Hi wanderer
As long as BK did offers himself new Puppy's was Puppy the leader of the small or tiny Linux derivates at DW. It is the representative of that subset of Operations Systems. Why?
Old PCs did need a push to begin a new phase of her life: Obsolete PC's used by people having no other access to PC or internet.
In the most modern countries a lot of people don't have some PC.
More, in those countries a lot of people don't have internet, can't accede to Google the evil or Wikipedia the holy.
it exceeds our imagination to go two or three decades back into the time without PC and internet. Some of the forum user did never live so...
the quantity of obsolete PC waiting for optimal use in the word is colossal!
and Puppy is the leader under the OS being able to give those hardware a new chance although the conditions are today more worse as a decade or more ago: a lot of pages a the one side and a lot of old hardware (printers, scanner, video cam's etc.) at the other side, are excluded to be used online because "they run" on an old OS.
new puppy's stay of course at disposition also for new hardware (but those hardware come usually with a own complete environment free or for cheap and are not dependent from Puppy). new puppy's stay at disposition and are important for old and obsolete hardware giving them speed and modern technology else if no original drivers and system reconstitution's CD are available any more and update / upgrade rights are not present.
those users having placed Puppy at rang 8 or 9 in the past did find in the last main activity time from BK a system being loadable about on each old PC with more than probably 128 MB (I will reinstall my oldest bookPC with i486
used with the Puppy's release 1.xx and before to test divers later Puppy's but I must find time because that activity is pure time killer. It did have probably only 64 MB
to see what is the matter) because they are billions of those old hardware in
poor countries
(above I did write on rich countries
) in the world = in Africa, in South America, in India, in Far East, in Oceania! They need OS's for old hardware, they need stuff for complex writing (no problem using a good browser), they need network, they would need urgently Skype because of troubles on classic phones, etc.
how important is that:
enormous important. I have a Braille reading panel at home. This was a terrible expensive equipment at his time! But it need old hardware: no USB connection, only RS232 in pure connection (no transmitter USB/RS232 possible! a Braille reading panel is one of the most complex home equipment as the users have wide needs as they are blind: the panel speaks to the blind user as he can't read some instructions on it...). That equipment can transform totally the life of the user having it in poor countries... he can read google and wikipedia with it. he can study, can be informed, can have buddies far on the world (I also have a Braille typewriter and an very old totaly manual Braille punching board: A Braille panel with electro-mechanized points giving the relief of Braille writing is totally different)!
It is only one example how a modern OS can be important because you can continue to use the in this case very important obsolete RS232 and modern browsers because you can use old PC's. The industrial production from 1,5 .. 3 decades for special equipments like that Braille long panel / sometimes also named Braille monitor, wait in the world because nobody more can really use the old PC and Special equipment hardwares in a the environment of modern internet...
excepted with Puppy (wanderer, I don't know the distros you did name, I know only 4 little linux: Puppy, SliTaz, Slax and the microbe BASlin. But I am about certain that only Puppy have realistic chances to support such a complex equipment eventually in an extreme complex environment where geographic position, sound channels, video with tons of dependencies have to communicate with each other. We did follow in that forum 2 great projects with Puppy used in legal schools on more than 100 PC's. It is difficult enough. But a pupil can come and say: «Dear teatcher, here is my Braille panel to connect!»)
but the distro builder used by Puppy developers actually blows Puppy so extreme that a lot of PC hardware become unusuable with them because you have no access to old additional memory bars etc,
if someone publish a Puppy for a certain Linux, for ex. actual Debian testing (*1,
nobody more will remake it again after him: The experience demonstrate that he eliminates the chance to see appear such an other release of that stuff with optimal parameters...
it was the starting point of that thread!
(*1 it was some kind of
one-bone with, the first ISO,
324 MB!