608 words [ 6 Wallpaper ] - Last update: 2021-10-06 Page created: 2004-04-03 [SB]
Project to document Operating Systems
This website of the OSDP is aimed at an independent information offer for information about as many operating systems and its developers as possible. All available information sources are included to arrange all relevant data. High value has an objective description with proven historical time informations and facts as far as possible. The time spend for the information research, test installations and design of the website is high. The Operating System Documentation Project therefore reached the Release v1.0 only after almost 2-years in February 2002. The domain www.operating-system.org was already registered in November 2000. The next milestone with Release v2.0 and many added informations followed in December 2002, Release v3.0 less than one year later in September 2003. More than 184,000 Visitors were on this website in 2004.
For the information research since Release 1.0 thousands of HTML pages and hundreds of PDF files (White paper, studies etc.) were evaluated, supplemented by informations from print media. As available operating systems where installed on a test computer and screenshots were made for to the documentation. By the feedback of the visitors this project got an plus at quality. Knowledge of insiders to different operating systems like RISC OS, Irix and AmigaOS were helpfull.
The navigation and page structure of this website were toward a flat hierarchy optimized to provide a fast and easy information access. As many as possible corrections and additions where made from time to time, so the development of this information website is not completed yet for a long time. This website was translated by Chaps (alias name) of France to french in the period from November 2003 until May 2004. The communication for this work task happens with less than 50 email. With that the next step was performed to make this information offer a larger target audience available. With the translation the limits of the in most parts manually managed website were reached. With doubling the previous page number as well as more than 750 linked pictures a suitable content management system had to be evaluated. After the check of available solutions the decision for the development of a own CMS with Apache webserver, PHP and mySQL was made. With the start of planning in March 2004 and the realization up to the end of May a 100% suitable solution was created with high transparency and extendibility. Being able to create all pages about the HTML template and contents from mySQL like text, pictures, web links and version tables at press of one button makes the work much easier. The HTML code was further optimized and improved by CSS formatting.
The Release 3.5 of 15-8-2005 of this website continues the completion of this long termed information archive. Almost 7,500 new words and 64 screenshots were added. The translation of this website into English is prepared. A forum for the first time was also established for members and visitors of this project.
For the Release 3.6 of 14-8-2006 the name OSDP was defined for this website. OSDP stands for Operating System Documentation Project, the main task of this project. The sitemap was refined appropriately and an overview was established. The translation into English is done and the German pages were revised. An eBook in PDF format of this website for download is also available now.
For the Release 3.7 in the year 2008 it is planned to increase the text size of the overall informations to more than 600,000 text characters, this is equal to about 400 full DIN A4 sides. Another goal is to reach the total number of 1,000 screenshots and beyond.
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| CMS - initial page with version information | CMS - setup settings and changelog | CMS - edit of entries and replacement of text | CMS - edit mode of a existing page with quick change of the language |
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| CMS - project informations and release of all pages of one language for upload; image processing for new Bildverarbeitung screenshots on the website | CMS - view with phpMyAdmin of the mySQL database |