OS/2 Warp 4 \ VOGONS

OS/2 Warp 4

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First post, by notsofossil

Posted on 2017-11-20, 17:37

notsofossil Offline

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I am curious about OS/2 Warp 4. Anyone here use it before? What are the steps to installation? Any good software or games available? I've heard OS/2 has built-in Win16 support, how good is it?

If I were to use OS/2 Warp 4, I'd like it to be paired with Windows 98 and 2000. Is it possible to triple boot using just the Windows 2000 bootloader?

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Reply 1 of 6, by jesolo

Posted on 2017-11-20, 18:52

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I can't speak for OS/2 Warp 4 but, I did play around with OS/2 Warp 3 Connect back in early 1996.
You would normally first install DOS and Windows 9x and then install OS/2. I'm not sure about it running together with Windows 2000 but, it should be possible.
You end up using the OS/2 Boot Manager to boot between your Microsoft based operating systems and OS/2 (at some point I used just the Boot Manager to boot between DOS 6.22 and Windows 95 😀 ).
OS/2 had very good support (compatibility) for Windows 3.x based applications and even DOS. As a matter of fact, it was so good that developers didn't bother to write OS/2 specific applications.
One of the main problems with OS/2 is the lack of driver support for hardware and the limited amount of OS/2 specific software.
However, if you have Windows 3.x specific software, then it will run quite well and much more stable under OS/2.

Reply 2 of 6, by notsofossil

Posted on 2017-11-20, 18:57

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Oh yeah, forgot about the limited drivers. I guess I would still need to dedicate an IBM system to OS/2. I take it OS/2 didn't have driver support for things like Voodoo cards? Or ATi video cards?

Windows 9x covers a lot of my needs but I've always been curious about the other OSes of the day, like OS/2, Windows NT 3.51, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and so on.

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Reply 3 of 6, by jesolo

Posted on 2017-11-20, 19:07

jesolo Offline

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I think there are fan made drivers available for some of the Voodoo cards (Voodoo 1 & Voodoo 2).
As I recall, ATI did release OS/2 drivers for some of their earlier graphics cards - have a look around on the web.

If you would like to "try out" some of these operating systems first, may I suggest setting up a virtual PC in an emulator (like PCem) and then playing around with it first?
Saves you the hassle of having to go through a lengthy installation and hardware configuration process.

If you like what you see, then you can build the appropriate hardware for it.

Reply 4 of 6, by Jo22

Posted on 2017-11-21, 08:40

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OS/2 Warp 3 or 4?
Ultimate OS/2 Warp 4 machine?
😀

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 5 of 6, by NJRoadfan

Posted on 2017-11-21, 12:31

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If you can find a copy of eComStation (even 1.x), it'll save you a lot of headaches. It supports much more modern hardware out of the box and uses SciTech Display Doctor graphics drivers.