OS/2
:OS/2: /O S too/ n. The anointed successor to MS-DOS for Intel 286- and
386-based micros; proof that IBM/Microsoft couldn't get it right the
second time, either. Often called `Half-an-OS'. Mentioning it is usually
good for a cheap laugh among hackers -- the design was so baroque
and
the implementation of 1.x so bad, that 3 years after introduction you
could still count the major app
shipping for it on the fingers of two
hands -- in unary. The 2.x versions were said to have improved somewhat,
and informed hackers rated them superior to Microsoft Windows (an
endorsement which, however, could easily be construed as damning with
faint praise). In the mid-1990s IBM put OS/2 on life support, refraining
from killing it outright purely for internal political reasons; by 1999
the success of Linux
had effectively ended any possibility of a
renaissance. See monstrosity
, cretinous
, second-system effect
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
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