OS/2 Warp 4

(Any blogpost where I don't have to cover politics is a win in my books!)

OS/2 Warp 4 was a very noble endeavor. It was IBM's statement to the world to demonstrate there commitment to the OS/2 operating system. However, when it arrived in 1996, OS/2 Warp 4 was dead on arrival. A lot had happened between the launch of Warp 3 and Warp 4, with the biggest of them being the arrival of Windows 95. Microsoft, making the most of their OEM connections, started to lock OS/2 out of the OEM markets prior to the launch of Windows 95. With threats of either not receiving the latest Windows or paying much higher license fees, many OEM's relented to Microsoft's pressure. Warp 3 struggled against Windows 3.1 along with the soon-to-be-tidal wave that would be Windows 95. Not only that, Microsoft had a vendetta against Big Blue for previous acts. 

Lotus 123 For OS/2 Warp 4

Faced with accusations that Microsoft incorporated OS/2 source code into Windows 3.x which would have violated the joint agreement between MS and IBM, the Redmond Giant released the source code of both Windows 3.0 and 3.1 to IBM. Also, under pressure from Big Blue, Microsoft gave IBM the cheapest license fees of any OEM. It was reported that IBM was paying Microsoft only $10 per copy of Windows. 


Angered by this, Microsoft struck back at IBM by using the Windows 95 launch as punishment for continuing to support both OS/2 and the Lotus Smartsuite applications. Microsoft just knew that Windows 95 was going to be massive. Such, Microsoft could afford this power move as they knew that they didn't need IBM in order for Windows 95 to be a success. IBM didn't agree to Microsoft's conditions until 15 minutes prior to the Windows 95 launch. With such a short span, IBM didn't have any Windows 95 PC's at launch. Such heavyweights like Compaq, HP, Dell, and Packard Bell had new Windows 95 PC's at launch whereas IBM didn't. Not only that, Big Blue paid the highest license fees of any OEM.


IBM already poured a lot of resources into Warp 4. Such, it would have been a complete waste to bury it considering the work that had already been put into it. Its development started right before all the events between them and Microsoft transpired. IBM wanted to get something back for the work that they put into OS/2. It was also in IBM's best interest as well, as many Fortune 500 companies, especially banks, have invested into OS/2 in the IT sector. They would for a couple more years. Not to mention that there would be home users as well wanting to invest into Warp 4, like Warp 3 users who wanted to upgrade there PC's.


OS/2 Warp 4 is a very competent OS. All the technologies that defined OS/2 would continue to live up to their name. OS/2 was praised in tech circles for its powerful multitasking and multithreading capabilities. It was also a very stable OS. Warp 4 also introduced multimedia extensions in the form of DIVE and DART. Both technologies were essentially IBM's answer to Microsoft's DirectDraw and DirectSound. On Windows, the DirectDraw and DirectSound API allowed DOS developers to quickly port their games over to Windows. On OS/2 DIVE (The video API) and DART (The audio API) allowed for quick, low-latency access to both video and audio. Of course, in order to use these features, one had to use video and sound drivers that supported these features though. This is where I had issues.


On my 86Box configuration, I'm using an emulated S3 Trio 64 along with the Gravis Ultrasound. The updated S3 drivers for Warp 4 supported DIVE without issue. In theory, the Gravis Ultrasound drivers for OS/2 should have as well. However, DART support among multimedia applications was either a hit-or-miss (mostly miss). I didn't have audio support for the OS/2 port of Quake. However, basic sound through the MMPM/2 still worked without issue. 


Games

Speaking of games, this was where OS/2 really started to struggle against Windows. Microsoft was fully committed to making Windows a gaming platform. Microsoft had already taken over the business world, so the home market was next. One has to remember that at this point, DOS was still the gaming platform for PC gamers. Because of the graphical overhead introduced by the GUI, games generally suffered performance issues when running under the GUI's of either OS/2 or Windows in comparison to DOS. In the early 90's, with all the emphasis geared towards corporate users, there wasn't a heavy emphasis on PC gaming from either Microsoft or IBM. Besides, DOS games could directly access hardware, more than compensating for the general lack of support from the two giants. However, Doom dropped. Everybody wanted to be Doom Guy. With PC gaming at the forefront, Microsoft started a lot more of an effort to cater to PC gamers on the Windows platform. This was shown in the form of DirectDraw and DirectSound. IBM followed suit with DART and DIVE. However, because DOS/Windows had far more developers compared to OS/2, one can guess which API's got a lot more love. 


In fact, the Quake port of OS/2 was never supposed to be. Because of how busy id was, they were not interested in doing an OS/2 port of Quake, which would have been very niche with very little return of profit. There was a lot stronger demand for a Linux port of the game though. id subcontracted the Linux port out to an independent developer, CrackDotCom, where their internal development server got hacked, and the Quake source code got uploaded to there webserver, where their webpage was changed with download links for the source code copied. It was taken down quickly, but not before it was downloaded multiple times and quickly spread. This leaked source code formed the basis for the OS/2 port of Quake that was done by independent developers without id's blessing. However, in order to play OS/2 Quake, one still needed the game files from the DOS/Windows version. Such, one still needed to buy a copy of Quake in order to play OS/2 Quake. id Software was still making bank from OS/2 users even though they never did an official release of Quake for OS/2. At the end of the day, who can complain though. Well, I still can as there is no sound support for Quake using the Gravis Ultrasound.



I was running Quake for OS/2 on an older version of PCEM running Warp 4. The setup was equipped with a S3 Trio 64 and Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16. The game was able to execute without issue. However, Quake wasn't able to play satisfactory in any screen resolution above 360 by 240. This would have been an issue on both 86Box and PCEM, and people who played the game on real hardware back in the day. Quake was a very demanding game for its time. In order for one to have played the game in a satisfying manner at 640 by 480, one would have needed a PC with a Pentium 1 running at 166MHz or higher. The Pentium II processors were just right around the corner, but would have been ultra expensive at launch. Most recent PC owners had computers equipped with Pentium Processors in the sub 133MHz range. Many budget-minded users who didn't have the money to move to new PC's were even still using 486-based systems during this time. Regardless, everybody wanted to play Quake when it came out, regardless of operating system or systems owned. The fact that OS/2 even saw a port of Quake, albeit a unofficial one, demonstrates the massive following the game had, regardless of platform. 


Links, originally developed by Access Software, was ported to OS/2 by Stardock. This is a very good golf game. It's what one would expect when playing the familiar Links titles on either MS-DOS or Windows.



The fact was that there were far fewer games for OS/2 compared to Windows. In fact, software support in general lacked in comparison to Windows. However, the Hobbes Archive was still available for those who wanted their online archive in CD-ROM form, giving a very large collection of OS/2 programs from one place. The commercial offerings, while few, were very competent as well. Both Lotus Smartsuite and Notes were updated for the new platform. The Embellish image editor provide photo-editing capabilities for those graphics artist who couldn't run Adobe Photoshop. POV-Ray continued to wow those who could spend hours rendering amazing scenes on there Pentium PC. 


The Internet

OS/2 Warp 4 included that rubbish piece of software called IBM WebExplorer. The browser was already dated when it was bundled with the OS. The only purpose that WebExplorer on Warp 4 served was to be a portal to download the much better Netscape Navigator. This browser was far superior to WebExplorer, and in line with the other ports of Netscape running on Windows and MacOS. IBM already conceded that WebExplorer was not worth updating, and encouraged Internet Users to upgrade to the new browser, not that they needed that much encouragement. Netscape was redefining the WWW by this point. It was a very fast and responsive browser too. Netscape would continue to provide a valuable service to OS/2 users through the Warp 4 era, before the Mozilla Suite, and then later on, Firefox took its place among the greats. One could also run the 16-bit IE 3.0 in Win-OS/2, but why in the Hell would you want to do that for.



Installation

The installation of OS/2 Warp 4 onto 86Box was relatively uneventful. Did a general installation with video and network support. The S3 Trio 64 and AMD PCnet Ethernet Adapter were detected during install, and the appropriate drivers were installed. The setup program did not detect the Gravis Ultrasound. However, the available drivers were installed afterwards. Since I would be running programs that make use of long filenames, I went with the HPFS filesystem. The performance was acceptable. 86Box was emulating a multimedia PC with a Pentium Processor running at 75MHz. I made a equivalent machine in VirtualBox 6.1 later on. It was ultra fast, which is not a surprise given that VirtualBox is a virtualizer which natively access the CPU while 86Box is a emulator is well emulates every CPU cycle. Given that the software titles for OS/2 were becoming more CPU intensive than what 86Box can handle, later OS/2 installations will be done on either VMware Player or VirtualBox.


It's sad when the OS/2 saga started to enter this stage. IBM's support was basically restricted to those who have already invested into OS/2, but not to gain new users. OS/2 was on life-support now. In time, IBM released OS/2 Warp for eBusiness in 1999 and OS/2 Warp 4.52 in 2001. However, they were interim releases to fix issues and bugs. However, we will look at these releases in later articles in more detail to highlight the changes in the OS/2 ecosystem. They are still worth an examination.


The Register - MS, DoJ lawyers out in force for IBM witness : https://www.theregister.com/1999/06/04/ms_doj_lawyers_out/

Finding The Facts - The United States of America Vs. Microsoft Corp. : http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~richard/findfact.html

BBC News - IBM chief: Microsoft killed OS/2 : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/368660.stm




Hobbes OS/2 Archive : https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/

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