Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!ncrlnk!ncrcce!c10sd3!anderson
From: anderson@c10sd3.StPaul.NCR.COM (Joel Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Geos 2.0
Summary: Enhanced Better and Bigger (buy more disk drives)
Keywords: GEOS Commodore Berkelely Softworks
Message-ID: <255@c10sd3.StPaul.NCR.COM>
Date: 16 Sep 88 15:56:39 GMT
Reply-To: anderson@c10sd3.StPaul.NCR.COM (Joel Anderson)
Organization: NCR Comten, St. Paul, MN
Lines: 103


Geos 2 - Upping the Ante
========================

     Oh boy, an upgrade!  As a Geos enthusiast since I got my hands on
version 1.0, getting my copy of 2.0 looked like fun!  And now I've had it
for a week.

     So.  Do I like it?

     If anyone will be disappointed by this product it will be those who
went out and bought the products Writers Workshop and Geospell.  Their
investment - which more than doubled the original cost of Geos - is now
unnecessary, given the rebundling that now includes all the utilities of
Writers Workshop and Geospell (except the Font Editor - the only reason I
bought Geospell).

     The best summary of the whole new set is "Upping the Ante".  Both in
the number of things you can do - and in the supporting hardware you are
going to want.

Disk Management

      I had already found Geos to THE recommended system to novice
computerists - no longer did I felt guilty luring trusting nieces and
nephews into the cul de sac of Commodore - instead of a whole raft of
arcane commands I could now say "point and click" whether it was file
copying, disposal or disk formatting.  Nevermind that it makes "cracking"
copy protection difficult - I wasn't trying to encourage that anyway.

     Well the NEW Geos is even better.  You can select multiple files for
copying and disposal.  Almost any desktop operation can be done with
keystrokes. It supports up to three drives (including 1581 and RAM
drives).  The clock can be set much more easily (it is now always on
display on the desk pad - just point and click to reset).  For the Mac
experienced and the Un-initiated this is very easy.  The new Desktop
alone does away with at least three public domain add-ons I had used
routinely.

Compatability
     Along with Berkeley a number of public domain authors (and
shareware) have provided wonderful programs - do they still work?  So far
I have not found one public domain, or BSW utility that does not work
with the new kernal.  In fact, to be precise some things (file selection
boxes come to mind) work better.

GeoPaint And GeoWrite
     In Paint, bugs I had noticed ( for example, printing from inside the
application did weird things to the menus afterwards) are definitely
gone.  Features are added that I sorely missed - scaling for example,
(although you are still limited to selecting screen-sized windows).  Even
better - scaling offers interesting features - smoothing, transparency,
pattern masks.  Also (I can't decide if I like this, but I think I do)
Photo Manager, the tool for handling picture albums, now lets you assign
names to images.

     No surprise to those who bought Writer's Workshop - GeoWrite is now
a much better word processor.  I expect many will opt to use the included
"Text Grabber" to write in an old-style editor [Speedscript comes to
mind] and then convert to Geos.  Just to prove it works as a tool, I
am forcing myself to write this review using it - then using the
excellent Shareware tool "Wrong is Write" from Quantum Link
to create an Ascii file.

     Now the price for all this improvement is increased size in all of
the various Geos Tools.  Here is where the ante is really upped.  With the
extra power will come the realization that having two disks drives (not
common in the CBM fraternity) is much better with Geos.  It was Geos 1.3 that 
led me to buy my second drive.  Look at these sizes:

Program     Old Geos     Geos 2.0
-------------------------------------------------
Desktop     74 blocks     120 blocks (+27%)
-------------------------------------------------
GeoWrite     90 blocks(1.3)     141 blocks(2.1) (+57%)
-------------------------------------------------
GeoPaint     119 blocks     152 blocks(+62%)
-------------------------------------------------

     Looking at all three - an increase in size of "precisely"
+45.9363958%.  I know because I did the arithmetic and did a "cut and
paste" with the NEW calculator.  A nifty (and needed) improvement in both
the notepad and calculator desk accesories is the feature that allows
them to import data as "text scraps".

     So yeah, I like it.  Sure - it is no Macintosh nor Sun.  Even with
the disk speed up Geos offers, unless you get the ramdrive it will make you
wait for program overlays and file references.  But - geez - it isn't how
good the pig sings opera, its that it can do it at all!  This is the best
all around graphic and DTP tool I expect to see for the 64 in this world.

     If you've got a chance at the upgrade, take it.  If you are
considering getting Geos, well, it has given my 64 a much longer lease on
life.

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"..If you own a machine, you are in turn owned by it, and spend your time
serving it...."    The Forbidden Tower, Marion Zimmer Bradley
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  anderson@c10sd3.StPaul.NCR.COM |UUCP: {rosevax, crash}!orbit!pnet51!jpa
     Joel Peter Anderson         |ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!jpa@nosc.mil
  NCR Comten / Software engineer |INET: jpa@pnet51.cts.com
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