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What is OS/2?

OS/2 Operating System:

OS/2 is a joint project of IBM and Microsoft. OS/2 is the successor of PC-DOS and designed for Intel 286 processor but version 1.x never really caught on except in a few specialized applications.

History of OS/2:

OS/2 is the family of operating system released in the year of 1987. It is joint venture between IBM and Microsoft companies. They release first version as a joint project in the market. At that time DOS is occupying the market ad released version 3.x both companies and advent with Intel 80286 I the year 1980 to start OS/2. With version 2.0 IBM alone can do it and Microsoft dropped out of the OS/2 partnership. IBM promoted OS/2 as a 32-bit operating system requiring 386 or better CPU. Microsoft gives its support up to version 1.3 after that IBM worked on new graphical Interface that was due for later versions. IBM developed OS/2 kernel from the ground up as the personal computer version of mainframe operating system with all of the time-slicing, stability and other features previously existing solely on those high end machines.

OS/2 configuration is not changed up to OS/2 to 3.0. the new version is Merlin it is version 4.0. OS/2 is a multitasking single user OS for 386SX and better and better CPU’s with 4GB ram or more. It is more like DOS because it has CONFIG.SYS file and command line interface also used.

In November 1994, OS/2 wrap 3.0 was released. It was the first PC operating system to have built in Internet support. At the time OS/2 critics said that internet support was just “more geek crap” but today every major operating system ships with built in internet support. The TCP/IP and NetBios.

OS/2 Warp 4.0 which is named as Merlin in August 1996, it was released with beautified Graphical user interface. These widget were designed by an ex-apple programmer. This supports OpenGL support, Open Doc support and full java development kit which included a java virtual machine.

OS/2 Warp 4.5 named as Aurora released in 1999, as a server release. It featured a bootable install CD, a new 32-bit TCP/IP stack a journaling file system and a logical volume manager. Convenience Pak 2 was released as version 4.52 in the year 2002. Around the same time as the convenience Pak, a company called Serenity Systems announced that they were licensing OS/2, and would be reselling it as eComstation. IBM has been winding down its support for OS/2, with 2006 being listed as the end of service.

Features of OS/2:

OS/2 can support multitasking. All OS’s are classified according to how they run multiple programs. It acquires some features from MS-DOS. OS’s can only run a single program at once but OS/2 is supporting multitasking.

OS/2 is also supports multi threading but involves only a single program. In an OS which allows multi threading a single program can create multiple threads” of execution. It improves the performance of the CPU and responsiveness.

File system shows a lot of impact for an efficient OS. OS/2 can use FAT, it includes the optional HPFS file system, which offers long file names. DOS and Windows programs can run on HPFS partitions from OS/2, suffer with file name conventions.

OS/2 is supports full networking features; these will be available from the release of OS/2 Warp 3.0.

Voice recognition is the most important feature available in OS/2. New technologies are used to accomplish this task.

 

 

 

 

 

About Santosh Kumar Gadagamma

I'm Santosh Gadagamma, an Experienced Software Engineer passionate about sharing knowledge in technologies like Java, C/C++, DBMS/RDBMS, Bootstrap, Big Data, Javascript, Android, Spring, Hibernate, Struts, and all levels of software design, development, deployment, and maintenance. I believe computers are essential for the world's functioning, and I'm committed to helping others learn the skills they need to succeed in tech. My website is a valuable learning tool to help you reach greater heights in your education and career, and I believe that education has no end points.

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