GEM OS: The Other Windows

GEM did have notable sales. In fact, Tandy Computer sold GEM bundled with their PC. However, for whatever reason, Digital Research didn’t aggressively promote GEM. It may have been that they had problems getting applications developed for GEM (Microsoft had similar problems with their early versions of Windows). Or, Digital Research may have decided that people were too locked into DOS and DOS applications to consider switching to another operating system. Digital Research appears as to have decided to sell GEM where it could. Although GEM didn’t take over the PC desktop, it appeared in other places. For instance, it was used as an interface for desktop publishing software.

The GEM operating system also appeared on other computers. One of them was the Atari ST. Interestingly, that version of GEM had the trash can. Evidently, Apple didn’t see GEM on the Atari ST as a threat.

The first versions of GEM were designed to run on early and mid 1980s PCs. As such, GEM may be a good choice for running on low end PCs today. Original GEM files and applications, now abandonware, can be downloaded from:

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/6148/gem.html

GEM TODAY: FREEGEM

That is not the end of GEM – GEM continues today. The company that took over ownership of GEM released it to the public. A number of developers took over GEM,and it continues to be developed currently. GEM is a nice choice for older computers and should run quite fast on most newer computers. Information and downloads can be found at:

http://www.deltasoft.com [Current GEM development site with downloads]

http://www.seasip.info/Gem/index.htm [General information and downloads]

The above sites provideGEM downloads and technical information. Other older and current versions of GEM can be found with a little searching [try FREEGEM as a search term]. Certain versions of GEM can be run on a 20 year old 286.

RELATED SITES

Screenshots of older GEM software can be seen at:
http://www.safelink.net/danrose/aw-gem.html

Other information on the original GEM:
http://members.fortunecity.com/pcmuseum/gem.htm

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Lynstone 001
Being from the UK, I immediately remembered GEM as the operating system on the Amstrad 1512 machines which sold well here in the early 1980′s. I bought one myself and still have the old GEM floppy set somewhere. I believe the OS was a version of MSDOS based on CP/M86 to allow the “cheap” machines to run IBM based programs.
Thought you might be interested…
Thankgah
I used to work for Apricot computer in U.S.A. Built in the U.K. and imported by air freight these computers also used GEM as the GUI and MS-DOS as the operating system.
Edward Smith
Ah, memories. My very first PC was an Amstrad using GEM OS, back about 1986 or 7 – it was offered for sale through employee purchase at my then employer, Westinghouse Canada. Beautiful machine & an OS which was better than Windows 3.1 – or even 95, I would say. Later switched to a Mac, but still remember that first computer fondly.
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Greg
YES! GEM OS. It was great! I really enjoyed working on the OS. I was not until Windows 3.1 that anything came close. Good times, my friend, good times…
Aaron
Wow, I am rather young to remeber any computer with out a GUI, but as a sort of gift, my father gave me an old computer that ran win 95, before a crashed it. Then I got Free DOS on it, which was when I discovered FreeGEM for the first time.
Phil
I worked for Apricot computers in the UK and was a member of a small team of people who saw GEM for the first time on the Apricot platforms. To me this was ground breaking. To this day I still think that Microsofts dominance has held back Information Technology when you look back at things like DR-DOS, GEM etc and how advanced they were at the time. Oh well…..