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Friday 25 January 2008, 12:39 PM
IBM nixes open source OS/2 - why?
I'm perplexed by this story, reported on VNUnet. Firstly, I'm stunned to discover that there are apparently still lots of people using OS/2, and secondly to find that IBM, which is otherwise very clued into the open source mindset, thinks it's a good idea to keep OS/2 proprietary.
OS/2 was IBM's attempt to create a rival to Windows in the 1990s. In today's language we'd say it forked the code, turning a joint development with Microsoft into an attempt to compete - while Microsoft went ahead on a different route that became Windows version 3.
It failed, and we've all forgotten about OS/2, but apparently it still has lots of users, even though IBM stopped supporting it in 2006. The OS/2 comunity site OS/2 World delivered an 11,000-signatiory petition asking IBM to do the decent thing and turn the code over to them, to become open source.
IBM refused, for reasons that are a little vague: "for a variety of business, technical and legal reasons, we have decided to not pursue any OS/2 open source projects".
It could be greed - IBM says it can help migrate users onto other platforms (for money). But my bet is that there's still Microsoft code in there, and it simply can't open source it. It might be possible to root out all the Microsoft code, but that would be expensive and risky, and vulnerable to legal blocking.
And, appafrently, a version of OS/2 is apparently still for sale - under the name eComstation - so that's another company that wouldn't like it going open source.
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PreviousComments on this post
I wonder what OS/2 is still being used for, and if that might have something to do with IBM's reluctance to open-source the code? Perhaps they are afraid of revealing potential security holes? I think it might be surprising to see some of the places OS/2 is still used.
A few years ago, here in Switzerland, I went to a Bancomat (ATM), put in my card, and it promptly crashed right in front of my eyes! After a few seconds of a blue screen (goodness, you never know where you are going to see a BSOD any more!), I saw "OS/2 Warp booting..."
Yep, the story goes that there's a lot of OS/2 in banks. The one that's often named is HSBC.
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