OzWin

OzWin was a client program which was used to connect to the CompuServe Information Service. It was a GUI program written in Delphi that ran on the Microsoft Windows operating system. It was published by Ozarks West Software Ltd. and programmed by Steve Sneed.

OzWin was born out of the earlier OzCIS program which was DOS based. OzWin allowed users to connect to CompuServe forums and batch download messages, files, and so forth from the server and then disconnect. They could then read the messages offline, and as well compose new messages and replies while offline. When they finished reading and composing messages, they could connect again to batch send all of the messages, as well as receive any new messages others had posted to the forums. This allowed users to batch upload and download messages and then work offline, minimising the time they were connected to CompuServe. This was important, since at that time, users were charged by the hour to connect to CompuServe, so remaining connected all the time was an expensive proposition and could quickly run up charges.

Like OzCIS, OzWin also had features for up- and downloading files to the forum libraries, plus a complete set of SysOp features such as moving and deleting messages, administering the file libraries, and "flagging" users (giving/denying SysOp rights, kicking/banning).

Unlike other offline readers such as TapCIS and NavCIS which added proprietary ways of formatting text (colors, fonts, attributes), OzWin always remained "plain text" and never displayed any custom styles.

Other CompuServe client programs:

• CompuServe Information Manager
• ForCIS
• NavCIS
• TapCIS
• WinCIM