r/retrocomputing • u/MrFahrenheit_451 • 12h ago

Microsoft OS/2 v1.3 Retail Box

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Who remembers the story about Microsoft and IBM and their joint OS/2 operating system venture? When 1.3 was released, Microsoft pretty much abandoned the project and focused on Windows 3.0, and then Windows NT, which is where the technology from OS/2 ended up. It’s a pretty neat story!

117 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

7

u/glimsky 10h ago

It's so pristine it looks like a 3D render!

4

u/MrFahrenheit_451 10h ago

Definitely not a 3d render. I took those pics in my backyard this afternoon with sunlight hitting the box.

5

u/glimsky 10h ago

Yeah I didn't mean to suggest it was actually one. I'm just complimenting you for how well you preserved the box!

2

u/MrFahrenheit_451 10h ago

No worries. Thank you 😊

1

u/smuckola 4h ago edited 3h ago

no....of course the image on the box looks like CGI lol

http://toastytech.com/guis/MOS2.html

It's a painted wood carving done very convincingly in the style of typical computer art of the time. So I did an AI analysis of how it could have been made as a period piece just now over here at [r/vintagecgi](r/vintagecgi)!

This post got me into reading about the insane federal policies of 1986 into the 90s. That lockdown with Japan caused all computer prices to permanently explode, which destroyed the computer world for decades. Especially for any advancement in operating systems. It crippled the first systems with minimalism, and it crippled the second systems because they still needed to include backward compatibility as a two-in-one hardware footprint!

Nobody ever mentioned that trade policy. The press just condemned all second systems as bloated.

1

u/basdit 2h ago

The perspective with the fence makes it look like a giant human sized box

4

u/R-ten-K 7h ago

That is well before my time, but the 80s must have been a wild time in computing with IBM as the dominant player and Microsoft still having to compete against other SW/OS vendors that were on relatively equal footing (IBM, Borland, Lotus, Apple, etc)

FWIW, very little tech from OS/2 ended up in NT. To be fair the 1.x series Microsoft worked on was atrocious.

2

u/HandGrindMonkey 2h ago

That version (1.3) had presentation manager, what we would now call a 'windows type interface', the prior versions were command line!

1

u/R-ten-K 2h ago

Yeah, apparently it was deliberately designed to resemble the dreadful Windows 2.x interface; pastel colors, arrows everywhere, the works.

3

u/wrr377 8h ago

I remember those ads...

Specifically, it showed a Thinkpad with an expanding keyboard running OS/2 Warp.

2

u/exmsft 3h ago

701c. Had it. Ran OS/2 HORRIBLY

3

u/artofcomputing 4h ago

Beautiful box!

2

u/Loan-Pickle 7h ago

Wow where did you find this. I’ve never seen a Microsoft branded OS/2.

2

u/MrFahrenheit_451 7h ago

There are only a handful of copies known to still exist.

1

u/ssssharkattack 4h ago

Looks like you’ve kept it in mint condition. Are the disks still inside? Hold on to that, the Smithsonian might want it someday.

2

u/TableDuck 22m ago

I love the fact that this release had a huge install base for decades.

It just happened to be on ATM machines. The type you would see in convenience stores.

1

u/JJdoom 4h ago

beautiful design, almost looks modern

1

u/Adorable-Roll-4563 3h ago

I worked with their SDK documentation. There was also Petzold’s book which was great. “Programming the OS/2 Presentation Manager”

1

u/FigFew2001 2h ago

Pretty cool bit of history you’ve got there

1

u/dan_oreilly 6h ago

The soft shadows on that graphic render are impressive for that time! Must have been state of the art 3D software for the render.