OS/2 isn't dead: ArcaOS update brings the 1980s-era OS to modern UEFI PCs

[Alfonso Maruccia]

TL;DR: IBM's involvement in OS/2 development ended long ago, but the ancient platform is still being sold by third-party venture Arca Noae LLC. The company regularly updates its ArcaOS offering to fix bugs and improve compatibility with modern machines.

A quarter of a century after IBM released the last official version of OS/2, someone is still keeping the platform alive under the ArcaOS name. Arca Noae is now the only company licensing OS/2 technology from IBM, after Serenity Systems' eComStation project disappeared around 14 years ago.

Arca Noae recently announced a brand-new release of ArcaOS, a 32-bit operating system based on OS/2 Warp 4.52. First and foremost, ArcaOS 5.1.2 provides better compatibility with the latest UEFI-based x86 systems. The operating system should now be easier to install on modern computers, even when they use the GUID Partition Table standard instead of traditional MBR-style partitioning.

At the same time, Arca Noae said that ArcaOS 5.1.2 can still boot, install, and run on older BIOS-based systems, delivering the same improvements in stability and performance. The new release also includes updates to the desktop experience, many system drivers, localizations, the pre-boot environment, and more. A new ArcaOS license costs $139, and Arca Noae also offers discount programs for existing customers whose support plans have expired.

Speaking about customers, Arca Noae describes ArcaOS as a good operating system for professionals still clinging to the OS/2 platform. The commercial system does not spy on users or report online activity, while still providing enough flexibility to install plenty of applications. ArcaOS can even run on Pentium Pro systems with as little as 512MB of RAM, although 2GB is recommended for the best experience.

ArcaOS fits comfortably in systems with less than 4GB of RAM, although compatibility with modern machines is not guaranteed. The official wiki-style documentation may provide useful guidance for people interested in trying the platform on their own hardware. In a worst-case scenario, the OS can also run in modern hypervisor-based virtual machines.

ArcaOS can allegedly run applications from multiple computing platforms, starting with native support for 16-bit software designed for MS-DOS and Windows 3.1. The Wine-based Odin API can also run a subset of Win32 applications. The OS is currently available in English, German, Spanish, and Russian, and Arca Noae says additional localizations are planned for future releases.

ArcaOS may sound like a curious experiment in the fight against planned obsolescence, but its roots have real historical significance. The OS/2 project began as a partnership between IBM and Microsoft to replace MS-DOS with a "real" GUI-based 32-bit operating system. The effort turned out to be a dud after Microsoft began selling millions of copies of Windows 3.0.

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OS/2 isn't dead: ArcaOS update brings the 1980s-era OS to modern UEFI PCs

 

[gdavid65]

For some strange reason, I still like that this exists..

I remember trying OS/2 back in the day, and even then it was an outlier.

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

Do they have plans to make it compliant with California's upcoming age verification requirements for operating systems, or do they plan on not offering it in that state?

 

[kinetix]

And by some coincidence, today I was reading two issues of BYTE magazine (I've been reading them from the first one for a few months now), from 1993, each with its central theme about the Pentium and the PowerPC, and one of them had a more or less detailed article about the newly released OS/2 2.1

 

[OortCloud]

I really wanted OS/2 to succeed back in the day because it was at it's core a much more forward-thinking and technically advanced OS than Windows at the time. But it was expensive, resource hungry, buggy and very rough round the edges and there were very few native applications. I remember being very impressed at it's ability to run DOS applications in a window which seemed like black magic at the time.

 

[onebignerd]

$134 for a 34 year old 32 bit operating system, you can buy Windows 11 Pro online for $135!!

 

[wwwendigo]

I really wanted OS/2 to succeed back in the day because it was at it's core a much more forward-thinking and technically advanced OS than Windows at the time. But it was expensive, resource hungry, buggy and very rough round the edges and there were very few native applications. I remember being very impressed at it's ability to run DOS applications in a window which seemed like black magic at the time.

Yeah!!

So forward-thinking that IBM used with that OS the extended memory mode of 80286, not the one of the 386 and purely 32 bits. A very short term enhancement that complicated the development of a true 32 bit version of this OS.

Yes, that forward-thinking.

 

[Xardion]

Do they have plans to make it compliant with California's upcoming age verification requirements for operating systems, or do they plan on not offering it in that state?

Considering how unenforceable that's going to be for operating systems that do not have any sort of "online" account functionality, my assumption is that Arca Noae will simply say they don't sell their product to users in California. When purchasing an ArcaOS license or setting up an account on their site to do so, they will ask the user what state they are in, and prevent them from creating an account if they say they're in California. This puts the onus on the user to lie about it, limiting Arca's liability under that law. If the end user circumvents their restriction to not sell their OS in California, it's not Arca's fault.