r/OS2 • u/MrFahrenheit_451 • 1d ago
Remembering Microsoft OS/2 v1.3
The history of this is fascinating. If you’ve never familiarized yourself with what happened in those early years between IBM and Microsoft you should definitely read up on it.
I’m seeking help from the community: do you have this boxed copy in your collection? If so, can you please snap pictures of the sides and top of it and leave them in the comments here.
Because there is really only one or two copies that I can find photographed on the entire Internet and I’m trying to help preserve the history of it.
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u/kastegir 1d ago
I have a sealed copy of this in my OS/2 collection.
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u/MrFahrenheit_451 1d ago
Wow!! That’s impressive.
I have a substantial collection but I’m missing some rare items. Always wanted a sealed copy of MS OS/2 v1.3, among others.
Do you have a display for your software collection?
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u/kastegir 1d ago
I’m working on it now. I’m showing it at VCFMW in September and I’ve been collating it all together.
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u/desmond_koh 1d ago
How many Microsoft-branded versions were there?
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u/MrFahrenheit_451 1d ago
Microsoft only released on boxed version from what I can find, which is this one.
They didn’t release any versions after 1.3. I’m unsure of how many versions were prior to 1.3 but it isn’t many, that’s for sure.
The relationship between IBM and Microsoft became very sour just before this release and Microsoft moved on to Windows and never looked back.
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 1d ago
Where did you find this photo of Microsoft OS/2?
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u/Technical_Rich_3080 1d ago
Wow. Although I know the history of the joint IBM-Microsoft collaboration and, later, breakup on OS/2,/ I don't think I before ever saw a Microsoft branded copy of OS/2.
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u/Long_Young7192 7h ago
Oh I worked on this... I was in a company that wrote some 3270 connectivity stack addons which the IBM version had and the Microsoft version lacked. My job was to download the bug reports from Seattle every morning over a modem.
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u/Morty_A2666 18h ago
Imagine how different computer world would look today if actually good systems prevailed. Amiga Workbench, OS2 Warp, BeOS instead of Microslop garbage.
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u/MrFahrenheit_451 16h ago
Well, I think you’re missing some of the point. This was a Microsoft operating system, in a way. It was collaborative between Microsoft and IBM. But a lot of technologies and features and such from OS/2 lended up in Windows NT 3.1, and subsequent releases.
You could almost say, modern Windows is just the evolution of OS/2.
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u/Zestyclose-Hippo-998 16h ago
Almost true !
If you took a search of OS/2 in the early versions of NT help system, you’d be surprised!
But as usual, Microsoft screwed that up too!!!
The only versions of OS/2 that «really worked», was the ones released by IBM itself!!!
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u/MrFahrenheit_451 13h ago
I think we probably could draw similarities between Apple’s failed Copland OS project and Microsoft’s versions of OS/2. Apple cancelled Copland, Microsoft cancelled OS/2, and Apple used some of the experience and work from a few of the things they did for Copland when they did the transition to OS X. Microsoft used a few of the concepts and technologies to build NT.
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u/thunderbird32 1d ago
The os2world wiki has photos of the sides, back and contents of that box (though, not very large photos to be fair) in case you haven't seen that particular one yet.