Preview version of Microsoft OS/2 2.0 surfaces on eBay • The Register

2024-02-20 05:22:25

A model of OS/2 2.0 from Microsoft, not IBM, simply surfaced on eBay. This pre-release model got here out after Home windows 3.0.

How a lot would possibly you be keen to pay to personal a bit of working system historical past? Would you pay two-thirds of a grand? No, us neither, however thankfully for posterity, Reg reader Brian Ledbetter is. He wrote to inform us that he purchased the ULTRA RARE: IBM / Microsoft OS/2 SDK Version 2 Pre-Release 2 for v1 Users [Beta] for a non-trivial 600 and fifty of your U.S. {dollars}.

The unique Microsoft OS/2 1 SDK was a snip at just $3,000, however you possibly can grab a copy totally free from the Web Archive. Microsoft’s press launch for the primary preview launch, up to now misplaced to historical past, is dated December 29, 1989, and says:

This implies Mr Ledbetter received it for a tune – simply one-quarter of its unique checklist value.

We additionally loved this element:

Microsoft co-developed OS/2 with IBM, however it solely offered the 80286-specific OS/2 1 below its personal branding. Because the Reg covered in depth again when OS/2 turned 25, when OS/2 1 failed to alter the world, Microsoft pivoted, revamped the equally lackluster Home windows 2 to create the best-selling Home windows 3, and moved on… and onwards and upwards.

Nevertheless, Microsoft did do some improvement work on the 32-bit OS/2 2.0 earlier than the divorce. A model of the official Microsoft 32-bit OS/2 Software program Growth Package was discovered a couple of decade in the past, and Virtually Fun received it working and shared some screenshots of a 32-bit Microsoft C compiler from a couple of 12 months earlier than the primary preview launch of Home windows NT. As they stated then:

Eager software program archeologists did know concerning the existence of Microsoft OS/2 2.0. It was covered in PC Mag in 1990, from which Just about Enjoyable sourced the only known screenshot. Nicely, lastly, it seems to be like a duplicate of that working system confirmed up.

OS/2 2.0 was meant to seem again in 1990, however Home windows 3.0 shipped in May that year and was an enormous hit, selling 10 million copies. Microsoft pulled out of the partnership, forcing IBM to go it alone and delaying the discharge of IBM OS/2 2.0 till 1992 – critically, after Microsoft had achieved market- (and mind-) share.

A number of beta variations of IBM OS/2 2 have been discovered and archived, and the OS/2 Museum has detailed experiences on the Spring ’91 Edition, the Summer ’91 Edition and the Xmas ’91 Edition. The oldest of those nonetheless has an OS/2 1.3-style “Desktop Supervisor” slightly than the snazzy new Office Shell.