The History of OS/2
I have started using OS/2 in 1995 and was curious to find out what OS/2
looked like before that. There are already several web pages/sites dedicated
to the history of OS/2 but none of them quite satisfied me. So I started
digging on my own, reading old books and magazine articles, searching for
information on the Internet and last but not least managed to install most
of the previous versions of OS/2. The results of my efforts are presented
here.
The information is split into several sections. Most of this information
has been originally published in the OS/2 VOICE Newsletter, although these
pages contain several additions and corrections.
-
OS/2 1.0 - The Beginnings. How and why OS/2
was developed and what was before.
-
OS/2 1.1 and 1.2 - The Early Years. The
first versions of OS/2 with a GUI.
-
OS/2 1.3 - Ten Years Ago. The last and best
16-bit version of OS/2.
-
OS/2 EE - The Server. Enterprise software
in OS/2 1.x era.
-
OS/2 2.0 - The 32-bit Revolution. The first
32-bit version of OS/2.
-
OS/2 2.1 and 2.11 - The Solid Platform.
With 2.11 32-bit OS/2 reached maturity.
-
OS/2 Warp - The Golden Years. The most
successful version of OS/2.
The more important releases in OS/2 are summarized in this timeline.
I'm not sure if I will write anything about Warp 4 (or newer versions)
because they are still widely used, i.e. not really history. Maybe I will
if there's sufficient interest.
I would like to create another page on beta versions of OS/2 but I'd
like to get MS OS/2 2.0 beta from 1989 or 1990 first. If you know where
I could get a copy, please let me
know!
Here can be found a list of "exhibits"
in my little OS/2 museum. Descriptions only, no pictures yet - apart from
the screenhots in the above articles of course.