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What happened to GEM?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 10, 2012February 21, 20221980s, 1990s, apple, apple ii, Apple Lisa, atari, atari st, commodore, Digital Equipment Corporation, Digital Research, IBM, jack tramiel, macintosh, motorola, piracy, SCO

GEM was an early GUI for the IBM PC and compatibles and, later, the Atari ST, developed by Digital Research, the developers of CP/M and, later, DR-DOS. (Digital Equipment Corporation was a different company.) So what was it, and what happened to GEM?

It was very similar to the Apple Lisa, and Apple saw it as a Lisa/Macintosh ripoff and sued. While elements of GEM did indeed resemble the Lisa, Digital Research actually hired several developers from Xerox PARC.

DRI demonstrated the 8086 version of GEM at COMDEX in 1984, and shipped it on 28 February 1985, beating Windows 1.0 to market by nearly 9 months.
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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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RIP, Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 9, 2012August 1, 20171980s, apple, atari, atari st, Chuck Peddle, commodore, commodore 64, dell, IBM, jack tramiel, Linus Torvalds, motorola, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Texas Instruments, TI

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel, the orchestrator of the first line of affordable personal computers, died this weekend at the age of 83.

I don’t know exactly what to think about it, and I’m probably not alone, though it didn’t take long for tributes to pour in. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Was CP/M overrated?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing September 27, 2011October 1, 20181980s, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, commodore, commodore 128, DEC, Gary Kildall, IBM, PIP, unix, vector, windows nt

Veteran tech journalist Dan Tynan recently published a list of 10 overrated technology products, and CP/M was on his list. But was CP/M overrated? I want to dig into that question a bit.

I think everyone knows the story of how IBM almost used CP/M as the operating system for its PC, but ended up using an upstart product from a small company named Microsoft instead. We’ll probably never know exactly what happened, seeing as the author of CP/M is dead and his business partner is no longer able to recollect those events from the 1980 timeframe, and IBM and Bill Gates have no reason to embarrass themselves by revisiting the story.

But CP/M was the first and most popular operating system for early 8-bit computers, so people who used it remember it fondly, and the way Microsoft steamrolled it made Gary Kildall and his operating system folk heroes to underdog lovers everywhere. Even people who never used it and weren’t even born when Kildall’s company ceased to exist have at least a vague idea of what it was.
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Dave Farquhar

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Commodore 128, top-12 dud? By what measure?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 17, 2011September 3, 20181980s, amiga, apple, apple ii, Apple Macintosh, atari, atari 2600, atari st, commodore, commodore 128, commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, IBM, ibm pcjr, macintosh, motorola, NES, nintendo, nintendo nes, pc magazine, video game

PC Magazine presented a list of 12 computer duds, and while I agree with most of them, my old friend the Commodore 128 makes an appearance. Commodore released several duds over the years, but calling the 128 one of them doesn’t seem fair.
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Dave Farquhar

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Windows, ARM, emulation, misconceptions and misremembered history

Dave Farquhar Hardware May 22, 2011January 23, 20221980s, 1990s, 6502, amiga, android, apple, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, commodore, Digital Research, excel, IBM, intel, macintosh, Microsoft Basic, motorola, netbooks, Once Windows, unix, web os, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows nt, Windows XP, x86

I keep reading stuff about Windows and ARM and, well, I think people just aren’t remembering history.

I’m not saying that Windows 8 on ARM will save the world, or even change it substantially. It probably won’t, since Microsoft tends not to get things right the first time. But will I automatically write off the project? No. It could prove useful for something other than what it was originally intended. That happens a lot.

But I’m more interested in clearing up the misinformation than in trying to predict the future.
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Dave Farquhar

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An insider’s view of the Atari ST

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 16, 2008October 11, 20191950s, 1980s, amiga, apple, apple ii, atari, atari st, commodore, electric trains, jack tramiel, Joe Posnanski, lionel, marx, marx trains

I’m sure pretty much everyone who cares has already seen this on Slashdot or wherever, but I found this blog entry from Landon Dyer, one of the designers of the Atari ST, fascinating.

Dave Farquhar

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Commodore’s founder comes out of hiding

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing December 12, 2007October 3, 20181990s, 6502, altair, amiga, apple, apple ii, atari, atari st, Bil Herd, Bill Gates, commodore, dell, Digital Research, excel, irving gould, jack tramiel, Mehdi Ali, Microsoft Basic, Steve Wozniak, stock scam, Tandy, vic 20

It’s been said that Ed Roberts of Altair fame was the last person to get the better of Bill Gates in a business deal.

But I’ll say it was Jack Tramiel.

Dave Farquhar

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Why I generally buy AMD

Dave Farquhar Hardware October 24, 2007November 15, 20181980s, 1990s, amd, amiga, apple, apple ii, atari, atari st, best buy, Bill Gates, boot disk, Circuit City, commodore, Commodore Amiga, dell, hp, IBM, intel, macintosh, Missouri, motorola, New York, New York City, Packard Bell, radio shack, Tandy, Texas Instruments, TI, unix, vista, windows 2000, windows 98, windows 9x, windows nt, Windows Vista, Windows XP

I was talking to a new coworker today and of course the topic of our first PCs came up. It was Cyrix-based. I didn’t mention my first PC (it seems I’m about four years older–it was an Am486SX2/66).

With only a couple of exceptions, I’ve always bought non-Intel PCs. Most of the Intel PCs I have bought have been used. One boss once went so far as to call me anti-corporate.

I’m not so much anti-corporate as I am pro-competition.

Dave Farquhar

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The almost-was Bill Gates

Dave Farquhar Software October 19, 2004October 3, 20181980s, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, Digital Research, dr dos, Gary Kildall, IBM, intel, pc magazine, QDOS, SCO, video game

Finally, a little bit more detail on the haziest (to me) story in my controversial Why I Dislike Microsoft has appeared: Gary Kildall’s side of the CP/M-QDOS-PC DOS 1.0 story.

The story corroborates what I said, but I wish the story answered more questions.

Dave Farquhar

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Open sourcing code doesn’t necessarily mean people will rush to it

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, Software June 23, 2004January 21, 20201980s, amiga, atari, atari st, BSD, Digital Research, freebsd, Gary Kildall, macintosh, mysql

John C. Dvorak wrote a nice layman’s introduction to open source on PCMag.com. But he makes at least one big false assumption.

Dvorak says he’d love to see old code open sourced. Some examples he sought, such as CP/M, CP/M-86, and GEM, have already been open source for years. Caldera, after buying the intellectual property of the former Digital Research from Novell, released just about everything that wasn’t directly related to DR-DOS, some of it as GPL, and some under other licenses. The results have hardly been earth shattering.

Dave Farquhar

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