Editing OS/2 (section)

===2001–present: Third-party development{{anchor|Third-party development}}===

{{Main|eComStation|ArcaOS}}

[[File:ArcaOS_5.0_Screenshot.png|thumb|ArcaOS is the most recent OS/2-based operating system developed outside of IBM.|260x260px]]

After IBM discontinued development of OS/2, various third parties approached IBM to take over future development of the operating system. The OS/2 software vendor [[Stardock]] made such a proposal to IBM in 1999, but it was not followed through by the company.<ref name="dan">Dan Casey: [http://www.man.lodz.pl/LISTY/OS2/1999/09/0319.html OS/2 Voice Press Release] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008092813/http://www.man.lodz.pl/LISTY/OS2/1999/09/0319.html |date=2011-10-08 }} - 21 Sept 1999.</ref> Serenity Systems succeeded in negotiating an agreement with IBM, and began reselling OS/2 as eComStation in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/OS/2,_ArcaOS_and_eComStation_Versions_and_Languages|access-date=2020-08-24|title=OS/2, ArcaOS and eComStation Versions and Languages}}</ref> eComStation is now sold by XEU.com, the most recent version (2.1) was released in 2011.<ref name="v21release">{{cite web |url=http://www.ecomstation.com/news.phtml?action=fullnews&id=3698&title=eComStation%202.1%20GA%20available |title=News :: eComStation 2.1 GA available |website=eComStation.com |access-date=2013-03-20 |archive-date=2013-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512053520/http://www.ecomstation.com/news.phtml?action=fullnews&id=3698&title=eComStation%202.1%20GA%20available |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2015, Arca Noae, LLC announced that they had secured an agreement with IBM to resell OS/2.<ref name="Blue Lion 1st Article" /> They released the first version of their OS/2-based operating system in 2017 as ArcaOS.<ref name="arcaos-release" /> As of 2023, there have been multiple releases of ArcaOS, and it remains under active development.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.arcanoae.com/roadmaps/arcaos/|access-date=2023-10-21|title=Roadmap: ArcaOS|website=arcanoae.com|date=2023-09-02}}</ref>

====Petitions for open source====
Many people hoped that IBM would release OS/2 or a significant part of it as [[open-source software|open source]]. Petitions were held in 2005 and 2007, but IBM refused them, citing legal and technical reasons.<ref>{{cite web| title=Slashdot: IBM Won't Open-Source OS/2| date=22 January 2008 |url=http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/22/0258213 }}</ref> It is unlikely that the entire OS will be open at any point in the future because it contains third-party code to which IBM does not have copyright, and much of this code is from Microsoft. IBM also once engaged in a technology transfer with [[Commodore International|Commodore]], licensing [[Amiga]] technology for OS/2 2.0 and above, in exchange for the [[Rexx|REXX]] scripting language.<ref name=HistoryOS2BBS>{{cite web|title=OS/2 Warp History|url=http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/OS2Warp.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127122310/http://www.os2bbs.com/os2news/OS2Warp.html|archive-date=January 27, 2013|access-date=April 9, 2013}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=October 2021}} This means that OS/2 may have some code that was not written by IBM, which can therefore prevent the OS from being re-announced as open-sourced in the future.<ref>{{cite web|title=IBM OS/2 Warp History|date=2004-06-24|url=http://www.os2world.com/content/view/15847/1/|access-date=2008-09-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919095144/http://www.os2world.com/content/view/15847/1/|archive-date=2008-09-19|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=June 2011}}<ref>The Art of Unix Programming p. 66 {{ISBN|0-13-142901-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-13-142901-7}}</ref> On the other hand, [[IBM]] donated [[Object REXX]] for Windows and OS/2 to the ''Open Object REXX'' project maintained by the ''REXX Language Association'' on [[SourceForge]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oorexx.org/faq/ |title=Open Object REXX FAQ |access-date=2011-07-05}}</ref>

There was a petition, arranged by OS2World, to open parts of the OS. Open source operating systems such as [[Linux]] have already profited from OS/2 indirectly through IBM's release of the improved [[JFS (file system)|JFS]] [[file system]], which was ported from the OS/2 code base. As IBM didn't release the source of the OS/2 JFS driver, developers ported the Linux driver back to eComStation and added the functionality to boot from a JFS partition. This new JFS driver has been integrated into eComStation v2.0, and later into ArcaOS 5.0.