OS/2 Warp 3

OS/2 Warp 3
Version of OS/2
OS2Warp3.svg
OS2-Warp3-8.209-Desktop.png
Version3.0
CodenameWarp
Grape (Connect)
Falcon (PowerPC)
Preliminary name
ArchitectureIntel 386 (PC/AT, PC-98), PowerPC
Latest build
Release date1994-10-11
1995-05-16 (Connect)
1996-01-05 (PowerPC)
Support end
Replaces
OS/2 2.11
Replaced by
OS/2 Warp 4

OS/2 Warp 3, also known as OS/2 3.0 or simply OS/2 Warp as it was introduced (or "better DOS than DOS itself" according to IBM), is a version of OS/2 released in October 1994. With its 32-bit Windows NT-like mode as well as backward compatibility with DOS, earlier OS/2, and even Windows applications, it became quite popular for businesses, however Windows NT continued to maintain a large part of the market share, outperforming OS/2. It had its own web browser, called IBM WebExplorer and many applications were developed for it.

This version is available in both the x86 and PowerPC architectures, and is the only version of OS/2 that was developed for the PowerPC architecture. The PowerPC edition of this version is actually a prerelease of IBM's scrapped Workplace OS project, and it uses a Mach-based microkernel with ELF executables (with symbols included).

Unlike OS/2 2.11, there was no release of OS/2 Warp 3 supporting symmetrical multiprocessing. A newer version supporting SMP was not released until OS/2 Warp 4.

An updated version of OS/2 Warp 3 called "OS/2 Warp Connect" was released in 1995, focussing on improvements towards the network capability, making it ready to connect to the Internet.

There are two versions of OS/2 Warp 3. One of them is the Red Spine edition, which does not include Win-OS/2 support, while the Blue Spine edition has that support.

Logo used by Warp Connect

List of known builds[edit | edit source]

OS/2 Warp[edit | edit source]

Beta[edit | edit source]

RTM[edit | edit source]

East Asian Beta[edit | edit source]

East Asian RTM[edit | edit source]

OS/2 Warp Connect[edit | edit source]

Release Candidate[edit | edit source]

RTM[edit | edit source]

East Asian RTM[edit | edit source]