C64OS v1.0 released!

[Marcio D.]

I must be missing something...This seems completely pointless; who would pay the huge amounts of money being asked for this? Consequently, with no users why would anyone write software for this OS?

That's a gross exaggeration.  C64 OS doesn't cost "huge amounts of money".  It's $59 or $64, depending on which package you buy.  And that's in Canadian dollars, not the more expensive US dollars.

A lot of retrocomputing is "pointless" if you're sporting a daily driver mentality.  Almost nobody is going to do any serious word-processing or other important tasks using a C64.  Not these days.

But you know what?  C64 OS is a legit-working system, growing more capable all the time as new features are added.  So if you were forced to use it for essential or semi-essential tasks, it might just get the job done, albeit much slower and less convenient than other ways.

At the very least, C64 OS is a fun demo, meant to dazzle you, your friends, retrocomputing show attendees, etc.

Lighten up!

[Marcio D.]

That's a lot to pay for 8-bit software these days, especially when rival OSes such as GEOS are free (and have more apps available).


That seems an odd use case; there are thousands of cracktros and other demos that could be used for that.

But you have to understand that GEOS is old.  So even though it's free to obtain, it no longer impresses folks the way it did in the 1980's.  Part of the fun in retrocomputing is creating and using new stuff for old equipment.  And C64 OS accomplishes that.

Scene demos are fun to watch, but there's no real interaction beyond that.  C64 OS is not only interactive, it can actually be useful if you want it to be.  Not everyone is content with merely watching demos and playing games.  Some crave more, and C64 OS scratches that itch for those folks.

What type of new C64 software are you paying only $20 for?  Game software?  If so, that's not really a fair comparison!


P.S.  Let's also remember how sluggish GEOS ran.  C64 OS is fast because it doesn't rely on floppy disk loading and it doesn't need to draw graphics for the user interface the way GEOS needs to.  This zippy aspect of C64 OS makes it very attractive, no doubt.