GEOS Available for Download After 18 Years

GEOS Available for Download After 18 Years 471

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:43AM from the oldies-but-goodies dept.

gp writes "Back in 1986, Berkeley Softworks presented GEOS, the Graphical Environment Operating System for the Commodore 64 (screenshots). GEOS effectively turned the 8-bit Commodore 64 into something very similar to a Macintosh, but for an 8th of the price. In 2004, pushed hard by rivaling C64 open source alternatives such as the Contiki operating system and desktop environment and the LUnix *nix clone, the owners of GEOS have finally decided to release GEOS to the public. Hordes of Commodore 64 users are expected to download the system." Sadly, there's no mention of GEOS for the Apple 2 series of computers, which also enjoyed this fine precursor of GUIs to come.

GEOS Available for Download After 18 Years

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cool (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:43AM (#8266926)

look out XP!!

What the hell...? (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:45AM (#8266931)

So somebody *did* get that leaked NT code to compile?

Re:cool (Score:5, Funny)

by Ianing ( 715094 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:46AM (#8266936) Homepage

what is this 8th bit?

Pushed hard? (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:47AM (#8266944)

Is there really THAT much pressure among C64 OS's?

Define Horde (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:47AM (#8266950)

"Hordes of Commodore 64 users are expected to download the system."

Watch out, I hope their web servers will be capable of handling all 23 downloaders.

Re:Great Timing (Score:5, Funny)

by teklob ( 650327 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:51AM (#8266983)

Anyone who's still got a C64 should really consider upgrading...

Re:cool (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:52AM (#8266985)

It's the one that makes a dollar.

Re:cool (Score:0, Funny)

by Moocowsia ( 589092 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:53AM (#8266990)

Hmm.. I wonder if MS will try to get SCO to sue these guys too :P

Don't laugh (Score:0, Funny)

by superpulpsicle ( 533373 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:53AM (#8266991)

Cause Doom III won't be out in 18 years either.

Funny you should mention it.... (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @01:53AM (#8266995)

...considering no one (outside the ultra high geek) is going to be starting a c64 any time soon.

That's exactly what i was planning on doing after I finish smoking this bowl.

lemme see if i remember... (Score:5, Funny)

by joeseph schmo ( 222243 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:00AM (#8267036)

LOAD "GEOS",8,1

POKE "SCO","SHARP STICK"

ahhh yes...

Re:What is everyone asleep? (Score:4, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:02AM (#8267046)

Reminds me of today, booting WindowsXP on a 3Ghz machine... the 2 minute disk loads, the disk swapping bah!

Re:cool (Score:1, Funny)

by Hirsto ( 601188 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:05AM (#8267070)

Boots Faster Too!

Re:ah, the oldskool memories... (Score:4, Funny)

by Slack3r78 ( 596506 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:07AM (#8267084) Homepage

Not only did GEOS have fonts, it was possible to overload the system memory and crash the computer, forcing a reboot if you tried to load too many of them at once. Man, those were the days. :)

The cost... (Score:3, Funny)

by joeseph schmo ( 222243 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:08AM (#8267089)

"The price has been reduced to a very affordable $25 (plus shipping) for either version, GEOS 64 or GEOS 128."

Does that makes the TCO (total cost of ownership) more than Linux?

Looks like... (Score:2, Funny)

by proverbialcow ( 177020 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:16AM (#8267126) Journal

...the server's /.'d. And after only 80 replies, too.

That's what you get when you actually host a website on a C64 running Contiki...

Re:and how do I use it? (Score:2, Funny)

by jayzee ( 734710 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:20AM (#8267140)

I'll be needing a WAV file for the tape drive version (Though I don't think there was one) ... my 1541 gave up years ago ....

Geoworks ahead of the curve (Score:5, Funny)

by oingoboingo ( 179159 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:23AM (#8267156)

Geoworks was certainly an early pioneer in one area: unimaginative name conventions for its apps. Looking at the screenshots page, every damn app is geoThis, or geoThat. It's a wonderful trend that the KDesigners of the KDE KDestop KEnvironment have picked up one, as well as their GCompetitors Gover Gat Gthe GNOME GProject. And don't get me JStarted Jon Java JApplications.

Re:Define Horde (Score:5, Funny)

by MisterFancypants ( 615129 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:24AM (#8267160)

Watch out, I hope their web servers will be capable of handling all 23 downloaders.
23 downloaders, each with 1200 baud C-1670 modems...This site will be Slashdotted for sure.

so sad (Score:2, Funny)

by mister sticky ( 301125 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:25AM (#8267164)

the fact that the authors of this (ahead of its time) platform are nobodys, and bill gates is a household name is quite sad.

Re:Define Horde (Score:3, Funny)

by xoran99 ( 745620 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:27AM (#8267181)

Well, hordes is a relative term... I'm sure 23 downloads puts a very harsh load on a Commodore 64 server.

Re:Looks like... (Score:5, Funny)

by whiteranger99x ( 235024 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:29AM (#8267190) Journal

yeah, if i recall, i believe all the C64 users tried this:

LOAD"GETGEOSPROGRAM",8,1

And got

LOADING "GETGEOSPROGRAM"
SORRY WE'RE SLASHDOTTED ERROR
READY.

Re:Define Horde (Score:5, Funny)

by Penguinshit ( 591885 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:31AM (#8267202) Homepage Journal

1200?!?

You must come from the rich part of town. I had to make due with my 110 baud. I could read faster than that thing could print to the screen.

Re:How's the bandwidth in Afghanistan these days? (Score:4, Funny)

by whiteranger99x ( 235024 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:33AM (#8267215) Journal

yeah, now Junis or Akbar or whoever you refer to can watch it through PETSCIIlib :P

Re:and how do I use it? (Score:5, Funny)

by Penguinshit ( 591885 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:40AM (#8267242) Homepage Journal

Don't forget to use a hole-punch on the edge of the disk so you can use BOTH sides...

Re:Great Timing (Score:5, Funny)

by G-funk ( 22712 ) writes: <josh@gfunk007.com> on Friday February 13, 2004 @03:05AM (#8267354) Homepage Journal

Are you keeping up with the Commodore? Because the Commodore is keeping up with you!

Flamin' soviets...

Funny C64 Disk Drive Engineering (Score:3, Funny)

by deathcow ( 455995 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @03:19AM (#8267404)

What kind of crack were the 1541 disk drive engineerings smoking? Did they even have crack back then?

The 1541 was a somewhat self-destructing device. As I recall, the designers needed a way to make sure the read/write head shuttle was properly aligned with the (freeway sized) magnetic disk tracks, so they rubbed their brain cells together and decided it was appropriate and OK to just keep seeking the head shuttle inwards until it violently slammed the read write head into whatever was blocking its way. Then it was sure to be at the end of its travel. klak-klak-klak-klak-klak-klak!

All my friends had C64's back then, and we all had one or two 1541's over time. Luckily, one of us was well versed at fixing the blasted things.

I think it was when the 1571 drive came out they stopped slamming the disk head shuttle repeatedly.

I will never forget my introduction to Infocom on my Commodore 64, what, its been 21 years!!! I played it straight until my 1541 died from exhaustion. It went tits up from Zork. I guess a grue ate the bastard.

8 bit or 64 bit? (Score:3, Funny)

by axxackall ( 579006 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @03:29AM (#8267437) Homepage Journal

on a little 8-bit CPU
8-bit? It's supposed to be 64-bit as I can tell reading the name c64. Otherwise, why is it c64?

Re:What the hell...? (Score:5, Funny)

by Llywelyn ( 531070 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @03:44AM (#8267484) Homepage

I always just *knew* that MS was trying to force us to buy hardware upgrades to run their OS...

Comment removed (Score:0, Funny)

by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @03:49AM (#8267501)

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:ah, the oldskool memories... (Score:1, Funny)

by scott_davey ( 552885 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @04:39AM (#8267648)

I remember using a joystick to navigate the UI, since mice were a bit of a rarity.

You didn't miss much. I had a Commodore mouse. As it plugged into the joystick port, the pointer would only move at angles of 45 degrees, just like a joystick :-(

Re:Great Timing (Score:5, Funny)

by kinnell ( 607819 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @05:54AM (#8267855)

invulnerable to viruses
Just because there are no viruses for the C64, doesn't mean it's invulnerable. It's just that writing a virus for a C64 would be like beating up your grandmother.

No, no, they weren't the bad guys back then (Score:2, Funny)

by spun ( 1352 ) writes: <loverevolutionary@@@yahoo...com> on Friday February 13, 2004 @06:02AM (#8267876) Journal

They were actually kinda cool and hip, if you can believe it. This was several incarnations prior to today's SCO Group, back when they were the Santa Cruz Organization. The world isn't black and white you know, and the shades of gray tend to change over time.

Now I've done it. I'm really due for a good stoning now!

Priest: Now let me make this perfectly clear. No one is to stone anyone, even if, and I repeat, even if they do say SCO!
Crowd of 'Gentlemen': STONE HIM!

Yes, for some reason I'm on a 'Life of Brian' kick tonight.

Re:geoworks ensemble kicked ass (Score:2, Funny)

by WWWWolf ( 2428 ) writes: <wwwwolf@iki.fi> on Friday February 13, 2004 @06:38AM (#8267975) Homepage

another odd footnote: AOL's first client for the PC was written as a geoworks ensemble 1.0 application.

Speaking of AOL - since the GEOS site in the article is slashdotted, I wonder if it comes with the Quantum Link software? I hope not =)

Re:and how do I use it? (Score:3, Funny)

by Gojira Shipi-Taro ( 465802 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @09:33AM (#8268536) Homepage

Bah. Diskettes. Sheer luxury. We used cassette tapes, and we were glad to have 'em, too!.

We used to turn the volume up and sing along with the streaming bits out of gratitude that we were allowed to LOAD software on our computers...

Re:cool (Score:5, Funny)

by Junior J. Junior III ( 192702 ) writes: on Friday February 13, 2004 @09:48AM (#8268630) Homepage

First they leak the source code for WIndows, now this! What's the world coming to?

Look out for a bunch of GEOS exploits as soon as some k1dd13$ get their mitts on the code. The shit is going to hit the fan, I'm telling you...

There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead.

cool (Score:5, Funny)

What the hell...? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:cool (Score:5, Funny)

Pushed hard? (Score:5, Funny)

Define Horde (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Great Timing (Score:5, Funny)

Re:cool (Score:1, Funny)

Re:cool (Score:0, Funny)

Don't laugh (Score:0, Funny)

Funny you should mention it.... (Score:1, Funny)

lemme see if i remember... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:What is everyone asleep? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:cool (Score:1, Funny)

Re:ah, the oldskool memories... (Score:4, Funny)

The cost... (Score:3, Funny)

Looks like... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:and how do I use it? (Score:2, Funny)

Geoworks ahead of the curve (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Define Horde (Score:5, Funny)

so sad (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Define Horde (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Looks like... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Define Horde (Score:5, Funny)

Re:How's the bandwidth in Afghanistan these days? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:and how do I use it? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Great Timing (Score:5, Funny)

Funny C64 Disk Drive Engineering (Score:3, Funny)

8 bit or 64 bit? (Score:3, Funny)

Re:What the hell...? (Score:5, Funny)

Comment removed (Score:0, Funny)

Re:ah, the oldskool memories... (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Great Timing (Score:5, Funny)

No, no, they weren't the bad guys back then (Score:2, Funny)

Re:geoworks ensemble kicked ass (Score:2, Funny)

Re:and how do I use it? (Score:3, Funny)

Re:cool (Score:5, Funny)

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