Editing Workplace OS (section)

===Development===
====GUTS====
In January 1991, there was an internal presentation to the IBM Management Committee of a new strategy for operating system products. This included a chart called the Grand Unification Theory of Operating Systems (GUTS) which outlined how a single [[microkernel]] underlying common subsystems could provide a single unifying architecture for the world's many existing and future operating systems. It was initially based in a procedural programming model, not object-oriented.<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|2–3}}<ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/> The design elements of this plan had already been implemented on IBM's [[IBM RS/6000|RS/6000]] platform via the System Object Model (SOM), a model which had already been delivered as integral to the [[OS/2]] operating system.

Sometime later in 1991, as a result of the Apple/IBM business partnership, a small exploratory IBM team first visited the Taligent team, who demonstrated a relatively mature prototype operating system and programming model<ref name="OWCPE book">{{cite book | title=IBM's Official OS/2 Warp Connect PowerPC Edition: Operating in the New Frontier | first1=Ken | last1=Christopher | first2=Scott | last2=Winters | first3=Mary Pollak | last3=Wright | publisher=IDG Books | location=Foster City, CA | date=1995 | isbn=978-1-56884-458-9 | oclc=832595706 }}</ref>{{rp|3}} based entirely on Apple's Pink project from 1987. There, GUTS's goals were greatly impacted and expanded by exposure to these similar goals—especially advanced in the areas of aggressive [[Object-oriented programming|object-orientation]], and of software frameworks upon a microkernel. IBM's optimistic team saw the Pink platform as being the current state of the art of operating system architecture. IBM wanted to adopt Pink's more object-oriented programming model and framework-based system design, and add compatibility with legacy procedural programming along with the major concept of multiple personalities of operating systems, to create the ultimate possible GUTS model.<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|4}}<ref name="n1" group=lower-alpha/>
{{quote box | width=95% | align=center | quote=GUTS defined [theoretical] operating system components similar to Taligent's [already existing] operating environment, only the components [in GUTS] were defined procedurally ... From the concept of shared services and Taligent's concept of object-oriented system frameworks, an object model evolved that represents ''the'' new, faster, and more reliable way of building operating systems. What's more, because procedural and object-oriented components can coexist in a microkernel-based operating system, the evolution to a completely object-oriented world could be staged.<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|3–4}}}}

Through the historic [[AIM alliance]], Apple's CEO [[John Sculley]] said that the already volume-shipping OS/2 and MacOS would become unified upon the common PowerPC hardware platform to "bring a renaissance to the industry".<ref name="too little, too late"/>

In late 1991, a small team from Boca Raton and Austin began implementing the GUTS project, with the goal of proving the GUTS concept, by first converting the monolithic OS/2 2.1 system to the Mach microkernel, and yielding a demo. To gain shared access to key personnel currently working on the existing OS/2, they disguised the project as the Joint Design Task Force and brought "a significant number" of personnel from Boca, Austin (with LANs and performance), Raleigh (with [[Systems Network Architecture|SNA]] and other transport services), IBM Research (with operating systems and performance), and Rochester (with the 64-bit, object-oriented worldview from [[AS/400]]). Pleased with the robust, long-term mentality of the microkernel technology and with the progress of the project, the team produced a prototype in mid 1992.<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|4}}<ref name="n2" group=lower-alpha/><ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/> The initial internal-development prototypes ran on x86-based hardware and provided a [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD Unix]] derived personality and a DOS personality.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

====Demos and business reorganization====
At Comdex in late 1992, the team flew in and assembled a private demonstration based on last-minute downloads to replace corrupted files and one hour of sleep. The presentation was so well received that the prototype was put on the trade show floor on Thursday, as the first public demonstration of the IBM Microkernel-based system running OS/2, DOS, 16-bit Windows, and UNIX applications.<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|4–5}}<ref name="n2" group=lower-alpha/><ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/> In 1992, IBM persuaded Taligent to migrate the Taligent OS from its internally developed microkernel named Opus, onto the IBM Microkernel.<ref name="Half an operating system">{{cite web | title=Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2 | date=November 24, 2013 | first=Jeremy | last=Reimer | publisher=Ars Technica | url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/half-an-operating-system-the-triumph-and-tragedy-of-os2/5/ | access-date=February 12, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Inside Taligent Technology">{{cite book |first1=Sean |last1=Cotter | first2=Mike | last2=Potel |url=http://www.wildcrest.com/Potel/Portfolio/InsideTaligentTechnology/WW11.htm |title=Inside Taligent Technology |publisher=Addison-Wesley |date=1995 | isbn=0-201-40970-4 | oclc=1072525751 | access-date=February 10, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|xiii}}<ref name="Why did Taligent fail">{{cite web | title=Why did Taligent fail? | url=https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Taligent-fail | access-date=January 31, 2019}}</ref> Ostensibly, this would have allowed Taligent's operating system (implemented as a Workplace OS personality) to execute side-by-side with DOS and OS/2 operating system personalities.<ref name="Transforming Your Business">{{cite book | title=Transforming Your Business With Object Technology | publisher=IBM | date=November 1993 | location=Austin, TX | url=https://archive.org/details/IBMTaligent/ | page=15 | access-date=February 9, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|14–15}}

In 1993, ''InfoWorld'' reported that Jim Cannavino "has gone around the company and developer support for a plan to merge all of the company's computing platforms—[[IBM_System/390#ES/9000|ES/9000]], AS/400, RS/6000, and [[PS/2]]—around a single set of technologies, namely the PowerPC microprocessor, the Workplace OS operating system, and the Taligent object model, along with a series of open standards for cross-platform development, network interoperability, etc."<ref name="Infoworld Nov 15, 1993"/>{{rp|5}} On June 30, 1993, a presentation was given at the Boca Programming Center by Larry Loucks, IBM Fellow and VP of Software Architecture of the Personal Software Products (PSP) Division.<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|17}}

{{quote box | width=25% | align=right | quote=We have not closed discussion on [Mac OS support]. We're talking with Apple about including the Macintosh OS as one of the personalities in the microkernel. | author=—Lois Dimpfel, IBM's Director of Personal Operating Systems, November 1993<ref name="Dimpfel"/>}}
By 1993, IBM reportedly planned two packages of Workplace OS, based on personality dominance: one based on the OS/2 Workplace Shell<ref name="OS/2 PPC"/> and another based upon the UNIX Common Desktop Environment (CDE).<ref name="Windows NT and Workplace OS"/> IBM and Apple were speaking about the possibility of a Mac OS personality.<ref name="Dimpfel"/>

By January 1994, the IBM Power Personal Systems Division had still not yet begun testing its PowerPC hardware with any of its three intended launch operating systems: definitely AIX and [[Windows NT]], and hopefully also Workplace OS.<ref name="Apple, IBM"/> Software demonstrations showed limited personality support, with the dominant one being the OS/2 Workplace Shell desktop, and the DOS and UNIX personalities achieving only fullscreen text mode support with crude hotkey switching between the environments.<ref name="Windows NT and Workplace OS"/> ''Byte'' reported that the multiple personality support promised in Workplace OS's conceptual ambitions was more straightforward, foundational, and robust than that of the already-shipping Windows NT. The magazine said "IBM is pursuing multiple personalities, while Microsoft appears to be discarding them" while conceding that "it's easier to create a robust plan than a working operating system with robust implementations of multiple personalities".<ref name="Windows NT and Workplace OS"/>

In 1994, the industry was reportedly shifting away from monolithic development and even application suites, toward object-oriented, component-based, crossplatform, application frameworks.<ref name="Industry turning to components">{{cite magazine | magazine=ComputerWorld | first1=Ed | last1=Scannell | first2=William | last2=Brandel | title=Industry turning to components | page=1 | date=April 11, 1994 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j7EPRo-7juEC&pg=PA14 | access-date=February 13, 2019}}</ref>

By 1995, Workplace OS was becoming notable for its many and repeated launch delays, with IBM described as being inconsistent and "wishy washy" with dates. This left IBM's own PowerPC hardware products without a mainstream operating system, forcing the company to at least consider the rival Windows NT.<ref name="IBM ponders NT bundle">{{cite magazine | magazine=[[InfoWorld]] | date=June 5, 1995 | first=Ed | last=Scannell | title=IBM ponders NT bundle for PowerPC line | page=35 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=IBM+ponders&pg=PA35 | access-date=February 8, 2019}}</ref><ref name="too little, too late"/> In April 1994, ''Byte'' reported that under lead architect Paul Giangarra,<ref name="Windows NT and Workplace OS"/> IBM had staffed more than "400 people working to bring [Workplace OS] up on Power Personal hardware".<ref name="Apple, IBM"/>

In May 1994, the RISC Systems software division publicly announced IBM's first attempt to even study the feasibility of converting AIX into a Workplace OS personality, which the company had been publicly promising since the beginning. One IBM Research Fellow led a team of fewer than ten, to identify and address the problem. The team defined the AIX personality problem as being the fundamentally incompatible [[endianness|byte ordering]] between the big-endian AIX and the [[little-endian]] Workplace OS. This problem is endemic, because though the PowerPC CPU and Workplace OS can perform in either mode,<ref name="Life After Maximum Entropy"/> endianness is a systemwide configuration set once at boot time only; and Workplace OS favors OS/2 which comes from the little-endian Intel [[x86]] architecture. After seven months of silence on the issue, IBM announced in January 1995 that the intractable endianness problem had resulted in the total abandonment of the flagship plan for an AIX personality.<ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/>{{rp|19}}

In 1994, a proposal was made to reimplement OS/400 as a Workplace OS personality. This came at a point where the port of OS/400 to PowerPC was close to completion, but work to add 64-bit addressing and multiuser support to the IBM Microkernel had only begun. [[IBM Rochester]] ruled out delaying the PowerPC port to wait for Workplace OS to catch up, preferring a plan to incorporate the IBM Microkernel into the OS/400 [[IBM i#SLIC|SLIC]] when it was ready, allowing Workplace OS personalities to run on top of OS/400. By late 1994, as Workplace OS became increasingly focused on OS/2, the Workplace OS team proposed a new plan known as "Harmony" — which would replace OS/400 by adding a compatibility layer to Workplace OS, and requiring new applications to target OS/2 APIs. This proposal was poorly received by IBM Rochester, who withdrew all support for Workplace OS soon after.<ref>{{cite book| title=Inside the AS/400, Second Edition| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5DoPAAAACAAJ| isbn=978-1882419661| author=Frank G. Soltis| year=1997| publisher=Duke Press}}</ref>

In late 1994, as Workplace OS approached its first beta version, IBM referred to the beta product as "OS/2 for the PowerPC".<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|1}}<ref name="Just Good Old OS/2">{{cite web | title=Workplace OS/2: Just Good Old OS/2... For the PowerPC! | publisher=IBM | first1=Scott | last1=Winters | first2=Jeri | last2=Dube | url=http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Workplace_OS/2:_Just_Good_Old_OS/2…_For_the_PowerPC! | access-date=March 5, 2019}}</ref> As the project's first deliverable product, this first beta was released to select developers on the Power Series 440 in December 1994.<ref name="OS/2 for PowerPC Tidbits">{{cite web | title=OS/2 for PowerPC Tidbits | publisher=OS/2 Museum | date=November 16, 2012 | first=Michal | last=Necasek | url=http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-for-powerpc-tidbits/ | access-date=February 5, 2019}}</ref> A second beta was released in 1995.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} By 1995, IBM had shipped two different releases of an application sampler CD for the beta OS.<ref name="DSN Issue 18">{{cite magazine | magazine=Developer Support News | date=November 22, 1995 | issue=18 | title=Developer Support News | url=https://public.dhe.ibm.com/rs6000/developer/library/dsnews/dsn5r.asc | access-date=February 6, 2019}}</ref>

====Preview launch====
In mid 1995, IBM officially named its planned initial Workplace OS release "OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition)"<ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|1,375}} with the [[codename]] "Falcon".<ref name="OS/2 Beta FAQ"/> In October 1995, IBM announced the upcoming first release, though still a developer preview. The announcement predicted it to have version 1.0 of the IBM Microkernel with the OS/2 personality and a new UNIX personality, on PowerPC. Having been part of the earliest demonstrations, the UNIX personality was now intended to be offered to customers as a holdover due to the nonexistence of a long-awaited AIX personality, but the UNIX personality was also abandoned prior to release.<ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/>

This developer release is the first ever publication of Workplace OS, and of the IBM Microkernel (at version 1.0), which IBM's internal developers had been running privately on Intel and PowerPC hardware. The [[Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM)|gold master]] was produced on December 15, 1995 with availability on January 5, 1996,<ref name="OS/2 Beta FAQ"/> only to existing Power Series hardware customers who paid $215<ref name="OS/2 Beta FAQ">{{cite web | title=Unofficial OS/2 Beta FAQ Appendix v 0.20 | date=April 10, 1997 | publisher=Stardock | url=https://www.stardock.com/temp/kwilas/appendix.htm#Historical | access-date=February 5, 2019}}</ref> for a special product request through their IBM representative, who then relayed the request to the Austin research laboratory.<ref name="too little, too late"/> The software essentially appears to the user as the visually identical and source-compatible PowerPC equivalent of the mainstream OS/2 3.0 for Intel.<ref name="Just Good Old OS/2"/><ref name="OWCPE book"/>{{rp|2}} Packaged as two CDs with no box, its accompanying overview paper booklet calls it the "final edition"<ref name="Overview booklet">{{cite book | title=The OS/2 Warp (PowerPC Edition) Overview | publisher=IBM | date=December 1995 | type=booklet | url=http://www.os2museum.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/OS2-PPC-Overview.pdf | access-date=February 5, 2019}}</ref> but it is still a very incomplete product intended only for developers. Its installer only supports two computer models, the [[IBM PC Series#PC Power Series|IBM PC Power Series]] 830 and 850 which have [[PowerPC 604]] CPUs of {{nowrap|100-120 MHz}}, {{nowrap|16-196 MB}} of RAM, and [[integrated drive electronics|IDE]] drives. Contrary to the product's "Connect" name, the installed operating system has no networking support. However, full networking functionality is described within the installed documentation files, and in the related book ''IBM's Official OS/2 Warp Connect PowerPC Edition: Operating in the New Frontier'' (1995) — all of which the product's paper booklet warns the user to disregard. The kernel dumps debugging data to the serial console.<ref name="OS/2 for PowerPC Tidbits"/><ref name="OS/2 on ThinkPad 850">{{cite web | title=OS/2 on ThinkPad 850 | date=September 27, 2013 | publisher=OS/2 Museum | first=Michal | last=Necasek | url=http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-on-thinkpad-850/ | access-date=February 6, 2019}}</ref> The system hosts no [[compiler]], so developers are required to [[cross compiler|cross-compile]] applications on the [[source-compatible]] OS/2 for Intel system, using MetaWare’s High C compiler or VisualAge C++, and manually copy the files via relocatable medium to run them.<ref name="OS/2 for PowerPC Tidbits"/>

With an officially concessionary attitude, IBM had no official plans for a general release packaged for OEMs or retail, beyond this developer preview available only via special order from the development lab. Upon its launch, Joe Stunkard, spokesman for IBM's Personal Systems Products division, said "When and if the Power market increases, we'll increase the operating system's presence as required."<ref name="too little, too late"/> On January 26, 1996, an Internet forum statement was made by John Soyring, IBM's Vice President of Personal Software Products: "We are not planning additional releases of the OS/2 Warp family on the PowerPC platform during 1996 — as we ''just'' released in late December 1995 the OS/2 Warp (PowerPC Edition) product. ... We have just not announced future releases on the PowerPC platform. In no way should our announcement imply that we are backing away from the PowerPC."<ref name="In no way">{{cite newsgroup | title=IBM Supports OS/2 for PPC, Warp for PC now the focus (WSJ 1/26/96) | first=John | last=Soyring | date=January 26, 1996 | newsgroup=comp.os.os2.advocacy | url=https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.os.os2.advocacy/emnQA0ntZx4/UH6cWvDbApgJ | access-date=February 5, 2019}}</ref><ref name="OS/2 Beta FAQ"/>

====Roadmap====
On November 22, 1995, IBM's developer newsletter said, "Another focus of the 1996 product strategy will be the IBM Microkernel and microkernel-based versions of OS/2 Warp. Nearly 20 corporations, universities, and research institutes worldwide have licensed the microkernel, laying the foundation for a completely open microkernel standard." IBM planned a second feature-parity release for [[x86]] and [[PowerPC]] in 1996,<ref name="DSN Issue 18"/> and version 2.0 of the microkernel was "distributed to microkernel adopters" early that year.<ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/>{{rp|19}} This version was described as final, with support for x86 and ARM processors.<ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/>{{rp|22}} IBM reportedly tested OS/2 on the never-released x86-compatible [[PowerPC 600#PowerPC 615|PowerPC 615]].<ref name="Microsoft killed">{{cite web | title=Microsoft killed the PowerPC 615 | publisher=The Register | date=October 1, 1998 | author=Staff | url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/1998/10/01/microsoft_killed_the_powerpc/ | access-date=February 8, 2019}}</ref>

At this point, the several-year future roadmap of Workplace OS included IBM Microkernel 2.0 and was intended to subsume the fully converged future of the OS/2 platform starting after the future release of OS/2 version 4, including ports to [[Pentium (original)|Pentium]], [[Pentium Pro]], [[MIPS architecture|MIPS]], ARM, and [[DEC Alpha|Alpha]] CPUs.<ref name="WorkplaceMicrokernelandOS"/>