Quarterdeck Office Systems

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Quarterdeck Office Systems
company_
slogan =
fate = Acquired by Symantec
successor = Symantec
foundation = 1982
defunct = 1998
location = Marina del Rey, California USA
industry =
key_people =
products = Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager, DESQview, DESQview/X,
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =

Quarterdeck Office Systems, later Quarterdeck Corporation, was an American computer software company. It was founded by Therese Myers and Gary Pope in 1981 [Cite journal
last1 = Larson | first1 = Jennifer
author1-link = Jennifer Larson
title = Quarterdeck Is Changing The Office Environment
journal = General Computing
volume = 4
issue = 8
year = 1993
url = http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F1993%2Faug93%2F93n0803.asp ] and incorporated in 1982. Their offices were initially located at 150 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California and later at 13160 Mindanao Way in Marina Del Rey, California. In the 1990s they had a European office in Dublin, Ireland. Their most famous products were the Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager, DESQview, CleanSweep, DESQview/X, Turboload, Quarterdeck Mosaic, and Manifest.

In 1997, Quarterdeck acquired Datastorm Technologies Inc., publishers of ProComm, and relocated its technical support and development operations to Datastorm's Columbia, Missouri headquarters.

In 1998, after the market for DOS utilities collapsed, Quarterdeck was acquired by Symantec (the Norton Utilities company). Symantec discontinued support of certain Quarterdeck products (eg. Mosaic), or integrated them into larger offerings (eg. CleanSweep became part of Norton SystemWorks).

List of software products

* CleanSweep
* DESQ, predecessor to DESQview
* DESQview (DESQ successor, with Topview compatibility)
* DESQview 386 (DESQview that shipped bundled with QEMM 386)
* DESQview/X (an X Window based version of DESQview)
* Manifest
* Quarterdeck Mosaic
* Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager, formerly QEMM 386
* QRAM, a 80286-based expanded memory manager
* Turboload

Trivia and Architectural Note

One of the Quarterdeck's Buildings located on Lemone Blvd., in Columbia Missouri, was purchased by the University of Missouri and is currently being utilized as office space. Currently, the University of Missouri calls the building simply "The Quarterdeck Building." See External Links section below for floor plans and picture of the building. There is a large two story spiral stairwell located in this building, and the building has unique architectural elements. Originally, when purchased by the University, the upper floor contained an indoor gymnasium for Quarterdeck employees to use during spare time on breaks. That gymnasium has since been removed and remodeled. Additionally, the floor that the gym was on once contained a massive "round table" which was a huge corporate style table that was approximately 18 feet diameter, was round in shape, and contained a turntable in the center. That table no longer is located in this particular building and is believed to have been sold in a surplus auction.

Notes

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/19970630094617/http://www.qdeck.com/ Quarterdeck website from June 1997]
* [http://www.symantec.com/region/au_nz/press/au_980917.html Merger announcement]
* [news://comp.os.msdos.desqview Usenet group for DESQview]
* [http://www.secinfo.com/dsVsb.92th.htm SEC 10-K form for 9/30/96]
* [https://umcspace.missouri.edu/Columbia/home.aspx?blid=42200 Floor plan and Pictures of the Quarterdeck Building located in Columbia, Missouri that was purchased by the University of Missouri.]