PCN currently has a beta test version of GEM running on an IBM PC, and it's limited both by the geriatric nature of the PC's 8088 processor and by the fact that it's currently a front-end with little in the way of back-end but for all that it's still fun to use.

Once applications software incorporating GEM is available it stands a fighting chance of transforming serious computing into something that's easy to learn. The version running on the Atari 68000 machines will have the additional advantage of leaving the PC version standing.

The minimum GEM will do is to present you with a more user-friendly 'desktop' style opening screen, showing trash can, files, clock, calculator and so on. Use your mouse to point at a 'disk' on the screen and you get a directory - then point at a program on the directly and it runs.

Currently, as there's no software that uses GEM's facilities, you then drop into the program and you don't see GEM again until you exit it, but still have the opportunity to marvel at the way your 'desktop' is exactly the way it was when you left it, and it's still possible to play with GEM Draw, which although not a patch on MacPaint, is a lot more fun than weary old Wordstar.

Watch this space for the full story, when PCN will reveal whether or not you can get cheesed off with mice...