News

FreeGEM/XM beta 4 released

GEM/XM, the taskswitching high-memory aware version of GEM that DRI appeared to have abandoned in the mid 1980s, has been released under the GPL as FreeGEM/XM 3.0 beta 4.  The FreeGEM/XM version fixes a slight problem with the original which rendered machines inoperable when a DOS application was started.  Currently, the only available FreeGEM/XM is a quick distribution, available from the Downloads page, although a new version complete with the enhanced FreeGEM 3.15 Desktop should be available soon.

CCP release GEM Artline for free download

CCP released GEM Artline and Artline 2 (which runs under a GEM/4 kernel) for free download from their website, http://www.artline.de. Artline was one of the major applications available for GEM, and was published by Digital Research.

Caldera releases GEM under the GPL

Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. released the source code for GEM and ViewMAX under the GNU Public License in mid April, following years of speculation over GEM's future.  Caldera bought the GEM sources from Novell along with the DR-DOS in 1997, at the time noting that they may develop GEM into a platform for mobile computers and thin clients.  However, these plans were dropped, and GEM was instead released into the open-source community.

Development of GEM is now continuing, with various intentions.  For more information, see the development page.