Software from the 90s. Shell for DOS New Deal Office: the beginning

GEOS

Commodore 64 was a real bestseller. Released in 1982, it embodied the idea that a computer should be in every home. The cost of 595 US dollars was high, but quite affordable for many families. So over the next 12 years, about 15 million of these wonderful machines were sold.

For most people, the Commodore 64 is associated with games. But in fact, it was a universal platform with many accessories and was great for office tasks. This was one of the reasons that prompted Brian P. Dougherty, the founder of Berkley Softworks, to create the innovative GEOS operating system.

This operating system was a kind of art. Now we have dozens of cores, each running at huge speeds measured in gigahertz. Back then, the Commodore 64 ran on a MOS Technology 6510 processor at about 1 MHz and had only a tiny 64 KB of RAM. Imagine how non-trivial it was to create an entire operating system with such strict limitations.

At some point, these constraints began to hinder the development of GEOS so much that Berkley Softworks even released a hardware module that expanded the available RAM by 512 KB. They called it GEORAM:

The module solved the memory shortage problem but was only available for GEOS 2.0 versions. Third-party applications could not work with this module. However, this product did not last long and was eventually discontinued.

No matter how much I searched, I could not find any reliable sources that would reveal the reason for the renaming of Berkley Softworks to GeoWorks Corporation. I can assume that the developers at Berkley Softworks used the geo prefix so often in their applications (geoWrite, geoProgrammer, geoPublish, and the like) that they decided to rename the company itself to increase recognition.

PC/GEOS

The original GEOS was released not only for the Commodore 64. GEOS could be found on a variety of different devices — from Apple II computers to the legendary Nokia 9000 communicator. It would be strange to imagine if at some point the developers did not try to find their niche on IBM PC-compatible computers.

Thus, the PC/GEOS version was created, which after the company was renamed became known as GeoWorks Ensemble. Based on it, PEN/GEOS will be developed, which debuted on a very unusual PDA with a graphical interface from Hewlett-Packard — the OmniGo 100.

This "hardware" will become the predecessor of the LX (Lotus eXpandable) Palmtop PC line, which will gain well-deserved love from users around the world. GEOS left its mark here as well.

PC/GEOS gained a significant share of its popularity thanks to AOL (America OnLine). It was the largest online service of that time, and PC/GEOS became the graphical basis for the official AOL DOS client. So among American users, GeoWorks gradually gained popularity.

GeoWorks Ensemble

The development of the shell at that time solved two important tasks. First, it significantly lowered the entry threshold for ordinary users. Unlike DOS, which was not friendly and informative, even the most inexperienced user could easily figure out how to send an email or launch a game. Second, it worked great even on very weak hardware, which was great for people who couldn't afford to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a more or less productive PC.

At the moment when GeoWorks became a significant company, trouble came in the form of Microsoft with their Windows. If previously Ensemble worked in tandem with MS-DOS, now Microsoft offered a native solution that took away most of GeoWorks' users. Seeing such a defeat, the company stayed afloat for a while, focusing on developing interfaces for PDAs, but soon had to go public to avoid closure.

Alas, neither the partnership with AOL nor joint projects with HP and Novell could provide GeoWorks with the necessary profit. Their main development, Ensemble, was licensed in 1996 by New Deal, founded by former Berkeley Softworks employees. And on its basis, the next version of the shell was released, called New Deal Office. However, financial problems finally sank GeoWorks in 2003.

New Deal Office

The newly minted license holders for the shell decided to focus on its development for office tasks. This approach was quite justified by the fact that not all companies could afford fast PCs that easily ran Windows 98 and Windows Me. Many small companies had an old computer fleet and were looking for ways to extend its use. In this regard, a fast and convenient graphical shell could significantly delay the need for a hardware upgrade.

In terms of design, the developers faced a very unusual dilemma. Part of their target audience was accustomed to the design and management of Windows 3.11, while another part already had experience with Windows 95 and 98. Instead of trying to combine a hedgehog with a snake, the programmers implemented both options. In fact, these were different desktop environments, switching between which required a complete restart of the shell.

The first option was based on a quite commercial Motif toolkit, for the use of which royalties had to be paid. A significant advantage of this environment was that it strongly resembled a hybrid of Windows 3.11 and NeXTstep. Users easily got used to Motif and did not get lost, using the same techniques that worked in Windows 3.11. For example, to close a window, you had to double-click on the "-" symbol. A single click would open the window's context menu.

The second version of the desktop environment strongly resembles that of Windows 95. It is now pointless to argue about who first came up with the concept of the "Start" button. According to some sources, it appeared two years before it did in Windows. Others consider this to be speculation and journalistic fiction. Personally, I adhere to the first version, as it looks very original.

In terms of software, New Deal Office faced the same problems as GeoWorks Ensemble. Although there was an SDK, writing native applications for this shell was not an easy task. The situation was mitigated by the fact that New Deal Office came with a decent number of applications and utilities "out of the box". The shell boasted its own web browser Skipper (a clear allusion to Netscape Navigator), an email client, an online chat application, and even a visual web page editor. There were also multimedia programs that allowed you to listen to AudioCDs and even WAV files.

An important part of the shell were office applications:

• the Writer text editor;

• the Spreadsheet spreadsheet editor;

• the Artist vector graphics editor.

The latter, by the way, was quite convenient and allowed you to easily sketch design concepts or create simple diagrams. The only drawback is that the buttons on the left panel are not very intuitive, and at first, you get lost in them. But after 10 minutes, you get used to this arrangement and stop paying attention to them:

Another New Deal Office 2000 pleased me with an interesting puzzle. When I tried to open the Skipper web browser, I found an interesting URL in the History field:

At the time of writing this article, the Internet Archive is gradually recovering from a devastating hacker attack, and the Wayback Machine is once again available. So I did not deny myself the pleasure of looking at the specified site as of 2003:

Five years later, this domain will host a commercial online service for remote workstation management, a kind of analogue of TeamViewer. Whether this was somehow related to New Deal Office or not, I could not determine. If anyone knows, write in the comments. By the way, the company MyGreenPC has survived to this day and continues to develop software for remote management.

Instead of a conclusion

The year 2000 was fatal for New Deal. Having never achieved commercial success with New Deal Office, the company went bankrupt. A year later, all developments were bought by Breadbox, which decided to return the old name Ensemble. The shell was developed until 2009, gradually losing relevance.

Looking back at the history of GEOS development, it can be said with confidence that it had a significant impact on the entire industry. Nowadays, many enthusiasts continue to support the life of old computers, and some even create such from new components. The Chinese are generally continuing to expand their line of computers based on 8088 and 386 processors (for example, Pocket 386).

So shells like Geoworks Ensemble, New Deal Office, Breadbox Ensemble can still pleasantly surprise and provide a new user experience that seemed to be long outdated. Well, emulators like PCem do an excellent job, allowing you to easily explore applications from the past without worrying too much about the compatibility of this or that equipment.

Have you ever used New Deal Office? Waiting for you in the comments.