GEOS
GEOS (Graphic Environment Operating System) was an operating system from Berkeley Softworks (later GeoWorks). Originally designed for the Commodore 64 and released in 1986, it provided a graphical user interface for the venerable 8-bit computer that closely resembled early versions of Mac OS and included a graphical word processor (geoWrite) and paint program (geoPaint). For many years, Commodore International bundled GEOS with its redesigned and cost reduced C64, the C64C. At its peak, GEOS was the third most popular operating system in the world in terms of units shipped, trailing only MS-DOS and Mac OS.
Other GEOS-compatible software packages were available from Berkeley or from third parties, including a reasonably sophisticated desktop publishing application called geoPublish and a spreadsheet called geoCalc. While geoPublish was not as sophisticated as Aldus Pagemaker and geoCalc not as sophisticated as Microsoft Excel, the packages provided reasonable functionality, and Berkeley founder Brian Dougherty claimed the company ran its business using its own software on Commodore 8-bit computers for several years.
Enhanced versions of GEOS later became available for the Commodore 128 and Apple II, as well as a little-known version for the Commodore Plus/4.
Written by a group of programmers who cut their teeth on limited-resource video game machines such as the Atari 2600, GEOS was revered for what it could accomplish on machines with 64–128KB of RAM memory and 1–2 MHz of processing power. And, unlike many pieces of commercial software for the C64/128, GEOS took full advantage of many of the C128's add-ons and improvements, such as RAM Expansion Units, the enhanced-capacity 1571 (5¼") and 1581 (3½") floppy disk drives, and the high-resolution RGB mode. Via Berkeley's special geoCable interface converter or other third-party interfaces to connect standard RS-232 or Centronics printers to the Commodore serial bus, GEOS supported a wide variety of printers, including HP PCL printers and the Apple LaserWriter. This ability to print to high-end printers was a major factor in making GEOS a desktop publishing platform.
In 1990, GeoWorks released GEOS for IBM PC compatible systems. Sometimes also called 'GeoWorks Ensemble', it was incompatible with the Commodore and Apple versions but provided numerous enhancements, including scalable fonts and multitasking even on XT and 286-class PC clones and better performance than Microsoft Windows 3.0 on 386 and 486 PCs. GEOS was bundled with numerous PCs at the time, but like other GUI environments for the PC platform, such as GEM, it ultimately proved less successful than Windows.
GEOS was later used in a low-end laptop from Brother International and in the Nokia Communicator (GEOS V3.0 in Nokia Communicator 9000 and 9110). A version of it was also marketed in the late 1990s as New Deal Office in hopes of creating a market among owners of 386 and 486 PCs that could not run Windows 95 effectively. After New Deal's bankruptcy, a similar GEOS-based product was marketed as Breadbox Office.
The Apple II version of GEOS was released as freeware (but not open source) in August 2003. The Commodore 64/128 versions followed in February 2004.
External links
Referenced By
CBM 64 | Commodore 64 | GEM Desktop | GUI/History | History of the GUI | History of the graphical user interface | List of initialisms | List of operating systems
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