Perhaps. Having been there at the time, OS/2 was killed by linux. So... you're not going to run this new windows95 thing, eh? Then why bother running OS/2 when there's linux?
OS/2 was killed by IBM's near complete disinterest in promoting or supporting it.
1. They barely advertised it.
2. They did not buy good shelf placement in stores. The result was OS/2 was on the bottom shelf in the darkest row in the back of the store, where it would only be found by people who specifically came seeking t.
3. The developer support was terrible. Nothing sums it up better than a report from COMDEX from, if I recall correctly, Jerry Pournelle. He went to the Microsoft booth, where they were promoting the upcoming Windows 95. He asked them what it would take to get started developing for Windows 95. They handed him the SDK right there, no questions asked.
Then he went to the IBM booth, where they actually had an OS/2 display. He asked them what it would take to get started developing for OS/2. They handed him the paperwork to apply for the developer program. He started to fill it out, but it required him to explain his business plan for OS/2 software, and justify why he should be allowed to develop for their platform. He did not complete the form.
4. If you did persevere and become an OS/2 developer and release an application, IBM didn't care. Apple and Microsoft would provide money to promote major applications for their platforms, or applications that highlighted the advantages of their platforms. IBM did very little of this.
[1] Major retail software store back in the days before everything was distributed online, since online back then typically meant dial-up modem.
Back then I remeber reading articles all the time about UNIX vs Windows NT.
OS/2 wasn't really a thing, at least not in Portugal. PC able to run it confortably cost at least 500€ more than the ones that would fly with Windows 3.1.
Sure it wasn't the same thing, but for the majority of the folks it was good enough for what they wanted a computer for.
Actually I would say when Linux came to be a thing, OS/2 was already gone.
I only saw OS/2 once live back in 1994 in the anual computer expo in Lisbon.
GNU/Linux in 1995 still wasn't for the faint of heart. My Slackware 2.0 took quite some effort to install.
Also having been there, my admittedly fading memory remembers OS/2 as doomed before Linux was really an function parity option. And OS/2 wasn't really put up as a alternative to Unix (certainly IBM didn't want to cannibalize AIX); rather it was the server OS and upgrade to Windows that Microsoft customers were screaming for. Microsoft effectively killed off OS/2 the day they said "forget about OS/2...what you really wan't is this nifty thing we've got cooking called NT", no matter the effort IBM continued to pour into it.
Yea, but that is only part of the story. This fiasco ended up being so bad it used to be one of my favorite topics. "Microsoft Munchkins" and DR-DOS are two of the reasons why.
