Hi Shane. Could you introduce yourself to everyone?
Hi there. I'm Shane Coughlan, and I'm the coordinator of the OpenGEM distributions of the GEM graphical user interface.
Can you tell people a little about your job?
Well, I put together and test GEM software to try and package it into distributions that are as easy to use and as stable as possible. Of course, many people help with this process. With regards things like programming I am fairly clueless. My job is really taking all the pieces that many different clever people made, and putting them together into a coherent product that people download, install, and just use.
Can you tell us a little bit about OpenGEM?
OpenGEM is a graphical user interface and application set based on the old Digital Research GEM code. GEM was a big user interface in in the 1980s, and surpassed Windows 1.x and 2.x in terms of technical ability and speed. However, DR GEM lost the graphical user interface wars because of mismanagement and a lawsuit with Apple computers. OpenGEM, and other work by the FreeGEM community, is an attempt to revitalize the GPL version of the GEM code. OpenGEM is intended to be a simple 16bit single-tasking GUI for old computers that is as close to a commercial, professional product as possible. The idea is to have a really great open-source system that is easy to install and use.
Why is ease of installation and use important?
While it is true that most users of OpenGEM are programmers and people who play with old computers for a hobby, the actual pattern of use for our software suggest that a coherent and compete package is the best way to distribute the GEM technology. More than 99% of people just download the software and install it using the automatic scripts. They don't alter it. You could say that they treat it like a commercial product; something they get to do a job, and it just does it. Then, if people want to alter it, they can. It's under the GPL, after all.
So, you're the pseudo-commercial part of the FreeGEM community?
Yes, exactly. I make a distribution of GPL code that is as complete and as coherent as possible. It is a “product” like Firefox or Thunderbird from Mozilla are products. Other people in the FreeGEM community are more focused on developing technology or releasing code sections that can be used in GEM installations, but are not complete distributions in themselves. Part of the good thing about GPL software development is that we can all be different, and yet share technology and ideas freely with each other. It's very dynamic.
Is OpenGEM a popular part of the FreeGEM development effort?
Yes. That's almost an understatement at this stage. OpenGEM is easily the most popular GEM distribution, and has become an important part of the FreeDOS application environment. It is included in some FreeDOS distributions, it is mirrored in multiple locations, and it gets a lot of downloads. OpenGEM Release 3 series got more than 10,000 downloads in the eleven months it was on our server, and the new OpenGEM Release 4 series shipped more than 1,000 copies in the first two weeks of release. In fact, I believe OpenGEM is now the most popular open-source GUI available for DOS.
What's the future for OpenGEM?
That's a complex question, because OpenGEM is very reactive to user requirements. Development is very much about making things easier and more reliable for our users. Feedback from users of OpenGEM Release 4 will determine if and when OpenGEM Release 5 is needed. At the moment, for instance, the primary focus has just been debugging. Fixing issues that people have encountered with the OpenGEM Release 4 code, and making the system as reliable as possible.
However, there are some important ideas going into the future of this code. OpenGEM went multi-lingual recently, with OpenGEM Deutsch released as a beta package. At this moment, I believe that the future for OpenGEM might lie in a dual-language release of OpenGEM Core, Complete and Experimental, with additional features possibly including a better install and update system, restore points to keep user settings in case of errors, and maybe an improved installation system.
There is something else... People keep asking why GEM is only single-tasking. It's not. There is multi-tasking GEM code available. We're trying to get a working beta of that ready for release now. Perhaps in the next generation OpenGEM will have multi-tasking either in the default install, or as an option for people. I'm feeling relatively confident that we might see multi-tasking in the next OpenGEM Experimental at least. But we need help to get this system working. Programmers are needed. If you're interested contact me at shane@shaneland.co.uk
