Presentation Manager - Definition and Overview

Presentation Manager (PM) was the name given to the Graphical User Interface (GUI) which IBM introduced in version 1.10 of its operating system OS/2 in 1988.

At the time, IBM and Microsoft were collaborating on subsequent version of OS/2; IBM was preparing version 2.0 for the Intel 386 processor, making it the first true 32-bit operating system for personal computers. Microsoft began to develop OS/2 3.0 which was intended to be a network server. However, during 1990, version 3.0 of Windows was beginning to sell, and Microsoft began to lose interest in OS/2.

The companies parted ways, and IBM took over all of subsequent development. Microsoft took with it OS/2 3.0, which it renamed Windows NT; as such, it inherited certain characteristics of PM. IBM continued to develop PM. In subsequent versions of OS/2, it was used as a base for the object-oriented interface Workplace Shell. In latest versions, IBM has commissioned Scitech Software with writing the graphic drivers for the majority of the cards that don't support OS/2 officially. There is a great integration of the graphic layer in the system, but it is still possible to run certain parts of OS/2 from a text-console or X window.

A problem that never has been solved is that of the single input queue: a failing application could block the processing of user-interface messages, thus freezing the graphic interface.