Arca Noae "Blue Lion" Nearing Release, Letting OS/2 Live On

For those still having OS/2 software to run or just missing the days of OS/2, the software firm Arca Noae that is run by OS/2 veterans is preparing a new installment of the operating system with blessings from IBM.

Arca Noae is preparing this week to release their final beta of ArcaOS 5.0 "Blue Lion"to allow OS/2 software to run on modern hardware. Blue Lion can run on modern devices with USB support, AHCI / SATA, and other modern hardware compared to when OS/2 development ended in the late 90's. The final/GA release of ArcaOS 5.0 is expected soon.

This is a new OS/2-based operating system and based on IBM's last release of OS/2 Warp 4 with support for OS/2, Windows 3.1, and DOS applications. Many Linux applications have also been ported over so there is OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, and other modern software.

Before getting too excited about ArcaOS 5.0, do know that it isn't a free software operating system and the pricing for a personal license will retail for $129 USD or $99 USD within the first 90 days of the release. Though if I happen to snatch up a free license, I'll probably try it out and see if I can get PTS ported to it for running some possible benchmarks.

Those wishing to learn more about the upcoming "Blue Lion" release can visit ArcaNoae.com.