Anyone having issues with the forum?

[dgdimick]

I'm going to assume you've been in the Linux game almost as long as I have been, not many people know RMS.

I actually have not, although the history of computing have always been an area of fascination for me.  I think because I feel like I sort of "missed the boat."  I was writing BASIC on TRS-80 at quite a young age (hence the moniker) but then I "grew up" and did all the things I was "supposed to do" including running a (non-tech related) business for some 20 years.  Although financially successful, I was still very unhappy.  At some point several years ago, I did some soul-searching resulting in making a conscious decision to get back to my natural interest in tech, and have been making up for lost time ever since.

But I agree with you.  I see it exactly as I imagine it was for you early Linux guys.  These people coming here complaining about specs, etc. are totally missing the point, IMO.  There is so much upside potential here, that it is staggering.  It feels really good to be a part of it now "this time around!" 

I've been using Linux since .98rc32 or maybe earlier, it's been too long to remember that far back. I do remember when they finally rolled out the very first GUI and what fun that was. Nothing like having Linux randomly rebooting like it was Windows on you, or the 73rd of a 75 disk install having a bad disk.

You're correct that Pine64 is just like the "good old days", however, at least we have a proven code base as an example, as in the X86 applications being mature. It's just a matter of people doing the ports, I feel people getting involved are better prepared to do the ports, most of them have spent a lot of time using Linux, so there shouldn't be as steep of a learning curve. GCC is very mature, which we didn't have back then as well. Seemed like there was some unwritten rule that no two systems could ever be the same, so compiling code was painful at times.

I really believe that the PinePhone is going to take off in the next year or so, Google and Apple have set the ground work for any other Phone OS that isn't tied into them to become successful.