offer - OS/2 for the PDP-11

[Chuck Guzis]

> Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 08:50:57 -0600
> From: "Michael B. Brutman" <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com>

> I'm confused about this whole thread.  I really thought that there was
> another entire OS/2 operating system (not from IBM) that people were
> talking about.

Sure--and OS X is the 10th version of that system. ;)

I'm thinking that there's probably some confusion over the labeling 
with this PDP-11 thingie, whatever it is.  There would be no good 
reason to produce an -11 version of OS/2 at the time as the platform 
was obsolete (or at least obsolescent).  My guess is that's someone's 
OS, but not IBM nor M$.  I used DOS on an S/360, but it doesn't 
resemble anything called "DOS" nowadays (there was also an S/360 TOS; 
Sytos called their product for the PC a "Tape Operating System", 
which I found to be very confusing, as it required DOS to run).

I do recall (more vividly than I care to, as it still makes my blood 
boil) one aspect of the  OS/2-NT charade.   Microsoft solicited and 
accepted pre-release subscriptions (about $3K each) from  OS/2 
developers for the "new" OS/2 that was going to be released Real Soon 
Now.  After they had everyone's money, M$ turned around and said that 
they weren't going to do OS/2, but rather Something Better and that 
they would be supplying that instead (NT 3.1).  IIRC, they nearly had 
a lynch mob headed toward Redmond screaming for BillG's corpse.  M$ 
did relent and refunded the advance payment to those who screamed 
loudest.  Doubtless, quite a number of people got stuck with a dog of 
an operating system that they didn't ask for an didn't want.   I 
don't think NT really caught on until about 3.51.

One thing that I had to hand IBM was that their developer's 
documentation was superb for OS/2.  The same could not be said for 
Windows 3.0.  I still have both on my bookshelf.  In those pre-CD 
days, you could estimate the quality of the documentation simply by 
putting the boxes of developer's material on the bathroom scale.

I don't know about Vista, but 2K and XP still host the OS/2 subsystem 
as well as HPFS.  I've got a couple of 16-bit OS/2 applications that 
I still use on 2K.

Cheers,
Chuck