Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!infonode!ingr!ne3005!point!ken
From: ken@point.ne1300.ingr.com (Ken Poore)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: GeoWorks Ensemble: any comments?
Message-ID: <2600@ne3005.ingr.com>
Date: 6 Mar 91 15:58:31 GMT
References: <13085@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Sender: usenet@ne3005.ingr.com
Lines: 47

tony@cs.tamu.edu (Tony Encarnacion) writes:

>Has anybody used GeoWorks Ensemble, another window manager for PCs?  
>How does it compare to Windows 3.0?

>From the GeoWorks brochure, they claim that it can run on just 512K
>on an XT and has Motif-compliant interface.  It comes with a text
>processor, a drawing program, etc. but I did not see mention of 
>program development.

I have a copy of it here in my office, and for a novice computer user, it
is *far* better than Windows 3.0 (I also have a copy of Windows).  A friend
of mine has been contacted as a possible developer for a database engine
for Geoworks, so you can expect a decent DB interface soon.

I like Windows, too, but it is hell to set up and configure properly, 
especially for the novice.  I say this because of the troubles I've had
(I've been using PC's for 8 years), and complaints I regularly see in
trade journals.  Sure, Windows has tons more applications going for it, 
and there are several development toolkits available, but for a new user,
GeoWorks has all the right tools.  It's great for a portable, except that
it *must* have a mouse; and won't install until you have one.  Geoworks
sports an excellent rolodex, a decent calendar (kinda like Alamanac, but
not quite as good), nice file manager, adequate communications software,
a pretty good word processor (no search and replace, who cares!?), and a very
good draw program with very good scalable fonts.

One thing Windows has going for it is the ability to run non-Windows apps in
Window's windows.  Geoworks can only 'shell' out and run them.  Again, this
is fine for about 80% of the users (again, thinking novice).

Someone posted a while ago that it blew away his hard disk, but I haven't seen
it happen in the 5 installs I've witnessed. 

Right now (as of about 6 weeks ago) GeoWorks did not have a commercial
developer's library available, but it was promised real soon, now.

All in all, it's an excellent first release.  It's not a Windows clone, by
any means; you can tell this by the minimum resources required.  If it 
catches on at all, I think it'll be a serious contender.  In my opinion, it's
what Windows should have been.

--
|Ken Poore                   |TIM Appl. Specialist, Intergraph Corporation    |
|poore@ingr.com forwarded to |        Region V Technical Services             |
|ne1300!point!ken            |              Reston, Virginia                  |
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