Editing OS/2 (section)

====Workplace OS (1995) {{Anchor|Workplace OS|WorkplaceOS}}====
{{Main|Workplace OS}}
In 1991, IBM started development on an intended replacement for OS/2 called [[Workplace OS]]. This was an entirely new product, brand new code, that borrowed only a few sections of code from both the existing OS/2 and AIX products. It used an entirely new microkernel code base, intended (eventually) to host several of IBM's operating systems (including OS/2) as microkernel "personalities". It also included major new architectural features including a system registry, JFS, support for UNIX graphics libraries, and a new driver model.<ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS">{{cite tech report | url=http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~brett/PAPERS/SPE97/REVISED/techreport.ps | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824050732/http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~brett/PAPERS/SPE97/REVISED/techreport.ps | archive-date=August 24, 2007 | access-date=March 25, 2013 | title=Workplace Microkernel and OS: A Case Study | first1=Brett D | last1=Fleisch | first2=Mark | last2=Allan | date=September 23, 1997 | publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |format=PostScript }}</ref>

Workplace OS was developed solely for [[PowerPC|POWER platforms]], and IBM intended to market a full line of PowerPCs in an effort to take over the market from [[Intel]]. A mission was formed to create prototypes of these machines and they were disclosed to several corporate customers, all of whom raised issues with the idea of dropping Intel.

Advanced plans for the new code base would eventually include replacement of the [[OS/400]] operating system by Workplace OS, as well as a microkernel product that would have been used in industries such as telecommunications and set-top television receivers.

A partially functional pre-alpha version of Workplace OS was demonstrated at Comdex, where a bemused [[Bill Gates]] stopped by the booth. The second and last time it would be shown in public was at an OS/2 user group in [[Phoenix, Arizona]]; the pre-alpha code refused to boot.

It was released in 1995. But with $990 million being spent per year on development of this as well as Workplace OS, and no possible profit or widespread adoption, the end of the entire Workplace OS and OS/2 product line was near.