The Sinclair Spectrum Gets A Desktop GUI

Of the popular 1980s 8-bit computers, it’s fair to say that Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum punched above its weight. Sir Clive’s love of squeezing more functionality out of less hardware meant …. The Sinclair Spectrum Gets A Desktop GUI.

Sir Clive’s love of squeezing more functionality out of less hardware meant the compromises he made left it less powerful than competitors from Apple, Commodore, or Acorn. Still, the brightest programmers of the age took the little machine to heart and made it do some very impressive things. A desktop GUI, though, surely that would be pushing things too far.

Never say never because now [mindbox77] has done it. ZXdesk is an assembly language program for the 48k Spectrum that gives you something that looks a lot like GEM. It’s got all the things you’d expect from a desktop GUI, with menus, windows, and applications, and we find ourselves suitably impressed.

For all that, though, is it really an operating system.