Gobe Software, Inc was a software company founded in 1997 by members of the

ClarisWorks AppleWorks was an integrated office suite containing a word processor, database, and spreadsheet. It was developed by Rupert Lissner for Apple Computer, originally for the Apple II platform and launched in 1984, and was later reworked for the Ma ...

development team that developed and published an integrated desktop software suite for

BeOS BeOS is an operating system for personal computers first developed by Be Inc. in 1990. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was positioned as a multimedia platform that could be used by a substantial population of desktop users a ...

. In later years, it was the distributor of BeOS itself.

History

Gobe was founded in 1997 by members of the ClarisWorks development team and some of the authors of the original Styleware application for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mol ...

. After leaving StyleWare and creating the product later known as

and

AppleWorks AppleWorks was an integrated office suite containing a word processor, database, and spreadsheet. It was developed by Rupert Lissner for Apple Computer, originally for the Apple II platform and launched in 1984, and was later reworked for the Ma ...

, Bob Hearn, Scott Holdaway joined Tom Hoke, Scott Lindsey, Bruce Q. Hammond, and Carl Grice who also worked at

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

Claris Claris International Inc., formerly FileMaker Inc., is a computer software development company formed as a subsidiary company of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in 1987. It was given the source code and copyrights to several programs that were ...

subsidiary and formed Gobe Software, Inc with the notion to create a next-generation integrated office suite similar to ClarisWorks, but for the BeOS platform. It released Gobe Productive in 1998. When Be Inc. outsourced publication of BeOS in 2000, Gobe became the publisher of BeOS in North America, Australia, and sections of Asia. Only weeks after signing up other publishers around the globe, Be, Inc. halted development for the BeOS platform and publicly announced that all of its corporate focus would be on "Internet Appliances" and made public announcements that hampered forward momentum of the BeOS platform. In addition, the publishers in general and Gobe in particular did not have source code access to the BeOS and were not able to continue its development or add drivers that the platform needed to be a viable alternative to Windows or

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which in ...

. Gobe also published Hicom Entertainment/ Next Generation Entertainments " Corum III"

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal a ...

for BeOS during this period. The failure of Be, Inc and BeOS meant ports had to be undertaken, and Windows and Linux variants were developed. Although the company shipped a Windows version of its software in December 2001, it was unable to obtain sufficient operating capital after the 2000 stock market crash and suspended operations 2002. In 2008 Gobe management began to work with distribution and development teams in Greater Asia and had plans to ship a new version of the product for the India market early 2010. Later in August 2010, Gobe Productive's website was disabled and then sold to an Indian movie producer called ErosNow.

Gobe Productive

The main product, ''Gobe Productive'', was by far the most polished of the word processors, spreadsheet and vector graphics applications for BeOS, but as an integrated package a la ClarisWorks and

Microsoft Works Microsoft Works was a productivity software suite developed by Microsoft and sold from 1987 to 2009. Its core functionality included a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database management system. Later versions had a calendar application and a ...

. Gobe Productive v1.0 for BeOS was released in August 1998, v2.0 in August 1999, and v2.0.1 on 29 February 2000. After the failure of Be, Inc a Windows and Linux variants were developed. The company shipped a Windows version of Gobe Productive 3 in December 2001.

Other Gobe employees

* Dave Johnson * Ben Chang * Joël Spaltenstein * Kurt von Finck * Daniel Maia Alves * Cheyenne Tuller * Tomy Hudson

Notes

References

External links

*
Be, Inc. article
(archived) * {{Spreadsheets BeOS Discontinued software