Microsoft’s Gates to Meet New IBM Chief : Computers: The meeting will be their first, but it’s too soon to predict resolution of a two-year dispute over the OS/2 operating system.

Microsoft Corp. said Monday that its chairman, Bill Gates, will meet International Business Machines Corp.’s new chief, Louis V. Gerstner, soon but warned that it is too early to predict resolution of a bitter 2-year-old spat.

Microsoft has played down the importance of the first meeting between the two executives, noting that the companies have been working together on a variety of issues despite their much-publicized split over the OS/2 operating system, the software which handles basic computer operations.

“I don’t see Microsoft changing their systems strategy on OS/2,” said Pam Edstrom, a Microsoft spokeswoman. The companies declined to give any details of when or where the meetings would be held.

In the late 1980s, Microsoft began developing OS/2 jointly for IBM as an operating system that they predicted would eventually replace Microsoft’s MS-DOS system.

But partly because of the success of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphics program, which makes MS-DOS easier to use, the two companies reached an agreement that IBM take over OS/2 development. Microsoft says there are now 25 million Windows users, many times the number that use OS/2.

Edstrom said it is too early to know whether IBM will begin working more closely with Microsoft under Gerstner. “I think that’s really premature,” she said. “There are areas where IBM and Microsoft might be able to mutually cooperate for some customer benefit.”

Since the dispute over Microsoft’s abandonment of OS/2, certain IBM units--including its PS/1 home computer group, education group and IBM’s Europe and Japan operations--have continued to work closely with Microsoft, even reselling Windows.

Gates became an informal adviser to the search committee that eventually chose Gerstner after IBM approached Gates about his interest in the post.