Talk:GEOS (16-bit operating system)

The following three threads, mostly concerning PC/GEOS, were moved from Talk:GEOS. See Hist:GEOS for the relevant article progress.

GEOS article in the English vs the German Wikipedia
Hey English Language Peoples! See the newest German GEOS Wiki to know what Quality is ;-) Can you make it better ? ;-) --AlexZOP


 * The German Wikipedia's GEOS article is partially very detailed, by all means, but I don't think that warrants a direct translation of it into English to replicate it here. However, I think we could absolutely incorporate some of the information in the German WKP article into this article--but by way of inserting the relevant info into the text where it may fit.


 * One of my gripes about the German article is that it starts off with the PC variants of GEOS. I think a historical treatment of GEOS should begin at the beginning, like our former version of the article in the English WKP. So I suggest we take it a little slow instead of simply swapping the English text with a translation of the German one. --Wernher 21:36, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * By all means. Man, I wish I even understood German in the first place. Maybe it would be worth it to create Talk:GEOS/Translation from German and then merge that into the regular article. It might make the task more accessible to us poor non-German speakers... grendel|khan 03:59, 2005 Mar 8 (UTC)

The article's degeneration into commercial advertising
Does the first half of this article seem like an ad to anyone else? Bodhidharma 18:24, Mar 19, 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes! This article is horrible. --Lezek 05:24, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * With the risk of provoking the partly-POV contributors into an edit war, I reverted the article to the last NPOV, chronological, and tidy, version. Like I did above, I suggest that we incorporate the suitable parts of the German article into this one (while definitely not following the reverse chronological order). This editing work may very likely benefit from the NPOV parts of the material translated into English by AlexZOP (62.134.116. {114,240,233,136} / 62.134.112.32). --Wernher 17:15, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * I support this action. Expect a combined semi-translation/new material from me or another user soon --Lezek 19:43, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * Mhm. Please write other words to tell the Peoples all the Infos about Availability without "commercial" Words. GEOS is not a free System, it´s a Commercial System. I have search positive Words for this Wiki-Page. But my bad english give me not very much Word Variety. Please write it with this Infos from me NEW that it not degeneration into commercial advertising. Thanks! --AlexZOP

Answers from AlexZOP
Why this War between C64/GEOS and PC/GEOS from C64 GEOS Fans?

Hello from Germany. I´am AlexZOP. My English is very bad, but i hope readers understand wath i wanna say... Since Years this GEOS Wiki-Page was never updatet and was very bad and very wrong with small Infos (all very outdated). The Germand Side was a little bit better, but on a very low level too. Now i make a hard work with many of my Informations about GEOS. I´am a Friend of C64 AND PC GEOS. Yes i know that almost all C64 and C64 GEOS Freaks not loved PC GEOS. But today i don´t understand this no longer. PC GEOS was the Projekt from Berkeley Softworks to bring GEOS to the 90`s most selled Hardware (From really C64 Freaks sight): Boring PC. My Pseudo here in Germany everybody knows that i´am the Freak behind the good old C64 "Rockford-FD" Disk-Series and MAGs and much more. Yes i´am a pure C64 Freak!

But why the Hell have i set the actually PC GEOS FIRST? I think, every good Enyclopedia Page about Present Time Themes comes from actually Informations down to older Informations. I think People have much more interest about the newest Infos about the Theme. PC/GEOS is a actually System that runs on Hardware from today. C64 GEOS in they newest "Version" Wheels is a little bit actually too, but it runs on Outdated Hardware. There are not much Newbies they buying a old C64 and serach about GEOS V2.0 or Germany V2.5... But i don´t wanna start a War with my Work. I don´t make this Succession about a order of Merit.

Peace on Earth please :-) And Earth = GEOS :-) My Propose to bring Peace about this Side under Pure C64 and PC GEOS Freaks and all other: Let us make two Bottom Pages without Numbers and without order of Merit. Only in the Wikipedia of GEOS first a little Introduction about HC (Homecomputer) GEOS and PC GEOS. And then Side by Side Bottom Pages Links to HC/GEOS (c=C64,c=C128, c=P4, AppleII) and PC/GEOS (BBE,NDO,GWE,PEN,SC).

What your think about that?

I don´t wanna optain a 1:1 translation about my work on German GEOS-Wiki

I think this english GEOS-Wiki comes better and better. My english is bad, So i can work only a little bit on/for english GEOS Wiki... I understand to reading English but not to write self ;-)

I hope find C64 GEOS Peoples they write Informations about this very good very cool GEOS Version. For english and German Wiki too. Please help for this work. But please make not a War. When it only brings Peace in GEOS World than tell about C64 GEOS first, but than it is more a Hommage Page i think, and not a Enyclopedia. But i can be wrong with my Ideas...

Why NOW your have erase all the good Infos about PC/GEOS???

Why this Spite and Enmity??? Tell me that your go to future with this Ideas (nothing about PC/GEOS on GEOS Wiki), and i make a new Wiki only for PC/GEOS. Than you can make the GEOS Side only for your loved C64 GEOS... My Idea say thats the wrong way, but i dont wanna have a War. --AlexZOP


 * This is nothing whatsoever to do with 'spite' or dislike of PC/GEOS, but simply due to the fact that the information provided reads like an advertisement for the product. This is not appropriate to Wikipedia. From the style of the material I also would not be surprised if some or all of it was copied directly from some document published by Breadbox, which would then bring in the issue of copyright violations. The current solution is also not appropriate. A single page for both HC/GEOS and PC/GEOS made the most sense. The problem is simply that the portion about PC/GEOS must be rewritten! --Lezek


 * Ok, rewrite it! Yes i have take Infos from Breadbox Side. I have this infos a little bit rewritten... I have the permission from Breadbox CEO Frank S. Fischer (Look i told him about GEOS-Wiki and he set a Link from Breadbox Page to GEOS-Wiki). The Problem is, that i cannot write a English Page with my own Words (my English is too bad). But the wrong and unactually Infos on GEOS-Wiki about PC/GEOS have bring me on Idea to take Infos from Breadbox... Yes rewrite it - not so commercial -, but with all actually Infos! Look on German GEOS-Wiki. There i have written all Infos with my own Words and without pure advertisement. But, the Fact that the Product is actually and available - this Infos must be in GEOS-Wiki, i think. My Work on Englisch GEOSWiki is over. It´s your Turn! Good luck and Greetings from Bavaria ;-) --AlexZOP


 * For the time being I have kept the split article scheme. However, I agree that a single article may serve the content just as well. If anyone has strong feelings on this, feel free to comment, of course. --Wernher 09:41, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Very good and friendly Greetings from Bavaria. -=C64 Forever=- -=GEOS Forever=- --AlexZOP

The above three threads, mostly concerning PC/GEOS, were moved from Talk:GEOS. See Hist:GEOS for the relevant article progress.

Is 16-bit GEOS actually an OS?
Based on the current version(s), I think it's uncontroversial to call GEOS a full OS. After its beginnings as a GUI on top of DOS (like another well-known OS) it is now based on its own kernel---programmed from scratch in x86 assembly language, no less. Also, if I have understood the docs I found on the 'net correctly, it is still 16-bit, since it was originally written for yesterday's low-end PCs as well as x86-based PDAs with x<3 (and because updating the code for x>=3 wouldn't be cost-effectively sound). Please correct me if I'm wrong. --Wernher 09:01, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, PC-GEOS is an Operating System the same as Windows. Windows also required a separate DOS all the way up to Windows 3.11 and up to Windows Millenium Edition MS-DOS was included and required to run Windows. 75.39.152.138 04:58, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

I thought that the latest BBE version was 4.0.1!!!
I'm curious, because the eval versions posted here clamed to be 4.0.2 (the files are corrupt, so I can’t confirm it) but I recently got the full version for Sun2k, and that’s 2.0.1.

What gives?

Article:The Death of GEOS?

 * Death Of GEOS? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.76.68.69 (talk) 02:25, 9 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds like GEOS could be a good match with the Raspberry Pi. Mahjongg (talk) 01:56, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

"32-bit RiSC OS" reference in 'GEOS-SE'
I've added a citation request because I think there's a misunderstanding. The "October 1993 - December 1996" section of this CV refers to a "a 32-bit RISC processor ( Hitachi SH-1)". --trevj (talk) 15:24, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

I worked on GEOS-SE when it was Eden OS and it was ported to the SH-3, not the SH-1. It was also ported to the Mitsubishi M32R, Power PC and ARM architectures. Tony Williams Strayling (talk) 23:45, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

Windows packaging
Actually in an effort to prevent GOES from getting too much market share, in the early 1990s Microsoft starting making their Windows packaging much larger to fill up store shelves so there would not be room from the GEOS boxes. GEOS on a 286 was faster than Windows 3.0 on a 386. -- Kheider (talk) 13:56, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

GEOS preinstalled on a desktop
There was a company in the early 2000's which made a desktop computer specifically to run GEOS. It used an AMD system on a chip with an 80486 core. IIRC it had only 2 or 4 megabytes of RAM but the board had places for twice as much to be soldered in. I set one up once for internet access but cannot remember the name of the company. They had a better model with a newer AMD chip but it was never released due to not enough sales of the first model and not enough of the people who bought the first model paying for additional software downloads. Bizzybody (talk) 22:34, 31 August 2013 (UTC)
 * You probably meant, didn't you? --Matthiaspaul (talk) 05:49, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Breadbox owner deceased?
Is this obituary in the Tampa Bay Times about one Frank S. Fischer the same Fischer who owns Breadbox/GEOS? Spring Hill, Florida connection and recent website closure are strong indicators of being the case (If so, my condolences for the family). Is there additional information regarding this matter and fate of company? -- dsprc   [talk]  19:59, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

rename it GeoWorks
if you can. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zicari101 (talk • contribs) 15:00, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

What should we do with the official link?
The site listed in the article's infobox as the "official link", www.breadbox.com, is currently showing nothing but a blueway.Softworks "coming soon" page. And I think we know, at this point, it's not coming soon, or probably ever. It's a pretty useless official link, but it's also the only one that probably exists right now. Still, I worry we're sending our readers on a wild internet goose chase by even displaying it, when there is absolutely nothing there that's worth the click. FeRDNYC (talk) 07:08, 9 October 2022 (UTC)


 * show the version available at the internet archive. Rugoconites Tenuirugosus (talk) 13:48, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

Request to rename the article from "GEOS (16-bit_operating_system)" to "PC/GEOS"
"GEOS" is the name used to describe 8-bit predecessor of PC/GEOS. PC/GEOS was never referred to as simply GEOS, but exclusively as PC/GEOS and GeoWorks (even if GeoWorks is just the brand name and PC/GEOS is the actual operating system). Rugoconites Tenuirugosus (talk) 13:51, 21 October 2023 (UTC)