sickgut wrote:if an affordable x86 tablet with say a 8 - 10" screen is released then you could pretty much run normal puppy on it, maybe with whatever needs to be installed to use the touchscreen.
I am actualy old enough to have used an old 'portable' Mac SE30 with it's built-in 9 inch b/w screen as my personal machine - I still have the carrying bag, while my IIsi business machine had a huge 12" monitor with 8-bit color. Those
were the times, no need to go back there!
If we talk about the future for puppylinux, I really don't see the point in having a tablet, with a tiny 8-9" screen, as your
only computer, unless the following criteria is met: you're young, you have perfect eyesight, you only use it for facebook, twitter or other social media, to do a quick lookup with a browser and to maintain your addressbook; i.e. manage your social life - if a virtual life is a life at all, that is... (yeah, yeah, I'm probably just an old fart) All of those things you can also do with a smartphone, and then you can take pics too.
I can see why people only having a big, static desktop PC want to have a tiny. portable extra machine for mobility. At the same time, it would be very interesting to know, at what point the user of a tablet, or similar tiny gadget, would want to use a desktop PC?
Unfortunately, I think that only the existing puppy users/fans will care if any of these gadgets run puppylinux. I have a feeling that the puppy community is too small to develop fancy applications/apps fast enough for anyone to bother, and the majority of tablet users will probably not want something else than a mainstream OS running on their tablet.
I have observed the trends over the last years, where laptops and tablets/pads, smartphones and cameras kind of overlap each other, and I guess we will continue to see some very creative development within those segments, that will erase the borders between them even faster. But if we look at a similar development in cameras, you still have the pro photographers dragging around those massive SLRs with a 2 foot tele lens, despite all the new tiny mega-zoom cameras popping up every hour, bristling with functions you'll never use.
There will still be a need for tools for all segments, and as long as you need to use a PC as a tool for daily work or research, I think there will be desktop machines in some form around, probably with some fancy 3-D screen, and other not-yet-thought-of gizmos attached, and also some ordinary laptops. They will all be perfect for running puppylinux - as we know it today - as well.
The present battery technology is the major brake in the development of machine technology. Any new, smart battery technology will turn the whole business upside down in seconds, and make this discussion obsolete immediately!
If I knew how the personal PCgadget market would evolve, I'd be filthy rich, but I can see the possible need to develop a puppy based on - or integrating with - any language running on all tiny phones/machines. I think they will continue developing separately - and much faster - than the languages and systems used in any major OS. That will probably also demand that puppylinux move into a new software developer position, rather than mainly adapting/shrinking existing software, as is done today. That may limit the number of puppys offered to that market segment, and the competition will be tough. There are a lot of brilliant kids out there, already working on the next generation gadgets.
But then again, I know that all speculations in future trends in this field over the years, have proven to be just that; speculations!
I just realized that my little 2¢ turned into a novel, sorry 'bout that!
tallboy