I went looking for gMax to re-install it today and couldn't find discreet's site anymore, but I did find gMax and 3ds Max under the Autodesk site.  Did they get bought out or have they owned them all along? 

Yes discreet is autodesk since 4 or 5 years. But
the brand discreet was replaced some month ago with
"autodesk media and entertainment"(or similar). Gmax probabely will not be developed further. IMO It was
just released as marketing answer to the free maya personal learning edition. But .. who knows...
Now that discreet is completely autodesk some
things seem to change in a positive way. Like
a lot of very old bugs were fixed in version 8.
And they also paid more attention to user requests
(instead of furhter developing/buying fancy, new, useless
features). Maybe gmax will be further candidate. I think it´s a good idea to join the discreet forum and request
a gmax update. As more users this will do as better is the chance (tell them you´ll use maya free instead ).
Scream or they won´t hear you !!

the Gmax forum
never seen a board so slow...

it takes weeks to get one answer, and usually is not the one you need

we're better off asking here at SimV