Becoming an increasing fan of this channel. Very well produced videos! Thanks for having a look at these pieces of software and preserving them with thoroughly researched facts.
I had no idea Tabworks even existed! I'm looking forward to research it more alongside Rooms. I'm not sure I would have used Rooms, but I would have probably given Tabworks a try!
You can also see Rooms conceptually on Xerox PARC's InterLisp OS. You can download and try the OS via the official virtual machine but I don't know offhand if Rooms is currently available in the emulator.
Ah Tabworks. I remember it from the computers in the library in elementary school. It had about eight Compaq Presario 920cds. Thinking back that sort of system seems a bit overkill for mostly being used for Accelerated Reader lol
I used to use HP Dashboard as my shell. Together with the windows decorations, it made Win 3 feel like I the Unix CDE desktop. I also used DESQview/X for a while, an X server for Dos that allowed me to open multiple instances of Win 3 in separate windows.
Xerox in the 70’s was the perfect example of a corporation with brillant people, run by managers without any vision. They could have been the Microsoft of today.
Back in the 90s, I bought a Compaq Concerto, an early pen tablet. (It was the first computer I ever bought with my own money. Wish I still had it.) It came with Tabworks, and I tried to like it, but I just... didn't. I would load it, use it for a bit, then close it and just do my actual work from Program Manager.
I have a Compaq Presario 425 but i dont have tabworks, i will have to see if i can find a copy and install it. I dont remember either of these shells like i do the others in your series. Back in the 90s we didnt have Compaq computers at work so maybe thats why? Good video though and informative.
@@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR Geoworks Ensemble 1.x 1.28 was my first windows experience. Unfortunaly due to too fast new hardware it became unworkable. There´s also succesor Breadbox !
I think i still have my Tabworks disks i got years ago 2nd hand. so many old shells back in the day, my first computer came with ACE (Acer Computer Explorer), although i went to the stock windows so fast i forgot what it was like lol
One may say many things about Microsoft, but for the most, they did good to stop vendors from customization the default Windows UI back then. It was a jungle, and not all of those 3rd party shells really were worth it. On the other side, when looking at present days Windows 11, and how it clutters the start menu with unwanted, sometimes unsolicitedly installed apps, sometimes even advertisements, I totally understand our present-days development of 3rd party shells to (re)appear again.
It would be awesome if you could note how much extra RAM these shells eat, or even how to measure that. If they need many megabytes then unfortunately I can't use them on some of my old rigs.
I had a Compaq Aero 4/25 back in the day, and I used Tab Works until I eventually installed Windows 95 on it. Windows 95 ran OK on the Aero, but not great, as you would expect for a 486 25Mhz machine.
Rooms looks like Workspaces in many tiling window managers... minus actual convenience. I can just go to a workspace or move a window to another with just a shortcut. No need to click many times.
HP's Dashboard for Windows was released about the same time, bringing a more typical virtual desktop "pager", as it was known from the Unix world already.
Funny how I see stuff like this and realize how plane windows 3.1 was. But, on the side note. This allowed for less issue, easier to work with and if you wanted to add in features. You could purchase products for that. Now it seems that feature mostly suck and if you want them or not. Too bad.
Hmm... intreaguing thought! But who says it wasn't the other way round? As in "history repeating" as Apple and Microsoft did before, now IBM taking inspiration by Xerox PARC early TabWorks concepts to built it into OS/2's brandnew presentation manager?
Becoming an increasing fan of this channel. Very well produced videos! Thanks for having a look at these pieces of software and preserving them with thoroughly researched facts.
Thanks 🙏
They had two / THREE! / two shells that were going to look into today 😂😂😂
This stuff is so obscure and I can't think of any use case where it would increase my productivity.
I've not even watched the video yet and I already agree lol
Not obscure enough, I‘m telling you!
There‘s even more strange stuff than this!
@@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR i'm looking forward to this!
My family got a second-hand Compaq Windows 3.1 machine with TabWorks, and I used it a lot back in the day!
Rooms looks a lot like an early attempt at the workspaces concept that has been a mainstay of DEs such as Gnome and KDE for decades now
I had no idea Tabworks even existed! I'm looking forward to research it more alongside Rooms.
I'm not sure I would have used Rooms, but I would have probably given Tabworks a try!
You can also see Rooms conceptually on Xerox PARC's InterLisp OS. You can download and try the OS via the official virtual machine but I don't know offhand if Rooms is currently available in the emulator.
Ah Tabworks. I remember it from the computers in the library in elementary school. It had about eight Compaq Presario 920cds. Thinking back that sort of system seems a bit overkill for mostly being used for Accelerated Reader lol
I used to use HP Dashboard as my shell. Together with the windows decorations, it made Win 3 feel like I the Unix CDE desktop. I also used DESQview/X for a while, an X server for Dos that allowed me to open multiple instances of Win 3 in separate windows.
i like to see that you seem to have fun making these videos
I wonder if the designers of OneNote used TabWorks back in the day... lol
I remember it very well. Now I actually know the name of it. Thank you! Blast from the past.
I remember seeing tabworks thinking it was some Compaq mod, no idea it was a Xerox interface.
Xerox in the 70’s was the perfect example of a corporation with brillant people, run by managers without any vision. They could have been the Microsoft of today.
Back in the 90s, I bought a Compaq Concerto, an early pen tablet. (It was the first computer I ever bought with my own money. Wish I still had it.) It came with Tabworks, and I tried to like it, but I just... didn't. I would load it, use it for a bit, then close it and just do my actual work from Program Manager.
Windows 95 changed my life for the rest of my life.
I have a Compaq Presario 425 but i dont have tabworks, i will have to see if i can find a copy and install it. I dont remember either of these shells like i do the others in your series. Back in the 90s we didnt have Compaq computers at work so maybe thats why? Good video though and informative.
Thank you!
No need to search, btw.
Links are in the video description.
Any plans for a HP NewWave video?
Yes, though only later on this year.
There‘s one more before I leave the Windows Shells for a while.
My dad had a compaq laptop in the 90s and it came with tabworks... we ran it in other machines as it was nicer than the defaul shell
Next video on geoworks ensemble for PC.
There‘s one more video on shells before I do a topic switch for the time.
Though Geoworks is noted for a future episode, might just take a while.
@@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR Geoworks Ensemble 1.x 1.28 was my first windows experience. Unfortunaly due to too fast new hardware it became unworkable. There´s also succesor Breadbox !
Add my vote. I use Breadbox Ensemble on my DOS laptop.
@@eriksiers No worries, there will eventually come a series on DOS Shells.
@@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR I actually have quite a few of those in storage that I haven't seen online in a very long time.
I think i still have my Tabworks disks i got years ago 2nd hand. so many old shells back in the day, my first computer came with ACE (Acer Computer Explorer), although i went to the stock windows so fast i forgot what it was like lol
One may say many things about Microsoft, but for the most, they did good to stop vendors from customization the default Windows UI back then.
It was a jungle, and not all of those 3rd party shells really were worth it.
On the other side, when looking at present days Windows 11, and how it clutters the start menu with unwanted, sometimes unsolicitedly installed apps, sometimes even advertisements, I totally understand our present-days development of 3rd party shells to (re)appear again.
i still have Tabworks on my Compaq Presario CDTV 528
Calling Xerox being INSPIRATION for Macintosh and Windows is an euphemism 😅
It would be awesome if you could note how much extra RAM these shells eat, or even how to measure that. If they need many megabytes then unfortunately I can't use them on some of my old rigs.
Tabworks got a little bit of a Lotus Organizer look ? Centralpoint PC Tools shell probably the best replacement !
good job! ❤
Thanks! ^^
I had a Compaq Aero 4/25 back in the day, and I used Tab Works until I eventually installed Windows 95 on it. Windows 95 ran OK on the Aero, but not great, as you would expect for a 486 25Mhz machine.
Rooms looks like Workspaces in many tiling window managers... minus actual convenience. I can just go to a workspace or move a window to another with just a shortcut. No need to click many times.
lmao mr. know-it-all is extra spicy today
fun fact, Tabworks 2.5 can run pretty fine on W7 64bit
would be nice so this in higher resolution with latest win 3.11 qemu video driver
I think he keeps it low res so some of us older folks dont have squint ;)
rooms might be the first example of virtual desktops 🤔albeit cumbersome.
HP's Dashboard for Windows was released about the same time, bringing a more typical virtual desktop "pager", as it was known from the Unix world already.
Funny how I see stuff like this and realize how plane windows 3.1 was. But, on the side note. This allowed for less issue, easier to work with and if you wanted to add in features. You could purchase products for that. Now it seems that feature mostly suck and if you want them or not. Too bad.
I was sad enough to use it on Windows 95, came free on a magazine cover CD
And your verdict on it?
@@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR Kinda pointless since Windows 95 wasn't as bad as Win 311
They "stole" the colorful tabs concept from OS/2 and IBM didn't sue them? 😮
Hmm... intreaguing thought!
But who says it wasn't the other way round? As in "history repeating" as Apple and Microsoft did before, now IBM taking inspiration by Xerox PARC early TabWorks concepts to built it into OS/2's brandnew presentation manager?
@@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR Another 🥚🐔 dilemma 😅
@@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR 😮now you're making me want to look into it!🤣
Old computers didn't much memory to run many applications. I don't see a point in organizing the small number that you've got into "rooms".
What absolute mess of an interface.
typical xerox lol