Author Archives: Michal Necasek

OS/2 Beta CDs (1994 and later)

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Michal Necasek

Over time, IBM released its share of OS/2 betas. In the early days, betas were distributed on floppies, but by the time OS/2 Warp was in development, things had shifted towards CDs. After all, the choice was between one or … Continue reading →

Posted in OS/2 | 6 Comments

OS/2 Easter Eggs

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Michal Necasek

The 32-bit version 2.0 of OS/2 contained a hidden Easter egg with a flamingo, a boat, and development team credits. The Easter egg could be invoked by selecting the desktop (either the background or a folder) and pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O. This … Continue reading →

Posted in OS/2 | 11 Comments

UnixWare 1.0 Personal Edition

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Michal Necasek

Let’s begin with the following: First there’s the splash screen… followed by OS installation…

Posted in UnixWare | 12 Comments

UNIX on the PC, 1989

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Michal Necasek

For anyone interested in the history of UNIX on PCs, an article rather appropriately called UNIX Packages For The PC on page 40 of the Nov-Dec 1989 issue (#50) of Micro Cornucopia ought to be interesting. Now available in PDF on … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, UNIX | 5 Comments

SCO UNIX 3.2v4.0 vs. IA-32 Semantics Changes

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Michal Necasek

People noticed a long time ago that SCO UNIX 3.2v4.0 won’t boot on anything resembling modern hardware, and it won’t boot in a VM either. In a VM the results may be inconsistent across implementations, but on a physical machine … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, Intel | 6 Comments

The XENIX 2.2.3 Mystery, Continued

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Michal Necasek

After pondering the strange TeleDisk images of SCO XENIX 386 2.2.3 (released in 1988) and not being able to make heads or tails of it, I decided it was time to simply restore the TeleDisk images onto actual floppies and … Continue reading →

Posted in PC hardware, Xenix | 25 Comments

Book Review: Linkers & Loaders

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Michal Necasek

A Few Decades Late Book Reviews Linkers & Loaders, by John R. Levine Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, October 1999; 256 pages, ISBN 1-55860-496-0; $60.95 Published in 1999, Linkers & Loaders is one of the more recent books reviewed in this series. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Development | 1 Comment

The XENIX 386 2.2.3 Mystery

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Michal Necasek

On the Internets, one may find a package labeled as SCO XENIX 386 version 2.2.3 or similar, sometimes mislabeled as version 2.2.2. This is one of the very oldest operating systems designed for 386-based PC compatibles, released around June 1988 … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, Xenix | 9 Comments

Master Builders of OS/2

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Michal Necasek

The MS OS/2 videos exhibit has now been completed with the addition of two PDF documents. These are scans of two fat three-ring binders that were handed out to attendees of the Microsoft OS/2 Developer’s Conference in New York City … Continue reading →

Posted in Development, Microsoft, OS/2 | 11 Comments

OS/2 for PowerPC Tidbits

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Michal Necasek

In December 1994, IBM shipped the first beta version of OS/2 for the PowerPC to selected developers. This beta included the PowerPC operating system as well as Intel-based cross-development tools that ran on OS/2 2.11 or Warp. The operating system … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM, OS/2, PowerPC | 8 Comments