IBM has refused the second petition, organized by the OS2World, for open sourcing the OS/2 operating system. Coincidentally, Os/2 was originally a joint project developed by Microsoft and IBM, as a successor to DOS and Windows, but Microsoft quit the partnership to pursue Windows 3.0.
IBM said in a letter to OS2World.com: “We have considered the positioning of OS/2 and open source several times in the past and, for a variety of business, technical and legal reasons, we have decided to not pursue any OS/2 open source projects.”
“IBM has service offerings that continue to be available for customers who need ongoing support for OS/2, although IBM has no plans for product enhancements.”
IBM also added the following:
“IBM has recommended that customers on OS/2 consider migration to alternative solution offerings, and it has a broad array of software assets and services to help customers migrate.”
More information:
IBM snubs OS/2 open source plea (Register)
What do you make of the reasons for IBM’s refrain?
