“There is a new member of the OpenGEM family. We’d like to introduce Project Liberation, based on the software behind OpenGEM Experimental. Project Liberation is a whole new type of OpenGEM, and it’s such a leap forward it’ll blow your socks off. Project Liberation has a new 3D interface, with a neat modern pointer set, a beautiful new default system font, and cool new icons.” Beta 3 has just been released. Download it here.
I remember running GEM on my ancient Atari PC (not ST, “PC”). DOS 3 I think. Anyway, it was fun then, although I really did tend to just go back to the DOS command line.
Can you get USB drivers for DOS and Liberation GEM (no mention of it in the FAQ)? It would be nice to be able to stick in a USB memory stick to move files around. My neither my WinXP laptop nor my iMac G5 a floppy drive, so file sharing could be a pain (I would be installing it on my old desktop pc).
There are USB drivers for DOS, but they are quite difficult to track down. I did it once, and they worked wonderfully under MS-DOS 5. Alas, I cannot repeat that feat of Googling right now. (It is easy to find one of the necessary drivers, but the second part is tricky.)
@Anonymous
Thanks – I’ll have a go at finding/installing these myself
@DittoBox
>You want a “real 3d” interface on a gui wrapper for…DOS?
I think that he may have been joking
>There are USB drivers for DOS, but they are quite
>difficult to track down. I did it once, and they worked
>wonderfully under MS-DOS 5. Alas, I cannot repeat that
>feat of Googling right now. (It is easy to find one of
>the necessary drivers, but the second part is tricky.)
OK, after much scrabbling around and dead links, I found the following:
The Panasonic USB drivers:
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/drive/cdrrw/kxlrw40an/download….
The elusive DI1000DD.SYS file:
http://www.driver.novac.co.jp/driver/hd351u/mhairudos.zip
CAVEAT! I have not tried unzipping these yet, and therefore cannot say whether they work. I won’t have time to do so for a few days, but hopefully they can be of some use to others.
Right, now to create a DOS/Liberation GEM PC!
DOS USB drivers:
http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/
Load usbaspi.sys and di1000dd.sys in your config.sys file. They are part of the “motto hairu” package. They will work with most sticks.
The feature is a bit misleading. When I read “3D Interface”, I expected real 3D 🙂
I agree. Actually, I prefer the flat look of OpenGEM. I wonder if you can skin Liberation to look more retro ;D
You want a “real 3d” interface on a gui wrapper for…DOS?
Yes, you can make Liberation look more retro. Run GEMAPPSGEMSYSSETTINGS.APP, choose “Load theme”, and there are about half-a-dozen to choose from.
I just had it running in DOSBox (fullscreen).
It’s pretty funny, though not so usefull on a modern pc. But on old hardware – with the right software – this would be a pretty neat DE to have.
I like the 3D-look, and I didn’t misunderstand it (but then… I already knew what they meant – but I can see why people could misunderstand it). Especially the Gem/5 style is really neat. I like that. I’d just wish the icons were coloured and not just black’n’white. And some better looking fonts please (vectorfonts naturally)… and danish letters
dylansmrjones
kristian AT herkild DOT dk
I’ve been running GEM on my desktop for 12 years now, and I must say that at least for me, it is definitely desktop-ready.
There is a Linux kernel GEM and TOS project that has a live ISO, boots the Linux kerle, then TOS and then goes in to a high res GEM.. It looked like it had great potential for GEM lovers, but alas, I just cannot fine it under google now… if anyone else knows of it – please post the URL
I think you mean: Aranym, URL: http://aranym.sourceforge.net/
Thanks Anonymous.. That was exactly the project I meant… now atleast I can bookmark it
Hi guys
This is Shane Coughlan, the lead developer of the OpenGEM Distro. Thanks so much for all the positive comments regarding Project Liberation, and for downloading the software.
We’re very excited about the direction that this software is going, and of course we value all the feedback we get. So…please let us know how your OpenGEM user experience goes!
You can email us at [email protected] anytime.
It’s worth bearing in mind that OpenGEM is intended to provide a really light but powerful GUI for FreeDOS. If you want to preview a powerful DOS, please do visit http://www.freedos.org. Jim Hall and co. have made an amazing OS for everyone (and it does run on USB devices).
Noone has ever tested running OpenGEM on a USB device. If you give it a whirl, please let us know how it goes.
Regards
Shane
http://gem.shaneland.co.uk
That’s a great link. That site has everything you’ll ever need to get USB working in DOS… Sadly, these aren’t THAT useful for GEM because of memory. They all want a slice of the lower 640K, which is the only space that GEM is able to use ATM. After my SCSI, CD-ROM, Mouse and DOSkey is all installed, I only have 607 KB left. GEM then further reduces the ammount of space, severly limiting my ability to work with many documents… Adding USB drivers would only take more space out of my GEM environment and make it that much less useful.