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Re: IBM Pressured to Open-Source OS/2

On Dec 8, 8:13 pm, flatfish <flatf...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:00:45 +0000, Roy Schestowitz
>
> <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >Should IBM's OS/2 Be Open-Sourced?
>
> err.....
> One minor problem.
> Microsoft *owns* some of it, code, HPFS for one and somehow I don't
> think they are going to like this idea.

That is one of the big questions.  I haven't seen the actual agreement
between IBM and Microsoft, I just got the glop of compiled code that
Microsoft gave to Boca Raton.  I'd work for about 3 hours, OS/2 would
crash, and I'd spend 3 hours reinstalling OS/2 2.0 using about 30
floppy disks.  It was painful.

I'm not sure exactly what Microsoft "Gave" to IBM, and what they
"Licensed" to IBM.  IBM supposedly "Owned" all of the OS/2 code.  Not
sure if that included HPFS or not.

> IBM for example has had a tool/utility to convert NTFS/FAT to HPFS and
> back again, old news now, but back in the days of Microsoft pulling
> out of the OS/2 project, for NT, they, Microsoft would not let IBM
> release the tool.

IBM had another tool for converting FAT to HPFS.  NTFS has always been
Microsoft's baby.  I think the only reliable licensee of NTFS other
than Microsoft is Partition Magic.  Even today, most Linux
distributors don't license the NTFS write capability because the OSS
version doesn't include code that reliably locates and updates all of
the NTFS mapping tables.  There is appearantly a licensed Microsoft
NTFS driver that is available through a third party (CrossOver?), but
I haven't ever reliably used that.

> It got leaked but of course those were sneaker net days so it was not
> widespread like it would be today.
>
> Some IBM zSeries machines use OS/2 for their System Support Element
> and Hardware Management Consoles.

That is more like a PC on a laptop that is used as a console.  I've
used that.
There is also a Linux version available now.

> Some IBM tape libraries use OS/2 for their Library Manager consoles.
Yep.  Most of those are pretty old.  The latest round of Tape Library
managers
uses either AIX on P-Series or Red Hat Linux.

> Some IBM check sorting machines still use OS/2 for their consoles.
Yep.  Those are some really old technologies that no one wants to mess
with.


Here is the "official" status of OS/2 today
http://www.ibm.com/software/os/warp/
<quote>
 	End of Standard Support for both products is December 31, 2006

 	Support beyond December 31, 2006, will be available for a fee via
Service Extensions or Total Content Ownership offerings
</quote>

According to:
http://www.ibm.com/software/os/warp/migration.html

OS/2 has pretty much been replaced with WebSphere, Java, and Linux.
<quote>
There are no replacement products from IBM. IBM suggests that OS/2
customers consider Linux as an alternative operating system for OS/2
client and server environments.
</quote>

> IBM has been moving these off of OS/2 and current production models
> run either Windows or Redhat Linux.

According to the URL above, the official reccomendation is to switch
to Linux (not Windows).

> That being said, IBM is not going to release OS/2 open source for a
> while.

Most of the OS/2 APIs are supported by Linux.  Most of the OS/2
applications written for OS/2 since Warp 3.0 were written in Java and
are supported by Linux.  IBM offers 3270 and 5250 emulation for Linux,
as well as MQSeries for Linux.  And as suggested above, IBM reccomends
WebSphere for Linux, which has pretty much all of the needed features
including HATS, and other "Host Services" integration functionality
available.

In addition, IBM offers Linux on Z/Series for about $500 per server.
This integrates with Hyper Channel, and can be used as a console
interface in conjunction with a Linux PC or other X11R6 compatible
console device.


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