OS/2
Jointly developed by Microsoft Corp. and IBM to operate with Intel Corp.'s microprocessors, OS/2 was originally a 16-bit
operating system that was designed to work with 286 processors and first introduced in 1987. OS/2
later became a a graphical interface similar to Windows but also supported a
command line. In fact, many OS/2 and DOS commands are the same. In 1992, a new 32-bit version was released to operate with 386 and above PCs and at this time was now solely an IBM product. Later in 1994, IBM released a version it called OS/2 Warp that included Internet access and additional features. At the same time Microsoft was working on OS/2 version 3.0; however, it later became Microsoft Windows NT.
OS/2 never became as popular as the other Microsoft operating systems, and software developers never created a substantial number of programs to run primarily under OS/2. Although some computer experts say later versions of OS/2 are superior to Windows, Windows and the number of products created for it still greatly outnumber OS/2 programs.
IBM officially announces on July 14, 2005 that all sales of OS/2 will end on December 23, 2005 and that all support from IBM for OS/2 will end on December 16, 2005.
Also see: Operating System definitions
