DSL vs. Puppy comparison

[PeterSieg]

Hi folks.. again no need to get nervous.. Just my fast and humble
comparison... We can learn!

Just downloaded and ran dsl 2.0rc1 (Yes they have a release candidate ).

Now the good points:
* Since my system (Compaq Ipaq PC 500Mhz) doesn't have ps/2 connectors,
I have a usb keyboard+mouse. DSL was working with that without any
problem! This does NOT work in Puppy out of the box?! Why not?
* DHCP address request and network setup works without any problem!
nameserver detected correct. Firefox goes right on the net...
* The DSL impression ist very solid.. Scripts/Wizard are all having the
same look and feel...
* German keyboard works out of the box even with umlauts. This is still
an issue with Puppy.

Now the points were I believe Puppy is better/has advantages:
* Puppy has more end user apps (graveman/ripperX/etc/etc).
* Setup printer is nicer/better? in Puppy. This is very rude in DSL...
* Puppy has usr_devx.sfs - NO ONE ELSE has that...

Now different points...
DSL: xmms - listen to internet steams didn't work..? endless loop?
Puppy: gxine - only some radio stations are working. Most TV stations
are NOT working.. I say - have only items that are working!!
I am not a fan of fluxbox used in DSL
I like JWM in Puppy, but still think it is unstable and IceWM would be
a better choice...
Both are only able to work with 800x600 screen resolution, but that
goes to the chipset used in the ipaq... (xorg would work better here)...

So for Puppy's next release, I would like to see:
* USB Keyboard+Mouse supported out of the box
* Gxine menu items are ALL working (or taken out)
* JWM more stable or replaced with IceWM
* 'Nice' desktop color and background (not the orange one)
* Get the abiword bug out or get abiword out (Sorry)
* Get foreign keyboards to work correct in Puppy

PS

[Pizzasgood]

Abiword is a bug. That is not a bad thing though, it just means its mascot is Abi the Ant! Abi even has a resume, as I descovered when I used the template.

Puppy doesn't have fleas, but he has an ant

[jcagle]

*currently working on a virus for Puppy called FLEAS*

[gliezl]

please don't remove Abiword. Here in the Philippines, Brand New PCs are really expensive and lots of people can't afford so they resorted to buy old PCs like Pentium II 350MHz 64MB RAM. Here, Puppy comes to the rescue. Lot s of students here need to use a cool word processor for the typing & term papers.

[PeterSieg]

Hi. I have to admit, that I only work with Abiword in Win$
So I like it.. But when I read, that there are bugs for years!, that are
unsolved... There are alternatives in Linux (instead of Win$).

* Ted (used in grafpup). Simple Wordprocessor. 'Saves' in postscript
* FLWriter (used in DSL; don't know much about it..)
* Textmaker (used in John Murgas 50m Opera Puppy; liked that one)
* ...?

So I like Abiword! But if they can't get it to work right, there are possible
alternatives out there...

And I totally agree, that Puppy should be good for PII-350MHz, 64-128M systems.

PS

[BarryK]

Patience guys,
tomorrow I plan to compile (hopefully it will compile!) Abiword 2.4.0
and test it... from the description it is really hot.

[saintlangton]

DSL vs Puppy

Back from when I tried DSL there's one big thing that I really liked - the Ndiswrapper setup wizard. I found it a lot easier to setup wireless than in puppy. I still think it is quicker. It was nearly 'there' It just needed to be 1 wizard not sepeate ones for Ndiswrapper and iwconfig.

How hard would it be to code a wizard to:
- Ask where .INF (windows driver) file is {explain how paths work in Linux for newbies}
- Run Ndiswrapper & modprobe
- Prompt for essid, channel, WEP key etc
- Run iwconfig & dhcpcd
- Exit gracefully with explanation on failure (and give URL for forum?)

Are there any technical difficulties to prevent this?

I think this would make wireless puppy as easy as is reasonable. It would also fit in with the rest of puppy better than 1.0.5's wizard (Although that was a very welcome improvement)

As a windows refugee the wizards in puppy are one of things that helped me find my feet. The wireless wizard isn't there yet

That was the only thing (apart from freeciv as an easy download) that DSL had over puppy. Apart from that I found DSL to be very unstable, fluxbox a bit of a jump too far for me and puppy was much cuter (Plus as a Christian the D in DSL is a word that I'd rather not promote)

Cheers

Chris

[trekk]

Yes I certainly HOPE that you do NOT toss out Abiword.....

Although I will download the one that has Textmaker in it.....
jus to kick the tires.....

I agree with the poster about students and Teachers [me] who
benefit from it a lot.

Of course you could torture us by makin all of us use TeX

either Kyle (?) or Lyx

Comparison between DSL and Puppy comin up shortly

At the moment Puppy can easily get me on the Net
Whereas DSL or Feather can not!

Static ip
for some odd reason Neither of them can use
my 8139too net card within my notebook
while Puppy has no trouble

So please remember when posting bout comparison stuff
Every distro has a very different or broad base to compile
from and thus each Linux distro can not easily be compared
in this manner. It is not a simple matter to state that Mepis
has wonderful bits here and there and Redhat sucks....

That is why I made a suggestion
Should anyone have the time to aid me
I would like to attempt to change and have a Chinese Puppy

I happen to like the window manager and the interface in both but
I prefer Puppy.



Puppy definitely has it goin in the helpful documentation
and wizard business!!
Giving folks clues as to what is goin on or comin down the pike
it is very very important in my estimation.

Kudos to everone who contributed to this distro!

Suggestions??

Never..... since that all depends upon what the originator wants to do
I have always supported the originator!!

In Vector.... Yoper.... Mepis

Now I am gettin interested in creating my own particular version.
I came here due to my interest in Slax and Klax.

Without the great documentation and helpful clues
One has a long frustrating road to walk down......