User Feedback :: How is DSL going to stay alive?

No offence i love dsl i just discovered it a few days ago and i cant wait to burn the dsl to a cd so i can install it on my cp but how do you (the moderators of dsl) expect to keep dsl alive? everone will stop using it if you just keep everything the same which you will have to sooner or later cause in order to add to the os you will be adding more mbs to it and pretty soon it will not be able to stay under 50 mb are you just going to keep the basics under 50mb and then allow add-on packages like windows uses the automatic update for security fixes will you have a 'Game package' or 'Apps package' that are optional?

This is what they told us two years ago.
But then you never know what may be comming around the corner

My guess:
The Linux kernel doesn't need to be upgraded nearly as often as many people actually do it. Personally I haven't seen anything in the kernel since the first 2.4 release that has made my computing any more enjoyable or productive, so the bloat of 2.6 and later can probably wait quite some time (I can see an argument for a commercial server, but that is not DSL).
As far as applications go, maybe more people should think about *why* programs always seem to get fatter as they have new releases. Much of that bloat is simply bigger and "prettier" interface elements rather than necessary improvements. Name just about any fat KDE application, and there is usually a comparable tool using console, curses, fltk.

Several years down the road when all you can fit in 50mb is the kernel and a core selection of tools, broadband connections will be faster and more prevalent, the myDSL system (or its offspring) will be more flexible, and creating your own personalized system from a 50mb base will probably be an extremely simple task.

A few years beyond that, DSL might not have the large user base it has now, but i don't see that as a problem. There will always be something good to work with, whether it is DSL, a fork of DSL, or something entirely different. Considering it's free, open-source, and non-profit i don't see why it would matter anyway....nobody loses out even if everyone stops using it. On the contrary, many of us have already gained knowledge and ideas that can be applied to future projects. We'll just pick up something else...maybe an entirely new operating system....and use what we have learned from DSL to make the future better.

Quote (jus407 @ Dec. 23 2005,13:53)

Kernel, coreutils, etc. development is slowing down - there is only so much that needs to go in there. The assumption of a 50MB core and kernel is completely contrary to evidence, since, in a few years, linux will be largely mature, and coreutils (and other core tools) only add minor optimizations, small features, and bugfixes now. Anyway, as mikshaw said, app sizes are greatly reduced by using FLTK and (pd|n)curses, and other no-frills UIs, instead of UIs which make use of virtually contructed 10-level inheritance (GTK+) to save development time.

There are other ways around these problems such as specially compiled kernels, more myDSL extensions or even mini credit-card *DVDs* if thight become too hard. My guess, however, is that even in its current architecture DSL has a lot of staying power!

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