- Project Liberation catching hearts and minds, interviews to help (16/9/05)
Earlier this month we released Project Liberation, the beta software for what will become OpenGEM Release 5. Project Liberation has a lot of advanced features like automatic drive detection and a smart internal file viewer. We expected some interest from the development community, but what happened was a shock. More people have downloaded Project Liberation in the last two weeks than OpenGEM Core, Complete and Deutsch combined. Talk about a popular beta! It's currently at Beta 3, and the Beta 4 release will be out in the next couple of weeks. For those of you curious about when OpenGEM 5 will be released...Watch this site for October 17th. It will be a very exciting day for the DOS GUI community. Meanwhile, if you want to get a feel for what's happening in the OpenGEM and FreeGEM world, check out our new interview section. We've been asking some of the minds behind GEM to speak up, and let us know about what's going on.
- OpenGEM Release 4 Update 5 is now available (1/9/05)
OpenGEM Release 4 Update 5 is now available for OpenGEM Core, Complete, Deutsch and Experimental. This is a minor update for OpenGEM Core and Deutsch, but contains important bug fixes for OpenGEM Complete. The most important news is that OpenGEM Release 4 Update 5 sees the end of OpenGEM Experimental. Update 5 replaces OpenGEM Experimental with the new Project Liberation software. Project Liberation is beta software based on OpenGEM Experimental, and will become the foundation for OpenGEM Release 5. It has advanced features like 3D windows, automatic drive detection, an internal file viewer, and new icons, pointers and colours. If you have an existing OpenGEM distribution you can download the updates from here. If you want to download a new complete version of OpenGEM you can get it from here. If you want to find out more about Project Liberation, including seeing screenshots, you can do so from here.
- OpenGEM Deutsch is now available (12/8/05)
Thanks to the heroic work of Thorsten Franke, OpenGEM Deutsch is now complete and is officially released! This German language version of OpenGEM is almost identical to OpenGEM Core, though it has a slightly less modern desktop and includes more driver files. It features drag and drop support, a word processor, and is 100% compatible with the English versions of OpenGEM. You can download it from here.
- OpenGEM Release 4 Update 4 now available (9/8/05)
OpenGEM Core, Complete and Experimental have now been updated. OpenGEM Release 4 Update 4 patchs are available from here, and you can download the full versions of the OpenGEM software from here. Update 4 adds new functionality to the desktop (FILE > SHOW CONTENTS from Viewmax), and corrects a minor bug with selecting desktop preferences.
OpenGEM Deutsch is nearly ready for a formal release! All of the application and associated batch files are now in German (thanks to Thorsten Franke), and the system should be fully functional. Shane Land is delighted to ask for people to download this extension of OpenGEM into a second language, and help us make sure everything works correctly. You can get OpenGEM Deutsch Release 4 RC 1 from the downloads page.
- New updates available for the OpenGEM Release 4 family (3/8/05)
OpenGEM Core, Complete, Experimental and Deutsch have been updated to include a metafile driver that was previously missing from OpenGEM Release 4. The lack of this driver caused some applications to fail to start. OpenGEM Release 4 Update 3 patches are now online (if you are an OpenGEM Deutsch user the patch is called Beta 2). Click here to download the updates.
- Shane Land announces a German version of OpenGEM (31/7/05)
There is a new German language version of OpenGEM being developed from OpenGEM Core Release 4. It is still in Beta. While the GUI and internal applications are in German, the documentation and the batch files remain in English. With your help with testing and translation, it should not be long before OpenGEM expands into a second language! You can download Beta 1 right now by clicking here.
- Shane Land announces important updates for OpenGEM users (27/7/05)
OpenGEM Core, Complete and Experimental have been updated to Release 4 Update 2. This update is especially important for users of OpenGEM Complete, as several key driver files were missing from the SETUP application, causing crashes. To download updates to existing versions of OpenGEM click here, and to download a full version of OpenGEM Release 4 Update 2 click here.
- Shane Land announces a new User Guide and FAQ for OpenGEM users (26/7/05)
Shane Land has released a new FAQ and User Guide to support users of OpenGEM Core, Complete and Experimental. These are the first step in creating clear documentation for the OpenGEM project. You can download the FAQ by clicking here, and the User Guide by clicking here. If you are using OpenGEM Release 4 Update 2 you'll already have a copy of these documents in your \GEMAPPS\HELPZONE folder.
- Shane Land announces a new FAQ for OpenGEM users (21/7/05)
Shane Land is delighted to announce a new OpenGEM FAQ to help users work with the best 16bit GUI for DOS available under an open source license! The new OpenGEM FAQ is part of our continuing effort to ensure that OpenGEM becomes the GUI of choice for FreeDOS users. The FAQ is the first step in creating clear documentation for the OpenGEM project. You can download the FAQ by clicking here.
- Shane Land announces an update to OpenGEM Release 4 (17/7/05)
OpenGEM Release 4 Core, Complete and Experimental had some issues reported regarding their startup files, repair function, and update and install functions. These issues have now been corrected with the launch of Update 1 for OpenGEM Release 4 Core, Complete and Experimental. You can download the full versions of OpenGEM, and update patches if you already have an OpenGEM Release 4 installation, from the downloads page.
- Shane Land is proud to announce three new software products (15/7/05)
OpenGEM Release 4 Core, OpenGEM Release 4 Complete and OpenGEM Release 4 Experimental are now online.
OpenGEM Release 4 is the release of the GEM GUI designed to operate effectively with FreeDOS 1.0. It's small, light, and fast. Best of all, it has been carefully tested to ensure it's one of the most reliable choices for file management you can get.
OpenGEM Release 4 is a single-tasking 16bit GUI. It has configuration tools (SETUP.BAT at C:\) and will detect upgrades or new applications to be installed. It can even repair itself if the core GUI sustains damage.
OpenGEM Release 4 is the ninth formal release of OpenGEM software, and the tenth public release of the software. It builds on a distribution that was started in late 2001, and which went through five beta releases before OpenGEM 1.0.0. The core code of OpenGEM is based on Digital Research's GEM, a solid GUI platform developed commercially in the 1980s. OpenGEM Release 4 Core
OpenGEM Release 4 Core is not a complete OpenGEM distribution. It contains the core GUI of OpenGEM, but none of the applications like word processing, DTP etc. It is intended to help you manage your files, and it can be upgraded to include more GEM applications and features through packages that will be made available on the OpenGEM website. This software replaces GEMini Release 3. OpenGEM Release 4 Complete
OpenGEM Release 4 Complete is a complete OpenGEM distribution. It contains the core GUI of OpenGEM, and all of the applications like word processing, DTP etc. It is intended as a complete graphical work enviroment for end-users. This software replaces OpenGEM Release 3. OpenGEM Release 4 Experimental
OpenGEM Release 4 Experimental contains the same files and functionality as OpenGEM Release 4 Core, but uses more of the experimental code from the FreeGEM community. It has 3D menus, and more features than the standard OpenGEM release, though it is not assured to run as smoothly. You can get OpenGEM Release 4 Core, OpenGEM Release 4 Complete and OpenGEM Release 4 Experimental for free from the download page.
- GEMini Release 3 now online (7/6/05)
Shane Land is proud to announce the release of GEMini Release 3. GEMini Release 3 is an important development for both Shane Land and FreeDOS. It's a complete GUI file manager with drag and drop based on commerical code (released under GPL) and opensource development. It's solid, tested, and able to handle your files like nothing else out there. It even includes a text viewer to help you see what's on your drive.
- OpenGEM SDK Release 1 now online (1/6/05)
Shane Land is proud to announce the release of the OpenGEM SDK (software development kit). This is a landmark release for Shane Land. OpenGEM SDK is a collection of tools, source code and binary for the creation of OpenGEM/GEM/FreeGEM applications. It includes:
- GEM bindings for Pacific C, DGJPP and Turbo Pascal
- Pacific C compiler
- DR GEM 3.13 complete binaries source code
- FreeGEM AES binaries and source code
- FreeGEM desktops binaries and source code
- Multiple GEM binaries of core units (DR GEM 1.2, 2.0, 3.0 etc)
- GEM binaries for all applications released under GPL
- Many source code sections for GEM applications
- All the GEM driver binaries and source code
- Many tools for making and altering GEM code and settings
- Documentation to help you get started
In short, OpenGEM SDK Release 1 is the one-stop-shop to get started with creating applications for GEM, or for altering the GEM GUI enviroment. It's the most complete collection of tools, code and applications yet released for the platform. You can download it right away from our FreeDOS mirror or our Sourceforge mirror
- GEMini Release 3 Release Candidate 3 now online (27/5/05)
Shane Land is proud to announce the public release of the next generation of GEMini (the tiny GUI file manager for FreeDOS). This software is a step away from the FreeGEM model, and is based largely on the code from DR GEM 3.13. This vastly increases speed and stability. Please help us test this software.
- GEMini Release 3 Release Candidate 1 now online (19/5/05)
Shane Land is proud to announce the public release of the next generation of GEMini (the tiny GUI file manager for FreeDOS). The new version of GEMini is completely recompiled from OpenGEM Release 3, and has a word processor to view text, nfo, inf and cfg files. Please help us test this software for bugs.
- OpenGEM Release 4 delayed (but still coming!) (8/3/05)
Shane Land is rather embarressed to announce that OpenGEM Release 4 has been delayed due to critical hardware failure. Shane M. Coughlan, the creator of OpenGEM, upgraded to a ASUS laptop in January, and it promptly suffered hard drive failure (taking much of OpenGEM Release 4 with it). Reconstruction work is underway now that ASUS have fixed the laptop. Amazingly it took ASUS over one month to repair the machine. We're really sorry, and assure you that Release 4 will be out soon.
- Shane Land gets two donations (8/3/05)
Since our rather snippy news about getting only one donation to support OpenGEM in the last three years, two wonderful people have stepped forward to show their support for OpenGEM! Thank you Dennis Schulmeister and Magnus Hansson. Your donations are going to help pay for the next year of hosting OpenGEM downloads from our server.
- OpenGEM Release 4 announced (24/12/04)
Shane Land is proud to announce that the fourth generation of its OpenGEM software will be released in late January 2005. OpenGEM Release 4 will build on the highly successful third generation of the software, and expand the documentation to make it easier to install and use the system. OpenGEM Release 4 is intended to provide FreeDOS and other DOS users with the best combination of simplicity and power available under the GPL license.
- OpenGEM received one donation in the last three years (24/12/04)
On the 3rd of September 2003 Shane Land received its one (and only) donation towards the OpenGEM project. We would like to officially thank Markus Drautz for the EUR 10.00 he sent. Believe it or not, this money was very useful, and was put towards paying the website hosting costs for 2004. If you use OpenGEM please consider making a donation to help cover costs. Click this link to donate.
Shane Land OpenGEM Release 3 has had over 4,000 downloads from the Shane Land OpenGEM website since August. During this time only 6 bug reports have been submitted, and they were all related to minor video driver issues. OpenGEM is now the most popular and proven GUI available under the GPL for DOS.
