Hey guys and welcome to a new episode of Nomadic Dmitry channelToday we are going to talk about OS/2I always wanted to try it myself, but something was stopping me all the timeThe problem is that you need to have a floppy drive to install OS/2and this is problematic on modern computersBut this time I made more research and found how to install itThere are two main options to have a latest version of OS/2 (with all drivers and updates): eComStation and ArcaOSArcaOS is the latest version, but it's hard to obtain itI even asked them on official website through a contact form, but got no replyI asked on ArcaOS website to provide me a Demo version of OS for a review on YouTubeNot a big deal, so I decided to try another approach - eComStationThere are more options with eComStation and seems like it's still possible to use itSo, I took the eComStation approachI was able to install it on a local computer - Lenovo T61I also wanted to show you the installation process - so here are the slides of eComStation installation for you to watch while I talk about the OS/2The main advantage of Microsoft was that it was more open to outside world and vendors. They have provided better drivers and supportIBM was a closed platform. They have provided not much support and it was a big disadvantageIBM also has problems with marketing their operating systemThis is the main reason why most of the world uses OS/2 and not WindowsOnly enthusiasts and some vendors are using OS/2 or eComStation/ArcaOS nowThere are still use cases for using OS/2. For example, ATM machinesBut getting ArcaOS is hard. You need to pay a fee (100 dollars or more) for personal licenseAnd there is no guarantee how it will work anywayI should at least have a Demo CD to try OS/2 ideallyBut what was my motivation to try OS/2?I was using DOS and Windows during the 1990s, but I've heard from my friends that there is OS/2 and LinuxLinux was easy to try, but OS/2 was more challenging and that's why it was more interesting back thenLinux was also not that stable in 1990sAlso, I've heard that OS/2 is more stable and it's capable of running both DOS and Windows applicationsAnd now it's 2020 and it's the first time I'm trying OS/2 based system which is eComStationFor me it's a historical momentI wanted to share my inspiration with you as wellIn my opinion, OS/2 is more advanced comparing to Windows 9x operating systems of that timeOS/2 was a collaborative effort of IBM and Microsoft and it's interesting that at some point Microsoft decided to take the codefrom OS/2 and start working on their own OS which was Windows. Windows 3.0was a big success and they focused on that operating system. And it was a right move for themPeople liked Windows more too because it was more compatible and less powerful computers were able to run itMicrosoft took many modules from OS/2, added their own code and this is how Windows was createdOf course, many source code has been rewritten since then, but it's an interesting story anywayMany application during the early 1990s were capable of running on both Windows and OS/2There is a full version of Windows 3.1 included inside OS/2That's why many 16-bit Windows applications can run on OS/2Also, OS/2 provides good compatibility with DOS applications and games which is greatThat's why you can use it instead of DosBoxAs I have mentioned, the main reason of OS/2 failure was bad marketing and lack of drivers for the hardwareThat's why Microsoft won this battle by having a better communication with other companiesOS/2 is history now. But I think it's a more advanced OSLet's actually go ahead and see how it works in actionBecause without the examples you probably won't believe meSo, here we have a Lenovo T61 and we are going to load eComStation Demo CD thereIt just loaded the floppy disks into the memory and we can see the system bootingAdditional drivers are loadingI initially wanted to show you just a Virtual Machine, but then decided to use on a real hardwareBecause I think it's more interesting and authentic to my audienceThe eComStation just loaded and we can see a Help documentation right thereYou can read it to understand how to customize the OSHere are the buttons: minimize, maximizeAnd I'm always getting confused which button means what, the location of buttons is strangeAfter we open the "Local system" folder there are multiple command prompts availableThis is how you can boot DOS, Windows 3.1 and OS/2 command promptBut since it's a Demo CD they have removed DOS and Windows 3.1 optionsWe can see how those look on a Virtual MachineAs you can see there is a Windows and DOS command prompts thereYou can run Windows 3.1 in either a full screen or a windowHere is a full version of Windows 3.1running here which is really excitingHere is a "winfile" File Manager from Windowsrunning here and you can open any Windows 16- bit applications there without a problemThere is a StarOffice that I installedyou can have two applications running side by side with two very differentenvironments - OS/2 and Windows. Also, a DOS as wellYou might even get confused which OS you are runningBut you can see a yellow border around the window that indicates which OS is thisI am considering using eComStation instance instead of DosBox nowAlso, Virtual Desktops. It's unusual to see that in the Operating System from 1990sI'm just going to disabled it because I never use thisThere are some games shipped here by default tooRemember playing those kind of games back then?There is also an old version of FirefoxThere seem to be a way of installing a newer version of Firefox thereI was not able to install the latest version of Firefox yet, something didn't workedYouTube doesn't like this version of browserThere are some issues with HTTPS connection as wellBut basic websites probably are going to work fineThis is more modern version of Firefox I found, but it doesn't start even though I've added additional DLLs there as necessaryI also like the way of creating shortcuts on Desktop. You press the right button of mouse and drag to Desktop and it shows a nice animation (a line from the source to destination)Another application shipped on Demo CD - metro map. It shows New York city by default thereHere is a typical Text EditorNice calculatorToolbar application is interesting tooLooks much more complex and powerful comparing to Windows 95/98I also like the context menu available on the right clickSorting capabilities are nice. You can shuffle the icons on your Desktop easily"Details view" seems really nice"System setup" has a typical setup of the system. Many options available thereIf Windows 3.x is installed (not on the Demo DC) there are additional options available thereHere is a Registry Editor. I was not expecting it on a system of OS/2 typeRegistry should be only on Windows, right?There are settings for adjusting appearance as well and themesNext, screen resolution. I also like the fact that tabs are used here a lot"Tabs" were not used that much in Windows comparing to OS/2. Especially since it was developed in 1990s where it was a new technologyI am surprised how much more advanced the UI here comparing to Windows 9x.Here is also something similar to a "quick launch" in WindowsBut here you can access everything right from this panelHere is how it looks when you are browsing a file systemIt's also interesting when you turn off your computer there are additional options availableFor example, you can "Empty trash" on shutting down the computerIt also shows the progress bar of the shutdownThank you guys for watching! Please consider subscribing for more interesting videos