From...

May 6, 1999
Web posted at: 2:38 p.m. EDT (1838 GMT)

by Ed Scannell

(IDG) -- IBM keeps plugging away with its OS/2 graphical operating system, announcing this week an update aimed at electronic commerce.

The new version, scheduled to ship by mid-May, supports Y2K considerations and euro currency--a nod to OS/2's presence in Europe. It also includes the long-promised Journaled File System, which is intended to give users more capacity and better scalability so that they can run e-commerce applications more efficiently, IBM officials say.

In addition, the new OS/2, which was code-named Aurora, features the Network File System for compatibility with Unix clients and the Logical Volume Manager, which gives administrators more flexibility in partitioning hard disks on the fly.

The updated OS/2, like its earlier versions, can support as many as 64 processors. It comes with a copy of IBM's WebSphere Application Server 1.1. Pricing will be announced upon release.

IBM is also upgrading its WorkSpace On-Demand server-managed client OS with The Feature for Windows Clients, IBM representatives say. The upgrade lets administrators boot Windows 95 and 98 and Windows NT 4.0 clients from an OS/2 Warp Server using WorkSpace On-Demand. The Feature for Windows Clients is available to WorkSpace On-Demand customers as an option for $229.