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GEOS (16-bit operating system)
Encyclopedia
GEOS is a computer operating environment
, graphical user interface
, and suite of application software
. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on DOS
-based, IBM PC compatible
computers. The package later became GeoWorks Ensemble, then NewDeal Office, and is now Breadbox Ensemble. Versions for some handheld platforms were also released.
PC/GEOS was first created by Berkeley Softworks, who later became GeoWorks Corporation. Version 4.0 was developed in 2001 by Breadbox Computer Company, LLC
, and named Breadbox Ensemble.
PC/GEOS should not be confused with the 8-bit GEOS
product from the same company, which runs on the Commodore 64
and other computers using MOS 6502-compatible microprocessors.
systems, PC/GEOS. Also called GeoWorks Ensemble, it was incompatible with the 8-bit versions of GEOS
for Commodore
and Apple II
computers but provided numerous enhancements, including scalable fonts and multitasking even on XT and AT-class PC clones.
GEOS was packaged with a suite of productivity applications. Each had a name prefixed by "Geo": GeoWrite, GeoDraw; GeoManager; GeoPlanner; GeoDex, and GeoComm. It was also bundled with numerous PCs at the time, but like other GUI environments for the PC platform, such as GEM
, it ultimately proved less successful in the marketplace than Windows. Some claim that Geoworks faded away because Microsoft threatened to withdraw supply of MS-DOS
to hardware manufacturers who bundled Geoworks with their machines.
In December 1992 NEC and Sony bundled an OEM version of GeoWorks called the CD Manager with their respective CD-ROM players that sold as retail box add-on peripherals for consumers. The NEC Bundle retailed for around $500.00 with a 1x external CD Rom, SCSI Interface Controller, Labtec CD-150 amplified stereo speakers and 10 software titles.
A scaled down version of GeoWorks was used by America Online for their DOS-based AOL client software from the time of introduction on IBM compatible PCs until the late 1990s when America Online dropped development for graphical DOS in favor of Microsoft Windows. During that time, the popular single 3.5" disk that AOL was distributing on could be hacked to boot the GeoWorks graphical operating environment.
GeoWorks attempted to get third party developers but was unable to get much support due to expense of the developer kit — which ran $1,000 just for the manuals — and the difficult programming environment, which required a second PC networked via serial port in order to run the debugger.
Even though PC/GEOS is referred to as an "operating system", it still requires DOS software in order to load. GEOS and its applications were written in a mix of 8086 assembly
and C
, both with non-standard language extensions to support object-oriented
design.
When, under DR DOS 6.0, TASKMAX is loaded before PC/GEOS, PC/GEOS registered as graphical menu system for TASKMAX. This still worked under the pre-emptive multitasker (EMM386 /MULTI + TASKMGR) provided by Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01 and DR-DOS
7.02 (and higher), allowing for multiple GEOS and DOS applications to run concurrently.
After release of Ensemble 2.01, GeoWorks dropped support for the desktop version to focus on handhelds and smart devices.
PCs that could not run Windows 95
or Windows 98
effectively.
After "NewDeal Inc." went out of business, Breadbox purchased the rights in the software from GeoWorks in 2003.
and in several of Nokia Communicator
models (GEOS V3.0 in Nokia Communicator 9000 and 9110).
In 1995, GEOS appeared (running on top of DOS) on the HP OmniGo 100, a flip-around clamshell handheld computer powered by a Vadem VG230, which is a highly integrated PC-on-a-chip that includes an Intel 80186
-instruction set compatible NEC V30 core. It was soon followed by the HP OmniGo 120.
PEN/GEOS 2.0 was released in 1992, and 3.0 in 1995.
OS & GUI for the Japanese cellphone-market. It was released in 1997. Originally built as Geoworks' planned future OS and codenamed 'Liberty' GEOS-SC became the basis for cellphones designed by Mitsubishi Electric Company of Japan (MELCO).
Operating environment
The operating environment in engineering describes the circumstances surrounding and potentially affecting something that is operating. For example electronic or mechanical equipment may be affected by high temperatures, vibration, dust, and other parameters which comprise the operating...
, graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
, and suite of application software
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
-based, IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
computers. The package later became GeoWorks Ensemble, then NewDeal Office, and is now Breadbox Ensemble. Versions for some handheld platforms were also released.
PC/GEOS was first created by Berkeley Softworks, who later became GeoWorks Corporation. Version 4.0 was developed in 2001 by Breadbox Computer Company, LLC
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
, and named Breadbox Ensemble.
PC/GEOS should not be confused with the 8-bit GEOS
GEOS (8-bit operating system)
GEOS is an operating system from Berkeley Softworks . Originally designed for the Commodore 64 and released in 1986, it provided a graphical user interface for this popular 8-bit computer.GEOS closely resembled early versions of Mac OS and included a graphical word processor and paint program...
product from the same company, which runs on the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and other computers using MOS 6502-compatible microprocessors.
GeoWorks Ensemble
In 1990, GeoWorks released GEOS for IBM PC compatibleIBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
systems, PC/GEOS. Also called GeoWorks Ensemble, it was incompatible with the 8-bit versions of GEOS
GEOS (8-bit operating system)
GEOS is an operating system from Berkeley Softworks . Originally designed for the Commodore 64 and released in 1986, it provided a graphical user interface for this popular 8-bit computer.GEOS closely resembled early versions of Mac OS and included a graphical word processor and paint program...
for Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
and Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
computers but provided numerous enhancements, including scalable fonts and multitasking even on XT and AT-class PC clones.
GEOS was packaged with a suite of productivity applications. Each had a name prefixed by "Geo": GeoWrite, GeoDraw; GeoManager; GeoPlanner; GeoDex, and GeoComm. It was also bundled with numerous PCs at the time, but like other GUI environments for the PC platform, such as GEM
Graphical Environment Manager
GEM was a windowing system created by Digital Research, Inc. for use with the CP/M operating system on the Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors...
, it ultimately proved less successful in the marketplace than Windows. Some claim that Geoworks faded away because Microsoft threatened to withdraw supply of MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
to hardware manufacturers who bundled Geoworks with their machines.
In December 1992 NEC and Sony bundled an OEM version of GeoWorks called the CD Manager with their respective CD-ROM players that sold as retail box add-on peripherals for consumers. The NEC Bundle retailed for around $500.00 with a 1x external CD Rom, SCSI Interface Controller, Labtec CD-150 amplified stereo speakers and 10 software titles.
A scaled down version of GeoWorks was used by America Online for their DOS-based AOL client software from the time of introduction on IBM compatible PCs until the late 1990s when America Online dropped development for graphical DOS in favor of Microsoft Windows. During that time, the popular single 3.5" disk that AOL was distributing on could be hacked to boot the GeoWorks graphical operating environment.
GeoWorks attempted to get third party developers but was unable to get much support due to expense of the developer kit — which ran $1,000 just for the manuals — and the difficult programming environment, which required a second PC networked via serial port in order to run the debugger.
Even though PC/GEOS is referred to as an "operating system", it still requires DOS software in order to load. GEOS and its applications were written in a mix of 8086 assembly
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
and C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, both with non-standard language extensions to support object-oriented
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
design.
When, under DR DOS 6.0, TASKMAX is loaded before PC/GEOS, PC/GEOS registered as graphical menu system for TASKMAX. This still worked under the pre-emptive multitasker (EMM386 /MULTI + TASKMGR) provided by Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01 and DR-DOS
DR-DOS
DR-DOS is an MS-DOS-compatible operating system for IBM PC-compatible personal computers, originally developed by Gary Kildall's Digital Research and derived from Concurrent PC DOS 6.0, which was an advanced successor of CP/M-86...
7.02 (and higher), allowing for multiple GEOS and DOS applications to run concurrently.
After release of Ensemble 2.01, GeoWorks dropped support for the desktop version to focus on handhelds and smart devices.
NewDeal Office
A newer version of PC/GEOS was marketed in the late 1990s as NewDeal Office from NewDeal Inc. in hopes of creating a market among owners of i386, i486 and PentiumPentium compatible processor
A Pentium compatible processor is a 32-bit processor computer chip which supports the instructions in the IA-32 instruction set that were implemented by the Intel P5 Pentium processor family...
PCs that could not run Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
or Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
effectively.
Breadbox Ensemble
The newest PC/GEOS, 4.x, comes from Breadbox. It is a full productivity and Internet suite, including Web Browser and Email. Other essential programs such as word processing, spreadsheet, flat file database and graphics applications are integrated into this package.After "NewDeal Inc." went out of business, Breadbox purchased the rights in the software from GeoWorks in 2003.
Versions
- 1990: OS/90 (Beta Version)
- 1990: GeoWorks 1.0
- 1991: GeoWorks 1.2
- 1992: GeoWorks 1.2 Pro (with BorlandBorlandBorland Software Corporation is a software company first headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, Cupertino, California and finally Austin, Texas. It is now a Micro Focus subsidiary. It was founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn.-The 1980s:...
Quattro ProQuattro ProQuattro Pro is a spreadsheet program developed by Borland and now sold by Corel, most often as part of Corel's WordPerfect Office.Historically, Quattro Pro used keyboard commands similar to Lotus 1-2-3. It is commonly said to have been the first program to use tabbed sheets. Actually, Boeing Calc...
for DOS with PC/GEOS "Look and Feel") - 1992: GeoWorks DTP
- 1992: GeoWorks CD Manager
- 1993: GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0 (new kernel PC/GEOS 2.0)
- 1993: Geopublish 2.0
- 1994: Geoworks Ensemble 2.01
- 1996: NewDeal Office 2.2
- 1996: NewDeal Office 2.5
- 1996: NewDeal Publish 2.5 (Shareware version)
- 1997: NewDeal Office 97
- 1998: NewDeal Office 98
- 1999: NewDeal Office Release 3
- 1999: NewDeal Office Release 3 Evaluation
- 1999: NewDeal Office 3.2
- 2000: NewDeal Office 3.2d (German patch)
- 2000: NewDeal Office 2000 (new kernel PC/GEOS 3.0)
- 2000: NewDeal Office 2000 for (for a Surf´n´Office PC from Ted Turner IV (MyTurn, Inc.) with help from CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
) - 2001: BreadBox Ensemble Beta Version 4.0.1.1
- 2001: BreadBox Ensemble Beta Versions 4.0.1.x
- 2002: Breadbox Ensemble Full Version 4.0.2.0
- 2005, March: Breadbox Ensemble Version 4.1.0.0
- 2005, November: Breadbox Ensemble Version 4.1.2.0
- 2009, August: Breadbox Ensemble Version 4.1.3.0
PEN/GEOS
GEOS was used in a low-end laptop from Brother IndustriesBrother Industries
is a diversified Japanese company that produces or imports a wide variety of products including printers, sewing machines, large machine tools, label printers, and typewriters, fax machines, and other computer-related electronics. It markets its multifunction printers as Multi-Function Centers...
and in several of Nokia Communicator
Nokia Communicator
The Nokia Communicator is a brand name for a series of business-optimized smartphones marketed by Nokia Corporation, all of which appear as normal phones on the outside, and open in clamshell format to access a QWERTY keyboard and an LCD screen nearly the size of the device footprint.Nokia...
models (GEOS V3.0 in Nokia Communicator 9000 and 9110).
In 1995, GEOS appeared (running on top of DOS) on the HP OmniGo 100, a flip-around clamshell handheld computer powered by a Vadem VG230, which is a highly integrated PC-on-a-chip that includes an Intel 80186
Intel 80186
The 80188 is a version with an 8-bit external data bus, instead of 16-bit. This makes it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 80188 is otherwise very similar to the 80186. It has a throughput of 1 million instructions per second....
-instruction set compatible NEC V30 core. It was soon followed by the HP OmniGo 120.
PEN/GEOS 2.0 was released in 1992, and 3.0 in 1995.
GEOS-SC
GEOS-SC was a 32-bit RISC-CPU smartphoneSmartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
OS & GUI for the Japanese cellphone-market. It was released in 1997. Originally built as Geoworks' planned future OS and codenamed 'Liberty' GEOS-SC became the basis for cellphones designed by Mitsubishi Electric Company of Japan (MELCO).
GEOS-SE
Alongside this, GEOS-SE which was an OS designed and developed by Eden Ltd. a UK-based company acquired in 1997 by Geoworks, was also a 32-bit RiSC OS and became the basis of several other devices, most notably the Seiko Epson Locatio which was a multifunction device incorporating browser, PIM software, phone, GPS and Camera. It was launched in Japan in 1998.External links
- Breadbox Computer Company — Current developer/publisher of GEOS
- Usenet
- GEOS-Infobase Forum (German language)