VOGONS


First post, by Elia1995

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Hi, I recently found an original box with the floppies and everything of this (to me) mysterious OS: GeoWorks Ensemble 1.2
Before risking to ruin my perfectly working DOS installation, I wanted to post here and see if anyone has ever heard or, even better, used this software before, maybe also knowing how it works, if it's like Windows 3.11 (which installs on DOS, but doesn't "replace" it and can be opened only when you want to with the win command) so it doesn't have a destructive installation.

I honestly have no idea how this is, by the descriptions in the manual and on the box it looks a bit like Windows 3.11 and OS/2 to me, but I might be wrong.
Unfortunately on YouTube I find only videos related to Ensemble 2.0 which compared to the screenshots on my box looks quite different, so I can't compare it very well.

I also tried the floppies and at least the bootable one works, but I didn't go forward to install it, I just wanted to check if the floppies are ok.

Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11

Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard

Reply 1 of 2, by leileilol

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That's not mysterious at all. In the US it was a popular OEM pack-in for the really budget home PCs that don't have Windows (prior to Win 3.0)

It provides 3 modes of functionality, and the dos programs list makes it useful as an easy launcher then (since it can be configured to boot directly to it)

16 colors at best though, and I think it breaks on DOS versions newer than 5.0 (at least in my case with 1.0)

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 2 of 2, by Elia1995

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Does it have a destructive installation or installs just like Windows 3.11, along DOS ?

Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11

Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard