A change of heart from GST Computer Systems has given Sinclair QL users a direct alternative to the QDOS Operating System.

Originally GST planned to sell its 68K/OS multi-tasking operating sustem only to micro manufacturers and distributors (issue 67). But the reaction to the 68K/OS has been so good that it has decided to offer it on mail-order to end users.

"We didn't know what the demand was going to be," said Chris Scheybeler, who is in charge of the 68K/OS project at GST. "After showing it to a number of people including the independent QL user group, we decided to change our mind," he said.

The Operating System comes on a board that plugs into the internal expansion port of the QL. The board includes two spare 16K EPROM sockets for ROM-based software and a switch to allow the user to select either QDOS or 68K/OS.

It will sell for £99.95.

It offers QL users full multi-tasking, multiple screen windows and device-independent input/output, and it works with bit-mapped graphics. A pipe utility allows you to transfer data from one program to another program running concurrently.

Yet for all its facilities it still squeezes into 32K of EPROM.

GST will be including with the board a tape containing a text editor and file transfer utilities.

GST has also brought out a version of its 68000 assembler for 68K/OS. Called 68K/ASM it sells for £39.95. Initially software for 68K/OS is likely to be in short supply. GST is working on a word processor which should be ready shortly, to be followed by Pascal and Fortran.

One product that won't be available is a 68K/OS version of Psion's integrated software.

The success of the Operating System will depend on the flow of software from third parties but this is unlikely to happen on any significant scale until next year.

A major factor is the negotiations between GST and hardware manufacturers about putting the Operating System on soon to be launched 68000-based micros.