Does Lubuntu do anything that Puppy can't?

[olddog]

It's all in the titles.

After using Xenialpup64 on a number of computers for several months I have to say that to know it is to love it. It's presumptuous of course to suggest that you know anyone or anything entirely, but what I know of Puppy I am very happy with.

I have just bought a Thinkpad T61 with Middleton BIOS, T9500, and 4GB of RAM, and what I think is the latest Lubuntu, which I don't like at all (so far).

My instinct is to get rid of it and install Puppy, but before I do, is there any reason to retain it, at least for a while? Does it have some killer feature that Puppy lacks?

At the moment, all I can see is another hefty learning curve, and before I commit to that I would like to know if there is a benefit.

Any thoughts?

And BTW, this thing boots VERY slowly. I have a lesser T61 running Puppy, and it boots in no time. Is that Middleton or Lubuntu? I think the laptop is fine.

Cheers

[bigpup]

Well, Lubuntu will need to use more ram.
Will boot slower, bigger programs in size to load.
Look and work differently.

The only thing that Lubuntu may provide is the ability to run some program that will not run in Puppy.
But I do not know what that would be.

I have found just about any program made for Linux can run in Puppy Linux.
But most of them do nothing that a program already in Puppy or coded as a Puppy program can already do.

Booted into Xenialpup64 7.9.8.
I recently tried a Linux program that will do a install of a operating system to a USB flash drive.
Took 8 sec. to startup.
It was flashy, fancy looking, but got to a point in the install where it gave an error about needing some support program that was not in Xenialpup.
What it wanted I could have installed, but Xenialpup already had a USB installer program.
Starts in about 1 sec.
Does the job. No problems.

[peebee]

Most recent Lubuntu has changed from using LXDE to using LXQt which is similar but also less well developed.....and relies on Qt which is pretty big.....

Many Pups do not come with Qt (some do) so Lubuntu will be able to run Qt apps that some Puppies can't.

Similarly for GTK3 apps.....

Similarly for Python apps - Python support in Puppy is limited and so Lubuntu will run such apps with less need for additional dependencies.

Qt and GTK3 and full Python (and other things like Bluetooth) can be added to Puppy but are not as well supported as the base system and the apps tested to be compatible that it contains OOTB.

So the short answer to your question is "yes" but only you can decide if you really need the aspects of Lubuntu that any particular variety of Puppy doesn't have. In most cases this would probably be some obscure or specialist app which does not have a Puppy alternative.

[olddog]

Thank you, both, for your replies.

My requirements are very mainstream and I have to say that I haven't yet found anything that I need or want to do that Puppy can't supply.

But of course, I am on the Puppy planet and don't know whether on another world there are things undreamt of in my philosophy.

You have reassured me, and it seems that Lubuntu is for the boot, if I can mix a metaphor. The only thing I have come across that boots more slowly is Windows 10.

[peterw]

The advantage of Puppy is that you can do a frugal install. So if you have a regular Linux install then in its partition create a file called Puppy and put the main iso contents in it. Running grub4dos will give you a boot loader. You can run Puppy for most of your work but if there is something extra you need that is not in Puppy then use the regular Linux Distro such as Lubuntu.

And of course you can have as many frugal installs of the various Puppies and Fatdogs as you want.

[Mike Walsh]

@ olddog:-

I started with Ubuntu in 2014, at EOL for XP. 'Twas great (for about 6 months), then Canonical decided quite arbitrarily to drop support for my old Compaq desktop's graphics chip. This is a 2004/5 Presario, using a graphics chip that came out in 2001. Regular 'freeze-ups' became the order of the day. A friend on the Ubuntu forums recommended I take a look at Puppy; OOTB, Puppy's 'take' on 'Trusty Tahr' just worked. Everything was supported, and nothing harboured any nasty surprises.

I haven't looked back once, and to this day have only run Puppy since then. No need to even look at owt else.

Canonical have this dozy habit of customizing their kernels, because Shuttleworth sees Ubuntu & 'the flavours' as the Linux world's answer to whatever the current Windoze 'flagship' happens to be. To this end, he seems to have completely lost touch with the eons-old Linux principle of keeping old hardware useful. Ubuntu & the flavours only seem to support relatively recent hardware with any real degree of success nowadays.....

Stick with Pup. There's precious little of any real importance that won't run under it.


Mike.

[bigpup]

The advantage of Puppy is that you can do a frugal install. So if you have a regular Linux install then in its partition create a file called Puppy and put the main iso contents in it.

Here is where the name is important.
A correction is needed.
Frugal installs are put into a directory or folder! not a file.
WE know you meant to say that

[d_vineet]

I already did the very same thing yesterday as suggested by @peterw.
For regular stuff, plan to use puppy.
If something can't be done in puppy, Lubuntu is kept as an option.

@peebee mentioned that

Similarly for Python apps - Python support in Puppy is limited and so Lubuntu will run such apps with less need for additional dependencies.

Whether it is just a dependency issue or is there something that can't be done at all (after dependencies are met)?
I am relying on python for my needs.
Needed to get Tkinter and dateutils separately. But no other issue so far now.

[darry19662018]

I Have come to the conclusion Puppy guys care more about the puppies they build compared to the "main" developers of the bigger distros.

[bigpup]

Python is a moving target.
Does the Puppy version have Python installed and is it the needed version. Do you need a newer version for the program to run.
Usually having the latest version of Python is all needed for the time being. Really depends on what the program is you are trying to run.

This is some good info on software and adding it to Puppy.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=59597

[d_vineet]

I Have come to the conclusion Puppy guys care more about the puppies they build compared to the "main" developers of the bigger distros.

Obviously it is so (IMO).
Puppy 's purpose is not to have 'yet another distro' for supporting a particular distro such as ubuntu. Puppy is not Ubuntu, that's what I have learnt. But that doesn't hurt the normal requirements expected out of an OS.
Having said that, there is seldom anything which is there in Ubuntu and can't be configured in puppy. If it's not bundled, there are ways and there is a vibrant community which is willing to help.
This is my own experience with puppy (though I am quite a newbie in puppy world).

[olddog]

Well, it's good to have so much confirmation.

Anyway, the deed is now done. I first wiped the disk and installed Xenial64, but then remembered that I had a new SSD lying around and got that going instead.

What a difference!

Only problem is that Quickpet isn't working. Perhaps a reboot is the answer.

Enjoy the weekend!

[olddog]

When I installed Puppy, I took the option to run as Spot for the various browers. That seems to have interfered with Quickpet.

Having removed Spot, I find that Quickpet works fine.