Discussion:
GEOS
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Erich B.
2020-08-30 19:45:23 UTC
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Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it? It was my
first taste of Windows.

$ The Millionaire $

..."Will we ever fear the ecstasy of free thought?" - Thinkman...
Silver Dream !
2020-08-31 23:05:48 UTC
Permalink
Post by Erich B.
Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it?
I surely remember it even if it wasn't bundled with my machine, which
wasn't a C64C (just regular C64).
Erich B.
2020-09-01 04:06:10 UTC
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Post by Silver Dream !
I surely remember it even if it wasn't bundled with my machine, which
wasn't a C64C (just regular C64).
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
When I went to buy the C64, it was discontinued and the C64c was the only
alternative available at the time.

$ The Millionaire $

..."Will we ever fear the ecstasy of free thought?" - Thinkman...
Tristan Miller
2020-09-01 07:45:15 UTC
Permalink
Greetings.
Post by Erich B.
Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it? It was my
first taste of Windows.
I never used it myself, though I found the magazine advertisements for
GEOS and its attendant applications quite memorable. Whoever came up
with them was a veritable marketing genius -- those ads were more
interesting to read than at least half of the articles in a typical
COMPUTE!'s Gazette.

Regards,
Tristan
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Tristan Miller
Free Software developer, ferret herder, logologist
https://logological.org/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Silver Dream !
2020-09-01 11:17:28 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tristan Miller
Greetings.
Post by Erich B.
Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it? It was my
first taste of Windows.
I never used it myself, though I found the magazine advertisements for
GEOS and its attendant applications quite memorable. Whoever came up
with them was a veritable marketing genius -- those ads were more
interesting to read than at least half of the articles in a typical
COMPUTE!'s Gazette.
And GEOS is a masterpiece of a product too. For example GeoPublish was
even reviewed as first class citizen among the well established DTP
packages of the time and praised for excellent quality for the price
Andreas Kohlbach
2020-09-02 15:38:03 UTC
Permalink
Post by Silver Dream !
Post by Tristan Miller
Greetings.
Post by Erich B.
Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it? It was my
first taste of Windows.
I never used it myself, though I found the magazine advertisements for
GEOS and its attendant applications quite memorable. Whoever came up
with them was a veritable marketing genius -- those ads were more
interesting to read than at least half of the articles in a typical
COMPUTE!'s Gazette.
And GEOS is a masterpiece of a product too. For example GeoPublish was
even reviewed as first class citizen among the well established DTP
packages of the time and praised for excellent quality for the price
Was also important it had support for various printers, like HP-PCL and
the LaserWriter from Apple, thus was used in the professional environment.
--
Andreas
Silver Dream !
2020-09-02 18:46:58 UTC
Permalink
Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Post by Silver Dream !
Post by Tristan Miller
Greetings.
Post by Erich B.
Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it? It was my
first taste of Windows.
I never used it myself, though I found the magazine advertisements for
GEOS and its attendant applications quite memorable. Whoever came up
with them was a veritable marketing genius -- those ads were more
interesting to read than at least half of the articles in a typical
COMPUTE!'s Gazette.
And GEOS is a masterpiece of a product too. For example GeoPublish was
even reviewed as first class citizen among the well established DTP
packages of the time and praised for excellent quality for the price
Was also important it had support for various printers, like HP-PCL and
the LaserWriter from Apple, thus was used in the professional environment.
Exactly. That's what I recall being reviewed and praised in a mainstream
printed magazine.
Andreas Kohlbach
2020-09-01 11:59:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Erich B.
Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it? It was my
first taste of Windows.
A friend got it "late" (1988?) and standalone as far as I remember. It
was my second taste of Windows. First was the Amiga a year earlier.
--
Andreas
Erich B.
2020-09-01 04:04:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by Andreas Kohlbach
A friend got it "late" (1988?) and standalone as far as I remember. It
was my second taste of Windows. First was the Amiga a year earlier.
--
Andreas
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
GEOS was all black and white and gray but it was still cool for the time. I had
an Amiga 520 and I also had a Commodore 128d. It had the 64, 64c, 128 and
ML(Machine Language) modes.

$ The Millionaire $

..."Will we ever fear the ecstasy of free thought?" - Thinkman...
Andreas Kohlbach
2020-09-02 15:40:10 UTC
Permalink
Post by Erich B.
Post by Andreas Kohlbach
A friend got it "late" (1988?) and standalone as far as I remember. It
was my second taste of Windows. First was the Amiga a year earlier.
GEOS was all black and white and gray but it was still cool for the time. I had
an Amiga 520 and I also had a Commodore 128d. It had the 64, 64c, 128 and
ML(Machine Language) modes.
Here I only have emulators left. I am not able to find a working GEOS copy
for the C64, but have one for the C128. And that is in color.
--
Andreas
Silver Dream !
2020-09-02 18:54:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Post by Erich B.
Post by Andreas Kohlbach
A friend got it "late" (1988?) and standalone as far as I remember. It
was my second taste of Windows. First was the Amiga a year earlier.
GEOS was all black and white and gray but it was still cool for the time. I had
an Amiga 520 and I also had a Commodore 128d. It had the 64, 64c, 128 and
ML(Machine Language) modes.
Here I only have emulators left. I am not able to find a working GEOS copy
for the C64, but have one for the C128. And that is in color.
The initial versions didn't have much colour on the UI, but they allowed
colour pictures within the hires mode limits obviously. Later versions
added more UI colours.
Silver Dream !
2020-09-02 18:51:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by Erich B.
GEOS was all black and white and gray
a) no, it wasn't - remember the lobster (or whatever it was) GeoPaint
picture ;-) - although C64 hires limitations played important role there

b) black/white and grey was considered "professional" look at that time
(mostly probably because the PCs weren't really capable of producing
much colour... remember GEM? And stuff like Ventura Publisher?
J.B. Wood
2020-09-02 19:09:54 UTC
Permalink
Post by Erich B.
GEOS was all black and white and gray but it was still cool for the time. I had
an Amiga 520 and I also had a Commodore 128d. It had the 64, 64c, 128 and
ML(Machine Language) modes.
Hello, and that was true for the first GEOS version (1.x). The later
2.0 version allowed for color icons (red for system files, blue for
apps, yellow for BASIC programs, etc) on the Desktop and I have some 3rd
party GEOS games that use color. I've also got a collection of geoPaint
pictures (a few in monochrome) that even today still look impressive on
an old C= 1701 monitor. Sincerely,
--
J. B. Wood e-mail: ***@hotmail.com
J.B. Wood
2020-09-02 11:11:24 UTC
Permalink
Post by Erich B.
Does anyone remember this on the C64c when it was bundled with it? It was my
first taste of Windows.
$ The Millionaire $
..."Will we ever fear the ecstasy of free thought?" - Thinkman...
Hello, and while some vendors may have put bundles together (anyone old
enough to remember Protecto Enterprises?), AFAIK GEOS was a
separately-sold product. I still have GEOS, DeskPack Plus, geoChart,
geoFile and geoCalc for the C-64. Cost a few bucks but IMHO these
products were probably as close as you could get to "killer" apps on a
C-64, given its limitations as a practical small business platform, let
alone home use for MS Office-like stuff. GEOS with its companion apps
did some great Macintosh-like things but oh so slowly if all you had was
one (not advisable) or two 1541 drives. You really needed a 1750 RAM
expansion or the GEOS RAM cart to get things moving. Sincerely,
--
J. B. Wood e-mail: ***@hotmail.com
Andreas Kohlbach
2020-09-02 15:43:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by J.B. Wood
Hello, and while some vendors may have put bundles together (anyone
old enough to remember Protecto Enterprises?),
Not being an American I don't from back in the day. But I read a lot of old
BYTE magazines in recent years and saw their aggressive ads. They
advertised the C64 with 84K of memory, probably adding the space the rom
chips had on top of the 64K RAM.
--
Andreas
Silver Dream !
2020-09-02 18:59:52 UTC
Permalink
Post by J.B. Wood
Hello, and while some vendors may have put bundles together (anyone old
enough to remember Protecto Enterprises?), AFAIK GEOS was a
separately-sold product.  I still have GEOS, DeskPack Plus, geoChart,
geoFile and geoCalc for the C-64.  Cost a few bucks but IMHO these
products were probably as close as you could get to "killer" apps on a
C-64,
I remember doing rather sizeable spreadsheets on GeoCalc, which threw
the other C64 spreadsheet applications (I don't remember the names -
multiplan I think was one and the other don't remember - visicalc?) on
their knees, with quite reasonable performance.

given its limitations as a practical small business platform, let
Post by J.B. Wood
alone home use for MS Office-like stuff.  GEOS with its companion apps
did some great Macintosh-like things but oh so slowly if all you had was
one (not advisable) or two 1541 drives.  You really needed a 1750 RAM
expansion or the GEOS RAM cart to get things moving.
True that. 1581 was already a good start as one could put/fit all needed
things on one disk. But only adding RAM card made it fly.
Erich B.
2020-09-02 01:14:58 UTC
Permalink
Post by Silver Dream !
I remember doing rather sizeable spreadsheets on GeoCalc, which threw
the other C64 spreadsheet applications (I don't remember the names -
multiplan I think was one and the other don't remember - visicalc?) on
their knees, with quite reasonable performance.
given its limitations as a practical small business platform, let
True that. 1581 was already a good start as one could put/fit all needed
things on one disk. But only adding RAM card made it fly.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
Yeah the 1581 was a cute little drive with those 3 1/2 in. floppy disks. They
had the most disk space.

$ The Millionaire $

..."Will we ever fear the ecstasy of free thought?" - Thinkman...
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