Exploring Lilliput: Is the Cloud Replacing Tiny Linuxes?

Despite the "Cloud," there are a ton of reasons why small Linux varients are very important.

Regareless of whether an app is running "in the Cloud," there will always be certain things a small device OS MUST do,... 1) Boot up and configure devices and drivers 2) Run diagnostic processes for storage devices, network devices, etc (even off a small USB key drive) 3) Provide applications when no network connectivity is available 4) Run embeded devices with the benefit of a more of a full feature set OS (OK, maybe this is optional) 5) Provide a user interface 6) Provide a development platform (all smart devices must go through an R&D process SOMEWHERE)

Moblin/Maemo/Meego, Chrome OS or Android can't ALWAYS be the only small device solution, else the marketplace will stagnate and huddle around those few solutions. Each one of them have proprietary components that can be a road block to small, independant device developers. Even with expanding memory and processing capabilities, the feature set on a tiny, cheap device may require a smaller, open-licensed and cheaper solution. It comes down to the biggest reason ... CHOICE.

Emily says: "On the other hand, as the practical advantage of the Product distros has waned, those same technological developments in the marketplace have created a new wave of highly compact Tools-type operating systems like Chrome OS and Android, which exist exclusively to provide a nearly-direct connection between the growing horde of applications in the cloud and your very own home computer or netbook or tablet or phone or as-yet-unheard-of future device."

The practical advantage of the Product distros has waned? I don't see it. The so-called "cloud" is not the be-all-end-all it is touted to be. Do we really want dumb-terminals and someone else in charge of our data?

By the way, she doesn't even list TinyCore.

It's funny, but I have the absolutely opposite opinion when looking at the facts she presents.

You can load Tiny Core today, add the Chromium browser (or any other browser you desire) and pretty much have your own Google Chrome-like environment to use your PC to access files and Web-delivered apps in the cloud.

And you don't need to buy a new netbook, use an SSD or in any way do anything but use the hardware you've already got.

Slitaz, Puppy, Tiny Core - they probably represent better (lighter) ways of dedicating a machine to cloud use than do the "big" distros like Ubuntu, Suse and Fedora.

I don't know how the author came to the conclusion she did, but I see things like Puppy and Tiny Core becoming even more popular in the years ahead.

Who is Emily? What's a yare?

"the course of technological progress has reached a point where once again a tiny distro is a great advantage."

What are you disagreeing with?

I think the OP mean "they are" ...

In the original article, she seemed to be saying that Google Chrome OS and Android would thrive while Puppy and others like it wouldn't (and that nobody would need Puppy's built-in applications) ...

... hey, there's another thread on this: http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/30701/

Tiny Core is mentioned, I still don't know who Emily is, and it doesn't say that Puppy etc. are obsolete. But at least I know what a yare is.

I could be reading it wrong ... I have plenty of experience in writing it wrong, so maybe it's rubbing off (or on?)

Emily is an Artificial Intelligence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiX5d3rC6o

Quoting: [...] What's a yare?

Quoting:I think the OP mean "they are" ...

Afraid not, it sounds as if this person is writing with an American* Southern drawl. You know, youallll ... so**

YBT

* a.k.a. The U.S. of A.

** I have no idea what it means. How about "year"?

yare is pirate for grunt. And we all speak grunt.