Re: Last version of Apple II GEOS?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

tturner@ecn.ab.ca wrote:

>Just a thought - if you want it to run on an earlier version
>of the Apple II series of computers - would you not want to
>get hold of an _earlier_ version of the A2 GEOS? Seems to me
>that _last_ versions tend to need _later_ hardware; instead
>of _earlier_ hardware. But good luck, either way . . .

Sadly, all versions require double hires and 128k.  That
means a minimum of an Apple IIc or an enhanced 128k
IIe.

However, even that kind of setup will be SLOW.

GEOS is somewhere between GS/OS and ProDOS 8
in complexity, but much closer to GS/OS.

You need an accelerated IIe or Zip or Rocket Chipped
IIc to run it properly.  More memory greatly helps.

The ideal setup to run it on is a bare bones IIGS.
Even as a bare bones system with 256k, 512k, or
1MB of RAM, the IIGS is fast enough and has enough
memory to run GEOS well.

A bare bones IIGS does not run GS/OS very well,
but if the user does not want to invest in 4MB to 8MB
of memory, a hard drive, and possibly an accelerator,
GEOS is a good alternative.

But if your IIGS has enough memory and a hard
drive, it is safe to say that even without an accelerator,
GS/OS is a much more powerful and fun OS than
GEOS.

What would really be great is if GEOS became freeware.
Then IIGS users would have two OS to choose from.
A buyer of a second hand IIGS would be able to
start with GEOS and upgrade to GS/OS later when
he or she added memory and hard drive units.

The major obstacle to making GEOS freeware, aside
from corporate inertia, is the fact that GEOS stamps
the name of the user on the original system disk.  The
name is coded in some way that prevents removal
via a block editor.