[GEM Development] news from OpenGEM

[Shane M. Coughlan]

Dear everyone,

As you may (or may not know) I am leaving the UK to live in Japan shortly.
This is a rather big adventure for me, and will entail many changes in my
life.  Because of this, after I released a new version of GEMini in May, I
announced the end of my software days.  I cheerfully said that OpenGEM and
GEMini were coming to the end of their evolution, though I would continue to
support people using the software as best I could.

Ahem.  A lot of people have contacted me about that statement, and suggested
that I should not stop developing OpenGEM or GEMini.  In fact, this month
500 people have downloaded OpenGEM, and 300 have downloaded GEMini.  There
are still a lot of users out there (thanks mainly to the FreeDOS community,
who have adopted OpenGEM whole-heartedly).

Okay.  Let it never be said that I don't listen to other people! :P  I have
a big announcement to make.

OpenGEM Release 3 is coming soon.  This will be the third 'generation' of
the OpenGEM software, and will mark a substantial leap forward in stability,
size, and versatility.  I'm still designing the new package, but I can tell
you that a lot of useless files are removed, the install and setup functions
have been simplified and improved, and configuration options will be vastly
increased.  The motto with this third generation release is to get rid of
junk, cut out unused options, and generally think "switch on and use" when
it comes to the distribution.

OpenGEM Release 3 is slated for release on the 10th of August.  It will
replace OpenGEM 2.2.0.  There is some good and some bad news.  The bad news
is that there will be no direct upgrade patch from OpenGEM 2.2.0 to OpenGEM
Release 3.  This is because my time is limited, and I cannot allocate enough
to make an upgrade patch.  The good news is that OpenGEM Release 3 will be
designed to be much easier to use, to update, and generally to maintain on
your machine.  It will be designed to be the most simple, most effective and
most useful 16bit GPL graphical user interface for DOS based computers.

Because I will move to Japan on the 24th of August for at least one year
(gulp) I cannot be sure when and if additional patches would be created for
OpenGEM, and certainly I cannot suggest a projected timescale for a
potential OpenGEM Release 4.  Instead I will focus on getting OpenGEM
Release 3 to market, making sure it's good, neat, stable and tidy.  I will
also commit myself now to attempting to provide good and coherent support to
OpenGEM Release 3 for a substantial period, to ensure that when people adopt
it they can be sure of some help.

OpenGEM Release 3 will be supported by myself and my website
(http://gem.shaneland.co.uk) until at least December 2005.  I will continue
to support OpenGEM 2.2.0 and GEMini Release 2 until the same date.  If you
need support simply email me at gem at shaneland.co.uk

I believe that OpenGEM is already pretty much the number one 16bit GPL GUI,
and I hope to further consolidate this position with the new release.  No
one even comes close in the range of applications, development and
reliability.  DOS is an increasingly small market, and other GUIs have
failed to adapt themselves to the needs and wishes of consumers.  With
FreeDOS version 1.0 coming ever closer, I hope OpenGEM Release 3 can provide
a firm foundation for people to build their GPL graphical user interface
adventures!

So there you have it!  OpenGEM Release 3 will be out on the 10th of August.
For more information visit the OpenGEM website as that date gets closer!
Additional news for people who speak Spanish is that another FreeGEM
programmer is currently making a version of the GEM software to be
distributed in the Spanish language.  This will not be an OpenGEM
distribution of FreeGEM, but it will be 100% compatible.

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

PS: If anyone from the FreeDOS project has a spare minute or two, I would be
very happy if they could test a beta of OpenGEM Release 3 on their machine.