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06/29/25

Today's site is osfree.i2p.

OS/2? Open source clone? What!?


Overview
osfree.i2p aims to be a total rewrite of OS/2 that's fully Open Source. What the #@*$!? Yep, this is a thing. It really is.

I admire the people who work on projects like this. I really do.






1. Appearance
This page would render very well with OS/2 era browsers. An intentional design choice no doubt. I dig it.
5/5!

2. Quality
I have no used the software, but from what I've read it's rather incomplete. This is a rather ambitious project, so that's to be expected. But, hot damn. This is a piece of Internet history!
5/5!

3. Nitpicks
There are some broken links and whatnot. But, it's a big project. That's to be expected.
4/5!

4. Refresh
It's a fun browse, but there is no real use for this sort of thing. It's a pet project by a group of really clever people. It's cool, but that's about it.
3/5!

NotBob Rating


For anyone who missed this chapter of tech betrayal, here’s the abbreviated rundown on why OS/2 was a big deal—until it wasn’t.

IBM and Microsoft teamed up to create OS/2 back in the Windows 3.x days. The plan? Kill off DOS, make something stable, modern, and fully compatible with Windows apps. You know—finally drag computing out of the stone age.

And they pulled it off. OS/2 was better in every way. Faster. Stable. Real protected memory, not DOS pretending to be useful. You could run your Windows software, crash it, and the rest of the system just kept going. Wild concept.

But Microsoft had other plans. Enter Windows 95. Full 32-bit. New APIs. Overnight, your shiny OS/2 box couldn’t run the latest software. And nobody writes apps for the platform that’s bleeding market share.

By design? Absolutely. Microsoft made sure OS/2 was a comfy little trap. Compatible just long enough to make developers lazy. Then they pulled the rug, flipped the table, and left IBM holding the bag.

The result? OS/2 limped along as a weird corporate holdover. Eventually faded into history. But for a minute? It showed us how good things could have been.
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