GeoWorks, Microsoft Windows' Upstart '90s Competitor
atlasobscura.com60 points20 comments
Commenters focused on GeoWorks as an example of software that could deliver substantial functionality while remaining remarkably small. One commenter argued that modern programs are larger for good reasons - Unicode, accessibility, better rendering, and quality-of-life features - and because today’s platforms and libraries provide more capabilities. Still, they saw value in asking how to preserve a strong ratio of useful functionality to code. Another pointed readers to the PC/GEOS source code, while a reference to “Negative 2000 Lines of Code” evoked the appeal of reducing code rather than simply adding features.
The prospect of running GeoWorks on contemporary hardware prompted disagreement over what a port would entail. Lerc thought a Raspberry Pi Pico implementation could be feasible: its limited memory and compact architecture could suit the system, with an RP2350, external PSRAM, and an SD card serving as storage. cmrdporcupine countered that because GeoWorks is written largely in x86 assembly, moving it to ARM64 would amount to a complete rewrite, not a straightforward port. A separate commenter also cautioned that a Nokia Museum link associated with the subject tried to download unwanted software.
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