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GEOS what is it?

M

Micom 2000

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I have an historical problem with GEOS. It's a graphical user interface for Commodores by Maurice Randall, and also a now defunct palmtop and desktop OS with patent rights, and with the name GEM OS from DRI, a pre-Windows graphical user interface for early PCs and is also installed in the ROM of STs and some Amstrads.

Commodore afficiandos vehemently deny any association with GEM, altho to me it seems virtually identical visually to the more primitive 8-bit desktop on Commodores as compared to GEM on 16-bit PCs or Atari STs in appearance and function.

And of course the Macintosh suit with DRI on the GUI, who removed the "trash" icon, which somehow didn't apply to STs.

Was there some sort of additional computer war intracacies I'm unaware of ? I'm baffled.

Lawrence
 
PLEASE don't say that GEOS is by Maurice Randall. It isn't.

GEOS was released for Commodore computers by Berkeley Softworks. The rights to the software were eventually sold to CMD, and in 2001, CMD sold the rights to all their Commodore hardware and software, including GEOS, to Maurice Randall. Maurice did write a spin-off of GEOS called Wheels, but he has done quite a bit of harm to the Commodore community in recent years by not filling orders, taking people's money for repairs and never returning their items, etc. etc. etc... Try doing a search for "Maurice Randall" on the comp.sys.cbm newsgroup through Google Groups, and you'll get a few hundred messages to read through if you need further detail...

-Andrew
 
By george, I think you have found a sore point with Andrew! I am glad I was totally ignorant of the "bad days" of Geos.
 
Yeah - That would be akin to thanking Irving Gould and Mehdi Ali for screwing up Commodore, or thanking Bill McEwen for resurrecting it!!!!

T
 
I thought Berkeley Softworks released GEOS for a number of different platforms. I'm not sure that Digital Research' GEM has anything in common with GEOS, other than look and feel.
 
Had I thought about it or even dug out my C64 Geos disks which are in Berkeley sleeves.
Haven't been around Commodore sites for some time. Last time I was around, people were being upbraided for not supporting Mauice. Things do change !

Lawrence

wiskow said:
PLEASE don't say that GEOS is by Maurice Randall. It isn't.

GEOS was released for Commodore computers by Berkeley Softworks. The rights to the software were eventually sold to CMD, and in 2001, CMD sold the rights to all their Commodore hardware and software, including GEOS, to Maurice Randall. Maurice did write a spin-off of GEOS called Wheels, but he has done quite a bit of harm to the Commodore community in recent years by not filling orders, taking people's money for repairs and never returning their items, etc. etc. etc... Try doing a search for "Maurice Randall" on the comp.sys.cbm newsgroup through Google Groups, and you'll get a few hundred messages to read through if you need further detail...

-Andrew
Click to expand...
 
The other GEOS desktop was PC/GEOS, also called New Deal, GeoWorks, etc. which did have a different look. If Mac could sue DR for the trash can, while Atari STs went on using it,
And the Berkely version to me was VERY similiar, with an associative name with GEM, and GEOS/New Deal used the name GEOS, It would seem to me that lawyers lost a lot of business and only the big boys played.

Lawrence.
 
Wikipedia mentions GEOS was developed for the C64, later ported to C128, Apple II and Plus/4. Berkeley Softworks became (?) GeoWorks Corporation and released PC/GEOS, which is a different OS than the 6502 one despite the name is similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(8-bit_operating_system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoWorks

So, trademark-legally all GEOS versions are related, but not "architectually". I don't know about the trash can, but we can all assume the common denominator for all those graphical interfaces (MS Windows, MacOS, GEM, GEOS etc) was the Xerox Palo Alto.
 
Bingo, Carlsson, That was my missing link. New Deal software was possibly just a rebadged Berkely. Xerox Palo Alto gave so much to modern computers, one can only wonder where we would be if they hadn't dropped the project.

Lawrence
 
Yes, there are a lot of what-ifs. This thread already mentioned Digital Research's GEM. Just look at the tale how IBM chose the operating system for the IBM PC. We can only wonder where we would've been today if CP/M had ruled the world a little longer, and Microsoft had remained selling programming languages and perhaps other application software.
 
One can also wonder if LeNova can even maintain the shreds of IBMs personal computer empire, along with Dell and Gateway,etc. With present developments of everything digitalised and CPUs even in refridgerators, there could come some knockout hardware or software gizmo which would make personal computers redundant.

Lawrence
 
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