Important points
- The Hobbes OS/2 Archive, one of the oldest Internet archives, will be closed in the next few months.
- While the Internet Archive and OS2world.com are backing up the archive and working to ensure its preservation, this major piece of IBM OS/2 history will be permanently closed.
- Publicly funded archives like Hobbes OS/2 are essential to preserving the history of the Internet, and its closure highlights the vulnerability of such resources.
Before Microsoft’s Windows became the default operating system for PC users, there was IBM’s OS/2. It was designed to be released alongside IBM’s Personal System, with the hope that it would be a suitable successor to Personal Computer. Back then, everyone was copying PCs, and Microsoft was licensing software to everyone it could. Using OS/2 software and PS/2 computers, IBM wanted to create something that could not be copied.
While it’s true that OS/2 briefly competed with Windows, only one operating system survives today. The OS/2 operating system and related iterations are currently housed in the Hobbs OS/2 Archive at New Mexico State University.the of A place to revisit IBM’s rich OS/2 history and access archived software. Such archives make old software accessible to hobbyists and historians alike. Hobbes OS/2 is not the only vintage software archive in existence. The Macintosh Repository is one source of obsolete Macintosh software.
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However, the Hobbes OS/2 Archive will be closed within a few months and all its data will be effectively destroyed, at least in NMSU’s current state. Here we explain what’s going on, what is being done to preserve OS/2 software, and why the shutdown sets a bad precedent for the Internet Archive.
Why the Hobbes OS/2 archive is being closed
After more than 30 years of operation, this archive only has a few months left
When you access the 2024 Hobbes OS/2 archive (located at https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/), you will see a new banner message. “After many years of service, hobbes.nmsu.edu has been deprecated and will no longer be available,” the message reads. “You, the user, are responsible for downloading the files in this archive as appropriate. These files will no longer be accessible or downloadable after the retirement date.”
It is difficult to determine exactly how long the Hobbes OS/2 archive has been in use, but it is at least 30 years. A CD-ROM containing his image of Hobbes OS/2 software was discovered in his 1992 year, making the archive older than that. This makes the Hobbes OS/2 archive one of the oldest Internet archives still in operation. There is a rich history not only with the IBM OS/2 operating system, but also with his associated Hobbes OS/2 archives. It’s certainly a shame to see staples of Internet history disappear, especially those dating back to the early days of the Internet.
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Representatives from the University of New Mexico explained the Hobbs OS/2 shutdown in a statement to the Register.
We have made the difficult decision not to host these files on hobbes.nmsu.edu. I can’t go into details, but we have weighed our priorities and have had to make the difficult decision to discontinue service. We tried to choose a date far enough away to give the community time to collect the files and find a new home. It was very interesting to see the stories people shared about this server.NMSU teams currently supported [the] The server does its best to meet the needs of the community. We provided additional resources to Hobbs because of the apparent spike in traffic following the announcement. We will update Hobbes.nmsu.edu with any additional information.
For what it’s worth, NMSU has given the Hobbes OS/2 community plenty of time to back up their archives. It won’t disappear until April 15, 2024, but the site will no longer exist after that date. Still, the disappearance of the 30-year-old Internet Archive is a reminder of how quickly parts of the web can be shut down and lost forever.
What it means for other Internet archives
There is already an emergency to ensure the preservation of Hobbes OS/2
Shortly after NMSU announced that Hobbes OS/2 would be retired in April, several prominent figures in computing history worked to preserve the archive. “Nobody needs to worry about Hobbes,” said Jason Scott, who works at the Internet Archive. “I was treated to Hobbes.”
Separately, the OS2world.com community issued a press release a few days later outlining their plans to ensure the survival of the Hobbes OS/2 archive. Roderick Klein, the site’s president, said he is in talks with NMSU to redirect the original Hobbs OS/2 archive to os2site.com. Klein says he needs a central source for OS/2 software on the Internet, separate from individuals backing up Hobbs OS/2 archives. In other words, a true replacement for Hobbes OS/2 archives.
So far, it appears that shutting down the Hobbes OS/2 archive does not result in any loss of Internet history. In fact, the attention the Hobbes OS/2 shutdown has generated will likely lead to renewed efforts to preserve its history. This can be seen from the steps the Internet Archive and his OS2world.com took to back up his original Hobbes OS/2 archive. But this shows that even internet staples are at risk of being shut down at some point.
If publicly funded archives are not secure, what is?
It’s amazing how parts of computer history are being lost forever
Software archive databases are expensive to keep running, which is why nonprofit organizations often rely on donations and other sources of income to survive. However, it is disappointing to see publicly funded databases like Hobbes OS/2 shut down. Because they are probably the most stable way to preserve internet history. On a larger scale, the Library of Congress houses over 200 years of his historical records, and more recently archives of the history of computers and the Internet. New Mexico State University is definitely a small university, but it is supported by public funding that would have allowed it to maintain the Hobbs OS/2 archive.
This means passionate users are the last line of defense before a piece of Internet and computer history is lost forever. In this case, we’re lucky that organizations like the Internet Archive and his OS2world.com are here to fill the gap left when Hobbes OS/2 ends. Almost all of us have PCs that are much better than his PC from the IBM OS/2 era, but it’s important to keep things like the Hobbes OS/2 archive alive. One of them will be lost this April.
