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See also How to Evolve Eevee into Glaceon or Leafeon in Pokémon Go – Gotta Be Mobile DeskMate 1.00 (TRS-80 Model 4 and Others, 1984/1985) ToastyTechĪfter releasing DeskMate on the Tandy 1000, Tandy began to port it to some of its other machines such as the TRS-80 Model 4 (running over TRSDOS), the Tandy 2000, and the 1200HD as Deskmate 1.0. Deskmake II (1986) remained text-based but added color text and a few new features. It was text-only, ran atop MS-DOS, and it included a simple word processor, spreadsheet, database, terminal program, calendar, and even an electronic mail client.
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The original version of DeskMate shipped for the Tandy 1000, an IBM PC compatible machine originally created as a clone of the IBM PCjr. DeskMate I & II (PC, 1984, 1986) ToastyTech Here’s a rundown on some of the most notable versions. The version numbers are a little confusing, with some versions having very similar names despite having different features. Tandy released at least 11 versions of DeskMate between 19 for at least four different computer platforms.

Notable Versions of DeskMate Over the Years In practice, many Tandy computer owners used DeskMate as a way to quickly launch their favorite games and applications without having to hunt for the exact EXE file name to type in a nested directory. While DeskMate never received deep application support like Windows or OS/2, several popular applications did support DeskMate as its interface by 1989, including Lotus Spreadsheet for DeskMate, Q&A Write, PFS: First Publisher, Activision’s The Music Studio, and Quicken accounting software.
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In other versions, you could select names from lists in boxes on the screen, or select choices from menus using arrow keys.Īlthough DeskMate’s integrated apps might not have been as fully featured as some competing apps that shipped individually, this integrated software suite represented a huge cost savings for Tandy PC owners-buying each of those applications independently would have cost thousands of dollars. Some were icon-based, so launching an app was as easy as clicking an icon with a mouse. How you used DeskMate varied between platforms and versions. It also included a simple calculator and the ability to set alarms. By version 3.0, that included a calendar, a word processor, a spreadsheet application, a simple database, a vector drawing program, a telecommunications program, and a Hangman game. ToastyTechĮvery version of DeskMate included a suite of applications. Not Quite Solitaire: Hangman shipped with Tandy DeskMate 3.x.

Other components had to be loaded from disk, but it made the machines friendlier with DeskMate instantly available. See also Google Accidentally Announced the Pixel Buds A-Series on Twitter – Review Geekīut in some cases, using DeskMate was as easy as switching on your PC: Both the Tandy 1100FD laptop and the Tandy 1000 SL desktop included portions of DeskMate built into internal ROM chips so they would load instantly on boot.
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Later, you could install it onto an internal hard disk. To load it, you’d insert a DeskMate floppy in the drive and turn on your machine. Usually, DeskMate shipped with Tandy computers on several 5.25″ or 3.5″ floppy disks. According to a 1984 review in Creative Computing magazine, with DeskMate, “you might never need another software package for your computer.” Using DeskMate Tandy advertised DeskMate as a major selling point of its consumer PCs, and it impressed several reviewers shortly after its debut. On the TRS-80 Model 4, it ran atop TRSDOS, on the Color Computer 3, it served as a shell for OS-9, and on IBM PC compatibles, it required MS-DOS to work. Instead, it made existing text-based operating systems easier to use. It began as a text-mode-only suite of productivity applications but evolved over time into a mouse-driven graphical interface.Īs a user interface shell, DeskMate wasn’t an operating system itself. To make its home computers easier to use, Tandy developed a menu-based operating environment called DeskMate in 1984.
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Sure, there were business machines too, but Radio Shack sold huge numbers of its home PCs like the Color Computer series and the Tandy 1000. Since the debut of the TRS-80 Model I in 1977, Tandy marketed most of its PCs toward a mainstream consumer audience-one that might stop by a neighborhood Radio Shack retail store. Meanwhile, computers like the Apple Macintosh made computing as easy as point-and-click with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and a mouse. To use MS-DOS, you needed to memorize typed commands that didn’t immediately make sense if you weren’t already used to them. In the early 1980s, IBM PC compatible computers were not very user-friendly. It made its PCs easier to use and competed with Windows. released a graphical user interface called DeskMate that shipped with its TRS-80 and Tandy personal computers. In the 1980s, Radio Shack parent Tandy Corp.
