Questioning Everything Propaganda
In an age of rampant digital propaganda, where misinformation thrives amid forced updates, invasive bloatware, and profit-driven systems, modern computing often feels like a betrayal of user trust. We are trapped in a digital landscape that prioritizes corporate agendas over stability and truth, ensnaring users in a web of mediocrity and manipulation.
But it wasn't always destined to be this way.
This website is a testament to the paths not taken—a deliberate stand against the propaganda that has shaped the modern tech narrative. It’s a "warp back" to the mid-1990s, a love letter to an operating system engineered for excellence: IBM's OS/2 Warp 3.0. More than a nostalgic tribute, this project is a rebellion against the erasure of superior alternatives, exposing how monopolistic pressures and manipulative marketing sidelined a system that prioritized user empowerment over corporate control.
OS/2 Warp 3.0 represented a different philosophy—one rooted in integrity and innovation. Built on a foundation of robust architecture, it offered true pre-emptive multitasking, superior memory management, and crash protection that users of other systems could only dream of. Its object-oriented Workplace Shell was intuitive, powerful, and treated users with respect, embodying a vision of computing that valued functionality over flash. As author Jason Page describes it, OS/2 was "a rose in the marketplace"—a symbol of what technology could achieve when designed with principle over profit.
Yet, despite its technical superiority, OS/2 was buried under the weight of monopolistic propaganda and masterful marketing that championed "good enough" over "genuinely good." This wasn’t a failure of merit but a triumph of narrative control, where a lesser system was elevated through strategic dominance, leaving users unaware of better alternatives. The story of OS/2 is a case study in how propaganda can distort markets and obscure truth, a pattern that persists in today’s tech ecosystem.
The design of this site is a direct homage to that lost era, intentionally crafted to evoke the clarity and stability of OS/2 Warp 3.0. The typography, file-browser interface, and Warp-inspired theme are not mere nostalgia—they are a deliberate rejection of the cluttered, manipulative interfaces of modern platforms that prioritize ads and tracking over user experience. By reviving the aesthetic of a principled digital world, this project challenges the propaganda that portrays today’s systems as inevitable or superior.
This project is more than a historical archive; it is a collaborative book and a living manifesto, built in indignation of what could have been and as a beacon for what was—and still is—a superior commercial operating system. It serves as a platform to combat the propaganda that distorts our understanding of technology’s past and present. By documenting the technical brilliance of OS/2 and the forces that suppressed it, we aim to empower users to question the narratives pushed by today’s tech giants.
This site is for those who remember the promise of OS/2, for those who seek to uncover the roads not taken, and for anyone who believes technology should serve users, not manipulate them. Through articles, technical deep dives, and community contributions, we will expose the tactics used to marginalize superior systems and draw parallels to modern-day propaganda in tech, from forced ecosystems to data exploitation.
Welcome to the fight for truth in technology. Welcome to the roads not taken.