From Ernie Smith at tedium.co:
The reasons why the MTA ultimately decided to utilize OS/2 as it digitized some aspects of the subway system mirror the hype surrounding the launch in the early 1990s. But a lot of that conversation and development started years before. Behind the scenes, Microsoft and IBM were working on the next generation of operating systems. While modern tech lore has Gates and Microsoft fleecing IBM over MS-DOS, at the time IBM clearly felt otherwise.
Rather than bemoan lost profits, IBM seemed to recognize a gap in its knowledge and it began the push to develop next-generation operating systems at a fundamental level, at first in partnership with Microsoft. This, almost predictably, worked out for IBM about as well as the MS-DOS deal did. However, in a very narrow window in the late 1980s, executives at the MTA were looking to remove tokens from the subway system and replace them with a prepaid card. The benefits were obvious, allowing for easier fare increases while offering tiered pricing. Riders would now have the option to choose between an individual or round trip option and an unlimited option that covers a set amount of time.
To implement this revolutionary upgrade, the MTA went with a known entity, IBM. At the time, it made a lot of sense.[…] To understand why, you need to understand the timing. Waldhauer continues, “The design is from a time before either Linux or Windows was around. OS/2 would have seemed like a secure choice for the future.”
So for a lack of options, the MTA went with its best one. And it’s worked out for decades, as one of the key software components of a quite complex system.And it might even survive beyond that, according to Waldhauer: “I will go out on a limb and say that as long as MetroCard is accepted in the system, OS/2 will still be running.”
Official support for OS/2 apparently lasted until 2007! Hell of a run IBM.
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