GEOS / GeoWorks

In early 90’s if you wanted to get on the GUI bandwagon and didn’t want to use a Mac, your only choice was really Windows 3.0. But to make Windows 3.0 work properly, you really needed to have 386 with EGA or VGA graphics. If you had an ‘older’ computer, you were pretty much out of luck. That’s where PC/GEOS came in.

GEOS was a GUI that ran on Atari and Commodore 64 computers. In 1990, GeoWorks created a version of GEOS called PC/GEOS which would support a GUI and limited multitasking on 286 and even some XT machines (8088-based PC clones). GEOS was lightweight, fast, and easy to use but never got traction from software developers because it was hard to program for and the developer kit was expensive.

GEOS included Ensemble which was its own office suite program consisting of a word processor, spreadsheet, dialer, database, and calendar. This was in an era where Microsoft Office didn’t exist and if you wanted these applications you had to buy them separately. GEOS was also used by AOL for the DOS version of their connection software.

Once Windows conquered the desktop and hardware caught up to Windows’ appetite, GEOS fell out of favor. GeoWorks ultimately sold out to NewDeal Inc, which tried to market the OS as a Windows alternative to those with older machines and for schools. When this didn’t work, NewDeal ultimately failed and sold its business to BreadBox who continue to make, support and update a version of GEOS called BreadBox Ensemble.

My copy of GEOS is long gone, but I ran it for a while on my Tandy 1000. It did the job, but I needed more power than what was in the supported applications and it didn’t run DOS programs very well. The attached screen shot is from the Guidebook Gallery.