25 years later? : Windows 3.1 on Sys "DECOR" (Aéroports de Paris, ADP) Paris-Orly since 1992 --> 2021 Référence: h ttp://ww w. lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2015/11/11/une-panne-informatique-a-l-aeroport-d-orly-liee-a-windows-3-1_4807479_4408996.html h ttp:// lecanardenchaine.fr
I worked for the HP Printer division from 1983 to 2008. In about 1991, our engineering department was using 80286/12Mhz or 80386/16Mhz PC's for typical desktop use. They used Ms-Dos operating systems, Windows was just coming out. They had 40mb hard disks and 1mb or 2mb of ram, that's mega-byte not giga-byte. For our department "lab", management bought a single 80486/25Mhz (with a separate optional "math coprocessor") Vectra tower system with 4mb or 8mb ram and 120mb hard disk. Video VGA. The HP list price for that "workstation" in 1991 was $15,000. Ouch! About the same time, 1990 or 1991, one of the engineers thought he was going to buy the "ultimate" home system. He ordered an 80386/16Mhz HP Vectra PC with 2mb ram and 40mb hard disk. Video VGA. It had 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch floppy drives. PC cd's were still a couple of years away. He paid, with employee discount, $3,400 for that system. A couple of years later the price for such a system was in the hundreds, not thousands. Ouch!!! The prices have sure come down since then.
Scary? Not really... newer systems aren't necessarily better. They still can crash and whatnot. And I tend to lay more trust into a system that has been working for 25 years than into never systems... like Windows 10? Yeah... but we're moving towards off topic, clearly... Anyone else using "antique" systems on a VM on a modern machine?
You can find them very easy, just use a search engine. I've found AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition in a few seconds...
There's been MO drives before CD-writer, I still have a working one. Same happened to me, enormous price decline...after 2 years.... In the 90s the price for RAM went down, but ~94 (AFAIK there's been an accident at major ram manufacturer) it suddenly went up again. My first PC (Pentium 90 MHz) was around 5000€. 1 Megabyte RAM ~50€. I spent money for a 2 GB HDD.....that had been a very huge amount of storage that time. I guess most of the members cannot imagine how it had been 80s-mid of 90s....it was very exciting, nothing 'unified'. I drilled through the case of my c-64 to place a switch where you can change the rom (the entire OS had been on ROM, there is actually no boot-time). The layout of the board was from a magazine, the additional ROM chip I got from my TV shop...you had to 'burn' the ROM onto the chip... Later at the Amiga I had attached 4 switches/poti/boards. Better sound, a switch for another kick start ROM, RAM expansion, a potentiometer to throttle the CPU clock live, a A/D converter. All one could find at magazines to read and make oneself. There were great moments with a lot of joy and enthusiasm...great feelings. The first primitive game 'self' programmed, the first BASIC program, the first assembly program, first intro via jumping marquee, my first self made 'virus' just for fun, countless of sleepless nights, first time online at all.... Then the boring M$/Intel unification....all challenges were OS (windows) related....a long time. What I enjoy today is that we have now again a greater variety of devices and consumer systems where you can tinker on the soft/OS side. We've MIPS, ARM, SoCs....it seems it's getting better again. We need variety and running those old OSes on VM is like a reminder. But nowadays most users seem to have degenerated to 'application zombies' gazing on their phone while walking through the streets......no real interest what's under the hood, following an artificial hype created by clever marketing people who promise that if you buy their stuff you can be/get more of yourself by doing so. @ancestor(v) sorry for OT, but I am revelling on old times....