We’ve added some screenshots of ArcaOS 5.0, and we’ll be adding more. For those who haven’t seen OS/2 in a long time, you may be surprised to see just how modern ArcaOS 5.0 looks. The familiar object-oriented Workplace Shell provides the framework for the ArcaOS desktop. Everything is an object, not just an icon. Different types of objects – classes – behave differently, and may be manipulated in different ways.

Preemptive multitasking, pioneered by OS/2, remains a cornerstone of ArcaOS, allowing the user to run many applications simultaneously, with each running its own processes in the background when another application is switched to foreground view for data entry or viewing rich media content. Thus, it is entirely possible to watch an HTML5 video in Firefox over the web, generate a large report in OpenOffice, and burn a DVD all at the same time, without missing a beat on today’s hardware.