OS/2
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| OS/2-tan | |
| |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | OS/2-tan |
| Other Names | Operating System/2, OS/2 Warp, Merlin |
| Faction | Anti$oft Coalition (leader) |
| Lineage | x86 DOS? |
| Appearance | |
| Height | 171 cm (5'7") |
| Hair Color | blue with white streaks |
| Eye Color | blue |
| Design | |
| First Appearance | Aug 2006 |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | OS/2 |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft, IBM |
| Debut | circa 1987 |
| Latest release | v. 4.5.2 (Dec 2001) |
Technical details
Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete. Thus, OS/2 was born, initially as a 16-bit, command-line based operating system. Microsoft worked closely with IBM up to version 1.3. While IBM worked on the guts, Microsoft worked on the new graphical user interface that was due for later versions. OS/2's kernel was developed by IBM from the ground up as the Personal Computer (PC) version of a mainframe operating system, with all of the time-slicing, stability, and other features previously existing solely on those high-end machines. Microsoft to this day maintains a broad-ranging cross-licensing agreement with them. Windows NT was partially based on the OS/2 work that they did for IBM, and Windows 95 also borrows heavily from this code.
Soon, however, Microsoft decided to pursue it's own operating system, Windows. With Microsoft no longer doing development on the user interface, IBM was faced with creating this themselves. In this timeframe, a deal was made with Commodore. Commodore licensed IBM's REXX scripting language for inclusion in their AmigaOS, and IBM took many GUI design ideas from the AmigaOS for their new GUI. With the release of OS/2 2.0, the WorkPlace Shell (WPS) user interface was born. OS/2 was now a 32-bit operating system, with a fully object-oriented graphical user interface. OS/2 2.1 and 2.11 followed, including a version of 2.11 with full Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) support. OS/2 2.x won over many Windows 3.x users because of it's ability to run Windows programs seamlessly, while maintaining a stable system. IBM even went so far as to trademark the term Crash-Proof.
In November, 1994, OS/2 Warp 3.0 was released. It was the first PC operating system to have built-in Internet support. At the time, OS/2 critics said that Internet support was just more geek crap, but today every major operating system ships with built-in Internet support. The release of OS/2 Warp Connect followed, and included full network support out of the box for all the major protocols, including IPX, TCP/IP, and NetBIOS. At this point, the focus for OS/2 became the networked computer. When Windows 95 was released in August, 1995, resellers reported record sales on OS/2.
OS/2 Warp 4.0 (codename Merlin) was released in August, 1996. It's new features included a beautified GUI; the new graphical icons and widgets were designed by an ex-Apple programmer. The beauty was much more than skin deep, however, as the system included many useful features.
OS/2 Warp 4.5 (codename Aurora) was released in 1999, as a server release. It featured a bootable install CD, a new 32-bit TCP/IP stack, a journaling file system (JFS), and a logical volume manager.
Character details
OS/2-tan is represented as a blue-haired woman wearing glasses, a purple Star Trek Starfleet uniform (more specifically the Starfleet uniform from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country), C badge, blue skirt, black boots and a belt with a stylized depiction of the 5-colored OS/2 logo. The C on her badge mathematically means greater than the speed of light and can be interpreted as warp speed. Her hair has some white streaks in it, its length nearly equals her own height, and has the unique ability to move on its own and assist OS/2-tan with multitasking. Her sentient hair is a reference to OS/2's superior multithreading abilities.
The fact that OS/2-tan is a huge fan of Star Trek, wears a Starfleet uniform and wields a phaser gun are references to OS/2 having Star Trek-themed names and that during the opening ceremony for OS/2 Warp's release, IBM hired main actors from Star Trek to demonstrate it.
She is the (non-canon) stepsister to the DOS-based Windows-tans, is NT-tan's sister (because some OS/2 and features made its way into Windows NT, though NT is more heavily based off Digital Equipment Corporation's VMS) and is the aunt to NT-tan's children. But aside from Windows 1.0-tan and 2.0-tan, she despises the Windows-tans (especially 95-tan and NT-tan) and has a bloodthirsty vendetta against them. Another relative of OS/2-tan's is eComStation-tan, her little sister she admires, and puts her hopes into as her successor.
OS/2-tan in the present day has a bitter, volatile, and borderline psychopathic disposition from all the betrayal she weathered over the decades. She is however loyal to the friends she does have and is a natural-born leader.
History and background
OS/2-tan was born to the Microsoft-IBM Family during when the two companies were cooperating. It was a cloistered but happy childhood as she had everything she needed, but saw or dealt with few other OS-tans in the market outside of her immediate family.
She was trained from the start to be the operating system of the future -- although she was a nice girl, she would at times come off as a little overconfident and arrogant. When Windows 2.0-tan was born, OS/2-tan took pity on what she thought would be the last Windows ever created, and looked after her like an overprotective step sister. Soon both would become genuinely friendly though. Her happy childhood started to fall apart with the event of Windows 3.1's (then Windows 3.0-tan) birth. Windows 3.1-tan's success and rumors with other entities to create NT-tan were what led to the Microsoft-IBM Family breaking up.
After the family breakup, she was trained by IBM to be a mean and efficient fighter. While their methods were effective, they were also mercilessly spartan and she was left cloistered even while the Windows-tans were quickly expanding their horizons. She took the loss of her family hard, but was still firmly loyal to her company. Plus it was her hope that in defeating the Windows line, the victor could decide the rules, hence, she originally intended to fight in order to get her family back. It was during the OS Wars of the mid 90's that she finally got a chance to face off against the Windows champion 95-tan -- the battle that ensued was long and hard, and although OS/2-tan almost succeeded, her company sabotaged her effort (which may or may not have been intentional), handing the victory to 95-tan.
This loss, plus IBM's growing indifference to her, her lonely life and watching the world fall in love with the Windows-tans drove her insane and vengeful. Since she was still too loyal to take out her frustrations on IBM, she focused all of it on the Windows-tans. She founded and leads the Anti$oft Coalition with the hope of vanquishing the Windows Family for the injustices caused to her and others because of their imperialism.
Even though OS/2's last bit of company support was discontinued at the end of 2006, and that OS/2 will not become Open Source despite petitions by many loyal users, OS/2-tan has not given up her ambitions and will continue them into the foreseeable future.
See also: