Comments on: GEM OS: The Other Windows

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:45:50 +0000

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…..

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:48:16 +0000

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.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:55:02 +0000

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…

By: Serge’s Technology View » Blog Archive » Give Bill Gates a round of applause

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:01:42 +0000

[...] selection: Did you know there was GUI OS for PC well before Windows? I have used one called GEM by Digital Research back in 1985 (talking [...]

By: Edward Smith

Edward Smith — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:02:07 +0000

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.

By: Thankgah

Thankgah — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:43:06 +0000

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.

By: Lynstone 001

Lynstone 001 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:19:48 +0000

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…