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

Hello, fans of old hardware. This is Anton Komarov, author of the MTS Digital special projects team. I recently wrote a post about Breadbox Ensemble. Then I decided that it makes sense to see where it all began. I wanted to find an answer to the question: why did the same shell change its name so many times? So this time I’ll start my story not with the PC version, but with the Commodore 64. After all, it was for this platform that Berkley Softworks prepared an entire operating system, which they called GEOS.

GEOS

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

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

This operating system was a kind of art. We now have dozens of cores, each operating at enormous 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 what a non-trivial task it was to make an entire operating system with such strict restrictions.

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

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

No matter how much I searched, I could not find any credible sources that would reveal the reason for renaming Berkley Softworks to GeoWorks Corporation. I can assume that the developers from 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 many 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 occupy their niche on the IBM PC- compatible computers.

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

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

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

GeoWorks Ensemble

The development of the shell at that time solved two important problems. Firstly, it significantly reduced the entry threshold for ordinary users. Unlike DOS, which was not friendly or informative, even the most inexperienced user could easily figure out how to send an email or run a game. Secondly, it worked perfectly even on very weak hardware – and this was great for people who could not afford to throw out a couple of thousand dollars on a more or less productive PC.

Just as GeoWorks was becoming a significant company, disaster struck in the form of Microsoft and their Windows. If previously Ensemble worked in tandem with MS-DOS, now Microsoft offered a native solution, which took away most of the GeoWorks users. Seeing such a defeat, the company remained afloat for some time, focusing on developing interfaces for PDAs, but was soon forced to go public in order not to close down.

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, a company founded by former Berkeley Softworks employees. And based on it, the next version of the shell was released, which was called New Deal Office. GeoWorks' financial problems finally sank the company in 2003.

New Deal Office

The new license holders for the shell decided to focus on its development for office tasks. This approach was fully justified by the fact that not all companies could afford fast PCs that could easily run Windows 98 and Windows Me. Many small companies had an old computer park and were looking for an opportunity to extend its useful life. In this regard, a fast and convenient graphical shell could significantly delay the need to upgrade hardware.

In terms of design, the developers faced a very unusual dilemma. Some of their target audience was accustomed to the design and management of Windows 3.11, while others 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 completely commercial Motif toolkit, for the use of which you had to pay royalties. 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 the window you had to double-click on the “-” symbol. A single click led to the opening of the window context menu.

The second version of the desktop environment is very similar to that of Windows 95. Now it is 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 appeared in Windows. Others consider this to be speculation and inventions of journalists. Personally, I stick to the first version, it looks too 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 smoothed out by the fact that out of the box New Deal Office had a decent number of applications and utilities. The shell boasted its own Skipper web browser (an obvious 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:

• text editor Writer;

• Spreadsheet editor;

• Artist vector graphics editor.

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

New Deal Office 2000 also pleased me with one interesting riddle. When I tried to open the Skipper web browser, I found an interesting URL in the History column:

As of this writing, the Internet Archive is slowly recovering from a devastating hacker attack, and Wayback Machine available again. So I indulged myself in the pleasure of looking at the specified site as of 2003:

Five years later, this domain will host a commercial online service for remote control of workstations, a kind of analogue of TeamViewer. Whether this was somehow connected with the 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 control.

Instead of a conclusion

The year 2000 was a killer year for the New Deal. Having failed to achieve commercial success with New Deal Office, the company went bankrupt. A year later, all developments were purchased by Breadbox, which decided to return the old name Ensemble. The shell developed until 2009, gradually losing relevance.

Looking back at the history of GEOS, it is safe to say that it has greatly influenced the entire industry. These days, many enthusiasts continue to keep old computers alive, and some even create them from new components. The Chinese generally continue 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 give a new user experience that would seem to be outdated for a long time. Well, emulators like PCem do an excellent job of making it easy to learn applications from the past without worrying too much about the compatibility of this or that hardware.

Have you ever used New Deal Office? I'm waiting for you in the comments.