“As a long-time fan of GeoWorks Ensemble (now Breadbox Ensemble), a DOS based graphical user interface and office suite popular in the 80s, I’ve run it under a variety of operating systems and emulators over the years. You see, Ensemble requires an underlying operating system to provide a DOS compatible file system, not unlike early versions of Windows that required DOS. […] With the release of eComStation 2.0 I thought I’d revisit the challenge of getting Breadbox Ensemble running under OS/2 again […] but to add a further twist, since I didn’t want to do this on a dedicated machine, I chose to see if I could get things running under VirtualBox.”
As a long-time fan of GeoWorks Ensemble (now Breadbox Ensemble), a DOS based graphical user interface and office suite popular in the 80s, I’ve run it under a variety of operating systems and emulators over the years.
You see, Ensemble requires an underlying operating system to provide a DOS compatible file system, not unlike early versions of Windows that required DOS.
DR-DOS (Digital Research DOS) was an excellent host for Ensemble, providing excellent integration between DOS and Ensemble and powerful task-switching between DOS applications and Ensemble. PC-DOS was also an able host and of course since MS-DOS was ubiquitous, Ensemble ran under it as well.
Back in the 80s, when attending COMDEX the infamous computer trade show, I received a free copy of IBM Warp (Blue Spine, I recall) and was able to run GeoWorks Ensemble under it was well, putting to test IBM’s promise for OS/2 Warp at the time, “a better DOS than DOS and a better Windows than Windows”.
I’ve also had success getting the latest version of Breadbox Ensemble (with the fast CPU patch) running under DOSBox 7.3 (interestingly requiring a change to the GEOS.INI file that replaced the default file system driver with a the OS/2 driver).
So with the release of eComStation 2.0 I thought I’d revisit the challenge of getting Breadbox Ensemble running under OS/2 again. So I dropped my $149.00 for the 5 System Home/Student License, and combined with my $80.00 purchase of Breadbox Ensemble a year or so ago I thought I’d try and get it up and running on eComStation 2.0, but to add a further twist, since I didn’t want to do this on a dedicated machine, I chose to see if I could get things running under VirtualBox.
My first attempt to get eComStation running under VirtualBox was unsuccessful. The installation would hang. After a search of the web I found a couple of hints. Disable “paging” under the processor settings in VirtualBox, but make sure that the AMD-V or Intel VT-x support is enabled.
I did that but still, part way through the install things would hang. So I did a little more searching. This time I investigated “custom” changes to make to eComStation. I’d read somewhere online to make sure that one setting to enable in eComStation is using “virtual hardware”. So I enabled that, rebooted and things hung again. I then set eComStation to use the “IBM Compatible” disk driver. Things still hung. Then I’d read somewhere that someone had some success using eComStation’s “journaled file system” instead of the HPFS file system. That was the key. I formatted the virtual drive partition as JFS and the install completed relatively easily after that.
It took a few minutes to acclimate myself to the WPS (Workplace Shell) as it had been years since I’d first used it. Here’s a hint, the Workplace Shell uses the right mouse button for dragging and dropping. Once I’d remembered that, it was pretty easy to navigate.
After playing around with the 16 Bit Windows system called Win-OS2, playing with card file, calculator and revisiting the early days of Windows 3.0 (eComStation, and OS/2 includes a full 16 bit Windows layer so you can run early Windows applications), I dropped to a “DOS Prompt” and played around in DOS both in a windowed session and full screen. I’m amazed that I can still remember most of those old DOS commands, cd (change directory), dir (directory), copy (copy *.* c:dosapps), etc.
Next it was time to install Breadbox Ensemble. Recognizing that I probably wouldn’t be able to run Breadbox Ensemble in a Window due to the graphical nature of the program, I dropped to a DOS full screen session (but I could always get back to the graphical eComStation desktop with a CTRL-ESC like we did in the early days of DOS task switching) and began the installation process.
Unfortunately, upon completion of the install, Breadbox Ensemble would crash. After a little head scratching I remembered a change from using Breadbox Ensemble under DOSBox, you needed to change the default file system driver from the default to (ironically) the OS2.geo driver in the GEOS.INI file. Once that change was made and a few other tweaks (I prefer the Motif interface instead of the “Industry Standard” interface inspired by the Windows Start button) were made I was running Breadbox Ensemble, on eComStation under VirtualBox.
Next up, I’ll try to run an older version of GeoWorks Ensemble on eComStation, and patching GeoWorks Ensemble to use the “Presentation Manager” user interface.
You see, in the early days of GeoWorks Ensemble, one of the most impressive features, particularly when GeoWorks was trying to get other companies to adopt GeoWorks as their default operating system in their David versus Goliath battle with Microsoft, GeoWorks created a variety of familiar user interfaces that could be swapped out depending upon the customer.
For those companies that preferred a “familiar” Windows style user interface, they could choose the “Industry Standard” user interface, patterned after the familiar Windows 95, Start menu interface. For those companies who preferred simplicity, they had a “Push Button” interface (remember those early DOS based AOL installation disks?).
And most important, when courting IBM to run GeoWorks Ensemble on their lower end hardware, they created a “PM” interface based on the early OS/2 “Presentation Manager” interface. IBM required later versions of Ensemble to drop the “PM” interface and integration code in Breadbox Ensemble which is why I need to install an earlier GeoWorks version.
So while we took the long way to get here, we really have come full circle and I’ll report back on any success I’ve had getting the Presentation Manager interface to run under GeoWorks Ensemble, running on eComStation under VirtualBox emulation. Oh, and one more thing, doing so running the latest version of OS X on my MacBook Pro!
About the Author: Michael Hill
Michael Hill has been involved with computer technology for over 30 years. A GUI fanatic, he’s used and experimented with a variety of different graphical user interfaces and operating systems over the years including GEM, GEOS, PC/GEOS, Windows, OS/2, MacOS, OS X and others.
Forward note: OSnews is, and always has been a volunteer effort. Due to a clash of circumstances, none of the staff have been around to process the news. This does not mean that OSnews is dying, it means that the volunteers are otherwise engaged, and any sense of briskness for the last 12 years has been a matter of good circumstance.
I’m going on holiday http://camendesign.com/blog/tour_de_england shortly, Thom is away on an internship and David is largely occupied with his livelihood.
Maybe you should write about this on the front page instead of comments section? Writing it in the comments of a random news item might mean people missing it.
I’ll second that; I happen to be interested in virtualization of old DOS GUI interfaces, so naturally I read the comments of this article.
But not everyone here will read these comments.
Edited 2010-07-25 11:48 UTC
Because you see, for a moment there, that’s exactly what I was thinking, OSnews must be slowly dying with no new article for a while.
So this kind of information should really be put on the front page. Also, it would be nice to know when life is going to be injected back in the site.
Thanks.
You should post that in the front page, because I really thought OSnews was dying.
Perhaps someone should write an article about how to submit a story or news item.
I go to the Contacts, and follow it to a “too old” style guide, which points to an intimidating small print 12 page “new” style guide, none of which tells me definitively what e-mail address to use to coordinate a submission, or if I should use the news submission form to submit unsolicited full length articles.
How do submissions really work in practice?
Thanks Kroc for processing my article…it means a lot recognizing that the OSNews.com team is extraordinarily busy.
I’m just a “hack” but I love OS’s and have been a long time reader of OSnews.com.
Your last look at GEOS was awesome and the Yahoo! Group GEOS-Talk (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/geos-talk/messages) has tried valiantly to keep the GEOS legacy alive and were inspired by your write up a few years ago.
Again, thanks.
No way we couldn’t publish this. It’s exactly what we’re looking for. I don’t know about you, but I am bored to death of the “newsâ€. I don’t want to hear about the latest Linux distro where they’ve slapped a skin on Ubuntu and claim they’ve revolutionised the desktop. I’m bored of iPhone drama, I’m bored of Android too.
What I like more than anything is people talking about in detail their own projects to scratch a technical itch just for the heck of it.
I know the 8-bit GEOS well, but never used PC/GEOS in its day and only brushed over it in my article. What you’ve written really adds some more background to PC/GEOS and that’s far more interesting than Ubutnu+1 Myopic Meerkat.
Actually I could take it a few steps even further than you…I YEARN for real OPINION! Not the the rehashed “news” that we get from the press, from other websites, the TV, radio, etc.
I want to hear real people, giving real reviews, relating real experiences and DEBATING pros and cons, recognizing strong arguments and challenging weak arguments.
As it relates to technology, I want to read about real people, using real software, using real hardware, trying to get a job or a task done.
While my post is less than “mainstream” I believe that there are so many lessons that can be learned, whether it’s trying some of these strategies to get a different operating system up and running (invaluable as I never would have succeeded without others challenges getting other OSs running), trying something “different” to see if there is an operating system that is a better match for your goals and objectives, or just a recognition that by studying the past, we are better prepared for the future!
Completely agree. In the long term I want OSnews to build up its editor team and greatly clarify the submission process so that we can move the “news†to pg.2 and fill page 1 with original content like that you describe.
Kroc, then you might be interested in the revival of VIC-20 programming and how it has resulted in modern remakes of classics like Frogger (with Frogger 07), and a software sprite API for an 8+KB expanded VIC. (Not true sprites like the 64’s, but still an accomplishment. Not to mentioned the demo scene as illustrated on YouTube. I can ask the programmers who are members at the Denial VIC-20 forum to contribute an article or two here.
The author is mistaken when he states he received a free version of OS/2 Warp back in the 1980’es. It was surely the 90’es since the first Warp-named OS/2 (OS/2 Warp 3) wasn’t released until 1994.
Actually you are absolutely right dylansmrjones (http://www.osnews.com/user/uid:3260/), it would have been the 90s.
While I did attend COMDEX while in college from 1985-1990, it was during my teaching career from 1990 to 1995 when I receive the copy of OS/2 Warp during visits to COMDEX during one summer.
With family in technology and the companies they worked for showing at COMDEX, I’d bunk in their rooms and attend COMDEX on a guest pass.
On the other hand, I ended up spending days “working the booth” so I didn’t feel too guilty mooching. Thanks’ for the correction and maybe the good folks at OSNews.com can correct.
I’m totally blown away that the article made the front page (thanks to the readership) and I’m humbled as well.
David, Thom, Kroc and the OSNews.com crew are excellent technology authors and I have all the respect in the world for those folks, even if Thom and I have battled in the forums upon occasion! That’s truly what it’s all about for OS fanatics.
Edited 2010-07-26 01:26 UTC
Classic OSnews. Love it.
… when someone denies it with words of tripe rather than more articles of substance. I just iterate the facts, not the gibberish denying the obvious.
Feel free to write an article. It might encourage others to do so.
Tech archeologists might find it interesting that first versions of Nokia Communicator were running GEOS on 486 CPUS; back when a phone with QWERTY was still a status symbol (1996).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator
The PlayStation was released in late 1995, the Nokia Communicator in late 1996, both at 33 MHz. That’s quite astounding. This thing was ridiculously ahead of its time. Arguably the very first “smart phoneâ€â€”that is, a phone that equaled the power and capabilities of an older generation desktop computer.
Oh, wanted to add. I love that everything that’s becoming popular just now had already been done to death in the 90’s with 1/10th the technology. Internet on your TV and smartphones with full OSes.
Interface people, interface. It makes _all_ the difference.
Edited 2010-07-25 19:05 UTC
On the contrary, those devices – with only a fraction of computing power compared to today’s technology – were simply too underpowered to produce acceptably usable interfaces. Today’s devices seem to piggy-back on technologically superior hardware to be able to finally deliver such interfaces.
Did you ever use GEOS? Either on a Commodore 64/128, or the PC version? The mobile version? GEOS was extremely fast and feature rich considering the hardware it ran on.
It was mostly coded in a superset of assembler. The biggest problem was probably the lack of reasonably affordable touch screens, other than that, it was a fantastic OS on any device it ran on. Well, technically, it wasn’t really an OS since it required DOS for it’s bootstrap, but it was more of an operating system than Windows was at the time.
Wasn’t GEOS available for the Apple // line as well?
The 8-bit version, yes. The 8 and 16 bit GEOSes bear no relation to each other. PC/GEOS (the 16-bit one) was an all new system that was more like Windows 95 on speed when Microsoft were still on Windows 3.1.
Excellent point, you are right GEOS drove a variety of Nokia “smartphones” (before that term entered the computing lexicon), the 9210, 9290, the 9300 and 9500, an early “home/international” computer called the GlobalPC, and a few “netbooks” (again before the term “netbook” entered the computing lexicon) created by Brother called the GeoBook. In addition GEOS powered a few Hewlett-Packard “palmtops” (an early predecessor to “netbooks and PDAs” perhaps?) called the OmniGo, the Casio Zoomer, and actually a “PC” version of GEOS released by IBM called the PS/1 as well as a suite for schools called SchoolView from IBM. In addition, GEOS powered the early AOL DOS based disks for many years before a Windows based version of AOL was released and finally Berkley SoftWorks (the predecessor to GeoWorks Corporation) got their start with a version of GEOS for the Apple II, were in negotiations with Apple about being the core operating system for a new line of computers from Apple (guess) and breathed new life into the Commodore 64 computer extending the life of that platform for several years.
Mike, those four models already switched to Symbian, and there’s a snippet at Nokia’s Conversations blog about the decision to switch.
Now what would be neat is if Breadbox Ensemble under eComStation was able to use the Presentation Manager UI and WorkPlace Shell.
Oh, and GEOS also ran on dedicated word processors from Brother and Canon, as well as a very early pen tablet from Sharp (the PT-9000, which had only a handful or so units actually released, a collector’s item if you can find one).
Here’s an aside. IBM ported the Presentation Manager GUI to DOS as well. It was outsourced to Paper Software (I found one of the programmers on Facebook) and was previewed for inclusion with PC DOS 7 in BYTE magazine and elsewhere, only to be left out of the shipping product. IBM also had the Micro PM embedded OS/UI which was the basis for the GUI of the Japan-only PC110 palmtop PC and DOS-based WebBoy DOS graphical browser.
Edited 2010-07-26 14:04 UTC
Practical hacker fun a its best. Thanks for an excellent article.
I remember when the product was called New Deal. Written in assembler it brings new life to REALLY old computers (P-I, 486, 386) and makes them useful for practical tasks. The GUI is acceptable to modern users, which is amazing considering the hardware it will run on.
This product could have real impact on reuse of old hardware if it were free. Unfortunately the current owners charge more for the product than the computers on which it runs are worth. So an excellent product languishes in obscurity when it could instead render many really old computers useful again. Those who enjoy the challenge of bringing old computers back to life will use free products like FreeDOS, small Linuxes, or BSD instead. What a pity.