Shane Land is proud to annouce availability of GEMini Release 3, the best little GPL file manager out there! You can download it right away from http://gem.shaneland.co.uk GEMini is a tiny GUI file manager for FreeDOS with drag and drop, and a text file viewer. It has been tested on FreeDOS Beta 9, Windows98SE, Windows2000 and WindowsXP. Naturally, it works best on FreeDOS :) GEMini Release 3 is an important turning point for software in Shane Land. We're moving closer to OpenGEM Release 4 (the fourth major release of our full GUI distribution), and we're focusing on three things: - Reliability - Scalability - Usability Reliability GEMini Release 3 is based on stable commerical code (DR GEM 3.13) and well tested opensource code (FreeGEM Desktop 3.2.1 and FreeGEM Output). It has been developed since 2003, and is based on OpenGEM, which has been developed since 2001. GEMini is intended to provide a solid file manager for all users. Scalability GEMini Release 3 partially impliments the update and install system that will be used in OpenGEM Release 4 (which is due out later this year). This means that it will be easy to update and upgrade GEMini to suit your purposes. If you need more applications, you can simply download and install them (applications will made available on the OpenGEM website http://gem.shaneland.co.uk as the release date of OpenGEM 4 gets closer). You can keep GEMini as a tiny file manager, or you can scale it up into a fully featured GUI with a complete office suite if you so wish. And, if you're too impatient to wait for Shane Land to release additional applications, you can simply install them yourself from the OpenGEM SDK or websites like www.deltasoft.com and www.seasip.info. Usability GEMini is designed to install quickly and easily, and to simply work. It's really focused on the end-user, and providing a simple way to deal with files. It's designed to keep out of your way, and to let you just work. If you want to develop something for GEMini or OpenGEM, or if you're just curious about the code, you need the OpenGEM SDK. OpenGEM SDK Release 1 is now available for immediate download from http://gem.shaneland.co.uk. OpenGEM SDK is a collection of tools, source code and binary for the creation of OpenGEM/GEM/FreeGEM applications. It includes: - GEM bindings for Pacific C, DGJPP and Turbo Pascal - Pacific C compiler - DR GEM 3.13 complete binaries source code - FreeGEM AES binaries and source code - FreeGEM desktops binaries and source code - Multiple GEM binaries of core units (DR GEM 1.2, 2.0, 3.0 etc) - GEM binaries for all applications released under GPL - Many source code sections for GEM applications - All the GEM driver binaries and source code - Many tools for making and altering GEM code and settings - Documentation to help you get started In short, OpenGEM SDK Release 1 is the one-stop-shop to get started with creating applications for GEM, or for altering the GEM GUI enviroment. It's the most complete collection of tools, code and applications yet released for the platform. Finally, a little note about OpenGEM Release 4, the forthing complete GUI release. I think OpenGEM Release 4 will be a surprise. It will have a quick way to install updates and new applications. You simply place files into a folder, and OpenGEM will see them when it starts. It'll ask you if you want to install, and if you select yes, then it's done. No more hassle. There will be two OpenGEM Release 4 distributions: OpenGEM Core - this will be the core applications of OpenGEM, and will be just a little bigger than the current GEMini. OpenGEM Complete - this will be the core applications of OpenGEM plus things like fonts and different printer drivers. There will be an update for GEMini Release 3 to OpenGEM Core, and an update for OpenGEM Release 3 to OpenGEM Complete. I will also be releasing the GEM applications as seperate OpenGEM install files so that you can download and install the ones you want, without having to download all of them at once. To download GEMini Release 3 or OpenGEM Release 3, or the OpenGEM SDK, please visit http://gem.shaneland.co.uk Regards Shane gem@shaneland.co.uk