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GEOS Available for Download After 18 Years
gp writes "Back in 1986, Berkeley Softworks presented GEOS,
the Graphical Environment Operating System for the Commodore 64 (screenshots). GEOS
effectively turned the 8-bit Commodore 64 into something very similar to a
Macintosh, but for an 8th of the price. In 2004, pushed hard by
rivaling C64 open source alternatives such as the Contiki operating system and
desktop environment and the LUnix *nix clone, the owners of
GEOS have finally decided to release GEOS to the public. Hordes of
Commodore 64 users are expected to download the system." Sadly, there's no mention of GEOS for the Apple 2 series of computers, which also enjoyed this fine precursor of GUIs to come.
I remember using a joystick to navigate the UI, since mice were a bit of a rarity. Plus, GeoWrite actually had fonts to choose from, and they looked great on the trusty old dot-matrix (or 'impact printer', if you will...)
I am Jack's witty signature line
Here's a start:
http://sta.c64.org/xcables.html.
Note: I tried making a cable to run off my PC's parallel port a couple of years ago, and it never worked. It's not as simple as it looks.
For those too lazy to read, it boils down to this: You cannot read or write a disk formatted for a Commodore drive on a PC, and the same is true for a PC-formatted disk in a Commodore drive. They use entirely different formats to write to the disk, it's not just a matter of a different filesystem. The above link allows one (in theory) to build a parallel1541 (one of the most common Commodore disk drives) interface, and some PC software to handle the data transfer.
Either way, this is still pretty neat if just for (legit) emulator use. I remember GEOS when it first came out, and as annoying as it was, I saw pretty quick that this was the future for all home computing. It took me until the early 90s before I saw anything like this on the PC (Macs have always been too pricey for my tastes).
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
The Apple II version was released 6 months ago. as announced on a2central.com
Put a sock in it. The C64 can nowadays serve web pages, surf the internet, receive email, and do office chores. All the time without being hacked!
The OS boot time is also enviable (just switch it on)
Just how many PCs these days are invulnerable to viruses, and boot instantly?
Some people are loath to buy more expensive word processors when they have one that already works, and has been adapted to work with newer hardware (incl. ink jet printers, fast floppy and Hard drives, 16Mb memory, faster CPU, etc.). They're just a few of the reasons why people still use these things!
Oh, and did I mention the library of over 15,000 games?
Are you keeping up with the Commodore? Because the Commodore is keeping up with you!
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
You're thinking of Geoworks Ensemble. It came bundled with a number of Magnavox 8086 through 80386 machines back in the late 80's / early 90's. It did everything windows 3.1 did, except: 1. Crash every 30-60 seconds 2. Run more than the 30 or so apps that came with the distro. Still, a good, solid windowing system for low-end hardware.
g ory=Ease-of-Use
The GeoWorks of old can be found at Home Of the Underdogs. A newer incarnation, updated for newer hardware and the Web is called Breadbox Ensemble, and is viewable here: http://www.breadbox.com/ensemble/geocats.asp?cate