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. The original version of DeskMate shipped for the Tandy 1000, an IBM PC compatible machine originally created as a clone of the IBM PCjr. 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.ĭeskMate I & II (PC, 1984, 1986) ToastyTech 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. Later, you could install it onto an internal hard disk.īut 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. 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.