Tomaz Stih has ported Digital Research's GEM graphical desktop to Linux, and it runs directly on the framebuffer. No X, no Wayland, no display server dependency at all. The code traces back through OpenGEM and FreeGEM, rooted in DR's original DOS-era codebase from the 1980s.
The port claims API compatibility with Atari ST applications, which is technically interesting given the shared lineage between the DOS and Atari ST versions of GEM. Sample apps currently include a clock and calendar, but the compatibility claim is what warrants a closer look at the GitHub repo. The original article also explains why GEM never survived on DOS: simultaneous legal pressure from Apple and commercial suffocation by Microsoft.
This will not replace Wayland on your workstation. The real question the full article raises is what the actual use case looks like on minimal embedded Linux installs where framebuffer access is already available and a full display server is dead weight. That framing is worth reading before dismissing this as pure nostalgia.
[READ ORIGINAL →]