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Steven, do you plan to update BL, either to a new version, or find ways to 
support more hardware in versions 2 and 3?  If not, I understand how time 
consuming it has been for you and really appreciate all you have done.

Maybe a Slackware 11 based version?  GTK1?  Maybe even a GTK2 add-on 
for desktops (or laptops with 64MB RAM)?

BL was ideal for our free computers 10 years ago.  Only one or two 
versions of Slackware behind (which made it newer than most of the 
computers).  I learned it on a 486.  Excellent beginner support.
A really active mail list, with advanced users to teach the rest of us. 
They seem to have drifted away over the years.   Maybe to the other small 
linuxes that have cropped up since around 2000 (Deli, DSL, Puppy, Slitaz).
I have recently been trying these four but nothing beats BL overall.

BL still works nicely in the original target computer (486 or early 
pentium - which back in SW7 days was not all that old), but no longer 
supports even 10 year old laptops, if they use cardbus cards or have video 
chips not supported by X11R6 or Xvesa.  Everyone wants to use their older 
laptop with a modern browser and wireless, which sort of rules out 
anything older than around 1997.  (My 100MHz Toshiba works with OPera and 
wireless).

I keep running into software that will not compile with BL (it may need a 
later X).  Are there any plans to update X for BL?

Slitaz seems to have no dialup support, and I could not get DELI to 
install yet.  DSL linux supports framebuffer video and one of my five 
cardbus wireless cards and Puppy supports all five plus the USB 2 card, 
but I far prefer BL for many reasons.  I might install Puppy to another 
partition on my desktop for when BL fails at something.  It is not 
suitable for what I consider older laptops.

The Puppy Xvesa uses 800x600x16 default but the modem dial dialog box goes 
off the screen.  I have laptops with that resolution but they also have 
cardbus controllers (since around 1997- a 133MHz Compaq).  I can live 
without Xorg in BL (use Xfbdev) but I don't have 16-bit PCMCIA cards to 
spare for setting up friends' old laptops.  They already have cardbus 
cards.

Does BL work with built-in laptop wireless?
Will there be any USB wireless support?  I don't have a working card to 
experiment with.

2.4 kernel is supposed to support cardbus.  DSL 2.4.33 kernel worked with 
one of the cardbus wireless cards.  I cannot figure out the wireless 
problem.  I have the latest (2004) pcmcia drivers.  Maybe DSL is using 
some patch?

Sindi Keesan