Author Topic: John Poole Software Operating System/5?  (Read 5038 times)

BigGoofyGuy

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John Poole Software Operating System/5?
« on: August 31, 2023, 07:36:46 pm »
I came across this video and website showing called OS/5 by John Poole Software. I thought it was interesting.
https://youtu.be/xaTelXsXNRU?si=M38TFnjPSyagE63V
One can still download it?
https://vetusware.com/download/OS5%20Desktop%201.1/?id=17975
 8)
Here is the information on it from the video on YouTube
'
OS/5 is a Shareware PC operating system based on a Microsoft programming language that itself was rarely used. Intended to be an inexpensive, lightweight alternative to Windows, OS/2, and other graphical user interfaces, OS/5's Desktop runs in text mode while retaining many GUI features. Created by John Poole and released in 1996, two versions of it are known to exist, and would have been lost entirely if I had not saved them over 25 years ago, because they have not been archived anywhere online and trying to search for OS/5 or its author will turn up nothing except this video.

Download OS/5 version 1.0: http://www.amstereo.org/files/os5v10.zip
Download OS/5 version 1.1: http://www.amstereo.org/files/os5v11.zip
Ignore any security warnings; I run the site and it does not store any personal data. Feel free to archive these files elsewhere.

Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:00 OS/5 1.0 documentation
1:56 OS/5 1.0 review
6:53 OS/5 1.1 documentation
8:15 OS/5 1.1 review
13:25 Visual Basic for DOS
14:43 Higher resolutions
16:08 Memory & disk space
17:15 Conclusion
'
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BigGoofyGuy
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Olafur Gunnlaugsson

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Re: John Poole Software Operating System/5?
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2023, 03:16:05 pm »
I came across this video and website showing called OS/5 by John Poole Software. I thought it was interesting.
https://youtu.be/xaTelXsXNRU?si=M38TFnjPSyagE63V
One can still download it?
https://vetusware.com/download/OS5%20Desktop%201.1/?id=17975
 8)
Here is the information on it from the video on YouTube
'
OS/5 is a Shareware PC operating system based on a Microsoft programming language that itself was rarely used. Intended to be an inexpensive, lightweight alternative to Windows, OS/2, and other graphical user interfaces, OS/5's Desktop runs in text mode while retaining many GUI features. Created by John Poole and released in 1996, two versions of it are known to exist, and would have been lost entirely if I had not saved them over 25 years ago, because they have not been archived anywhere online and trying to search for OS/5 or its author will turn up nothing except this video.

Download OS/5 version 1.0: http://www.amstereo.org/files/os5v10.zip
Download OS/5 version 1.1: http://www.amstereo.org/files/os5v11.zip
Ignore any security warnings; I run the site and it does not store any personal data. Feel free to archive these files elsewhere.

Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:00 OS/5 1.0 documentation
1:56 OS/5 1.0 review
6:53 OS/5 1.1 documentation
8:15 OS/5 1.1 review
13:25 Visual Basic for DOS
14:43 Higher resolutions
16:08 Memory & disk space
17:15 Conclusion
'

It is a simple DOS shell that was written in Visual basic for DOS (V1 presumably, I think 2 and up were Win only), it is very rudimentary even for a Shareware DOS shell.

mike

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Re: John Poole Software Operating System/5?
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2023, 10:08:18 pm »
OS/5 is a Shareware PC operating system based on a Microsoft programming language that itself was rarely used. Intended to be an inexpensive, lightweight alternative to Windows, OS/2, and other graphical user interfaces, OS/5's Desktop runs in text mode while retaining many GUI features.

For sure its not an operating system, even if the name suggests that. And its also no alternative to OS/2 :) Its a GUI that runs on top of DOS, but even back in the days there was something better out there like Geoworks, it requires more mem of course as it was a real graphics GUI not text mode.