Concerning the many comments about the proposed modular design of FP96 -- your thoughts and recommendations are very much appreciated.
Unfortunately, I don't see a way to fully address the expectations of all users.
As stated previously, from my perspective, novice and intermediate users will anticipate a functional desktop with standard features at first boot, which means a general-purpose browser and useful baseline applications should be immediately available. Experienced users may prefer a minimal 'build-your-own' desktop but I think the novice user will simply move on to the next available distro if the initial desktop experience is not favorable.
The default FP96 desktop could be achieved by the traditional all-inclusive Puppy SFS that users may optionally deconstruct and remaster to their satisfaction, but there is great flexibility in a modular system with removable or replaceable (x)drvs. In the latter case, an unwanted browser-drv or applications-drv is easily deleted and subsequently replaced with preferred applications configured in a new personalized (x)drv, sfs, portable application, or by conventional installation. Within seconds the user can convert from a full-featured desktop to one with only essential constituents, and from this base a personalized desktop is easily constructed. Adjusting the init to support additional (x)drvs is fine for experimental or personal use, but FP96 will support and utilize the adrv, bdrv and ydrv nomenclature and preferential loading as currently defined by the Woof-CE init.
To address the sometimes conflicting preferences our users may have for FP96, perhaps the most tenable approach is to retain the current modular design and enhance the main Puppy SFS with additional essential applications which will provide the baseline functionality expected by most Puppy users even if the applications-ydrv is not used. Currently, for the next iso release, I have moved the following apps from the yrdrv to the main SFS: mtpaint, qpdfview, galculator, lxtask Pup-Sysinfo, pupMd5sum. Are there other 'essential' applications for the main SFS ???
Adjusting the base SFS will provide an array of applications similar to the current official s15Pup (and greater than currently available in vanilla dpup of Woof-CE). However, the main SFS of FP96 will not include some legacy applications such as abiword or gnumeric since users often prefer alternate applications (ex: LibreOffice). In this scenario, the default applications-ydrv of FP96 will still provide a relatively comprehensive collection of supplemental applications to augment the main Puppy SFS. Even so, the ydrv is optional and the user can simply remove it (or replace with a customized version). Same for the browser-bdrv.
After six weeks, the development of FP96 is nearing completion. Time and resources are not available to continue this process indefinitely, and dramatically changing the distro infrastructure is not an option at this time. Rockedge began this project to update a retro Puppy with many new enhancements provided by our Woof-CE devs. As such, FP96 is simply an intermediate release which will showcase some of the functionality of the next-generation of Puppy Linux - such as JammyPup.
Currently, our Woof-CE devs are producing a new breed of Puppy containing a few baseline applications (even fewer than the main SFS of FP96), with the assumption that users will build a customized distro by installing preferred applications via the apt package manager. This will be an attractive option for many users, particularly for those who prefer a base distro without the usual complement of applications that some would consider non-essential.
My plan is to provide one additional pre-release iso (radky-7).
