An interview with Shane M. Coughlan about OpenGEM 5
Hi Shane. Could you introduce yourself to everyone?
Hi there. I'm Shane Coughlan, and I'm the Project Leader for the OpenGEM distributions of the GEM graphical user interface.
Can you tell us why OpenGEM 5 is important?
OpenGEM is a distribution of a 16bit graphical user interface for DOS. OpenGEM 5 is important because it's a really advanced version of the GEM GUI. A lot of work went into making OpenGEM easier to use, while also delivering new technologies that empower the end user. The two most important examples of advances are the way we rethought the visual interface, and the built-in text file viewer introduced by John Elliott in the desktop.
Why should people upgrade from previous versions of OpenGEM?
We have kept everything that is good about OpenGEM, but made it a little more intuitive and nicer to look at. We have also added some new features that make file management and day-to-day activities quicker. OpenGEM 5 is a progressive improvement of the OpenGEM system, and will be really easy for people to transition to.
Is ease-of-use still important in OpenGEM 5?
It is more important than ever. There are many projects to produce software. There are several DOS graphical user interfaces. What makes OpenGEM special is that we are totally focused on the end user. Everything we do is about making life easier for people who use software, rather than aiming for cool features or development cleverness. The result of this is that we have created a really simple but powerful GUI that runs on pretty much any PC ever created. I'm proud of that.
Will there be another version of OpenGEM?
A couple of years ago I remember thinking "there is no future in DOS, and I'll stop developing OpenGEM." I posted my thoughts to the FreeDOS list, and I was flooded with emails asking me to keep developing. I produced OpenGEM 3 and OpenGEM 4, and thousands and thousands of people downloaded the software. OpenGEM 5 is even more popular, and is getting a lot of praise. DOS is not dead, and that means OpenGEM is most certainly not dead.
There will be a new version of OpenGEM. In fact, it looks like there might be two versions of OpenGEM this year. There is some work to be done on OpenGEM to allow printing on inkjet systems, and the current install/update package management system is broken. I want to fix these issues, and I think you might be seeing the results of my work in OpenGEM 6 shortly. There is also work underway on something very interesting: a multi-tasking OpenGEM distribution. It is called OpenGEM/XM, and will perhaps become OpenGEM 7.
Of course, if we are really lucky the GEM Development team will get a lot of progress made on the FreeGEM/XM code. That could mean OpenGEM 6 would be a multi-tasking environment. We will see. Development in Free Software projects always depends on the time people have available.
