"I think" the OP's problem is a combining of PUP's evolution and its past.
Since the end of 2019, it appears that PUP's & DOGs are modernizing rapidly. In review of PUP-DOGs from the past, it appears they were comfortable using old versions of Linux software. This may have been due to their 386-486 roots. Like the rest of the hardware manufacturers and Linux industry much has changed since prior to 2010.
We have gone thru a doorway of our past and the door is now closed. ALL major Linux distros with development teams have manpower constraints and have found it impossible to maintain old boxes and new boxes. Even the LInux author, Tovalds, is settled in on this side of the door; namely 64 bit. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING as there are too many reasons to list those benefits. As such the manufacturers have "partnered" with many of the Linux subsystem development groups in working with them to insure adequate behaviors as well as superior performance on 64bit PCs meeting the demands as we move further and further away from 2010. This includes EVERYTHING from video, audio, LANs, machines startup, interface of OSes with hardware, etc.
PUPPY has in the past, it seems, is not just slow in adoption, but had failed to cast its past to the history books. This reluctance is a human emotion problem we all face from time to time. In fact, when you get old, you hang on to things never knowing if you'll need them again. Once in a long while, you do and will go on the hunt for where that one little thing is buried in all the old JUNK we have.
Today, especially in 2021, PUPPY is concentrating on what it must become to have a flexible, stable, efficient operating system which continues to carry a set of useful apps that work via the subsystems mentioned as part of today's world. As such, it seems, Puppy development have taken on the tasks to insure PUPs & DOGs have the same forethought as the Linux industry leaders are exhibiting. Looking at such a small development group I personally have to commend that team and anyone who wants to join in to help that team bring about the kind of mainstream Linux that users easily understand and find useful.
To make this happen in Puppyland, there are people who are "true" corporate style developers as well as many others who know how to write code. Each group has excellent coding skills, yet some exhibit phenomenal subsystem and integration understanding, and others are capable of applicaiton-level task focus.
One of the MOST IMPORTANT development that, I hope, contributers understand is how teams interact to bring about a successful projects...namely tracking all elements of a project's development. Without a "true" tracking of system contributions, changes, and corrections, it becomes a REAL mess of a project...no matter who does it or at what level. This is the primary reasons so many Linuxes of the past have failed...even those with funding.
The developers of PUPPY Linux approached their decisions with that knowledge and over the last 2-3 years, the fruits are bearing out. Puppy can identify, even their smallest changes, thru a REAL development "tracking' system they use ("GIT) to corral their Puppy development..namely the WoofCE Project.
That project is phenomenal as it has taken on the ability to generate distros under the surname "Puppy". What sets them apart is that WoofCE tracks EVERYTHING. While GIT provides the platform to maintain one's project(s), GIT also has the ability to distribute the outcomes of one(s) project.
If you are a developer and want to have and work with a team of those willing to help you, you too must find a way to "track" your project elements and task progress. GIT is one of many platforms that exist to do this. All of those platforms have similar intents. ... TRACKING!
This community is fortunate in that it doesn't have the complexity of a corporate office. YET, it has ALL of the same needs for organization. Oh it doesn't have a profit mission, but it does have a mission of community service and the members exhibit that for this technology at its highest level. This INTERNATIONAL group of PUPPY-DOG forum users are an example of what our world is hopefully striving to become: One where we find commonality to work and contribute together as well as to assist, have fun, and help community members along the way.
I am reasonably new to this forum: yet I am amazed at how membership attempts such, in it interactions and guidance; no matter if its on a theoretical technical level or in technical implementations. Intelligent interactions are what this community is about.
I think we should embrace how well this community is becoming in its maturity. It may be the one thing that will attract more and more membership who participate to carry on the eagerness that this community has.
IMHO, everyone who writes or modifies any code, should have a GIT account or have some other IDE for maintenance and distribution of your outcomes (projects). Anyone who wants to participate with a team could be doing so with the team in a combined manner via GIT. The benefits are too enormous to overlook.
In the 65 years since "real" code development started, the tracking system requirements have been tantamount. If you dont like one tracking system for your development, find another. If you want others to be apart of your working group, get a tracking system, add your project's content and doit.
Puppy Linux and it various DOGs (FATDOG comes to mind) has done this!
This post is a tribute to their intelligent efforts that I see.
