As IBM prepares to launch OS/2 Warp 4 on September 25th, the company is now working on re-writing chunks of the operating system itself in Java, hears our sister publication Online Reporter. The vast majority of OS/2 development resources are now being spent on trying to recast OS/2 as a network computer operating system says John Soyring, vice president of the Personal Software Products division. Soyring terms this second phase of OS/2 development the transform phase, following the first phase which saw the Java virtual machine incorporated into version 4 of the base operating system. Soyring is loath to talk about timescales for the work, saying only that it will be rapid, to illustrate, he invokes the well-worn ‘Internet years’ phrase. The Java reworking is not set to extend into the performance-sensitive heart of the operating system, he says; but many of the end-user utilities and widgets will re-appear as Java applications in their own right. Once complete, the third phase will kick in: We can actually reduce the size of the system and make some of the traditional [non-Java] components optionally loadable, he explains. Soyring is currently touring Europe to convince OS/2’s key, large-corporate customers that the operating system is alive and well and that the network computer approach based on OS/2 is the right way to go. It’s a strategy that he claims is receiving warm approval from his customers as he plugs the reduced cost of ownership that network computers are meant to bring. Soyring also admits that the operating system has suffered from a perceived lack of native applications – something that the move to Java may help fix. From a corporate point of view, there’s also the hope of an at least partially shared code-base across IBM’s disparate operating systems. Soyring suggests that a similar process of Java-izing will occur in the other OS’s, although timescales are still very hazy. The OS/400 JavaVirtual Machine, for example isn’t expected to go into beta testing until the fourth quarter and there’s no timescale being given for MVS at all . Only once these virtual machines are in place and tuned can the OS teams seriously start thinking about re-implementing parts of the system in the new language. Soyring also says PSP will certainly entertain componentizing ideas meaning that elements of the be-Java’ed OS/2 could be sold off or licensed separately, maybe for embedded applications. There’s been a perception, says Soyring, that we’ve been following Windows until now. Certainly re-writing key parts of its operating system is not a path that Redmond is likely to follow. IBM’s Java OS/2 plans sound plausible, but skeptics will remember previous, equally plausible ideas for cross-platform domination. Soyring was previously a great defender of the company’s ill-fated Workplace OS cross-platform strategy.
