IBM celebrates OS / 2’s 25th anniversary

On April 2, 1987, IBM, after holding a double press conference for journalists, announced its plans to give a new start to the personal computer market, surpassing its own result six years ago. Then four new computer models were presented, including the $ 11,000 model, which was seven times faster than its competitors. In addition to 32-bit processors, IBM offered consumers 3.5 ″ inch drives and CD-ROMs.

The OS / 2 operating system, designed, according to IBM top management, “to oust DOS from personal computers” was to manage this magnificence.

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It looked like OS / 2 v.1

Technically, the first version released by OS / 2 could boast of multitasking mode, using the hardware of the 80286 and 80386 processors, with the maximum possible memory size of 32 MB. At the same time, despite the fact that as early as 1983 in the computer Lisa little known then Apple Computer, a mouse was used, OS / 2 did not support this feature.

In 1991, Bill Gates’s plans changed (probably, Windows 3.0 released in 1990 played a significant role in this, with more copies sold during the first month of selling than OS / 2 for three years) - Steve Ballmer called OS / 2 dead end ", which, however, did not stop, Microsoft put its version of the system into the basis of the future Windows NT. IBM itself gave the development of its version, apparently, is not of paramount attention.

IBM provided OS / 2 support until December 31, 2006.

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