Message-ID: <418550C1.1060203@comcast.net>
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:53:21 -0800
From: Z Smith <plinius@comcast.net>
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To: Diego Calleja <diegocg@teleline.es>
CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: code bloat [was Re: Semaphore assembly-code bug]
References: <417550FB.8020404@drdos.com.suse.lists.linux.kernel>	<200410310000.38019.vda@port.imtp.ilyichevsk.odessa.ua>	<1099170891.1424.1.camel@krustophenia.net>	<200410310111.07086.vda@port.imtp.ilyichevsk.odessa.ua>	<1099175138.1424.18.camel@krustophenia.net> <20041031150637.6311a2ec.diegocg@teleline.es>
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Diego Calleja wrote:

> I don't think it's so bad (ie: it could be _worse_)

But not everyone can tolerate today's level of bloat.

Imagine a small charity in a rural town in Bolivia or
Colorado. They have no budget for computers and no one
is offering donations. A local person put Linux on their 200 MHz
system after Windows crashed and the Windows CD couldn't
be found, but he can't put KDE or Gnome on it as well because
that would bring it to a crawl. The only way to make the
computer usable is to install an old distribution of Linux
from 1998 which has Netscape 4 but no office app. Eventually
they will give up on the computer and just throw it out,
because they can't wait forever for programmers to write
non-bloated software to make good use of their system.
The machine ends up at a landfill where it leeches chemicals
into the local water supply.

Zack
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