Quite frankly, I would throw them all on the scrap heap. As Jim said,
none of them has any number of apps worth noting and there is a reason
why no GUI other than Windows 3.11 ever took off under Dos. I know
that from painful experience of wasting two years on an attempt to
create one in the early 90s. It's just not what Dos is about, I think.
Unless someone puts together a serious attempt (perhaps PCGeOS
qualifies) I wouldn't include any GUI. Frankly, if you are after a
freeware GUI OS, Linux or ReactOS are better options.
On Wed, 15 Feb 2023 at 23:43, <jer...@shidel.net> wrote:
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> > On Feb 15, 2023, at 5:05 PM, Jim Hall <jh...@freedos.org> wrote:
> >
> > As I mentioned in my other email, I don't think we need to have
> > Graphical Desktops included in FreeDOS. I propose that we remove
> > Graphical Desktops from the next FreeDOS, starting with the next
> > FreeDOS Test release.
> >
> > Graphical Desktops were a neat experiment, long ago. We used to have a
> > few desktops in FreeDOS, including Desktop2 (which was really just a
> > graphical menu and file launcher). Today, we have three desktops in
> > the FreeDOS distribution, under the "Graphical Desktops" group:
> >
> > 1. OpenGEM
> >
> > This is a very nice graphical desktop that is basically the old GEM
> > desktop ("Graphics Environment Manager"). If you used DR-DOS, you may
> > have seen GEM. It works well and is solid. But no one writes apps for
> > OpenGEM - and without apps, it doesn't really add much value. The
> > packages are broken (wrong paths) but that is fixable.
> >
> > I propose we remove OpenGEM from the distribution anyway.
> >
> > 2. oZone GUI
> >
> > This is a nice-looking GUI, but it has some noticeable bugs. Even the
> > included Minesweeper game doesn't count properly (see 3:40 in
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw-Fx5k7Smg)
> >
> > I don't foresee anyone fixing these bugs. And like OpenGEM, it
> > includes a few built-in apps, but no one is writing new apps for it.
> > Without apps, it doesn't do much more than a graphical menu program.
> >
> > I propose we remove oZone GUI from the FreeDOS distribution.
> >
> > 3. SEAL
> >
> > This is another nice-looking GUI, and if I recall correctly, a version
> > of SEAL became Qube OS. This has a few built-in apps, but no one is
> > making new apps for it. And without apps, it doesn't do much more than
> > a graphical file launcher.
> >
> > I propose we remove SEAL from the FreeDOS distribution.
> >
> > Jim
>
> I personally do not use any GUI under FreeDOS.
>
> But, I’m not sure that we should remove all GUIs from the release. At least
> maybe, keep the best one the Bonus CD.
>
> It seems like every couple weeks, someone fairly new to FreeDOS wants to
> create a GUI. I feel that some of those prospective developers really just
> want something similar to Windows 3.x or 9x to run windows software. Others
> are most likely coming from a "modern” desktop OS and think FreeDOS needs a
> GUI. They may be wrong or right. I try not to judge. But instead of just
> having them wonder down their own path to a half finished GUI, it would be
> more productive to point them at one of the existing ones. Giving them a
> place to contribute.
>
> As Jim said, oZone GUI and SEAL have had unfixed bugs for a long time. They
> also have very little software. They should probably be removed.
>
> At present, OpenGEM is probably the most popular and stable. But, it may not
> be the answer either. If I recall correctly, the last release was the final
> version and for all purposes development has ceased.
>
> There is at lease one very popular desktop GUI still under development. That
> would be PC-GEOS. It was open sourced some time back and a small team has
> been working on removing any proprietary code.
>
> Perhaps we should keep OpenGEM around for a while. Then maybe at some point,
> when the team working on PC-GEOS feels comfortable with a general public
> release, we could switch over to including it. We could could also suggest to
> those who want to create a GUI, the check out contributing to the PC-GEOS
> project.
>
> Jerome
>
>
>
>
>
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