OS/2 Warp 4.5

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

Is it possible to install OS/2 Warp 4.5 or is it only for IBM's proprietary hardware? I would like to install this on a laptop at home. (I'm not sure if this is the right category, sorry)

COLGeek · Feb 17, 2015

OS/2 Warp will run an non-IBM PCs. I used it many years ago. It is not going to play well with more modern hardware (no driver support) though.

You might want to look here if you decide to give it a try:

http://www.elstel.org/OS2Warp/InstallUpdate.html

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

COLGeek :

Ah thats what i though, it being proprietary.

COLGeek · Feb 17, 2015

It was (is) a neat OS, but it was not well supported. Applications were sparse and rather expensive compared to their Windows counterparts. Hardware support was a problem, even when Warp was "new".

Neat science project now, not terribly useful otherwise.

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

COLGeek :

Well... Do you know of any place I can just buy a compatible PC (fully built and working) or will i have to buy the parts separately and build one myself?

ex_bubblehead · Feb 17, 2015

Better off installing it in a VM. VirtualBox seems to have the best OS/2 support.

COLGeek · Feb 17, 2015

ex_bubblehead :

This is the best course of action. BTW, why do you want to install OS/2? Do you have a specific need? Or, is this just a project?

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

COLGeek :

Just a project. See, I really like old OS' and PCs and i like to get familiar with how to use/install the older OS' so then if i get an old PC I can install something newer/older that what was originally on it.

COLGeek · Feb 17, 2015

I ran on an old AMD K5 series GPU, with maybe 1GB of memory, a 512MB HDD, and I think an ATI Rage variant GPU. By today's standards, my phone would run circles around it.

You can certainly find old PCs on sites like Craigslist, often for free.

Solandri · Feb 17, 2015

Interesting bit of trivia. OS/2 brought pre-emtive multitasking to the PC in the 1990s (late 1980s if you used the earlier not-so-good versions). The OS schedules which apps got to use the CPU and for how long. When one app's time was up, it would take the CPU away and give it to the next app. This is the x86 protected mode you may have read about.

DOS was single-tasking. Whatever program was running got full control fo the CPU.

Windows and the Mac used cooperative multitasking - the OS would hand over control of the CPU to an app, and ask it to please be nice and give me back then CPU when you're done so I can give it to another app. If the app crashed while it had control of the CPU, it would never give back control and the entire OS would freeze (this is what gave Windows 3.x and Windows 9x its reputation for being prone to crashing - any program or driver crash became an OS crash).

Windows didn't get pre-emptive multitasking until NT, which went mainstream as Windows 2000. The Mac didn't get it until a couple years later in OS X. So OS/2 was a decade ahead of its time on desktop platforms. (Unix was designed from the get-go to be multi-user, so used pre-emptive multitasking in the 1970s.)

COLGeek · Feb 17, 2015

Solandri :

Interesting bit of trivia. OS/2 brought pre-emtive multitasking to the PC in the 1990s (late 1980s if you used the earlier not-so-good versions). The OS schedules which apps got to use the CPU and for how long. When one app's time was up, it would take the CPU away and give it to the next app. This is the x86 protected mode you may have read about.

DOS was single-tasking. Whatever program was running got full control fo the CPU.

Windows and the Mac used cooperative multitasking - the OS would hand over control of the CPU to an app, and ask it to please be nice and give me back then CPU when you're done so I can give it to another app. If the app crashed while it had control of the CPU, it would never give back control and the entire OS would freeze (this is what gave Windows 3.x and Windows 9x its reputation for being prone to crashing - any program or driver crash became an OS crash).

Windows didn't get pre-emptive multitasking until NT, which went mainstream as Windows 2000. The Mac didn't get it until a couple years later in OS X. So OS/2 was a decade ahead of its time on desktop platforms. (Unix was designed from the get-go to be multi-user, so used pre-emptive multitasking in the 1970s.)

Good info. This was a major part of the reason I ran OS/2 back in the day. It was very stable once set up, but the lack of compatible apps really hobbled my use of it. I found myself going back to Windows for most things.

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

Is there any possible way to just be able to write the two (or how ever many) boot disks to floppies and put them in my desktop at home then to insert the disk and install it from there?

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

COLGeek :

Solandri :

Good info. This was a major part of the reason I ran OS/2 back in the day. It was very stable once set up, but the lack of compatible apps really hobbled my use of it. I found myself going back to Windows for most things.

What about this : http://www.ecomstation.com/index.phtml

COLGeek · Feb 17, 2015

What are the specs for the system you want to install OS/2 on?

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

COLGeek :

CPU : i7-3770K
RAM : 16GB 2133 mHZ DDR3
MOTHERBOARD: EVGA P67-SLI (yes i know it is old

)
HDD: 500GB partitioned into 4 125GB partitions
GPU : nvidia 750Ti

ex_bubblehead · Feb 17, 2015

^
2 things:

1. OS/2 won't use more than 1 of those 4 cores. There was an SMP version but it didn't last beyond Warp 3.
2. You won't find drivers for that GPU, it's far too current.

You're much better off installing a more current OS on that hardware and then using VirtualBox to run OS/2. Runs quite well there.

rainbowcrash64 · Feb 17, 2015

ex_bubblehead :

ok, this is completely off topic, but, is there any way i could run W2K, (i loved that OS), with sound and driver support? or is it also to old

ex_bubblehead · Feb 18, 2015

Not on the bare iron, no drivers. In a VM, yes.

OS/2 Warp 4.5

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