Editing Workplace OS (section)

====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"/>