ArcaOS

Last updated
ArcaOS
Arcaos-logo.png
ArcaOS 5.0 Screenshot.png
ArcaOS 5.0.5 desktop
Developer Arca Noae, LLC (based on code from IBM, Microsoft, and other developers)
Written in C, C++, REXX, Java, assembly language
OS family OS/2
Working stateCurrent
Source model Closed source with open-source components
Initial releaseMay 15, 2017;7 years ago (2017-05-15) [1]
Latest release 5.1.0 / August 27, 2023;10 months ago (2023-08-27) [2]
Package manager ANPM (based on RPM and YUM)
Platforms 32-bit x86
Kernel type Hybrid kernel
Default
user interface
Workplace Shell, cmd
License Proprietary software
Official website www.arcanoae.com

ArcaOS is an operating system based on OS/2, developed and marketed by Arca Noae, LLC under license from IBM. [3] [4] It was codenamed Blue Lion during its development. [5] It builds on OS/2 Warp 4.52 by adding support for new hardware, fixing defects and limitations in the operating system, and by including new applications and tools, [6] and includes some Linux/Unix tool compatibility. It is targeted at professional users who need to run their OS/2 applications on new hardware, as well as personal users of OS/2. [7]

Contents

Like OS/2 Warp, ArcaOS is a 32-bit [8] single user, multiprocessing, [9] preemptive multitasking [10] operating system for the x86 architecture. [11] It is supported on both physical hardware [12] and virtual machine hypervisors. [13]

Features

Hardware compatibility

ArcaOS supports symmetric multiprocessing systems with up to 64 processor cores, although it is recommended to disable hyperthreading. [9] As of version 5.0.8, ArcaOS is ACPI 6.1-compliant and includes the 20220331 release of ACPICA. [14]

While ArcaOS is a 32-bit operating system, it has limited PAE support which allows it to use RAM in excess of 4GB as a RAM disk. [7]

ArcaOS supports being run as a virtual machine guest inside VirtualBox, VMware ESXi, VMWare Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC. [13]

In addition to the device drivers included with OS/2 Warp 4, ArcaOS includes a variety of drivers developed by Arca Noae, and various third parties:

Software

Some of the open source software included with ArcaOS - Firefox, Lucide, 4OS2, PMDCalc Plus Arcaos-5.0-apps.png
Some of the open source software included with ArcaOS - Firefox, Lucide, 4OS2, PMDCalc Plus

In addition to the software bundled with OS/2 Warp 4, ArcaOS includes some additional software, such as: [26] [27] [28]

Cross-platform compatibility

Some of the compatibility subsystems in ArcaOS - a Bash shell (bottom left), QBASIC in a DOS window (middle), and the Windows 3.1 Program Manager (top right) Arcaos-5.0-compatibility.png
Some of the compatibility subsystems in ArcaOS - a Bash shell (bottom left), QBASIC in a DOS window (middle), and the Windows 3.1 Program Manager (top right)

ArcaOS includes a number of software components which allow it to directly run software developed for other operating systems, and to simplify the process of porting software to ArcaOS:

Filesystems

ArcaOS's default filesystem is JFS, although HPFS is also supported for backwards compatibility. [36] ArcaOS may be installed to and booted from either filesystem. [37]

FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 are also supported using either the OS/2 kernel's own FAT driver, or a new Arca Noae-developed FAT32 IFS driver, included in ArcaOS since version 5.0.3. [38] ArcaOS includes support for optical disc filesystems such as ISO 9660 and UDF. [39]

ArcaOS supports serving and accessing CIFS/SMB shares using the open source Samba project, and provides a graphical utility named ArcaMapper to manage configuration. [40]

NetDrive for OS/2 provides access to a variety of additional filesystems such as NTFS and NFS via its own IFS driver. [41] [42] The ArcaOS distribution includes a limited license version of NetDrive but the fully licensed version is capable of mounting a number of other local, native, and foreign file systems. [43]

Installation and updates

The hardware configuration screen from the ArcaOS installer Arcaos-5.0-installer.png
The hardware configuration screen from the ArcaOS installer

ArcaOS features a new graphical installer which replaces the IBM installer used in OS/2 Warp. [44] Unlike OS/2, the ArcaOS installation process does not require a boot floppy, and instead the installer can be booted directly from optical media, or from a USB flash drive. [45] The installer also provides an update facility, which allows ArcaOS to be updated to the latest release without reinstalling the entire operating system. [46]

Installation and updates of individual software packages is provided through the Arca Noae Package Manager (ANPM), which consists of a native OS/2 graphical frontend on top of RPM and YUM. [47] Software is provided through a mixture of freely available, and subscription only RPM repositories. [48]

Hardware requirements

The minimum hardware requirements for ArcaOS 5.1 are as follows: [11]

Processor Intel Pentium Pro or AMD K6
Memory (RAM) 256MB minimum

2GB recommended

Graphics card VGA video card with VBE 2.0 support [49]
Storage space2GB of available disk space
Removable media Installation requires DVD-ROM drive or USB flash drive
Firmware Traditional BIOS, UEFI, or UEFI with CSM.
Input devices PS/2 or USB keyboard and mouse

History

Blue Lion

ArcaOS was formally announced on October 23, 2015, at the Warpstock 2015 event (an OS/2 user group event) under the code name "Blue Lion" by Arca Noae's Managing Member, Lewis Rosenthal. [4] [5]

Some of the planned features for Blue Lion announced at the time were: [4]

ArcaOS 5.0

The name "ArcaOS" was first published in a TechRepublic article [52] on May 26, 2016, while the arcaos.com domain was registered December 20, 2015. In the same TechRepublic article, Lewis Rosenthal was quoted as saying that the first release of ArcaOS would be version 5.0, as it follows onto the last release of OS/2 Warp from IBM, which was 4.52 (also known as Merlin Convenience Pack 2, or MCP2). [53]

ArcaOS 5.0 was released May 15, 2017. [1] There were two editions released: a commercial edition, intended for enterprise use (including 12 months of upgraded/prioritized technical support), and a personal edition, targeted at non-business users (including six months of standard technical support) at a reduced price. [54] Pricing was listed as $229 per license for the commercial edition, and $129 per license for the personal edition, with $99 promotional price in effect for the first 90 days following release.

ArcaOS 5.0 was followed by a number of maintenance releases between 2017 and 2023. In addition to bug fixes and driver updates, the maintenance releases added some significant features such as USB 3.0 support, support for NVMe drives, the ability to install from a USB drive, and the update facility. [28]

ArcaOS 5.1

Prior to the release of ArcaOS 5.0, ArcaOS 5.1 was originally planned for release in 2017 with a focus on supporting other languages including French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Dutch. [52] Following the release of ArcaOS 5.0, Arca Noae began discussing a 5.1 release in their roadmaps, along with proposed new features. [55] ArcaOS 5.1.0 was released on August 27, 2023, adding support for booting on UEFI Class 3 systems, and support for GUID partition tables — allowing for disks larger than OS/2's previous 2TB size limit. [56]

Other features which have been proposed for the 5.1.x releases include:

Release history

ArcaOS releases
ReleaseDateMajor changes [28] [61]
5.02017-05-15 [1] First public release of ArcaOS
5.0.12017-07-09 [62] Installer fixes and driver updates
5.0.22018-02-10 [63] Added ability to boot from USB media
5.0.32018-08-19 [64] Updates to software and drivers
5.0.42019-07-21 [65] Update facility which allows ArcaOS to updated without reinstalling
5.0.52020-06-06 [19] USB 3.0/xHCI support
5.0.62020-08-31 [66] Installer fixes and updates
5.0.72021-12-07 [67] NVMe driver
5.0.82023-06-01 [68] Support for NVMe drives in installer and preboot environment
5.1.02023-08-27 [2] Support for UEFI Class 3 hardware, and GPT partitions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OS/2</span> Operating system from IBM

OS/2 is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 relative to Microsoft's new Windows 3.1 operating environment, the two companies severed the relationship in 1992 and OS/2 development fell to IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2", because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 (PS/2)" line of second-generation personal computers. The first version of OS/2 was initially released in December 1987, and newer versions were released until December 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FreeDOS</span> Open source clone of MS-DOS

FreeDOS is a free software operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. It intends to provide a complete MS-DOS-compatible environment for running legacy software and supporting embedded systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knoppix</span> Linux operating system

Knoppix, stylized KNOPPIX, is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD or a USB flash drive. It was first released in 2000 by German Linux consultant Klaus Knopper, and was one of the first popular live distributions. Knoppix is loaded from the removable medium and decompressed into a RAM drive. The decompression is transparent and on-the-fly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USB flash drive</span> Data storage device

A flash drive is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and usually weighs less than 30 g (1 oz). Since first offered for sale in late 2000, the storage capacities of USB drives range from 8 to 256 gigabytes (GB), 512 GB and 1 terabyte (TB). As of 2023, 2 TB flash drives were the largest currently in production. Some allow up to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the exact type of memory chip used, and are thought to physically last between 10 and 100 years under normal circumstances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multi-booting</span> Act of installing multiple operating systems on a single computer

Multi-booting is the act of installing multiple operating systems on a single computer, and being able to choose which one to boot. The term dual-booting refers to the common configuration of specifically two operating systems. Multi-booting may require a custom boot loader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PCLinuxOS</span> Linux distribution

PCLinuxOS, often shortened to PCLOS, is a rolling release Linux distribution for x86-64 computers, with KDE Plasma, MATE, and XFCE as its default user interfaces. It is a primarily FOSS operating system for personal computers aimed at ease of use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ESET NOD32</span> Computer protection software

ESET NOD32 Antivirus, commonly known as NOD32, is an antivirus software package made by the Slovak company ESET. ESET NOD32 Antivirus is sold in two editions, Home Edition and Business Edition. The Business Edition packages add ESET Remote Administrator allowing for server deployment and management, mirroring of threat signature database updates and the ability to install on Microsoft Windows Server operating systems.

The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the register-level interface of Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers in a non-implementation-specific manner in its motherboard chipsets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USB mass storage device class</span> USB device class for drives

The USB mass storage device class is a set of computing communications protocols, specifically a USB Device Class, defined by the USB Implementers Forum that makes a USB device accessible to a host computing device and enables file transfers between the host and the USB device. To a host, the USB device acts as an external hard drive; the protocol set interfaces with a number of storage devices.

Virtual DOS machines (VDM) refer to a technology that allows running 16-bit/32-bit DOS and 16-bit Windows programs when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware.

eComStation Operating system

eComStation or eCS is an operating system based on OS/2 Warp for the 32-bit x86 architecture. It was originally developed by Serenity Systems and Mensys BV under license from IBM. It includes additional applications, and support for new hardware which were not present in OS/2 Warp. It is intended to allow OS/2 applications to run on modern hardware, and is used by a number of large organizations for this purpose. By 2014, approximately thirty to forty thousand licenses of eComStation had been sold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U3 (software)</span>

U3 was a joint venture between SanDisk and M-Systems, producing a proprietary method of launching Windows software from special USB flash drives. Flash drives adhering to the U3 specification are termed "U3 smart drives". U3 smart drives come preinstalled with the U3 Launchpad. Applications that comply with U3 specifications are allowed to write files or registry information to the host computer, but they must remove this information when the flash drive is ejected. Customizations and settings are instead stored with the application on the flash drive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar (desktop environment)</span> Free desktop environment based on GTK+

Sugar is a free and open-source desktop environment designed for interactive learning by children. It was developed by SugarLabs. Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, Sugar was the default interface on OLPC XO-1 laptop computers. The OLPC XO-1.5 and later provided the option of either the Gnome or Sugar interfaces.

The USB video device class is a USB device class that describes devices capable of streaming video like webcams, digital camcorders, transcoders, analog video converters and still-image cameras.

OtherOS is a feature of early versions of the PlayStation 3 video game console, allowing user installed software, such as Linux or FreeBSD. The feature was removed since system firmware update 3.21, released on April 1, 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VirtualBox</span> Open-source x86 virtualization application

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a hosted hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation. VirtualBox was originally created by InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DisplayLink</span> American semiconductor and software technology company

DisplayLink is a semiconductor and software technology company owned by Synaptics. The company specializes in developing DisplayLink USB graphics technology, which facilitates connections between computers and displays via USB, Ethernet, and WiFi. Additionally, it supports the connection of multiple displays to a single computer.

NVM Express (NVMe) or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS) is an open, logical-device interface specification for accessing a computer's non-volatile storage media usually attached via the PCI Express bus. The initial NVM stands for non-volatile memory, which is often NAND flash memory that comes in several physical form factors, including solid-state drives (SSDs), PCIe add-in cards, and M.2 cards, the successor to mSATA cards. NVM Express, as a logical-device interface, has been designed to capitalize on the low latency and internal parallelism of solid-state storage devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AmigaOS 4 version history</span>

A new version of AmigaOS was released on December 24, 2006 after five years of development by Hyperion Entertainment (Belgium) under license from Amiga, Inc. for AmigaOne registered users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Purism (company)</span> Computer manufacturer focusing on software freedom

Purism, SPC is an American computer technology corporation based in San Francisco, California and registered in the state of Washington.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "ArcaOS 5.0 release announcement". Arca Noae. 2017-05-15. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  2. 1 2 "ArcaOS 5.1.0 now available". arcanoae.com. 2023-08-27. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
  3. "ArcaOS 5.0 from Arca Noae is the new release of OS/2 for the 21st century". arcanoae.com.
  4. 1 2 3 Blue Lion Announcement at Warpstock 2015
  5. 1 2 James Sanders (2015-11-02). "OS/2: Blue Lion to be the next distro of the 28-year-old OS". techrepublic.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-06. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  6. "About ArcaOS" . Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  7. 1 2 3 Lunduke, Bryan (23 May 2017). ""OS/2 Based ArcaOS" - Lunduke Hour - May 23, 2017" via YouTube.
  8. "Do you have plans for a 64-bit ArcaOS?". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
  9. 1 2 "ACPI Driver Requirements". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  10. "Have a glimpse of the new ArcaOS desktop". arcanoae.com. 2017-05-21. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
  11. 1 2 "System Requirements for ArcaOS 5.1". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  12. "Tested Hardware" . Retrieved 2020-09-05.
  13. 1 2 "Virtual Machine Configuration" . Retrieved 2020-09-05.
  14. "Readme for the ACPI Driver Package". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  15. Arca Noae wiki: MultiMac NIC Drivers
  16. Project: Generic MAC Wrapper Driver (GenMac)
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Warpstock Europe Conference 2020 - Day 2". youtube.com. 2020-05-17. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  18. "Arca Noae progress report: USB, ArcaOS updater, multimedia". arcanoae.com. 2019-10-16. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  19. 1 2 "ArcaOS 5.0.5 now available". arcanoae.com. 6 June 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  20. "Arca Noae wiki: Uniaud - Audio subsystem". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  21. Arca Noae wiki: Panorama Video Driver
  22. Arca Noae wiki: Arca Noae SNAP Graphics for OS/2
  23. "How can I tell if my current disk drive is compatible with ArcaOS?". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  24. "NVME Driver version 1.01 released". os2world.com. 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  25. "Welcome to eCups". netlabs.org. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  26. "Third Party Work". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  27. "Have a glimpse of the new ArcaOS desktop". arcanoae.com. 21 May 2017. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "ArcaOS 5.0 Changes". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  29. "Getting the most out of DOS and Win-OS/2 sessions". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  30. "Why can't my DOS and Win-OS/2 sessions see more than 2GB of free space?" . Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  31. "Warpstock Europe Conference - Day 1". youtube.com. 2020-05-16. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  32. "Java for OS/2 and OS/2-based systems". trac.netlabs.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  33. "Getting to know the Unix Compatibility Subsystem (kLIBC)". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  34. 1 2 "Compatibility Subsystems" . Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  35. "Lucide Building Instructions". trac.netlabs.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  36. "ArcaOS 5.0 Installation Guide" (PDF). arcanoae.com. May 2017. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  37. "Installation Planning". arcanoae.com. 2020-06-06. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  38. "FAT32 Installable File System Driver" . Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  39. "DVD/UDF". ecsoft2.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  40. "ArcaMapper". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  41. "Network File System (NFS) plugin for NetDrive". ecsoft2.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  42. "NTFS plugin for NetDrive". ecsoft2.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  43. "NetDrive for OS/2". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  44. "Writing the ArcaOS installer". youtube.com. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  45. "What installation media do I need to install ArcaOS? Will it install from diskettes?". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  46. "Updating from a prior release". arcanoae.com. 2020-06-24. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  47. "YUM and RPM package manager update". youtube.com. 2016-05-31. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  48. "Package Manager". arcanoae.com. 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  49. "Panorama". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  50. Shaun Nichols (2015-11-03). "Is the world ready for a bare-metal OS/2 rebirth?". The Register . Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  51. Nick Farrell (2016-05-30). "OS/2 comes back from the dead". Fudzilla. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  52. 1 2 Sanders, James (2016-08-31). "OS/2 resurrected: Blue Lion becomes ArcaOS, details emerge for upcoming release". TechRepublic . Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  53. "OS/2 Timeline". os2museum.com. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  54. Sharwood, Simon (2017-05-19). "What is dead may never die: a new version of OS/2 just arrived". The Register . Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  55. "ArcaOS 5.1 Roadmap" (PDF). warpstock.org. 2017. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  56. Proven, Liam (2023-09-04). "ArcaOS 5.1 gives vintage OS/2 a UEFI facelift for the 21st century". The Register . Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  57. "National Language Support for OS/2". youtube.com. 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  58. 1 2 "Warpstock 2020 - Virtual & Free". youtube.com. 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  59. "Warpstock Europe Conference 2020". youtube.com. 2020-05-17. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  60. Klein, Roderick (2017-10-11). "Sponsorship needed for new OS/2 web browser". articles.os2voice.org. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  61. "ReadMe". arcanoae.com. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  62. "ArcaOS 5.0.1 now available". arcanoae.com. 9 July 2017. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  63. "ArcaOS 5.0.2 now available". arcanoae.com. 11 February 2018. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  64. "ArcaOS 5.0.3 now available". arcanoae.com. 19 August 2018. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  65. "ArcaOS 5.0.4 now available". arcanoae.com. 21 July 2019. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  66. "ArcaOS 5.0.6 now available". arcanoae.com. 31 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  67. "ArcaOS 5.0.7 now available". arcanoae.com. 2021-12-07. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  68. "ArcaOS 5.0.8 now available". arcanoae.com. 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2023-06-02.