I Dare Admit it.. I still miss OS/2...
I still miss OS/2.
Many years ago, in a far gone world of IT, there once was a Goliath known as IBM. In those days, say 30 years ago, the Goliath of the computer world had a dominant position in what was a growing computer market. That Goliath was known to visit antitrust courts and issues on a frequent basis. Whether is was supplying punch cards, only leasing computers, or finding creative markets to dominate IBM was the Goliath of the early computer industry. Along with these products was the venerable and reliable typewriters that IBM was well known for, and probably were at the heart of "nobody got fired for buying IBM".
Then IBM, for whatever may be humorous or some kind of knee jerk reaction to a new market, launched the first PC. This machine created an opportunity by leveraging other's technology for a new open market. In this era of early Intel processors, Microsoft operating systems, and even Lotus 123 spawned a new dawn of accessible and affordable computing becoming a reality for households and smaller companies as well. This response to new players and the "Personal Computing" open technology that was not all controlled in house by IBM opened the door for competition and clones of the technology spawning an era of growth, and what became known as Client Server Computing. Along with Compaq, some unusual clones showed up even from the likes of Exxon as everyone wanted to get a piece of the opportunity that this first phase of open computing spawned.
It also spawned the era of PC OS Wars between IBM and Microsoft which is the real reason for this odd post. IBM and Microsoft agreed to jointly develop an enterprise ready PC Operating System called OS/2. The idea was a multitasking operating system capable of leveraging new technology in silicon from the likes of Intel. It was also IBM taking seriously the business value of these machines that were sitting on desks around the world. Eventually, Microsoft launched Windows, and as this became a tense world between IBM and Microsoft IBM took over OS/2 and competed aggressively for many years but for a variety of reasons Windows ended up winning the day and OS/2 over time became non-strategic to IBM and then was removed from market. (IBM calls it end of life but I bet there is still OS/2 running in some ATM's around the world so it ain't over till its over.).
I have been using Windows now quite a while, and I type this on a computer running Windows 8.1. I also have used Macs in the past, and respect the ease and completeness of an Apple solution. But, I dare say, none of these still come close to doing one thing OS/2 did very well. That is truly multi-task while prioritizing the application that has user interest as a priority but assuring all other applications gain the processing they require to complete a task or maintain communications between the PC and another system or user.
Let me give you an example, this morning all I wanted to do was copy my documents folder to my Dropbox as a backup. Simple, I could have started the copy and walked away for about 30 minutes and except for clogging up a Comcast Internet connection, this would have happened without any issue. But, I actually wanted to get some work done, start the copying, and go surf the web or complete an email or marketing plan. The truth is Windows in 8.1 flavor puts the cycles behind that task of copying ahead of everything else and everything else is sluggish. This means I really can't multi-task in the end because the way Windows prioritized that task it made other tasks, in particular the one that has my attention, lower priority.
OS/2 more than 20 years ago, dare I say OS/2 1.3 even, would have given the copying process enough cycles to progress but at the same time know that what has my attention needed to be the priority and would have managed this so that I as a user accomplished both tasks without an issue. We are talking about systems with probably a tenth of the processing power or less and yet it still did a better job of truly multitasking than Windows and I dare assume Apple today. So, I know the world doesn't change or go back in time, but I still miss that trusty operating system that could just about keep a pc running around the clock and did!(dare I say at one time was the dominant OS for ATMs).
So I appreciate the progress we are making, but dare my gray hairs, sometimes I do miss the old days!
Many years ago, in a far gone world of IT, there once was a Goliath known as IBM. In those days, say 30 years ago, the Goliath of the computer world had a dominant position in what was a growing computer market. That Goliath was known to visit antitrust courts and issues on a frequent basis. Whether is was supplying punch cards, only leasing computers, or finding creative markets to dominate IBM was the Goliath of the early computer industry. Along with these products was the venerable and reliable typewriters that IBM was well known for, and probably were at the heart of "nobody got fired for buying IBM".
Then IBM, for whatever may be humorous or some kind of knee jerk reaction to a new market, launched the first PC. This machine created an opportunity by leveraging other's technology for a new open market. In this era of early Intel processors, Microsoft operating systems, and even Lotus 123 spawned a new dawn of accessible and affordable computing becoming a reality for households and smaller companies as well. This response to new players and the "Personal Computing" open technology that was not all controlled in house by IBM opened the door for competition and clones of the technology spawning an era of growth, and what became known as Client Server Computing. Along with Compaq, some unusual clones showed up even from the likes of Exxon as everyone wanted to get a piece of the opportunity that this first phase of open computing spawned.
It also spawned the era of PC OS Wars between IBM and Microsoft which is the real reason for this odd post. IBM and Microsoft agreed to jointly develop an enterprise ready PC Operating System called OS/2. The idea was a multitasking operating system capable of leveraging new technology in silicon from the likes of Intel. It was also IBM taking seriously the business value of these machines that were sitting on desks around the world. Eventually, Microsoft launched Windows, and as this became a tense world between IBM and Microsoft IBM took over OS/2 and competed aggressively for many years but for a variety of reasons Windows ended up winning the day and OS/2 over time became non-strategic to IBM and then was removed from market. (IBM calls it end of life but I bet there is still OS/2 running in some ATM's around the world so it ain't over till its over.).
I have been using Windows now quite a while, and I type this on a computer running Windows 8.1. I also have used Macs in the past, and respect the ease and completeness of an Apple solution. But, I dare say, none of these still come close to doing one thing OS/2 did very well. That is truly multi-task while prioritizing the application that has user interest as a priority but assuring all other applications gain the processing they require to complete a task or maintain communications between the PC and another system or user.
Let me give you an example, this morning all I wanted to do was copy my documents folder to my Dropbox as a backup. Simple, I could have started the copy and walked away for about 30 minutes and except for clogging up a Comcast Internet connection, this would have happened without any issue. But, I actually wanted to get some work done, start the copying, and go surf the web or complete an email or marketing plan. The truth is Windows in 8.1 flavor puts the cycles behind that task of copying ahead of everything else and everything else is sluggish. This means I really can't multi-task in the end because the way Windows prioritized that task it made other tasks, in particular the one that has my attention, lower priority.
OS/2 more than 20 years ago, dare I say OS/2 1.3 even, would have given the copying process enough cycles to progress but at the same time know that what has my attention needed to be the priority and would have managed this so that I as a user accomplished both tasks without an issue. We are talking about systems with probably a tenth of the processing power or less and yet it still did a better job of truly multitasking than Windows and I dare assume Apple today. So, I know the world doesn't change or go back in time, but I still miss that trusty operating system that could just about keep a pc running around the clock and did!(dare I say at one time was the dominant OS for ATMs).
So I appreciate the progress we are making, but dare my gray hairs, sometimes I do miss the old days!
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