Only One Side Will Be the True Successor to MS-DOS – Windows 2.x

Windows 2.x is back in the spotlight in a paired deep-dive with OS/2, reminding everyone it wasn’t a full system—just a pretty shell on top of MS‑DOS—and was even supposed to be Windows’ last hurrah before OS/2 took over. But the comments turned it into a retro royal rumble. One camp planted a flag declaring OS/2 the true successor—“a better Windows than Windows,” cried the faithful—while others dragged nostalgia back to earth, saying DOS felt simple only because life was simple back then. As one realist put it, once you add basic stuff like multiple programs, networking, or safety barriers, “that simplicity doesn’t really hold up.”

There were zingers, too: a salty jab about “microslop” scored upvotes, while a fun-fact cameo dropped that Gabe Newell worked on early Windows and later helped bring Doom to Windows—cue the gamer chorus. And because we’re in GUI Wonderland, a reader even beefed with the page itself: those pre-collapsed sections? “Where’s the text?” The mood: equal parts history lesson, nostalgia therapy, and meme-fueled courtroom. Verdict? The community can’t agree on the rightful heir, but they agree on one thing: this ancient Windows-vs.-OS/2 drama still slaps harder than a startup pitch deck.