This posts fleshes out the reason I think further exploration is of value. But if you just want to follow the mechanics, skip down to the last line where you’ll find a link.
Thanks for chiming in, Mike. While 'vegging' per above I decided to read the discussion dogcat referred to. As I don't compile --that would require internalizing a language, something I know I'm not good at-- it's a blind spot. Not only don’t I do it, I don’t think about it. Some one has to remind me that compiling not only exists but is vital in both the creation of an operating system and the evolution of operating systems.
I’d make a lousy True Believer. By now when I read or listen to anything touted as ‘The Truth’, I do so as a skeptic simultaneously testing the information given against a life-time of varied experience and exposure to the opinions of those touting a different Truth. What are the limitations and exceptions to ‘This Truth’?
My ‘take-away’ from the discussion dogcat suggested is that just updating glibc would likely result in a substantial inability to compile new applications under the resulting operating system. Well, I don’t compile; and I suspect neither do 99% of Linux Users.
We became the dominant species on this planet NOT because all of us can do one thing well –like cheetas at running-- but because as a species we are ‘generalists’, comprised of individual who are specialists, with the ability through language to co-ordinate our individual efforts. And that’s analogous to where I think Puppy Linux belongs in the spectrum of Linux operating systems. OOTB it is not the best system for security, video production or anything else. OOTB it is a generalist operating system. But though the information made possible by the Forum anyone desiring to do so can make use of the efforts of specialists to obtain the computing system best able to accomplish his or her goals despite the hindrance of a computing environment which would not be up to that task if the use of a different, currently touted Linux was attempted.
Linux operating systems are free. That condition eliminates the need of each to be profitable in order to continue to exist. In a system dominated by monetary interests, profitability is the test for determining the value of something to consumers: the reason for continuing to produce it. But users of free Linux are also consumers.
Solataire has been around for at least 300 years. Many of us have played it as a pleasant way to while-away hours without having to think. Ernõ Rubik invented the Cube in 1974. Many of us have played with it as a pleasant way to think without having to later act with consequences. But an operating system is chosen to accomplish ‘real world’ tasks, even if only to demonstrate one’s existence, communicate with others or play a variety of games. Android now dominates that market. What remains for the rest of Linux operating systems is their use in productive activities.
Why choose Puppy Linux from among a thousand other systems? Who is its ‘market’? How do we increase our ‘market share’ except by being more useful than other Linux operating systems?
The best word-processor, ever, was and still is WordPerfect. It was also once the most popular. It lost market-share to Microsoft's Word because Microsoft knew how to leverage the advantage it had. Loosing market-share is worse for Puppy: those who might have become Puppy's next generation of creators and frequent Forum advisors will find some other operating system to invest their time and energy in, and having done so --like compiling for me-- Puppy will not even be something they think about.
Examination of Forum members –market analysis-- reveals that users of Puppys are rarely those with sparklingly-brand-new, top of the line, computers. They are almost always people trying to get a few more years of useful life out of an old computer. That circumstance should provide Puppy with an advantage: OOTB Puppy is NOT an operating system constantly changing to get the most out of the newest hardware. Someday every computer user will only possess a computer which is no longer sparklingly-brand-new, top of the line.
Add another factor: I still primarily use Bionicpup64. MikeWalsh and BarryK have expressed their continued fondness for Racy. And amethyst has devoted his energies to ‘updating’ Racy and Precise. None of those Puppys are Puppys I now recommend to anyone unless their computer’s limitation compells it. But all reflect a universal human condition: we over-value what we already possess.
[We love our old dog. But the ASPCA has a difficult time finding adopters for the old dogs they shelter. We may give what we can to ‘Save the Children’. But how much would we sacrifice to save our own?]
There’s a psychological experiment which has been conducted in many cultures. The results are always the same. [Sorry, it’s been years since I read about this, so details are hazy. But this is the gist:] IIRC, Twenty people are chosen at random. They line-up to receive a free lottery ticket. The holder of the winning lottery ticket will receive a prize worth $20 in the local currency. Drawing is to take place 5 minutes after the last participant has his/her ticket. Thus, each ticket has a numerical worth, prior to the drawing, of $1. The foregoing is known by all. Financial negotiations are secretly made with each participant to ‘opt-out’ of the lottery. IIRC, those who haven’t yet received a ticket ‘opt-out’ for less than $1.50. Those who now posses, but only moments before didn’t, a lottery ticket only opted out when offered more than $3.00. Just holding on to a ticket for five minutes doubled its subjective value.
[I think the producers of ‘The Price is Right’ knew of the experiment and added some ‘fun embellishments’. Production costs are much cheaper than having to employ actors; and even those costs are picked up by the companies which provide the prizes who, in turn, charge them off as tax-deductable advertising expenses. So enjoy the show. Your taxes are being used so that people can volunteer to make fools of themselves ].
dimkr is right. Puppy must keep pace with Linux’s evolution. Some version of Puppy must offer the potential of making use the best which Linux then offers. But, here, again Puppy has an advantage over other Linuxes. You don’t always have to choose. Each Puppy only requires its own folder. With Puppy you often can keep the ‘tested-and-familiar’ version you have while gradually undertaking whatever learning curve the ‘brand-spanking new’ Puppy may present.
Being able to upgrade glibc would extend that period of choice.
The project, see here: viewtopic.php?p=70584#p70584