On Tuesday, IBM formally announced that it would cease marketing (http://www-306.ibm.com/fcgi-bin/common/ssi/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&appname=Demonstration&htmlfid=897/ENUS905-163) OS/2 at the end of next year.

This might cause wry amusement among the operating system's remaining enthusiasts, who maintain that IBM really never started marketing OS/2 in the first place.

These death notices are almost an annual occurrence now. IBM ceased serious development on OS/2 in 1996, told regular users to shove off (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/05/11/ibm_to_os_2_users/) five years ago, and we've already run our valedictory (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/12/17/so_farewell_then_os/), which leaves little more to add.

IBM has told its customers they'll continue to receive support, provided they pay for it - unlike Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000, we might add. That's because IBM tries to stick by Thomas Watson's 1956 edict that the company will honor a promise to its customers "no matter what the cost" - and one global credit card company continues to rely on OS/2.

(Microsoft's equivalent promise seems to be "start a weblog about it, regardless of the cost". But that's touchy-feely modern marketing for you, where what you say is supposed to carry more weight than what you actually do.)

We tracked down one OS/2 developer today in the twilight world of embedded networking systems, where OS/2 has lived on. It's no big deal, he told us.

"I mean TCP/IP and SNA are not going to stop working, are they?," he told us. "Well, I bloody hope not."

German vendor eComStation continues to provide extended support.

IBM agreed damages with Microsoft over the latter's exclusionary tactics designed to keep OS/2 from being a success. ®

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From the trial vaults:

Killing OS/2 by quotas: how MS Win95 deals stifle rivals (http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/12/killing_os_2_by_quotas/)
Cut a deal or you don't get Win95: IBM faces PC suicide (http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/10/cut_a_deal_or_you/)
The day Bill Gates screamed IBM's house down (http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/08/the_day_bill_gates_screamed/)
IBM witness: the inside poop on MS and IBM killing OS/2 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/04/ibm_witness_the_inside_poop/)
IBM exec outlines MS plan to throttle OS/2, Lotus (http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/05/28/ibm_exec_outlines_ms_plan/)
Justice throws Microsoft OS/2-shaped lifebelt (http://www.theregister.co.uk/1998/11/18/justice_throws_microsoft_os_2shaped/)