Post by TheScarletPimpernel on Aug 6, 2023 6:34:51 GMT
Appreciation and accolades for Bodhi.
Linux distros are consumed world wide. There are large swaths of 2nd and 3rd world countries that are using 1st world hardware discards for primary and secondary education, in businesses, and for personal use. It is on these machines that Linux distros for low spec machines thrive. What might surprise some is how little of 1st world computing standards are implemented is 2nd and 3rd world countries where most devices are communal in nature. Web browsing is not the focus, education delivery via text browsers, terminal based e-mail access, text processors, and basic web sites for commerce are dominate in many areas of the world.
The numbers might surprise you. The really interesting thing to me is that the developers of the distros generally have no idea how pervasive their distros may actually be. For example a school might download a distro, then add educational software and only then is it disseminated to each device. So the developers see one download but it may end up on thousands of devices.
Even in the first world a lot of us use old machines for browsing, only we do it the low spec way. We use ad blockers that are not browser based so the ads never enter our browser. We use apps to download and pre-buffer digital content. We keep an eye on memory and learn to reflexively close apps that are not being used. Some screen scrap and interact with websites in a non-gui fashion.
For example I can guarantee you, as of 03/31/2023 there were several airlines in South America that still use Commodore 64s and transfer their passenger list to 5 ¼ floppy disks that are then mailed to US CBP, where US CBP personnel open the envelope, read the disk and manually re-enter the data where it is put into MQ format and then client connects via MQI to MQ to enter the Passenger and TASPD system for screening. I mention this just to call attention to how much old hardware is out there.
My point is, as 1st worlders we naturally tend to view the world in a very ethnocentric way and are generally oblivious to the reality that the first world constitutes only about 15% of the global population. The rest of the world recycle our technological discards and there you find a huge pool of low spec devices just waiting to be put back into service utilizing wonderful distros like Bodhi.
I wonder if the selfless developers of Bodhi realize how many lives they touch and how valuable 32 bit and 64 bit distros are to so many?
I am peripherally involved in several agrarian pursuits assisting those living at a subsistence level via knowledge transfer. By way of example a “farmer” may have labored for a year or two to save enough to buy a pasture animal or two. The high quality protein in that animal may mean the difference in brain development of his children between a child with an effective IQ of 60 and an IQ of 100. So if that animal gets sick or sustains injury the potential loss can drastically impact several lives in an irreversible manner. But by using repurposed old hardware, breathed alive by Linux, that farmer is able to reach out across the globe to people with the expertise needed to diagnose the issue and offer possible remedies in a way that may indeed positively impact life in a lasting manner. It is distros like Bodhi that enable the communication.
I just wanted the Bodhi developers to understand their import to so many unknown faces. The work you do is very important. I can assure you your efforts have positively impacted so many in ways it is hard for 1st worlders to understand. On behalf of those silent voices I have served I thank each of you.
Finis.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Linux distros are consumed world wide. There are large swaths of 2nd and 3rd world countries that are using 1st world hardware discards for primary and secondary education, in businesses, and for personal use. It is on these machines that Linux distros for low spec machines thrive. What might surprise some is how little of 1st world computing standards are implemented is 2nd and 3rd world countries where most devices are communal in nature. Web browsing is not the focus, education delivery via text browsers, terminal based e-mail access, text processors, and basic web sites for commerce are dominate in many areas of the world.
The numbers might surprise you. The really interesting thing to me is that the developers of the distros generally have no idea how pervasive their distros may actually be. For example a school might download a distro, then add educational software and only then is it disseminated to each device. So the developers see one download but it may end up on thousands of devices.
Even in the first world a lot of us use old machines for browsing, only we do it the low spec way. We use ad blockers that are not browser based so the ads never enter our browser. We use apps to download and pre-buffer digital content. We keep an eye on memory and learn to reflexively close apps that are not being used. Some screen scrap and interact with websites in a non-gui fashion.
For example I can guarantee you, as of 03/31/2023 there were several airlines in South America that still use Commodore 64s and transfer their passenger list to 5 ¼ floppy disks that are then mailed to US CBP, where US CBP personnel open the envelope, read the disk and manually re-enter the data where it is put into MQ format and then client connects via MQI to MQ to enter the Passenger and TASPD system for screening. I mention this just to call attention to how much old hardware is out there.
My point is, as 1st worlders we naturally tend to view the world in a very ethnocentric way and are generally oblivious to the reality that the first world constitutes only about 15% of the global population. The rest of the world recycle our technological discards and there you find a huge pool of low spec devices just waiting to be put back into service utilizing wonderful distros like Bodhi.
I wonder if the selfless developers of Bodhi realize how many lives they touch and how valuable 32 bit and 64 bit distros are to so many?
I am peripherally involved in several agrarian pursuits assisting those living at a subsistence level via knowledge transfer. By way of example a “farmer” may have labored for a year or two to save enough to buy a pasture animal or two. The high quality protein in that animal may mean the difference in brain development of his children between a child with an effective IQ of 60 and an IQ of 100. So if that animal gets sick or sustains injury the potential loss can drastically impact several lives in an irreversible manner. But by using repurposed old hardware, breathed alive by Linux, that farmer is able to reach out across the globe to people with the expertise needed to diagnose the issue and offer possible remedies in a way that may indeed positively impact life in a lasting manner. It is distros like Bodhi that enable the communication.
I just wanted the Bodhi developers to understand their import to so many unknown faces. The work you do is very important. I can assure you your efforts have positively impacted so many in ways it is hard for 1st worlders to understand. On behalf of those silent voices I have served I thank each of you.
Finis.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
