GEOS (later renamed GeoWorks Ensemble, NewDeal Office, and Breadbox Ensemble) is a computer operating environment,

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

(GUI), and suite of

application software Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not operating, administering or programming the computer. An application (app, application program, software application) is any program that can be categorized as ...

. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on

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 op ...

-based,

IBM PC compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...

computers. Versions for some handheld platforms were also released and licensed to some companies. PC/GEOS was first created by Berkeley Softworks, which later became GeoWorks Corporation. Version 4.0 was developed in 2001 by Breadbox Computer Company,

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of ...

(LLC), and was renamed Breadbox Ensemble. In 2015, Frank Fischer, the CEO of Breadbox, died and efforts on the

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

stopped until later in 2017 when it was bought by blueway.Softworks. PC/GEOS should not be confused with the 8-bit GEOS product from the same company, which runs on the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 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 ...

and

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

PC/GEOS

GeoWorks Ensemble

In 1990, GeoWorks (formerly Berkeley Softworks) released PC/GEOS for

systems. Commonly referred to as ''GeoWorks Ensemble'', it was incompatible with the earlier GEOS (8-bit operating system), 8-bit versions of GEOS for Commodore International, Commodore and

computers, but provided numerous enhancements, including scalable fonts and multitasking on IBM Personal Computer XT, IBM PC XT- and IBM Personal Computer AT, AT-class PC clones. GeoWorks saw a market opportunity to provide a graphical user interface for the 16 million older model PCs that were unable to run Microsoft Windows 2.x. 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 many PCs at the time, but like other GUI environments for the PC platform, such as Graphics Environment Manager (GEM), it ultimately proved less successful in the marketplace than Windows. Former CEO of GeoWorks claims that GEOS faded away "because Microsoft threatened to withdraw supply of

to hardware manufacturers who bundled Geoworks with their machines". In December 1992,

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

and

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

bundled an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) version of GeoWorks named 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 A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

, ''Small Computer System Interface'' (

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices, best known for its use with storage devices such as hard disk drives. SCSI was introduced ...

) interface controller, Labtec CD-150 amplified stereo speakers and 10 software titles. A scaled-down version of GeoWorks was used by

America Online AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service tra ...

for their MS-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"

self-booting disk A self-booting disk is a floppy disk for home computers or personal computers that loads directly into a standalone application when the system is turned on, bypassing the operating system. This was common, standard, on some computers in the lat ...

that AOL was distributing could be hacked to

boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

the GeoWorks environment. IBM released the PC/GEOS-based EduQuest SchoolView network management tool for K-12 schools in 1994. Negotiations to make PC/GEOS an integral part of PC DOS 7.0 failed. GeoWorks attempted to get third-party developers but was unable to get much support due to expense of the developer kit, which cost $1,000 for the manuals only, and the difficult programming environment, which required a second PC networked via serial port to run the debugger. Even though PC/GEOS is referred to as an "operating system", it still requires DOS in load. GEOS and its applications were written in a mix of 8086

assembly language In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...

(Espire), an interpreted language called IZL, and C (GEOS Object C: GOC) with non-standard language extensions to support the

object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of '' objects''. Objects can contain data (called fields, attributes or properties) and have actions they can perform (called procedures or methods and impleme ...

design. Under DR DOS 6.0, if TASKMAX was loaded before PC/GEOS, PC/GEOS registered as graphical menu system for TASKMAX. This still worked under the pre-emptive multitasker (

EMM386 EMM386 is the expanded memory manager of Microsoft's MS-DOS, IBM's PC DOS, Digital Research's DR-DOS, and Datalight's ROM-DOS which is used to create expanded memory using extended memory on Intel 80386 CPUs. There also is an EMM386.EXE avail ...

/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. (NB. NWDOSTIP.TXT is a comprehensive work on Novell DOS 7 and OpenDOS 7.01, including the description of many undocumented features and internals. It is part of the author's yet larger MPDOSTIP.ZIP collection maintained up to 2001 and distributed on many sites at the time. The provided link points to a HTML-converted older version of the NWDOSTIP.TXT file.) After the release of Ensemble 2.01, GeoWorks ended support for the desktop version to focus on handhelds and smart devices. Geoworks Ensemble won the 1991

Software Publishers Association The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association dedicated to the entertainment, consumer and business software industries. Established in 1984 as the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the SIIA took its new nam ...

Excellence in Software Award for Best Consumer Program.

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 The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in the x86 archite ...

i486 The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor introduced in 1989. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the i386, Intel 386. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the Inte ...

, and

Pentium Pentium is a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel from 1993 to 2023. The Pentium (original), original Pentium was Intel's fifth generation processor, succeeding the i486; Pentium was Intel's flagship proce ...

PCs that could not run

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

effectively. NewDeal released 3 new versions of NewDeal Office (NewDeal Office 2.5, NewDeal Office 3/98 and NewDeal Office 2000) until it went bankrupt in 2000. NDO or NDO 2000 came with a webbrowser named Skipper or Skipper 2000, respectively.

Breadbox Ensemble

After "NewDeal Inc." went out of business, Breadbox purchased the rights in the software from GeoWorks in 2001. Their newest PC/GEOS, 4.x, is now a full productivity and internet suite, including web browser (named WebMagick) as well as email. Other essential programs such as word processing, spreadsheet, flat file database and graphics applications are integrated into this package. On 14 November 2015, Frank S. Fischer, the CEO and owner of Breadbox Ensemble LLC, died of a heart attack, some while after announcing plans to bring GEOS to Android.

Versions

* 1990: OS/90 beta version * 1990: geoDOS beta version * 1990: GeoWorks 1.0 * 1991: GeoWorks 1.2 * 1992: GeoWorks 1.2 Pro (with

Borland Borland Software Corporation was a computing technology company founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad, and Philippe Kahn. Its main business was developing and selling software development and software deployment products. B ...

Quattro Pro Quattro Pro is a spreadsheet program developed by Borland and now sold by Alludo, most often as part of Alludo's WordPerfect Office suite. Characteristics Historically, Quattro Pro used keyboard commands close to those of Lotus 1-2-3. While ...

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 Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

version * 1997: NewDeal Office 97 * 1998: NewDeal Office 98 * 1999: NewDeal Office release 3 (new kernel PC/GEOS 3.0) * 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 4.0) * 2000: NewDeal Office 2000 for (for a Surf´n´Office PC from Ted Turner IV ( MyTurn, Inc.) with help from

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

) * 2001: BreadBox Ensemble beta version 4.0.1.1 * 2001: BreadBox Ensemble beta version 4.0.1.x * 2002: Breadbox Ensemble beta 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

PEN/GEOS 1.0 was the new name for PC/GEOS 2.0 when GeoWorks released it on 9 April 1992. PEN/GEOS 1.0 was a pioneering

personal digital assistant A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a multi-purpose mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Following a boom in the 1990s and 2000s, PDAs were mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of more highly capable smar ...

(PDA) technology. GEOS was also used in the low-end GeoBook

laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

from Brother Industries and in several Nokia Communicator models (GEOS 3.0 in models 9000, 9110). PEN/GEOS 2.0 was released in 1992, and version 3.0 was released in 1995.

''Zoomer'' devices; Tandy Z-PDA, AST GRiDPad 2390, Casio Z-7000 & XL 7000

PEN/GEOS 1.0 was used as the operating system for the

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned Retail, retailer based in Fort Worth, Texas that made leather goods, operated the RadioShack chain, and later built personal computers. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store ...

Z-PDA, which was introduced shortly after the first Apple Newton MessagePad. Palm Computing had been incorporated to create software for this device and shipped its first handwriting recognition software, PalmPrint,

personal information manager A personal information manager (often referred to as a PIM tool or, more simply, a PIM) is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to personal information mana ...

, Palm Organizer, and synchronization software, PalmConnect, on the Z-PDA. Palm Organizer included the PalmSchedule date book, PalmAddress address book, PalmNotes notebook, a dictionary, calculator, clock, forms calculator, 26 language translation dictionary, on-line help, holiday, and travel information. The device was also sold under license as the AST GRiDPad 2390 and as the Casio Z-7000 which was the best selling version. In the US, Casio sold it under the name XL-7000 without the multi-lingual interface, but added an AOL client and some USA specific help files. These devices were all named ''Zoomer'' and were the first PDAs with a connection to the online services

CompuServe CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...

and AOL. This was made possible through the pre-installed dial-up software CompuServeAOL.

HP OmniGo 100 & 120

In 1993, GeoWorks released PEN/GEOS 2.0, again based on PC/GEOS 2.0. In 1995, this version of GEOS appeared (running on top of DOS) on the HP OmniGo 100. It featured

Graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

handwriting recognition. The OmniGo is a flip-around clamshell handheld computer powered by a Vadem VG230 integrated PC-on-a-chip. The VG230 chip includes an

Intel 80186 The Intel 80186, also known as the iAPX 186, or just 186, is a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982. It was based on the Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external Bus (computing)#Address bus, data bus multiplexed with a 20 ...

-instruction set compatible NEC V30 core. It was soon followed by the HP OmniGo 120, which added a high-contrast screen.

Brother LW-Writing System

Brother A brother (: brothers or brethren) 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 family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used ende ...

LW-screen typewriters use PEN/GEOS and are the only version of the operating system that ships with vendor-provided drivers for scanner and it included a GEOS scanning application. In Germany, the Brother LW750ic system is equipped with PEN/GEOS.

Brother GeoBook

In 1997, Brother, in collaboration with IBM, brought the GeoBook series of notebooks to market. GeoBook models NB-60, NB-80C, and PN-9100GR used a modified version of PEN/GEOS using the Yago user interface. The GeoBook series was marketed mainly in education and was part of the ''IBM Eduquest School View'' strategy.

Nokia Communicator 9000(i) and 9110(i)

In 1996, the

Nokia 9000 Communicator The Nokia 9000 Communicator mobile device is the first product in Nokia's Communicator series, announced at CeBIT 1996 and introduced into the market on five months later, 15 August 1996. It is powered by an AMD Elan 24 MHz Intel i386 C ...

smartphone was introduced. This phone uses PEN/GEOS 3.0 and established the smartphone market. Nokia followed with Communicator models 9000i, 9110, and 9110i.

GEOS-SC

GEOS-SC was a 32-bit

reduced instruction set computer In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a com ...

(RISC) CPU

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

, OS, and 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 is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1921 as a spin-off from the electrical machinery manufacturing d ...

Company (MELCO) of Japan.

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. It 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.

FreeGEOS

Since 2016, the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

of PC/GEOS has been made available as FreeGEOS and can be compiled and edited freely.

References

External links

* Usenet ** **
Breadbox Computer Company
former developer and publisher of GEOS
GEOS FAQ

GEOS-InfoBase
* * blueway.Softworks {{DEFAULTSORT:Geos (16-Bit Operating System) DOS software Formerly proprietary software Graphical user interfaces Mobile operating systems Operating system APIs Software using the Apache license Assembly language software Window-based operating systems X86 operating systems 1990 software cs:GEOS