Q: What now-defunct operating system has triggered a worldwide petition of more than 11,000 people asking the vendor for the source code?
A: IBM’s OS/2. A petition with over 11,613 signatures has been sent to IBM requesting that Big Blue release the source code of its defunct OS/2 Warp operating system. 
The Sweden-based OS2 World Foundation compiled the signatures and sent the letter to many of the Armonk, NY-based computer manufacturer’s top executives including IBM President and CEO Sam Palmisano. The petition, which was sent in November, was the second attempt by the OS2 user community to get an open source version of the operating system after its first attempt was not answered by IBM in 2005.
At the very least, according to OS2 World’s founder Kim Haverblad, the community would like the source code that IBM itself owns. The operating system has been unsupported since the end of 2006; however, its features have been frozen since 1996.
*ITWorld Canada
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