It’s entirely expected as print media is a dead artifact on 8/7 it was announced that Linux Journal would cease publication.

And then on 8/8 it was announced that MSDN magazine would also cease publication.

In the 90’s both magazines had an important role in both communities of developers and enthusiasts. I suppose it’s only fitting that they both passed away a day apart.

Both trade publications have been sources of pain with ‘new and exciting tech (that isn’t quite ready), but seeing their demise seems to just relegate us back to the world of word of mouth, that had served us poorly in the 80’s and before times.

There is something authoritative and to be said for putting print on word.

NOTE FROM THE FUTURE It’s now possible to look at the version that Microsoft published after this version “An actual look at Microsoft OS/2 2.0“!

Of course, the thing that stands out from the screen shot is that OS/2 2.0 looks more like OS/2 1.2.  And there is it’s ability to run two MS-DOS VDM’s in a window at the same time!

Flight Simulator, in a Window!

Although this was a feat that Windows/386 was capable of doing, going far back as far as 1987.

Windows 2.1/386 running Flight simulator 3.0 in a window

But as you can see, OS/2 did it better.  Windows/386 was unable to run EGA graphics in a window, instead I was forced to run Flight simulator 3 in CGA mode.  While the OS/2 2.0 beta could give over 620kb to a MS-DOS session, Windows/386 could only give me 550kb.

And when it came time to ship, well here is IBM OS/2 2.00 0xr6100 running Flight simulator 3.0 in a window and showing a MS-DOS box with about 600kb free.

IBM OS/2 running Flight Simulator 3.0

The real shame is that MS OS/2 2.0 was looking really promising in 1990, but thanks to the split the world didn’t get to try it out until 1992.

The article is a good read to get an idea of the state of development back in 1990.  And of course all of PC Magazine’s 1990’s magazines are up on google books.  I’ve managed to find 2/3rd of the Beta since I started looking (from 1990… been looking a long long time), and I have reviewed the SDK/toolkit earlier, and here.

PC Magazine, May 29th 1990 Pages 387-388

PC Magazine, May 29th 1990 Pages 389

Power Programming part 2

Power Programming Part 2, contd.

Power Programming pt3 1-2

Power Programming pt3 3-4

Power Programming pt3 5

Power Programming pt4 1-2

Power Programming pt4 3-4

But now it’s all gone, and my attempt at getting a dead tree version… well while I had quite a few they were HEAVY, and sadly couldn’t be taken around the world with me.

But thankfully they are being digitized, and stored on archive.org so I can browse through them again!

Byte from 1985

You can find the archive here.  And of course, take note that there are many other magazines now available!