[GEM Development] Current status and future?

[José Emilio Mori Recio]

Hello everyone.

I'm a former GEM user under Atari ST from Spain, and now I plan to use
OpenGEM, over FreeDOS, in several older PCs which I want to make
"productive" again, and I'd also like to contribute to the project,
specially in Spanish translations, in mirroring in our ftp site at the
Valladolid University, and maybe even in development, if I get a little help
for not messing up... although I'm only getting informed about it right now,
in order to focus on it in 2009, if things go well.

But I'm somehow confused about the current status of the project, after
downloading OpenGEM 5 & 6, reading Shane Land Web and the gem-dev archive of
messages.

Currently the Shane Land OpenGEM website http://gem.shaneland.co.uk/ offers
OpenGEM 5 (core & full versions), the sources, SDK, documentation, etc. But
FreeDOS, in
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/gui/opengem/, also
includes OpenGEM 6, just the core version, and nothing else. Also in that
directory, the README file from Shane points to the file
http://www.opendawn.com/opengem6.zip and to a future (as of 2006, I think)
web http://gem.opendawn.com, but neither will work. And in a June 2008
message here, Shane announces that "OpenGEM 7 is just about ready".

Also, the GEM wiki and ¿its backup? aren't apparently working:
http://wiki.freegem.net says that "it has a problem / is experiencing
technical difficulties" for several months now, and http://wiki2.freegem.net
won't even load (Firefox explains that the redirection is looping, and lynx
-text-mode- reports HTTP 301/302 "Moved" errors).

As I've read in previous messages here, I guess it's all because of people
getting very busy. But this list is active, and it seems FreeDOS itself is
very active, and GEM, as his ¿main? graphic environment, should also be;
maybe people doesn't know much about this project? Anyway, I think that
having updated programs, sources and documentation web-centralized is a
basic step in order for everyone to test and keep on development. I can help
with that if necessary, including web hosting (also with a wiki section). As
for me, I think it's no good to begin testing and studying OpenGEM 5
ignoring the improvements of OpenGEM 6 and 7, so I'll wait for your comments
about what's going on with that, and if or when (when, I hope) everything is
going to get up to date.

Finally, it seems that the rest of FreeGEM/OpenGEM efforts have ceased
several years ago, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Those other webs also
point to this mailing list for further information, so I guess that if I can
find an answer to that, it should be here.

So, I look forward to your comments about these questions; that is, in a few
words, the current status of the project and its future. Thanks in advance.

//     José Emilio Mori Recio - http://www.gui.uva.es/~jem         \\
|| Administrador Informático, Arzobispado de Valladolid y Archivo  ||
\\ Miembro 088 del Grupo Universitario de Informática, Valladolid  //