WilliamLam.com

  • About
    • About
    • Privacy
  • VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VKS
  • Homelab
    • Resources
    • Nested Virtualization
  • VMware Nostalgia
  • Apple

Pre-release Microsoft OS/2 2.0 on ESXi

03.16.2024 by William Lam // 19 Comments

While catching up on my RSS news feed over the weekend, I came across an interesting article titled: Ancient pre-release version of OS/2 2.0 discovered, released in VM-friendly packages and of course the VM-friendly packages caught my attention but I had never heard of or used OS/2 before.

From the article, a software archaeologist known as Neozeed shared a pretty unique experience of installing a pre-release version of Microsoft and IBM OS/2 2.0 ...

A software archaeologist known as Neozeed recently shared a pre-release version of OS/2 2.0, an ambitious PC operating system that Microsoft and IBM were developing together in the 1990s before the former decided to pursue the Windows route.

and this was made possible with the use of the free version of VMware Workstation Player, where they had attributed to the speed of Workstation Player:

VMware is incredibly fast, it's the #1 reason why I had done this.

which I thought was a really cool shoutout for VMware Desktop Hypervisor team!

Neozeed also published a complete video for installing and configuring Microsoft OS/2 using Workstation Player for those intersted:

While I do use VMware Fusion for my macOS desktop, I was curious if the OS/2 VM could also run in ESXi (hint: it does) and wanted to see what the steps would be to run this piece of history on the latest ESXi 8.0 Update 2b release 🙂

Step 1 - Download the Internet Archive OS/2 Workstation VM image that was created by Neozeed

Step 2 - Create a new MSoS2-6.78 directory under your ESXi datastore and upload all files (except for the VMDK, it may fail if you are using vSAN storage like I am)

Step 3 - SCP the MSOS2-6.78.vmdk into the same directory where the rest of the configuration files

Step 4 - Next, we need convert the desktop hypervisor VMDK format to one that ESXi by running the following command in the ESXi Shell:

vmkfstools -i MSOS2-6.78.vmdk -d thin MSOS2-6.78-NEW.vmdk

Step 5 - Register the OS/2 VMX file and then attach the newly created VMDK and finally power on the VM!


Note: For the best desktop experience, connect to OS/2 VM using the Standalone VMRC Client.

Categories // ESXi, Workstation Tags // Microsoft, OS/2, workstation

Search

Thank Author

Author

William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

Connect

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • GitHub
  • LinkedIn
  • Mastodon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

Recent

  • Programmatically accessing the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) 05/06/2025
  • Quick Tip - Validating Broadcom Download Token  05/01/2025
  • Supported chipsets for the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling 04/23/2025
  • vCenter Identity Federation with Authelia 04/16/2025
  • vCenter Server Identity Federation with Kanidm 04/10/2025

Advertisment

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Copyright WilliamLam.com © 2025

 

Loading Comments...