Comments on: What happened to GEM? https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-gem/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whatever-happened-to-gem David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more Mon, 27 Apr 2026 21:45:52 +0000 hourly 1 By: MikeW https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-gem/#comment-57541 Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:04:37 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=5803#comment-57541 Emutos I think will run on an amiga.

]]> By: typopete https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-gem/#comment-57539 Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:39:23 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=5803#comment-57539 Started the PC desktop publishing with Ventura Publisher in 1987. It worked well for several years until about 1990 when QuarkXPress, on Macs, was the killer app for desktop publishing. There was a story, possibly apocryphal, that IBM was considering GEM for the IBM PC and visited Digital Research and Digital Research made them “wait in the lobby” and pissed IBM off, so that MS-DOS was the operating system chosen.

]]> By: Jon https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-gem/#comment-57537 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 09:36:32 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=5803#comment-57537 In reply to neo.

It would have been a bit pointless to port GEM to either the Amiga or Acorn Archimedes. Both already had their own multitasking operating systems with GUIs. Although both AmigaOS and Acorn’s RISC OS were actually cobbled together in a rush after the original projects to create operating systems for these machines at launch failed!

]]> By: JD Mathewson https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-gem/#comment-57536 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 01:44:34 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=5803#comment-57536 I grew up on the ST (Dad was a musician, MIDI was built in, and Calamus and PageStream were both good enough for early desktop publishing) so GEM is always a warm nostalgia hit for me. Thank you for this.

]]> By: neo https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-gem/#comment-57535 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 18:27:58 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=5803#comment-57535 what about Amiga or Color Computer 3, or Acorn could they get GEM?

]]> By: Carl Sanders https://dfarq.homeip.net/whatever-happened-to-gem/#comment-23751 Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:49:31 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=5803#comment-23751 Thanks, great report.

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