Sayonara OS/2. Again.

Wait a minute. Hasn't OS/2 been dead for awhile?

Things are soooo confusing. For most of the computing world, IBM's OS/2 has been a non-factor for quite some time. However, what was to have become-but-never-quite-did-become the next-gen graphical OS, did have its adherents. Many banks and insurance companies, for example.

And the motto of one journalist/pundit was: "I breathetherefore I am thinking of OS/2."

Yikes.

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OS/2 was an interesting case. Its promise was brilliant: multithreading, multitasking, 32-bitness, oddly-shaped windows. Security. The whole shebang. But for mere mortals, it just never worked quite right. WordPerfect and Lotus both bet big on OS/2 rather than Windows and lived to regret that decision. (But not for long--at least as independent entities.)

I realized OS/2 was close to the end years ago when one of IBM's marquis insurance company accounts admitted that it was migrating off the operating system. At that point, even IBM Software's own flackies didn't crank up the spin machine. They said: "Go with your sources." For me, that was the day OS/2 died. But IBM gamely soldiered on for its existing accounts. As it should've.

(Sidenote a friend just helped a large non-US bank transition from OS/2 to a .net-based infrastructure. Bulletproofing that code for was no mean task, he reports.)

Nothing in this industry ever really disappears completely. How many people are still running Paradox or Xywrite or Magellan somewhere? But OS/2 is certainly circling the drain. This week IBM said it is withdrawing standard support for OS/2 Warp 4 and OS/2 Warp Server (for ebusiness Version 1) as of the end of 2006.

And, as of December 23, 2005, it will stop marketing various Warp SKUs in most regions. (Have they been marketing OS/2 Warp? That's a news flash by itself.)

When Microsoft put its resources into Windows, in what many call a classic double cross, the die was cast. IBM hosted a succession of glitzy OS/2 "launch" events that typically devolved into delay announcements. One notable Comdex Vegas extravaganza featured a Kenny Loggins concert.

The climax of all this angst came a few years ago at another tech confab in Boston. By this time it was clear to all that OS/2 would never hit its marks and that IBM was starting to cut its losses.

John W. Thompson, then an IBM Software poohbah and now Symantec chief, hosted the big 'do, taking one for the team. The whopping dozen or so reporters and analysts drawn to the Hynes Auditorium that day were vastly outnumbered by the boiled lobsters ready for the eating. Not a good sign.

Long-time OS/2 booster Will Zachmann was publicly disconsolate. He blasted IBM and Thompson for screwing up its golden opportunity. At one point, he said something along the lines of: "Doesn't anyone care?" To which Thompson replied, in full pre-Dr. Phil majesty: "I care, Will."

Conspiracy theorists might point out that the end-of-support posting comes just weeks after Microsoft paid IBM to drop some legal claims around OS/2 and SmartSuite. Part of that agreement gives IBM millions of dollars worth of Microsoft software. Maybe IBM's gonna slap Windows on those old boxes. If it fits.

Far be it from me to draw that conclusion.