GEOS (''Graphic Environment Operating System'') is a discontinued

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

from Berkeley Softworks (later

GeoWorks GEOS (later renamed GeoWorks Ensemble, NewDeal Office, and Breadbox Ensemble) is a computer operating environment, graphical user interface (GUI), and suite of application software. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on DOS-based, IBM ...

). Originally designed for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness W ...

with its version being released in 1986, enhanced versions of GEOS later became available in 1987 for the

Commodore 128 The Commodore 128, also known as the C128, C-128, C= 128,The "C=" represents the graphical part of the logo. is the last 8-bit home computer that was commercially released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM). Introduced in January 1985 at the ...

and in 1988 for the

Apple II series The Apple II series (trademarked with square brackets as "Apple ] ''" and rendered on later models as "Apple //") is a family of home computers, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primaril ...

of computers. A lesser-known version was also released for the

Commodore Plus/4 The Commodore Plus/4 is a home computer released by Commodore International in 1984. The "Plus/4" name refers to the four-application ROM resident office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, database, and graphing); it was billed as "the produ ...

. GEOS closely resembles early versions of the

classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. ...

and includes a graphical

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current ...

(geoWrite) and

paint program A raster graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to create and edit images interactively on the computer screen and save them in one of many raster graphics file formats (also known as bitmap images) such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF ...

(geoPaint). A December 1987 survey by the Commodore-dedicated magazine ''

Compute!'s Gazette ''Compute!'s Gazette'' (), stylized as ''COMPUTE!'s Gazette'', was a computer magazine of the 1980s, directed at users of Commodore's 8-bit home computers. Announced as ''The Commodore Gazette'', it was a Commodore-only daughter magazine of the ...

'' found that nearly half of respondents used GEOS. For many years,

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

bundled GEOS with its redesigned and cost-reduced C64, the C64C. At its peak, GEOS was the third-most-popular microcomputer operating system in the world in terms of units shipped, trailing only

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...

and Mac OS (besides the original Commodore 64's KERNAL). Other GEOS-compatible software packages were available from Berkeley Softworks or from third parties, including a reasonably sophisticated

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online ...

application called geoPublish and a spreadsheet called geoCalc. While geoPublish is not as sophisticated as

Aldus Pagemaker Adobe PageMaker (formerly Aldus) is a discontinued desktop publishing computer program introduced in 1985 by the Aldus Corporation on the Apple Macintosh. The combination of the Macintosh's graphical user interface, PageMaker publishing software, ...

and geoCalc not as sophisticated as

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro (comp ...

, the packages provide reasonable functionality, and

Berkeley Softworks Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States ** University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

founder

Brian Dougherty Brian "Doc" Dougherty (born December 10, 1973) is a retired Hall of Fame American lacrosse goaltender. He attended The Episcopal Academy before attending University of Maryland. He is currently the head coach at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy ...

claimed the company ran its business using its own software on Commodore 8-bit computers for several years.

Development

Written by a group of programmers, the GEOS Design Team: Jim DeFrisco, Dave Durran, Michael Farr, Doug Fults, Chris Hawley, Clayton Jung, and Tony Requist, led by Dougherty, who cut their teeth on limited-resource video game machines such as the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...

, GEOS was revered for what it could accomplish on machines with 64–128 kB of

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

memory and 1–2 MHz of 8-bit processing power. Unlike many pieces of

proprietary software Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and i ...

for the C64 and C128, GEOS takes full advantage of many of the add-ons and improvements available for these systems. Commodore's 1351 mouse is supported by GEOS, as are its various RAM expansion units. GEOS 128 also fully supports the C128's 640×200 high-resolution VDC display mode through a compatible

RGB The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three addi ...

monitor. The C64 version of GEOS incorporates a built-in

fast loader A fast loader is a software program for a home computer, such as the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum, that accelerates the speed of file loading from floppy disk or compact cassette. Floppy disks Fast loaders came about because of a discrepa ...

, called ''diskTurbo'', that significantly increases the speed of drive access on the slow

1541 __NOTOC__ Year 1541 ( MDXLI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * February 12 – Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago del Nuevo Extremo, whi ...

. GEOS is the first Commodore software that could use a floppy disk as swap space or

virtual memory In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a very ...

. GEOS 128 can take advantage of the C128's enhanced "burst mode" in conjunction with the

1571 Year 1571 ( MDLXXI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * January 11 – The Austrian nobility are granted freedom of religion. * January 23 ...

and 1581 drives. The Commodore version of GEOS uses a

copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found o ...

scheme that renders users' disks unbootable if it detects that the disk has been illegally duplicated. Via Berkeley's special geoCable interface converter or other third-party interfaces to connect standard

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' ('' data terminal equipment'') suc ...

Centronics Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector. History Foundations Centronics began as a division ...

printers to the Commodore serial bus, GEOS supports a wide variety of printers, including HP PCL printers and the

Apple LaserWriter The LaserWriter is a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter sold by Apple, Inc. from 1985 to 1988. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. In combination with WYSIWYG publishing software like PageMaker, ...

. This ability to print to high-end printers was a major factor in making GEOS a desktop publishing platform. The Apple II version of GEOS was released as

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the ...

in August 2003. The Commodore 64/128 versions followed in February 2004. The latest GEOS desktop suite for IBM PC compatibles is

Breadbox Ensemble GEOS (later renamed GeoWorks Ensemble, NewDeal Office, and Breadbox Ensemble) is a computer operating environment, graphical user interface (GUI), and suite of application software. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on DOS-based, IBM PC ...

. Revivals were seen in the OmniGo handhelds,

Brother A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-famili ...

GeoBook line of laptop-appliances, and the NewDeal Office package for PCs. Related code found its way to earlier "Zoomer" PDAs, creating an unclear lineage to

Palm, Inc. Palm, Inc. was an American company that specialized in manufacturing personal digital assistants (PDAs) and various other electronics. They were the designer of the PalmPilot, the first PDA successfully marketed worldwide, as well as the Treo 6 ...

's later work.

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

used GEOS as a base operating system for their

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 (if large) phones on the outside, and open in clamshell format to access a QWERTY keyboard and an L ...

series, before switching to EPOC (

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

GEOS versions

* 1986: GEOS for Commodore 64 * 1987: GEOS for Commodore C128, Commodore Plus/4 (unofficial) * 1988: GEOS for Apple II, GEOS V2.0 for Commodore C64, GEOS V2.1 for Apple II * 1989: GEOS V2.0 for Commodore C128 * 2022: GEOS for Atari (unofficial)

Reverse engineering efforts

On August 19, 2016, Michael Steil posted in his blog that the source code for GEOS 2.0 for Commodore C64 had been fully reverse-engineered and suitable for the cc65 compiler suite. The reverse-engineered source code has been made available at

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...

.GitHub - mist64/geos: Source code of GEOS 2.0 for the Commodore 64 and 128
/ref>

GEOS products and applications

Dozens of official and third-party applications and other products were produced for GEOS. Among the most important and popular were the following: * geoBASIC * geoCable * geoCalc * geoChart * geoDex * geoDraw * geoFAX * geoFile * geoFont * geoLabel * geoPaint * geoPrint * geoProgrammer * geoPublish * geoSpell * geoWrite * geoWrite Workshop * geoRAM * Writer 64 (Timeworks)

References

External links

Breadbox
Home of the GEOS operating system (down, archive
here
at the Internet Archive)

– By Bo Zimmermann
GEOS: The Graphical Operating System
A lengthy review of GEOS and its history {{DEFAULTSORT:Geos 1986 software Operating system families Apple II software Commodore 128 software Commodore 64 software Graphical user interfaces Proprietary operating systems Window-based operating systems