Hi Jim, I know a lot of works has probably gone into this, but quite frankly I think it looks just like all the other plastic-y websites you find everywhere. I might be a bit weird, but I kind of like old school websites that are simple and render on anything. It is sort of funny to think that we need to be "modern" when we are literally a project that keeps a 40 year old software alive and kicking. It's a bit like gramps trying to rap, which usually sinks every family reunion quicker than the Titanic.
I hope I don't offend anyone, but frankly I think the yardstick should be: can the site be viewed with the browsers that actually come with FreeDOS (Dillo, links). But of course that's just my opinion. And I like steam engines... Cheers, Danilo On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 at 17:00, Jim Hall via Freedos-devel <freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > The last time we made a major update to the FreeDOS website was maybe > ten years or so. Things are definitely feeling a bit dated, such as > certain design elements. And over time, we've added content where it > seemed to "fit" so the usability has degraded since the last update. > > I have been "backburner" planning a website upgrade for the last two > years, and sponsored several rounds of usability tests against > different website designs. And I think I'm finally ready with the new > FreeDOS website: > > https://test.freedos.org/ > > This is a preview to the new website on our "test.freedos.org" > website. I'll move this to the "freedos.org" primary website soon. > > What do you think? > > I think new website is more streamlined and more modern. I've tried to > improve the navigation, and place the most important information right > up front where it's easy to find. For example, the new website has a > very obvious "Download FreeDOS 1.3" button that takes you to the > Downloads page. We know from user surveys that most people use FreeDOS > to 1. play classic DOS games, 2. run their favorite DOS applications, > and 3. create new FreeDOS programs. So now we have "info boxes" on the > front page that let you explore these different ways to use FreeDOS; > they each link to a separate page with more details, information, and > links. For example, the "Games" page has links to different archives > of DOS games, and links to drivers that you might need to support DOS > games on new hardware (like SBEMU) - and the "Developer" page has > links to developer tools and technical information, as well as links > to the source code and the "how to contribute" page. > > The header and footer have the links that we know most people are > looking for right away: read the wiki for more information, links to > the email lists and forums where they can ask questions, and links to > the bug tracker to report a bug. > > I may tweak the website over time, but I think this is a good design > that's ready to go live. But I'm looking for comments - if anything > seems broken or lost (didn't make it to the new website) let me know > so I can fix it or add it back. > > > I haven't moved over everything yet. For example, the "History" page > is quite old and needs updating. Same for the "FreeDOS in the news" > page. So while I've copied over that content to the new website, I > haven't linked to them. I don't plan to link to them until I have more > time to update them. Or maybe that historical info should go into the > wiki. > > I also haven't moved the "Books" pages. These really should be moved > to the wiki, and I plan to do that instead of just migrating the > pages. > > > *Speaking of the wiki: Now that the website is pretty much ready to > go, my next project is to update the wiki. The wiki effectively > "degraded" when SourceForge updated the PHP version on their hosting > website. The wiki content is all there, but the wiki pages are not > styled. I don't know why. I could spend time fixing things on > SourceForge - but I'd been planning to move the wiki to a new hosting > website for a while, anyway. I'll do that next. > > > > Jim > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-devel mailing list > Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
