Monday, November 19, 2007

OS/2



OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as the preferred operating system for IBM's "Personal System/2 (PS/2)" line of second-generation Personal Computers. OS/2 is no longer marketed by IBM, and IBM standard support for OS/2 was discontinued on December 31, 2006.[1] Currently, Serenity Systems sells OS/2 under the brand name eComStation.
OS/2 was intended as a
protected mode successor of MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. Notably, basic system calls were modeled after MS-DOS calls; their names even started with "Dos" and it was possible to create "Family Mode" applications: text mode applications that could work on both systems.[2] Because of this heritage, OS/2 is like Windows in many ways, but it also shares similarities with Unix and Xenix.
OS/2 is also remembered for being the first major operating system to have its own
advocacy group. Team OS/2 was a grassroots, ad-hoc organization of volunteers, who promoted and supported the operating system and applications designed for it.

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