- those who plugged boards to make a computer and its programs run (-1968) who had a disdain for assembler programmers
- those who wrote assembly language programs who had a disdain for higher level programmers
- those who programmed to create text applications had a disdain for object oriented programmers who created screened applications
- those who used text screens to control computers who had a disdain for "icons on screen" users
- those who use "click the static icons on screens" who today, have disdain for "pad"/smartphone approaches
- those who ...
In the Puppy community, I am witnessing an awareness that we MAY NOT BE "THOSE who ...." as we too, may be evolving more rapidly than some expected.
Here's why
- Puppy is a RAM based OS. Always has been its obscurely stated objective, both in development and support.
- System RAM has grown from 256MB (in 2001) to 8GB on phones, pads, and PCs. This year and next we will see a 2-4X increase in this.
- Active Video is becoming commonplace on everything
- The doubling of processor power is continuing to march forward and vendor packaging
- The world is already developed methods to "talk" to a system for development on devices
- The world is already developed methods to "talk" to a system for user use on devices
- The world is already developed methods to have the system use on-screen (touch) finger gestures to cause actions to occur on devices
- The world is already developed methods to determine what to do based upon your gestures (older people has never used Xbox, PS3, or other games)
This technology has changed developers mindsets in the kinds and robustness they can address into an application because of technology advancement into the hands of the people. Developers have responded with useful application which continue to get more and more robust
We are on the dawning of a new level of how we look at presentation to any user. As well as how useful we make things for user of distros from this community.
Last year, it has become apparent that "pads" outsold laptops 2 to 1. The Last 2 years is the first years of a decline in desktops compare to laptops.
For Puppy, though, 2011 shows great strides in addressing technology that was missing. Puppy advance 32bit with PAE. It added methods to boot Puppy on the LAN with the booting PC needing NO CD/HDD drives to run Puppy (Netbooting). It sprang immediately after netbooting into running a cluster (several PC acting together as one) Puppy image. Then, to booting the cluster using netbooting technology (this should have been any Puppy developer's dream as it promises to spit_out a distro in minutes instead of hours).
In the third quarter of last year, 2011, was the first time in Puppy's history when a Puppy was developed that "matched" the services users get from any Microsoft or Apple "out-of-the-box". This was Lighthouse64. This is a first, OOTB, that will work with game devices, media devices, entertainment device, and PCs on the LAN. We have had multi-device working with each other over the LAN on all modern PCs this century.
But Puppy, was like a child who hadn't grown-up until Lighthouse provided an OOTB solution for our community. (BTW, it saddened me to see that its author has been besieged with a debilitating illness since his contribution.)
And, in the fourth quarter, a 32bit Puppy was enabled with the feature that when added, allow Puppy to provide similar LAN attachment services seen in Microsoft and Apple. I am expecting some of our distro development community will be also recognizing this as they advance 32nit Puppy distros in 2012.
In our community, we're reaching a cross-road in 2012. The discussion of distro size is now irrelevant! I repeat; the discussion of distro size does NOT have the same meaning it had in 2005? I repeat; technology has presented all of us with features which can accommodate a "new design point".
The community has had a tradition of focusing on distro size. There have been many reasons for this given over the years. Without listing each and every one of these, we must understand that our personal feelings must be aligned with where technology is going. And, some in the community are focused on 32bit/64bit/Intel/AMD/Rasberry/etc. My background tells me that these are ill-focused discussions as the industry vendors will do this independent of our "views" and our focus. The old saying of "can't see the forest for the trees" only means that if we adjust our view ever so slightly, we will see the trees and the forest. This is where we are today. In need to adjust so that we're sustainable.
Thus, in reality, its the UI that is reining supreme as users don't care about such RAM/CPU discussions anymore. Its about the UI, services, and performance. NOT CPU/RAM!
So, if we acknowledge that PCs as we old-folks know it is showing signs of decline (it's really not the PC as it is the UI on PCs versus "smartphone's-pad's UI") then the Puppy community needs to do what is natural in nature....ADAPT! or become extinct.
I think most, who read this, understand what is being shared here. This leads to ask the following:
- Which way are we going to go?
- How much influence does any of us have?
- What do any of the younger (in mind) of us feel would be attractive to gathering a larger community of user of all ages?
- And, if we intend to stay with our monolithic model, will we ever advance to allow a single/multiple user(s) to access the desktop from the LAN/WAN with Puppy having such services as XRDP? (This, I believe to be the last of the LAN applications PUPPY is missing.)
Will we???