"GUI for Soviet Computers" was a graphical operating system made by the Soviet Computerware (Советкая Производительство по Компьютерного Оборудования, СПКО) , funded by the Soviet Government and various Soviet educational instituitions,while it produced the GUI, it was manufactured as being made by the government. It was revolutionary since it was the first graphical operating system made in the USSR. It could support 8 bit and 16 bit computers and meant to be designed for Agat and Elektronika computer lines. Its primary targets were educational computers and personal computers. It remained supported two years after Soviet Union's collapse until Soviet Computerware dissolved into successor companies that survived through the 90s. To the population of the USSR, this was a new, alien thing, and it was quite rare to see it for personal use, as it was heavily dear. The GUI was a result of the new program to expand computer literacy, the development and enrolling of this GUI was surprisingly fast. Critics from the western world had mixed views on the GUI, with some saying that they were impressed how much was compressed in a small amount of space, and some others saying " Truly revolutionary for a country like the Soviet Union, perhaps the most notable things about this was the fact that a graphical interface was able to function on a Soviet computer" .
Features[]
The operating system was set to Russian by default. Only Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian were supported. Later versions included support for languages of the Soviet Republics and English, there was rumours of plans to add French and German but that remains to be discussed.
Menu Bar - A Macintosh-like menu bar was at the top of the desktop. It includes three options. "Меню" (Menu) opened up a menu where one could shutdown, restart, and create shortcuts to applications. "Приложения" (Applications) opened up a menu where one could access their applications. "Рабочий Стол" (Desktop) was where windows would appear, a number would appear beside the word to show how many applications are there, it would be renamed to "Оконный Менеджер" (Window Manager) in the 1989 Update.
It took up little storage space and was able to launch on majority of the Soviet computers and did not take much place on storage thanks to engineering of this software.
While it had the option of using the mouse, most computers used meticulous Cyrillic equivalents of WASD ("ЦФЫВ"/"ВАЗД") keys to navigate the graphical interface.
Only applications that were came with the interface or installed on the computer before the GUI could be accessed through the application menu, so users had to access any applications they installed themselves through the File Manager.
Applications[]
- Clock ("Часы") - a clock application
- Calendar ("Календарь") - A calendar application similiar to Windows one. It was able to write notes beside dates
- Painter ("Художник") - a basic art application. One was able to write and draw on a canvas and save the drawing as a file.
- Leksikon ("Лексикон", Agat only) - Document creator
- Chess ("Шахматы") - A game, where played could play a game of chess between two players or a player and a computer.
- Calculator ("Калькулятор") - A basic calculator application
- Notebook ("Редактор") - A note application, with the ability to write up to 128 note pages
- Cat and Mouse ("Кошки-мышки") - a game designed to teach people how to use the mouse.
- File Manager ("Файл Менеджер") - File applications were able to locate and show files found on the local DOS-like system
- Window UI - The new window UI included a Macintosh-like window, which had a button named "Закрыть"(close) to exit the application and window. One could click on it using a mouse, or press the "-" button on the keyboard. One could resize the application to maximize it.
- Settings ("Параметры") - An application to change GUI configurations, it had to be restarted each time a configuration was changed. This could also be used to view computer information and the configurations installed.
Bootscreen[]
When the OS boots up, one would be automatically be at "Рабочий стол" and a window would pop up saying "Приветствие" although it could say hello in other languages if the OS was set to another language.
Shutdown[]
When the GUI shutdown, a beeping noise could be heard which indicated that the GUI was no longer running and the computer is in DOS mode
Development History[]
1986[]
Tsvetok Version 0.1[]
Tsvetok Version 0.2[]
Tsvetok Version 0.3[]
- The first version to have programs.
Tsvetok Version 0.4[]
- Made on modified Unix kernel, supporting Rapira, Basic, and Assembly.
1987[]
Tsvetok Version 0.5[]
- An Agat computer programs support has been added
Tsvetok Version 0.6[]
- added more programs + support for elektronika computers.
Tsvetok Version 0.7[]
1988[]
GUI for Soviet Computers (TEST 1)[]
- Test 1 fixed many bugs, however not all of them
GUI for Soviet Computers (TEST 2)[]
- Has a lot of bugs, thus making the 1989 update happen.
GUI for Soviet Computers (RTM)[]
GUI for Soviet Computers 1.1 (1989)[]
- Removed a lot of the bugs which plagued the OS and a new application named "Справка," a help application designed to teach the user how to use the GUI.
- Рабочий стол was renamed to Оконный Менеджер.
- Support for Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian languages were added
GUI for Soviet Computers 1.2(1991)[]
- A final version to be released.
- More bugs were removed (wtf?)
- English (Primarily due to education request), Moldovan (Cyrillic only supported), Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Turkmen languages support were added
- It expands calculator functions
- GUI response time speed was increased
Setup[]
The setup for installation of GUI for Soviet Computers was text based. The start of the setup required the user to select the hard drive they were installing it in and select the language they were using. After installation, it required the user to name their PC. Afterwards, it required the user to restart their computer and GUI for Soviet Computers would boot up.
Gallery[]
Update Method[]
Update method was similiar to the setup, except you had to buy the GUI disk from a local soviet electronics store. You had to delete the current version and reinstall the updated one, which had the exact same process as all the setups across all versions of the GUI, just more languages to select.