Workplace OS

Workplace OS
OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) 1.0, based on Workplace OS
Developer	IBM
Written in	C, C++
OS family	Universal
Working state	Discontinued
Source model	Closed source, Mach open source
Released to manufacturing	December 15, 1995; 29 years ago (1995-12-15)[1]
Final preview	OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) 1.0 / January 5, 1996; 29 years ago (1996-01-05)[1]
Marketing target	Global
Available in	English
Platforms	PowerPC
Kernel type	Microkernel
Influenced by	Mach kernel, Apple Pink
Default user interface	Workplace Shell
Preceded by	OS/2, AIX, OS/400, others.
Articles in the series
AIM alliance, Taligent, PowerPC

Workplace OS was an IBM project which unsuccessfully attempted to replace multiple operating systems with compatibility "personalities" running on top of a Mach-based microkernel.^[2] The intention was that personalities would allow a single machine to run unmodified applications from multiple operating systems such as Unix or OS/2. It was the product of a research program in 1991 which yielded a design named the "Grand Unifying Theory of Systems "(GUTS). The GUTS project evolved into Workplace OS after Apple demonstrated its Pink operating system prototype to IBM's GUTS design team, who incorporated many ideas from Pink into their own design.^[3]

Workplace OS was intended to improve software portability and maintenance costs by recruiting all operating system vendors to convert their products into Workplace OS personalities. That included Pink when it became Taligent, which was co-developed with Workplace OS. In 1995, IBM reported that "Nearly 20 corporations, universities, and research institutes worldwide have licensed the microkernel, laying the foundation for a completely open microkernel standard."^[4] Workplace OS was at the core of IBM's new strategic direction for the entire company, and was intended as the primary operating system for PowerPC hardware, to allow IBM to effectively compete with the Wintel duopoly.

With protracted development spanning four years and $2 billion (or 0.6% of IBM's revenue for that period), the project suffered development hell characterized by workplace politics, feature creep, and the second-system effect. Many idealistic key assumptions made by IBM architects about software complexity and system performance were never tested until far too late in development, then immediately proven infeasible. In January 1996, the first and only preview of Workplace OS was released under the OS/2 family with the name "OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition)". It was limited to special order by select IBM customers, and had limited functionality compared with the original OS/2 for x86.^[5] The entire Workplace OS platform was discontinued in March due to very low market demand, including that for enterprise PowerPC hardware.

A University of California case study described Workplace OS as both "one of the most significant operating systems software investments of all time" and "one of the largest operating system failures in modern times".^[2]