Jack Nimersheim

GeoWorks Ensemble enhances MS-DOS by providing users with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for performing DOS operations and launching software applications. This book introduces readers to that new interface which, at the time, was a serious alternative to Microsoft Windows.

Specifically, The First Book of GeoWorks Ensemble teaches you how to: (1) install and get started with GeoWorks Ensemble; (2) streamline your PC with the Ensemble appliances; (3) manage your DOS directories and files with GeoManager; (4) enter and edit written documents with the GeoWrite word processor; (5) send and receive electronic messages with the GeoCom telecommunications module; and (6) file important data in easy-to-find surroundings with GeoDex.

GeoWorks Ensemble, also known as PC/GEOS 1.0-2.x, is a DOS-based graphical user interface and x86 operating system for the IBM PC and compatibles. Incidentally, even though GeoWorks is referred to as an "operating system," it still requires DOS in order to load.

In the early 1990s, GeoWorks Ensemble included scalable fonts and multitasking even on XT and AT-class PCs and PC clones. Being written directly in assembly language, GeoWorks Ensemble also provided much better performance than the relatively sluggish Microsoft Windows 3.0 on 386 and 486 PCs. It is said that GeoWorks Ensemble faded away because Microsoft threatened to withdraw the supply of MS-DOS operating systems to hardware manufacturers who bundled GeoWorks with their machines.

A newer version of GeoWorks Ensemble was marketed in the late 1990s as NewDeal Office from NewDeal Inc. in hopes of creating a market among owners of i386, i486 and Pentium PCs that could not run Windows 95 or Windows 98 effectively.

After NewDeal Inc. went out of business in 2003, Breadbox Computer Company LLC purchased all of the rights to the GEOS operating system. The newest PC/GEOS V4.x with bundled office software is called "Breadbox Ensemble." It is a full productivity and Internet suite, including Web browser, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet, flat file database, and graphics applications.… (meer)