TECHNOLOGY / OPERATING SYSTEMS

An Easy Way To Install And Run OS/2 Warp

Or… If you want to have a trip down memory lane for an operating system that never quite got popular

Image by Author

Step-by-step instructions to install OS/2 Warp with VirtualBox and get networking up and running.

I remember buying OS/2 Warp — it had unheard-of features and functionality for the time — symmetric multi-processing, voice control, Microsoft Windows Compatability— although looking at it now it seems clumsy and not particularly user-friendly.

Table Of Contents

Warp Speed 2
Installing OS/2
  [🖥️] VirtualBox
  [🖥️] Installing the virtual machine image
Getting The Networking Up And Running
Changing The Screen Resolution
Some Takes on OS/2 Warp

Warp Speed 2

OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a computer operating system, initially created as a collaboration by Microsoft and IBM. In the background, Microsoft was building Windows 3.1 operating environment, and the two companies parted ways

The first version of OS/2 was released in December 1987 and newer versions were released until December 2001.

IBM discontinued its support for OS/2 on 31 December 2006. Since then, OS/2 has been developed, supported and sold by two different third-party vendors under license from IBM — first by Serenity Systems as eComStation since 2001, and later by Arca Noae LLC as ArcaOS since 2017.

OS/2 was a rock solid and reliable operating system and not surprisingly OS/2 and its variants are still in use today, mostly in banking ATMs although it is still being used by the New York transit system.

Installing OS/2

Three basic things:

1. VirtualBox application to run a virtual machine,
2. The extension pack for VirtualBox
3. The OS/2 virtual machine

Thankfully all are free and readily available.

VirtualBox

Step 1: Download a copy of VirtualBox for your operating system — it may not be the prettiest — but it does the trick…