Jim Hall
Hi there! I'm Jim Hall, the founder and project coordinator of the FreeDOS Project.
I started FreeDOS when I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Basically, I wasn't a fan of Windows 3.x, and when I heard that Microsoft would "do away with DOS" with the next version of Windows, I decided I'd rather keep using DOS. So on June 29, 1994, I announced what would become the FreeDOS Project.
I shared the programs I had written to replace parts of DOS, and even improve on the DOS command line. Other developers reached out to me, and contributed their own DOS programs. We also found cool public domain and other open source programs that replaced other parts of DOS. A few months later, we had the FreeDOS Alpha distribution. From there, FreeDOS grew into what you see today.
Conference bio
I also speak at a lot of conferences. If I'm speaking at your next tech conference, feel free to use this bio:
Jim Hall is an open source software developer and advocate. His first contribution to open source was in 1993 with a patch to GNU Emacs. Since then, Jim has authored, contributed to, or maintained dozens of open source projects and programs.
Jim is probably best known for his work on FreeDOS, the open source version of the DOS operating system.
In addition to writing open source software, Jim also writes about open source software for several websites including Opensource.com and Technically We Write.
Jim also often speaks about open source software at conferences including FOSDEM, Kieler, SeaGL, and webinars and podcasts.
Jim is also a featured speaker on IT leadership and technology innovation at conferences like the Government IT Symposium, SINC Midwest, and Premier CIO Forum.
Jim earned his MS in Scientific and Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota, and his BS in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.