Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!portal!fernwood!intuit!eshenk
From: eshenk@intuit.intuit.COM (Eric Shenk)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: GeoWorks Ensemble: any comments?
Message-ID: <402@intuit.intuit.COM>
Date: 20 Mar 91 16:28:06 GMT
References: <13085@helios.TAMU.EDU> <399@intuit.intuit.COM> <1991Mar17.194447.2756@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Organization: Intuit Int., Menlo Park, CA
Lines: 33

Based on several responses I've have gotten to my original message (largely
a glowing summary of Geos delivered from a soap box) I feel the need to expand
a little on what I said.
 
Geos (the os made by GeoWorks, the company--sorry for any confusion I may
have caused) is indeed a "young" environment.  As such, there are many
things it lacks that more mature environments have (as I tried to mention
earlier, albeit poorly).  What makes these guys brilliant IMHO is not that
they have come up with amazing breakthroughs in the area of GUIs.  They have
built on the work of Microsoft and others, who in turn all built on the work
of those photocopier guys (how quickly we forget who came up with the ideas
and who is just refining...).  I believe their brilliance is in the area
of implementation.  Their code is incredibly small and very fast, yet the
final product looks *really* sharp, and their internal interface is better
layered and organized than any I've yet seen.

In summary, it is an emerging environment that does not (yet) have all of the
features of the mature environments, but what it does have is implemented
much more efficiently and cleanly (both UI and API).  They claim not to
overlap with Microsoft since MS is aimed at 386 and up machines, while they
run nicely on low-end machines.  But if they succeed there, it's not hard to
envision them working their way up.  As to where Ensemble can be found try
a software store; I know Egghead has it and I've seen it elsewhere.  For
developers info, I would try calling headquarters at (415) 644-0883.  I
would imagine that once you've waded your way through the evil phone maze
and finally wind up talking to a person, someone ought to be able to help you.
-eric

PS,  According to their system overview, memory management is based on
the conventional 640K DOS model, with any memory above that being used as
swap space.  However, they do have a blurb that says "memory management
routines...are extensible to handle linear address spaces without requiring
modification of existing applications."