The heresy is gaining currency in the US that any impetus there may have been behind IBM and Microsoft’s OS/2 operating system has so completely run out of steam that the thing will never now amount to much more than a footnote in the margin of computer history, but that is calculating without the enthusiasm of the Japanese, who tend to be a law unto themselves in these matters and take little notice of what is going on across the Pacific: according to Newsbytes, OS/2 is finally gaining acceptance as a next generation operating system in Japan and major manufacturers are adopting it for their most advanced 32-bit personal computers – IBM Japan started shipping the VJ1.1 Japanese version of OS/2 in May and claims to have shipped some 10,000 copies already; but IBM has only about 6% of the market, and much more important is that NEC Corp will release a Japanese MS-OS/2 V1.1 this autumn, while Fujitsu Ltd will bundle the thing with its FMR-70HX3 around the same time, and is promising 200 varieties of application by spring.
Content from our partners
