Barry's retirement from 'Puppy

[cb88]

personally i think this is a good thing and in not gonna be selfish about it.

my reasoning:
everybody needs a change once in a while

barry does pretty well with building his own distro but it isn't easy to build puppy from bare source at the moment hopefully this turn of events will bring this to reality

the community has proven it has the ability to build puppy and has did a good job on puppy 2.15ce

things i think need to happen:
puppy's files should be hosted in SVN or CVS or git whatever but there should be a public repo if there is to be any unified community effort otherwise we'll get fragmented this way barry can still contribute and even different versions or ideas can be explored via creating branches of the code

puppy should eventually have a t2 profile that will build it from scratch

@barry i haven't always agreed with everything you've done (to be honest mostly just lack of multiuser) but you have put out a pretty decent little disto and i'm glad for that now lots of people can understand how to run Linux that found it hard before that is something to be proud of

anyway that is my 2 cents

@barry one more thing with regards to porting EVE how about you write a code converter from win32 (MFC is it or did you use something else?) to gtk fltk maybe even SDL .... it would be a big help to other projects and you would get the advantage of haveing a range of interface choices gtk for the dynamic link advantage and fltk for speed and SDL for compatibility since SDL runs on anything just about

[Sage]

Blogged my contribution.
Agree it's a mistake. Agree Barry needs a break.
John should probably rule himself IN or OUT, too, especially as he has the experience of both MeanPup and The Forum.

[muggins]

Barry,

I hope there's no truth to the rumour, (that i'm trying to start), that Msoft was so frightened of little puppy, that they made you an offer you couldn't refuse?

[ttuuxxx]

Barry,

I hope there's no truth to the rumour, (that i'm trying to start), that Msoft was so frightened of little puppy, that they made you an offer you couldn't refuse?

No Muggins that me they contacted and I told them not on my life would I ever sell out to the "Dark Side".

[puppyluvr]

Nah, thats why Bill retired. To hand it over to the Master..
Imagine...Barry with Bills resources.......

[nooby]

Thanks to Barry for a lovely distro. It will always have a special place
in my heart. I'm a confused computer user but your Puppy made me
find hope that even me could use linux.

I have no idea what EVE is but if that makes life as funny as Puppy have
made my life funny the latest July 2008 then all the power to you.

Have fun with EVE but send us some Hello now and then.

We will miss you here.

My poor English lack proper words. So just

Best regards and all the best to you.

Fred The Resident Noob.

[nooby]

Heheheh I had no idea what EVE was so I did a google on it.

EVE is freeware, however software and documentation are owned by Barry Kauler and all rights are reserved. EVE is supplied "as is" and no guarantee is given ...
www.goosee.com/

EVE 3.02 by Barry Kauler. The incredible shrinking vector graphics editor, only 67K bytes yet extremely powerful -- has to be seen to be believed. ...
www.softplatz.com/Info/Barry-Kauler.html

It is an editor and not an OS then? I'm a noob ok. And editor for vector what? 3d or what could it be? Sory big derail from thanking Barry.

where is the link to his blog?

http://www.puppylinux.com/news/

http://www.puppylinux.com/blog/

Retirement pre-announcement
From the Puppy project, that is. I have been thinking about this for sometime, it is just a question of when.

I had previously hinted that I would do so early in 2010, however I will probably bring that forward. ...

read more at the link

[BarryK]

On the Other side he has allways said that he dont want to earn money from the Puppy Linux work, becouse he is fearing to loose the Money that he is getting from the Australian State.

That's disgusting! An outright lie.

I do not receive any Government assistance. In Australia the Government program we have is called "New Start", but I am not on it. I am entirely self-funded. I have never ever stated the above.

[BarryK]

Please do not donate money to me. The low income is just one small factor leading to my decision.

This is an opportunity, time for the Puppy-community to take control. My management style has been ad-hoc, but as Puppy has grown so to I think there is now a need for more formality -- project management tools like revision control and bug reporting. A small group can setup and manage that.

I will still be around, but as has been said "just one of the guys", a situation that I am happier with.

[PaulBx1]

Barry, you've done a great thing, bringing up Puppy. Now you need a well-earned rest!

Personally, I think the money side of the equation was always a bit neglected. It is much easier to justify working on something when income results from it. The free software model certainly has some problems with reality.

On the blog someone mentioned selling shrink-wrapped versions of Puppy in computer stores. I think this is a great idea. Does the forum include any marketers who wish to 1) make a little extra cash and 2) send some Barry's way?

Another member mentioned a book. Maybe the forum has some authors who can help Barry get a book to market. I'd buy such a book instantly, as would many forum members.

In the short term I suggest we just take 4.1 and keep it as is, only making bug fixes and coming out with 4.1.1, 4.1.2, etc. That is, keeping Barry's last masterpiece going as long as we can. Wherever people want to take their derivatives is fine, but lets always keep 4.1.x going. No kernel upgrades, no application upgrades, just leave it alone.

Barry, if you are ever in Wyoming, give me a holler through the forum PM. You will be very welcome at my home.

[lurahxp]

Barry,
please dont retire.
You can speed down and come back only for important updates.
Thanks for the hard work !

Yeah, even if you have to slow down a bit, we could afford that. But retiring .. cant imagine ..

i am just newbie in linux
before i decide use puppy. i try many distro. finally i happy with puppy
because
1. just need Low hardware
2. Documented very good
3. Comunity Support
4. Very easy and simple
5. and other reason....
before i know puppy. i hate linux because need High Hardware. need High Knowledge. and so complex
with other tiny distro. nothing make me comfortable.
Now. i use puppy in 20 computer in my Factory where i work
i always suggest to use puppy to other people.

please dont retire.
Thanks for the hard work !
from indonesia,jawatengah

[Lobster]

Puppy has grown so to I think there is now a need for more formality -- project management tools like revision control and bug reporting. A small group can setup and manage that.

I wonder . . .
Puppy is comprised of individuals.
Be interesting to see what emerges.

PSIP is I believe is a project that developed using a workable
'management style' that worked on other successful projects
109CE and 2.15CE for example

How it worked and why it worked.

1. Communication.
The developers were involved with Skype and then Gizmo

2. Enthusiasm
Everyone was keen to get a Puppy VOIP system

3. Recognition of skills
It quickly became apparent that HairyWill was
the best developer. He did the bulk of the work.
We had/have some great testers
and many helpers who focussed on specific
parts. For example Smokey worked on 'look and feel'
We had two sets of icon designs
Tutorials and documentation was/is worked on.
We never set up a structure
The goal determined the very loose structure.

4. Determination.
Work at it till it is usable.
Then tweak . . .

5. Release fast and often

6. Work on the important bugs as they arise.

Revision control and bug reporting
has been set up several times for Puppy
No developer ever bothered with it
to any extent . . .
Most could not be bothered with it.

'Formal' components exist within Puppy
The website
http://puppylinux.org/
Including wiki and manuals and downloads

[darrelljon]

Thanks for creating Puppy Linux Barry, it is much appreciated.

On the blog someone mentioned selling shrink-wrapped versions of Puppy in computer stores. I think this is a great idea. Does the forum include any marketers who wish to 1) make a little extra cash and 2) send some Barry's way?

Another member mentioned a book. Maybe the forum has some authors who can help Barry get a book to market. I'd buy such a book instantly, as would many forum members.

You might be interested in contacting the Public Software Foundation about getting Puppy Linux into libraries.

[gopup]

The following is a proposed transition that would require cooperation from Barry and the Puppy Community. Constructive feedback and alternatives are encouraged at this time:

I. Objective:
Single Development team to create Puppy T2 Profiles that are used to build the foundation operating system for students, Mobile computer user, schools, colleges and Universities. The infrastructure used to support the T2 project code base is used to support the Puppy T2 Profiles that are selected. The results is a unified developer community that operates from a proven infrastructure for a open source project that can be implemented rapidly.

The T2 Profiles selected serve as the ideal foundation for schools, colleges and universities to build their own customized Puppy Distribution for their students and teachers, that is optimized for their own computer resources. This provides them with a tremendous educational experience for their students that results in the ability to support a large number of users in a more cost effective manner. There are inexpensive subscriptions made available that provide the infrastructure required to support their customized additions to the base T2 Puppy builds. The schools select the applications that they require with preconfigured desktops optimized to work with their existing resources. The customized build can readily be applied to the other Puppy profiles, allowing the students and teachers to use the customized desktop on their portable and home computers.

The growth in a unified community that contributes to the ongoing development of Puppy that leverages contributions is the priority. The participation of just a few schools results in hundreds of new contributors that work on their customized puppy, along with new Students and Teachers affiliated with these schools. The schools that offer a customized Puppy have unique requirements, along with strong similarities with other schools. They can benefit greatly from shared experiences, coordinated development and offerings to their students and teachers. The development infrastructure for Puppy serves as the common denominator that facilitates the development of these relationships between these schools. These relationships results in providing a self supporting infrastructure that secure the Open Source Puppy offering well into the future.

II. Development Team

Puppy is mature enough at this stage that interested Computer Science programs at Universities could serve as the Development Team leaders for a 12 to 18 month period. The lead development team could be rotated through 3-5 Computer Science programs that were interested in the developing the Puppy T2 Profiles that are defined and working with the Puppy community on testing and innovating new capabilities. This would provide the students and professors at these programs with challenging experiences to apply the curriculum from the required coursework. These work experiences with numerous users contributing, evaluating and providing constructive criticism from people with diverse skills is the ideal complement to the academic course work. The size of the Puppy Community insures that projects will always be available to satisfy the Development Teams requirements and areas of interest. The college that is selected as the Lead Development team assigns the development projects and provides assistance to the other college programs that participate. After the approximately 12 month period, the lead development team is rotated to another college computer science program that participates. The Puppy Community can prepare the Request for Proposal for these Computer Science programs to participate as the lead development team with the intent of building a base of 3-5 participating programs. With the RFP defined and completed, the Puppy Community can present the proposal to Universities virtually anywhere on the planet. The Community can narrow down the candidates allowing Barry to make the recommendation on the initial 3-5 programs in the Development Team rotation.

With the Cooperation of Barry and the Puppy Community this could be rapidly implemented in a manner that generated revenue to accelerate the development of Puppy. The source code for the base T2 Puppy builds remain open source, this is critical to sustain the contributions of the individual developers that are critical to success of Puppy.

The required details of the operation would be included within proposal (prepared by a small team) for the Computer Science Programs that served as the rotating lead developers. The cooperation from Barry would be required to facilitate the formation of this small team to prepare this proposal and to define his role as this proposal gets drafted. A proposal is drafted for Barry's review, based upon his recommendations another proposal is drafted until it is ready for presentation to the Puppy Community for approval.

[tcm]

Many thanks Barry for your great linux OS. I am now installing Puppy Linux on my customer's (and my own) older hardware.
-Tim

[ARAN]

On the Other side he has allways said that he dont want to earn money from the Puppy Linux work, becouse he is fearing to loose the Money that he is getting from the Australian State.

That's disgusting! An outright lie.

I do not receive any Government assistance.

I can swear that i have read this here on the forum.
However after your clarification it could be that i have missunderstood the text highly becouse the text was not related to you but to a another main developer of puppy linux.

What i dont absolute understand is the fact that you are writing a lot of knoweledge in your developer Blog to help other people ahive to compile puppy linux the way you have allready compiled it.
http://www.puppylinux.com/blog/?viewDetailed=00271

Here are my notes:

# ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --build=i486-t2-linux-gnu --with-external-ffmpeg --disable-dxr3 --disable-glu --disable-gnomevfs --disable-samba --enable-antialiasing --without-xcb --without-sdl --without-imagemagick --with-freetype --with-fontconfig --without-esound --without-jack --with-libflac

had to copy postprocess.h and avcodec.h from src pkg to /usr/include/...

On the other side you dont write and sell a complete Book where you exactly write all the complie options and all the tweaks for compiling puppy linux from scratch.

How many people have the time and the motivation to search piceces of informations like the above all over the net to end with something that not work becouse of missing libs or old versions.

You really should write a book and sell it over the net.
The most of the people love Puppy Linux becouse of the learning factor nothing else. A book fit her needs at best.

Self-Publishing - Write, Publish & Sell Your Book / EBook on the Web
The professional way to write Books / EBooks
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/ly ... sh_lyx.htm

[quasimodal]

Quote from "ARAN":
Just write a eBook with the Title "Puppy Linux from Scratch" where you describe everything what it need to make a Puppy Linux distro.
Sell it on the Webpage for 50.- Australian Dollars !

What a great idea ! Develop a Puppy "Official" Build Guidebook of some sort as a collaborative eBook to benefit Barry and the Puppy Foundation ... I can write pretty well and would be willing to contribute as an author or editor. There are probably of dozens of other people like myself who are less technical than the core Puppy developers and would be willing to help in the way they can.

In the end, I might even be able to figure out how to do a Puppy build myself ...

Great idea !


- Bill Breitmayer

[ttuuxxx]

The following is a proposed transition that would require cooperation from Barry and the Puppy Community. Constructive feedback and alternatives are encouraged at this time:
.

This New user as of yesterday post this proposal?
What a terrible Idea, If it isn't broken, Why destroy it?
Basically University's are great to do a day lecture and build some needed Linux interest, But as Universities track records goes they are quick to Consume/Control and just plain exploit things for there own greedy needs, Puppy Linux is not a science experiment, It a well oiled machine that the Community here has a voice and one Leader, this brings respect. The day that puppy is given over even partly towards "gopup" way of thinking is the day, My website goes down and I'll start my own Linux Distro probably with the help of a few friends that I've met along the way. I have proven that I can accomplish just about anything when it comes to Linux., Thanks to the help of the community, which I am very thankful and grateful. I guess we'll just sit back and see what unfolds in the next coming months.

ttuuxxx

P.s If you want to take over something and destroy it heres a couple of links
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

[ttuuxxx]

Quote from "ARAN":
Just write a eBook with the Title "Puppy Linux from Scratch" where you describe everything what it need to make a Puppy Linux distro.
Sell it on the Webpage for 50.- Australian Dollars !



around 3 years ago I purchased an ebook from eBay entitled "Linux From Scratch" it was around $3.00 electronic pdf transfer, Basically they sent me a 24 hr link to download it. The timer on the 24hr starts from the moment I downloaded it. Silly that I didn't know I could of just downloaded for nothing from LFS site, LOL anyways it worked just fine, I even had it printed and binded at the local Tafe where I was studying Project Management for web development diploma.
ttuuxxx

[Devildog]

Mr. Kauler,

Thank you for Puppy Linux. I am fairly new to the world of Linux, and can truthfully say, Puppy Linux was my first real introduction to Linux.

Although I do not fully understand most of the technical aspects in the development, maintenance and updating of an operating system, I can say, I greatly appreciate your time, efforts, expertise, passion and most of all. . .vision, in providing a truly unique Linux distribution.

Once again, thank you Barry. You can be proud of your accomplishments, and the vibrant community you have inspired.

Very Respectfully,

Devildog
San Angelo, Texas