[GEM Development] Shane Land OpenGEM and GEMini - future development statement

[Shane M. Coughlan]

This email may seem vaguely off-topic to some, but I think it's an important
announcement about my software development for FreeGEM and FreeDOS.

It is not often that I send out a future concept email for Shane Land GEM
products.  However, in the last few months Shane Land OpenGEM has had a
terrific increase in userbase.  This is especially true in the FreeDOS
world.  I think it's time to think seriously about what the future holds.

There are now two Shane Land GEM products.  Shane Land OpenGEM is the main
GUI, and is a complete FreeGEM distribution with applications.  It is
currently at version 2.2.0.  Shane Land GEMini is a small GUI intended for
use as a file commander.  It is currently at Release 1, though an updated
version will appear shortly.

I have just completed my Master degree at university, and will not have time
for elaborate updates to my software in the coming years.  Because of this I
have attempted to bring all of the software to a 'complete' state, and I do
plan to support and patch the software for quite a while longer. I currently
am committing myself to supporting Shane Land OpenGEM and Shane Land GEMini
until 2006.

There will be one more major update of Shane Land OpenGEM.  It will be the
third generation of Shane Land OpenGEM, and will adopt a new versioning
system.  It will be called Shane Land OpenGEM Release 3, and will feature
the following enhancements over Shane Land OpenGEM 2.2.0:
- It will be modular, so when installing you do not have to use all the
applications or features
- It will have a more advanced SETUP system, to allow you to change between
more types of video driver, printer driver and accessories that GEM loads.
- It will be combined with FreeDOS to allow you the option of formatting a
blank disk and installing OpenGEM as a complete OS on a system
- It will reduce the default memory load to improve stability
- It will feature an updated networking engine for the web browser
- It will have documentation to help new users
Shane Land OpenGEM Release 3 will take me a little while, so expect it
around December.

There will be one more major update of Shane Land GEMini.  It will be the
second generation of GEMini, and will reduce the size of the distribution to
400kb (from 580kb).  This will make it the smallest GEM distribution
available.  It will have the following features:
- It will be intended for file management only, so will not install with
text viewers or html viewers or scripting support.
- There will be downloadable modules to add text viewing support, html
viewing support and GDS scripting (a simple batch-like scripting that allows
you to use GEM graphics).

Shane Land OpenGEM Release 3 and Shane Land GEMini Release 2 will both be
GPL, and the license restriction with the Shane Land Limited License will be
removed.  A few applications included with Shane Land OpenGEM will remain
FREEWARE, and not GPL.  This is because their authors wish to retain control
over the software, but all the core GEM code and the distribution
configuration code will be GPL.  All of Shane Land GEMini Release 2 will be
GPL.

After the release of Shane Land OpenGEM Release 3 and Shane Land GEMini
Release 2 I will no longer actively improve the Shane Land GEM software,
though (as I said above) I will continue to support it and release bug
fixes.  There will be a site on sourceforge with all the GEM source,
documentation and bits that people need to continue active development of
GEM, OpenGEM and GEMini.  I will be collecting all the GEM code from all the
GEM sites (www.deltasoft.com et al) and mirroring it there.

OpenGEM is for from coming to a real end-of-life.  A Spanish software
company called Softwarix Company is making a new GEM distribution based on
OpenGEM.  They are planning commercial development, but will release their
GEM code as GPL for the community at large.  They are releasing their new
GEM in summer 2004.  In essence I feel I am passing the code and concept
onto someone else who can take it further than me.  When I started to build
OpenGEM in 2001 I wanted to make a GEM distribution that was easy to
install, included all the applications preconfigured, and was tested.  A
turnkey solution for the GEM community.  I do think I have taken it just
about as far as I can personally go, and the next releases will really
stretch my ability.  Softwarix Company are going to take my concept to a
better place, and I am delighted.

All the GEM software released by Shane Land is stable, tested and easy to
use.  I hope that the FreeDOS community, and the DOS community in general
continues to adopt this software over the coming months and years.

Regards

Shane
http://gem.shaneland.co.uk
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Website: http://www.shaneland.co.uk
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