1990 Networking: LAN Manager 2.0

Summary

In 1990, Microsoft released LAN Manager (LM) 2.0, a member of a long line of Microsoft’s networking products that started with MS-NET circa 1984 and eventually morphed into Windows NT file sharing. Microsoft LAN Manager 2.0 admin interface LAN Manager 1.0 was released in 1988 as an OEM-only product, with the largest OEM being 3Com and their 3+Open. Microsoft collaborated with 3Com1 and the two companies jointly published the NDIS specification for network drivers. However, the relationship soured in 1990 after Microsoft decided to sell shrink-wrapped LAN Manager directly and bypass OEMs. LAN Manager 2.0 (2.0b) installation disks The OS/2 Museum owns a boxed copy of Microsoft LAN Manager 2.0 from circa December 1990, but recently a pirated copy of LM 2.0 from June 1990 came to light, found right next to MS OS/2 1.21 disks. That brought an obvious and simple question: When was LAN Manager 2.0 released? The answer, is unfortunately far from simple. Besides the warez archive, there is physical evidence that Microsoft built something at the end of June 1990 and that it was the “final” release of LAN Manager 2.0. Normally a press release would answer a lot of questions, but one for LM 2.0 has remained rather elusive so far. The closest thing we have is this press release about OS/2 1.21 from August 1990. But it happens to be highly relevant. The press release clearly explains that LAN Manager 2.0 server requires OS/2 1.21. But that was an OEM product, and end users could not buy OS/2 1.21 from Microsoft directly. LAN Manager 2.0 was also not bundled with OS/2, unlike LM 2.1 and later releases (which came with MS OS/2 1.3 included). Even if Microsoft did have boxed LM 2.0 copies ready to go in early July 1990, they could not easily sell them because OS/2 1.21 was not available. The OEM fastest to ship OS/2 1.21 was likely Compaq, and they did so perhaps in late August or in September 1990. Also in the press release is the following statement: “LAN Manager version 2.0 will ...