[Freedos-devel] Website updates

[Jim H. <jh...@fr...>]

Hi everyone!

I've been in and out for a while, but I'm getting back to FreeDOS. I don't
think I'll have much time to write code, so I'll defer there. Instead, I'm
going to start working on some updates to the website very soon. My plan is
to make the site easier for new users to navigate, and make the content
easier to read. I do not indent to change the web style, although you may
see some very minor tweaks.

So, what's on my to-do list? A few things:

1. Migrating Press releases, News items, and Tech items into the Wiki. This
is also a good opportunity to remove stale content (advice that is no
longer correct or relevant.)

2. Updating the Wiki front page to make it easier to find what you are
looking for.

3. Cleaning up the Software list.

4. Trimming the Links page.

Interested in helping out? I really could use some help in moving content
into the Wiki. If you had an account on the Wiki before, you may need to
contact me to re-activate it for you; accounts were re-set when SourceForge
retired the Wiki service, and we had to run our own. If you don't have a
Wiki account, let me know and I can set one up for you.

I am also looking to standardize and re-categorize the FreeDOS software
list. My goal is to eliminate any non-free software from the FreeDOS
software list. For example: Ndn does not provide source code; does this
belong in FreeDOS? We included these programs long ago because they were
technically "free" but not "Free" - they allowed people to redistribute the
programs, but did not provide source code. At the time, we didn't have
other Free programs to cover the functionality, or the program was likely a
popular one. But times have changed; it's time to clean up the software
list and make sure that FreeDOS is truly Free.

The next version of FreeDOS (when we get there) should include all software
sets, so everything needs to be free, no matter if it is in Base or another
set. This cleanup will be a process, and I will be sure to talk about it
here to discuss, and so others can help identify replacements with free
versions. My priority is to look at the list and identify anything that is
"closed source," then see where that leaves us.

Jim