Microsoft Revisionism Debunked by Microsoft's Own Words About “the Failure of OS/2”
The Register on “the failure of OS/2”
SOMEONE has contacted us regarding an article published by Liam Proven this past Saturday (18th of January 2025 at 09:30 UTC). It's about OS/2, an old operating system from IBM. Someone has already suggested "introducing Microsoft shenanigans against OS/2 and [a] mention that it was just the tip of the iceberg in regards to OS/2." Our wiki pages (now static, scrapers are a pain in the bum these days) contain plenty of court documents that can serve to fill in the necessary OS/2 background, if only to paraphrase a bit. Here are a couple:
And of lesser relevance:
- Establishing OS/2 as the dominant workstation standard
- Zenith provides drivers for Microsoft OS/2
- Steve Ballmer: Our goal of making OS/2 the next generation OS
- J. Michael to Bill Gates: port Windows app to OS/2
There are also articles that cover those matters in passing, e.g. "Joe Barr Knew Microsoft's Tactics All Too Well" (don't let journalist burnout take those stories/knowledge away) and "The Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer priority list" (lots on OS/2 in there).
"Remember that Microsoft contracted to make applications for OS/2," an associate recalls, "but used the time to secretly make them for NT instead, there should be a link for that..."
See the above.
Now back to the revisionism of this past weekend.
While much of the article may be OK (Proven covers these sorts of topics quite a lot, both in his personal blog and in The Register), there's a point where The Register says: ‘The result is conspiracy-led nonsense like "Microsoft intentionally sabotaged OS/2 because it wanted to sell Windows!"’
"The Register [is] still posting this retrospective Microsoft's self-serving propaganda," someone has told us. They did the same to Netscape and to Nokia - pretending that their victims just committed corporate suicide or something to that effect.
"Those transcripts of internal Microsoft emails," we got told (reminded rather), "tell a different story. I posted a correction and got my account banned."
Here it is from Microsoft's own mouth:
April 1989, by Steve Ballmer: “I would like to thank IBM for inviting me to talk with you this morning because it gives me a chance to talk to you about our plans are for OS/2 and try to reinforce some of its benefits.”
Then there's this document dated July 1991 (see page 2): “The demos of OS/2 were excellent. Crashing the system had the intended effect -- to FUD OS/2 2.0.”
Always go back to the source, do not blindly judge articles because of the "brand" or reputation of the publisher. The Register isn't bad and Liam Proven is a smart guy, but labeling this "conspiracy" is only correct if referred to by the proper meaning (of that word or contrary to the loaded term). Yes, there was a conspiracy to make OS/2 fail. We know this because Microsoft admits it (internally).
In paragraph 4 the term "conspiracy theories" is brought up. That's not too helpful. Painting history buffs as if they're cranks or "conspiracy buffs" does not contribute much to an adult debate. As an associate points out, "conspiracy does not mean false, it means something resulting from conspiration".
We got a story or two covered in relation to this back in 2009 [1, 2], as someone pointed out in the comments. No idea who posted that, but it's good that people remember...
Authors should be open to scrutiny, not ban people who object.
Remember that the sole connection between Bill Gates and "Source Code" is that he stole a lot of source code from the dumpsters. He misappropriated the work of people who could actually code, he was never a visionary but a soiled brat, a drop-out, and nowadays a famous criminal who meets other famous criminals like Donald Trump. Both Gates and Trump got arrested already (several times!) and both frequented Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex airplane. That ruined the marriage of Gates (according to the wife) and "Jeffrey Epstein claimed Donald Trump's cuckolded his best friends, slept with Melania first on 'Lolita Express'". What idols we have right there... to be championed and admired. The very finest of American society and human kind? █
