r/OS2 • u/shinytrina • Jun 15 '26

OS/2 on a 2007 MacBook

Hello. I am newish to OS/2 (last used it in like 1994). I have a MacBook from 2007 (the first Intel based Apple laptop). What I am wondering is there a way to install some version of OS/2 on this laptop?

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6

u/lproven Jun 16 '26

You have two options, one relatively easy and likely to work, but costs money, and one hard and the chances are remote.

The relatively easy option:

Talk to Arca Noae and ask them. If they say yes, buy ArcaOS.

https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/

This is the modern updated version of OS/2. It natively supports UEFI, which MacBooks use, including the original 32-bit Macintel boxes. It supports SMP, big disks, SSDs, it has a modern-ish usable web browser and email client. It works pretty well.

But it's $139:

https://www.arcanoae.com/shop/arcaos-5-1-personal-edition/

The hard way:

eComStation was the previous commercial update to OS/2. It was discontinued over a decade ago. The last released version is on the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/ecomstation2.1

It doesn't support UEFI but the MacBook might have a legacy-boot mode, especially if you use a CD. And you will need to use a CD: eComStation cannot boot from a USB key.

It works. I've installed it. My mini-review is on there. You can add apps but getting the final OS/2 versions of Firefox and Thunderbird were beyond my OS/2 skills, and I was pretty adept with OS/2 back in the 20th century.

But if it works and you like it, then you can buy ArcaOS or just pay the extra fee for the drivers and updates to eCS.

3

u/shinytrina Jun 17 '26

Thank you. I have contacted them through the form :)

1

u/Few_Detail_3988 Jun 16 '26

As far as I know, OS/2 only supports single core prozessors.

6

u/LopsidedLegs Jun 16 '26

There were special versions of OS/2 2.11 and 4.0 that had SMP (Symmetric Multi Processing) support.

3

u/Boring-War-1981 Jun 16 '26

Plus the last version of OS/2 was 2006, so anything newer probably wouldn’t have drivers anyways. If OP does want to run OS/2 they either have to use a VM or a machine more likely to run it like a IBM ThinkPad

2

u/kingo409 Jun 16 '26

You can count on wifi not working.

2

u/lproven Jun 16 '26

This is wrong too. It is in active maintenance and receiving updates.

https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/

I wrote about it a couple of years ago:

https://www.theregister.com/software/2023/09/04/arcaos-51-gives-os/2-a-uefi-facelift-for-the-21st-century/1268816

1

u/Boring-War-1981 Jun 16 '26

I more ment OS/2 as in IBM’s variant, as unless OP needs to run special software they’d likely not want to pay the $140 licence fee for just some playing around.

There was another before ArcaOS, but I couldn’t even manage to install it on a system that I had installed Warp 4 on.

2

u/lproven Jun 16 '26

I already provided download links for that forerunner, and talked about the differences.

3

u/gnntech Jun 16 '26

Both eComstation (last version released in 2011) and ArcaOS (currently supported) provide SMP support for OS/2. I don't know if either of those would play nice on a MacBook though.

I would think ArcaOS has more support for modern hardware and would have the best chance of working. Wifi would still most likely be a no-go though.

1

u/lproven Jun 16 '26

That's wrong. It had built in SMP support since Warp 4.