Although I hope this was rhetorical, but if not I'd say the answer is definitely "no". There are a couple of distros that bridge between DSL and the big ones, but even those are bulking up. As far as I know there is no longer anything as small as DSL while providing equivalent functionality.
The hardware that is currently 10-15 years old is still going to be in use for a while, although no doubt in decreasing numbers. However, as the fat distros become fatter, they will leave behind more and more systems that are currently 5 years old (for example). For now these systems will happily run ubuntu, even if a little eye candy must be sacrificed, but those same systems will not continue to work well with future versions. So it's my belief that there will continue to be an increase, at least for the next few years, in demand for a very light distro to run the machines that are left behind by the large ones.
It is reasonable to assume that eventually the pentium and earlier computers will no longer run at all, and it would be silly to keep support for something that no longer exists. It is unreasonable, in my opinion, to artificially end the lifes of these machines by leaving them behind. The machines are still around, and they need software.I can only add my experience.
In my refurbing, I'm seeing very few P1 and P2's anymore. E-Waste is becoming big business so I'm having a difficult time even getting older machines. Some of my best resources now have deals with E-Waste companies. Amazingly, many are starting to get rid of their p3 machines to buy newer. I still see some P2's. With M$ advertising the EOL of Win98 and WinME, that's scared many into buying machines as opposed to giving Linux a try. I rack my brain on a daily basis to try and figure out how to introduce Linux into my community.
Robert, I know that person did not give you any credit but anyone who comes to this forum from that article will soon find out who is steering the boat. Nothing against John because DSL was his brainchild and he should be proud.
Robert, you are admired and beloved by a large community here. Don't forget that.
ChrisRobert, we all honor you highly.
DSL is the only current distro for old machines; without it, the only choice would be a really old version of some other distro, like Debian 1.0 or Slack 3, that was made in the age of those computers.
Some people also use DSL because of it's speed on newer computers too; or the fact it fits on a 64mb usb stick.
In contrary to clivesay, I still see only P1's thrown away, the businesses keep their P2's and 3's in their back closets.
For the review, the guy didn't get much right. Don't let that push you down!It can be argued that the most important skill one needs to live with some level of awareness in this media-entangled world is the ability to take all this media output with a grain of salt.
By which I mean: it's not worth getting too hung up by these articles. By all means consider what they say, but don't give them an importance they don't really possess.
Clivesay:
Quote
their p3 machines to buy newer.
Yeah, p3's are now "junk". I had a P3 800Mhz with 1GB ram for a while at work a few years back. DSL rocked on it of course.My frustration occasionally surfaces given all my efforts for the DSL project. Like it or not, 4.0 and 4.1 is a major upgrade in capability.
I was taken aback not so much by the article, but by the initial post in this thread suggesting that the article raises good points.
I am facing a huge dilemma concerning my efforts in going forward with DSL. It is not of a technical nature. I had certain goals that I wanted to achieve within the given 50MB framework. To that end, I have completed them. I am satisified.Next Page...
original here.