Quarterdeck Office Systems
| The Quarterdeck logo from 1997. The Quarterdeck logo from 1997. | |
| Founded | 1982 |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Fate | Acquired by Symantec |
| Successor | Symantec |
| Headquarters | Marina del Rey, California  United States |
| Products | Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager, DESQview, DESQview/X, |
Quarterdeck Office Systems, later Quarterdeck Corporation, was an American computer software company. It was incorporated in 1982. Their offices were initially located in Santa Monica, California and later in Marina Del Rey, California. In the 1990s they had an 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 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).
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 employee's 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.