Sources from IBM suggests that the giant is about to resurrect its operating system by offering to create a hybrid Linux-OS / 2. OS / 2 was an OS developed in partnership with Microsoft in 1985. The system's name comes from the fact that the IBM machine that was supposed to run it and which was announced at the same time was called PS / 2. Much higher than the DOS version of the time, the first release gave an outline of multitasking and multithreading, the swapping of virtual memory (up to 1 GB), dynamic link libraries and management 16 MB of memory.

The graphical interface, called Presentation Manager, was introduced in November 1988 with version 1.1 and its similarities with Windows 3.x, which was released in May 1990, reflected the partnership began to crumble when Windows began to be delivered with all new computers and OS / 2 was relegated to the system for passion. The fact that the OS IBM only managed a small number of devices has not helped matters.

Microsoft has begun to separate from IBM and develop a new version of Windows that would more mobile and more robust, which gave birth to Windows NT. It is interesting to note however that this version contains code from OS / 2 as the file system or the LAN Manager HPFS for OS / 2 until 2000, NT always incorporated in OS / 2 for text applications running on the operating system.

We will remember the version 2.0, a hybrid 16/32 bit applications can run Windows 3.x through a mode virtualizing resources to provide virtual machines DOS or Windows 3.x. She also proposed Workplace Shell, a Shell for the object-oriented GUI. There was also OS / 2 3.0, also called Warp, which improved device management by offering more pilots and offered much better media capabilities. OS / 2 Warp 4, which ran the Java, was the last official chapter in IBM, IBM has stopped supporting their system in 2005.

OS / 2 is still not completely dead because he lives with Serenity Systems continues to develop OS / 2, which is sold under the name eComStation (eCS), the latest unstable version dates back to August 2009.
According to rumors, IBM could still regain the lead in proposing a layer OS / 2 affixed to a Linux kernel. It must be said that his system is now surpassed by the competition, but it would be updated more easily some machines using a piece of code from OS / 2. However, if IBM revives its OS, it would in our view, for reasons far more ambitious than a system upgrade.

Linux has recently exceeded the 1% market share, and Mac OS X is above 5% according to NetApplications. If the consumer OS market is that of Redmond, the corporate and special machinery is opening more and more and if we can not talk of war on the OS smartphone market, IBM might want to reconsider Market data centers or clouds, which is more open than traditional PCs.