Why Hobbes OS/2 is shutting down, and what it means for the future of internet archives

Key Takeaways

• The Hobbes OS/2 archive, one of the oldest internet archives, will shut down in a few months.
• Internet Archive and OS2world.com are working to back up the archive and ensure its preservation, but a staple of IBM OS/2 history will be shuttered for good.
• Publicly-funded archives, like Hobbes OS/2, are crucial for preserving internet history, and the 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 for release alongside IBM’s “Personal System,” which it hoped would be a worthy follow-up to the Personal Computer. At the time, everyone was copying the PC, and Microsoft was licensing its software to anyone it could. With the OS/2 software and PS/2 computer, IBM wanted to create something that couldn’t be copied.

While it’s true that OS/2 competed with Windows at one point in time, there’s only one operating system that survives today. Now, the OS/2 operating system and related iterations are stored in New Mexico State University’s Hobbes OS/2 archive. It’s the place to revisit IBM’s rich OS/2 history and access archived software. Archives like these keep older software accessible for enthusiasts and historians alike. The Hobbes OS/2 is far from the only vintage software archive to exist; the Macintosh Repository is one such source for obsolete Macinstosh software.

However, the Hobbes OS/2 archive will be shut down in a few months, and all of its data will be effectively destroyed — at least in its current state under NMSU. Here’s what is happening, what is being done to preserve OS/2 software, and why the shutdown is bad precedent for internet archives.

Why the Hobbes OS/2 archive is shutting down

After over three decades in operation, this archive has just a few months left

Visiting the Hobbes OS/2 archive in 2024 (found at https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/) brings up a new banner message. “After many years of service, hobbes.nmsu.edu will be decommissioned and will no longer be available,” the message reads. “You the user are responsible for downloading any of the files found in this archive if you want them. These files will no longer be available for access or download as of the decommission date.”

It’s hard to pinpoint how long the Hobbes OS/2 archive has been in service, but it spans more than three decades at least. CD-ROMs containing software images from Hobbes OS/2 dated as early as 1992 have been discovered, so the archive predates that. That makes the Hobbes OS/2 archive one of the oldest internet archives still in operation today. There’s rich history surrounding not only the IBM OS/2 operating system, but the related Hobbes OS/2 archive. It’s certainly disappointing to see a staple of internet history disappear, especially one that traces back to the early days of the internet.

In a statement to The Register, a representative for New Mexico University provided an explanation for the Hobbes OS/2 shutdown.

We have made the difficult decision to no longer host these files on hobbes.nmsu.edu. Although I am unable to go into specifics, we had to evaluate our priorities and had to make the difficult decision to discontinue the service. We tried to pick a date far enough out to provide the community time to gather the files and find a new home. It has been fascinating to see the stories people have shared about this server. The NMSU team that is currently supporting [the] server is trying their best to meet the needs of the community. We have provided additional resources for Hobbes as there was a clear spike in traffic after the announcement. If we have additional information, we will update Hobbes.nmsu.edu.

For what it’s worth, NMSU did give the Hobbes OS/2 community plenty of time to back up the archive. It won’t disappear until April 15, 2024, but the site will no longer exist after that date. Still, when a three-decades-old internet archive disappears, it’s a reminder of how quickly parts of the web can be shuttered and lost for good.

What it means for other internet archives

There are already contingencies for making sure Hobbes OS/2 is preserved

Shortly after NMSU announced that Hobbes OS/2 would shut down in April, a few notable faces in computing history committed to preserving the archive. “Nobody should worry about Hobbes,” said Jason Scott, who works on the Internet Archive. “I’ve got Hobbes handled.”

Separately, the OS2world.com community put out a press release a few days later explaining its plan for ensuring that the Hobbes OS/2 archive survives. The site’s president, Roderick Klein, said he is in talks with NMSU to redirect the original Hobbes OS/2 archive to os2site.com. Klein says that aside from individuals backing up the Hobbes OS/2 archive, the internet needs a central source for OS/2 software. In other words, a true replacement for the Hobbes OS/2 archive.

For now, it doesn’t seem like the shutdown of the Hobbes OS/2 archive will result in any pieces of internet history being lost. In fact, the attention that the Hobbes OS/2 shutdown has created will probably result in new work to preserve that history. We can see this in the steps that Internet Archive and OS2world.com have taken to back up the original Hobbes OS/2 archive. However, it is an indication that even staples of the internet are at risk of one day being shuttered.

If publicly-funded archives aren’t safe, what is?

It’s stunning how close pieces of computer history are to being lost forever

There are a lot of costs associated with keeping a software archival database running, and that’s why nonprofit entities often rely on donations and other sources of income to stay afloat. However, it’s disappointing to see a publicly-funded database like Hobbes OS/2 shut down, since those are perhaps the most stable ways of preserving internet history. On a larger scale, the U.S. Library of Congress has been keeping historical records for over 200 years, and has more recently archived computer and internet history. New Mexico State University is undoubtedly a smaller institution, but it’s backed by public funding that could have kept the Hobbes OS/2 archive going.

It all means that impassioned users are the last line of defense before pieces of internet and computer history are gone forever. We’re lucky that, in this case, entities like the Internet Archive and OS2world.com are here to fill the gap that will be left behind when Hobbes OS/2 shuts down. While nearly all of us use great PCs much better than anything from IBM’s OS/2 era, it’s important to keep things like the Hobbes OS/2 archive alive. One of the good ones will be lost this April.