Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[teobromina]

I use Puppy in fact as an emergency and Research OS.

Emergency meaning is clear.

Research means ability to have all the needed aplications based in a freeware OS. I would like in the near future a vaste majority of people using and contributing to improve a freeware OS.

My job time is spent with Windows (I have no option), but at home, my personal tool has two 'legs': DSL and Puppy.

I have buildt a CD with a multiboot system to be used in case of disaster, like the Noah's ship, containing complete Linux OS and a couple of the best freeware that run in mode no-install in Windows.

In my case I am trying and testing more and more Puppy. Every time I am more pleased with the behaviour of it, but I have not needed to use it for the purpose I have designed my tool. Nevertheless a friend of mine has been able to recover his computer after a collapse of Windows, using my CD, including Puppy.

I think it is a successfull case to comment.

*JT.

[papakanush]

I use Puppy mostly as a personal OS on my work laptop (that has to have XP pro on a full NTFS hard drive). Puppy has all the good stuff to run on RAM and is unique in being able to save all my stuff, configurations, etc. on a virtual linux drive on my pup001 file on the NTFS C drive. To me, that is what sets puppy apart.

[CatmanDru]

first, thank you for puppy and the puppy forum.

i would like to give a few insights into what may be a segment of puppy's market.

my situation is that i live on a very, very low income. my computer hardware is hand-me-down, cast-off, give-away, and yard sale (boot sale). im not able nor willing to spend even US$200, let alone US$800, for a computer. the new hardware ive bought has been highly discounted.

the computers ive inherited have had microsoft windows on them but havent come with the windows cdrom. therefore if i mess up windows or when i change hardware because a part dies or in trying to make a better computer, i havent got that all-important windows cd im dead in the water, at least in the past. that is without that windows cd AND its registration number the windows HDD cant be updated for new hardware nor re-installed.

Microsoft products cost a lot of money, and many applications that are compatible with Microsoft also cost a lot of money. large linux os's, even when free, like ubuntu, require relatively 'large' hardware resources, which in turn cost a lot of money. therefore, free Ubuntu would cost me about US$500 for a new low-end computer, less if i could upgrade my present computer. for poor residents of wealthy nations even low-end new computers are expensive and may be unattainable, while mid-range computers remain attainable only in day-dreams. for poor residents of poor nations the situation is bleak indeed. a puppy motto seems to be to give older machines a new life. a related benefit is to make computer access attainable to those with less resources.

i have decided to not waste my limited income on chasing the next biggest, fastest, better item in computers. instead ive chosen to go smaller. puppy seems to be the path to 'smaller'. one thing that caused some hesitation in switching to linux was linux's reputation of being less than user friendly. puppy seemed to me to be not only small, fast and efficient, but also to be a linux with training wheels. that is, like a child's first learning bike with training wheels that keep the child from falling down, getting injured, and thereby aiding in becoming a skilled bicycle rider. i mean this in the best possible way. im a skilled bicycle rider, but i started with training wheels.

i personally am a very pragmatic person and dont care much about how things, as in puppy's appearance, look, as long as they work well. functionality is first, appearance is a distant second. in my experience, most low income people have the same priorities. for example, theyll drive an ugly, small, plain, spartan, efficient car as long as its inexpensive and it does what they need it to do. for people who are willing and able to trade effeciency for appearance a dotpup appearance package (or a 'sexy chubby/voluptous puppy' ) may entice them to switch to puppy.

a friend of mine wont switch to puppy because when surfing the web she wants all the many plug in features and bells and whistles -- the same ones that give her the malware and runnaway-out-of-control automation and all-nite debugging sessions that make her want to pull her hair out.
if she could have the bells and whistles, without the hassles, then she would probably switch. but perhaps puppy cannot be all things to all people all of the time.

What im doing with puppy is running a desktop 800mhz/384ram/Hard drive install on linux ext2 partitioned 30gb. im putting my audio cds onto the hard drive with the intention of using another, older, computer as a dedicated juke box. then a juke box for a friend using a 333mhz/64ram and a HDD install. next, i hope to set up the 800mhz with a drive for Microsoft os's (for games), and a drive for puppy (for games, browsing, writing) and other linuxes (to experiment) as multiple boot. also a 233mhz/64ram (or more) as a broadband web browser alternative to the two undependable windoze machines in the lobby of my low-income apartment building. someday i hope to aquire an older puppiable laptop for word processing, simple games and reading downloaded web text saved on usb flash. im really not as techie as this sounds but puppy has provided me with easy, working, intuitive tools that make me believe this is feasible.

another question was how to encourage people to use puppy instead of the larger distros. it seems that if puppy gets better and better at 'just working', and the puppy community continues to provide excellent product developement and support (support is nearly as important as the product) , AND the reputation of puppy and puppy's community becomes well-known (maybe more pr?), then many people for many reasons will choose puppy over larger distros.

wow, so much for a short post

thanks. Dru

[mickee]

[navegante]

I use it for rescue and special tasks. With Puppi live cd I can see if a trouble on a pc is hardware related or a software issue, the same with internet problems. I could configure a router on point of sales with pc's with no graphic interfase just running the live cd. If Puppi doesn't work I try with Damn Small.
For saving from scrap older pc's (and giving it away) I use Debian with XFCE, if not possible Puppi. Last year I decided to clean up the scrap and made five old pc's from it, two of them with Puppi.
For watching online cinema on an old pc Puppi.

[Hotdog]

This Puppy (5.2.8 on a full HD install) gets to convert vinyl to CD with Audacity, edit videos with Cinelerra and Kino, write books with Lyx, handle office tasks with Libre Office and create CD envelopes with Gimp. It also handles a few Windows programs with Wine.

[ttuuxxx]

I use it to improve the average puppy users experience, and personally I use it for online banking, searching the web and as a multimedia player for the 42" LCD TV and surround stereo. Its a great movie player, online radio player, and facebook games like cafeworld.
ttuuxxx

[linuxbear]

I use it as an OS on a stick for when I am away from home. It is also good for repairing the broken gatesware boxes of friends and family......

[nooby]

To me it is my main OS even if Ms Win was the install that the
maker of the computer installed on it when I bought it.

I have kept Ms due to Sony Ericson use that for upgrading their
Android phones

But Puppy is my main linux OS. None of the others even come near
in ease of usage for me. So sure I have tested some 75 other OS
but Puppy was way ahead of all of them.

[SFR]

[icosahedron]

I’m a newbie. I’ve started to use Puppy because I was sick of Windows trying to dictate what I could and couldn’t do with the software (and of late the hardware!) that I’ve paid hundreds of pounds for.

I was also sick of my small hard drive filling up with spyware, malware, viruses, drivers for this, drivers for that, and old apps that you try to uninstall, but like weeds, there always seems to be a bit left behind...

And I was sick of the stress of not knowing when (not if) my system was going to crash, thanks to the above, and wondering how many days (or weeks) it was going to take to reinstall everything.

The prospect of a ‘complete OS in RAM’ appealed to me ever since I first heard of the possibility. It proved to be another ten years before I’ve been able to obtain such a system.

Now, everything I want sits ready to go and secure from harm on a CD, and everything I don’t want is completely deleted at switch-off.

I came to Puppy principally because it offered this facility and because, in contrast to my impression of the rest of the Linux community, Barry’s introduction to Puppy was easy to understand. Linux seemed to be produced by geeks for geeks, and you couldn’t do anything with it unless you had a degree in programming. Puppy promised to be different - Puppy seemed to be a vehicle for drivers, not mechanics...
<Grin> extending the analogy, Windows feels like a runaway tram.

My main uses for Puppy are:
Surfing the Net, inc playing online RPGs
Uploading and downloading files
Corresponding via email
Listening to music (while I’m surfing the net)
Occasionally watching videos
and potentially, snatching back my files from the Gates of Hell...

I do not do ANY programming - for me, the Console is labeled ‘Here be Dragons’. My Puppy keeps the dragons at bay.

I still tend to do office work on Windows, principally because Abiword recognises .docs but Office doesn’t recognise .abis - so MS Word is the Lingua Franca thanks to its own stubbornness (a bit like English...) And there are some apps that only run on Windows.

As I learn more about Puppy, I may do more with it. If an Open Office PET can be used without overloading my RAM, and/or if I can get other software to run via Wine or whatever, without overloading my RAM, Puppy may one day become my sole OS.

These days, you can get computers with RAM the size of my machine’s HDD, so theoretically, when those things fall within my reach on the second hand market, Puppy may do everything I need.

I can see it now, 2015, running Wary 6.4 on a 2Gb Raspberry Pi 3 plugged into my motel TV and teleconferencing Excel tutorials via Wifi...

[turboscrew]

I have an older desktop (Athlon XP, 500 MB RAM) with 320 GB HD running Lupu 5.2.8 full install.

It's the only one of my 4 machines that doesn't have WLAN and needs to be connected to my ADSL-modem/router with cable, so it made sense to use it as some kind of "central machine" that shares its disks, printer, etc and is (thus) on pretty much always.

The Windows Vista or 7 are too big to run smoothly, the old office etc. don't handle today's documents and you can't get any newer versions for Windows 2000 any more, and XP will soon be in the same situation that Windows 2000 is now.

Otherwise perfectly working machine.

So what to do? The only possibility to keep the machine usable is to put Linux in it, but which distro? The distro needs to be light enough on the machine, but not too restricted. Needs to share the printer and the disks, needs to handle videocalls and maybe some other things that uses peripherals with cables (laptop with tons of cables is annoying).

So what comes to mind? Of course: Lucid Puppy!

(BTW, darn fast!)

[sc0ttman]

I use puppy as my main (only) OS, cos it's smaller, faster, leaner, easier, better.
I like to get things how I like it, not told how it should be.

I like to choose whether or not I save my changes at shutdown.
Usually I do not.. My save files last forever, most times I don't need one.
My puppy installs outlast all my mates/families XP installs..

I got Puppy on my desktop PC, connected to TV, dual screen..
It's my main (only PC) and also my main media player thing (on the TV)..

I use the PC for most things, from time to time, but less web dev and video/screencast work than before..
I also use Puppy to learn more about scripting, computing, etc..

I can't really think of anything I can't do on Puppy,
with the help of the friendly brains on this forum!

I have not booted XP on my PC for a LONG time, and I don't miss it one bit.

[cthisbear]

" I have not booted XP on my PC for a LONG time, and I don't miss it one bit."

No Christmas card from Bill and the Bull 4 you with that kind of attitude.

Chris.

[TheAsterisk!]

I prefer Puppy to most other Linux distros for several reasons.

Firstly, the small size of Puppy gives several advantages. It's a quicker download, and even possible on shoddy dial-up connections.

The small footprint leaves me more room for my other files- and I have a ton. I have about 4.5 GiB or so worth of my main Puppy, not counting older puplets and such for testing and making packages, where Ubuntu (circa 8.04) took about 12-14 GiB and Windows XP easily exceeded 20 GiB. Considering that small OS and applications footprint, large though it may be for Puppy specifically, further consider that I have managed to fill a 400 GiB drive with all manner of media and personal files, and have almost run out of room. I need all the space I can get!

Puppy is also ideal for a portable system, and I often load up a flash drive with a duplicate of my main Puppy installation, and add some PortableApps for Windows for good measure. (Some places lock down their boot options, so accounting for Windows is often still necessary.)

And, of course, loading to RAM and maintaining low hardware requirements allows me to enjoy Curbside Christmas even more! Trash and a few bucks at a garage sale or two never accomplished so much!

Those low hardware demands have an added bonus; on a slightly more powerful system, Puppy is brilliant as a virtual machine or as a host for VMs. It eats up so little hardware relative to so many other distros and Windows that a VM is no problem.

My initial attraction to Puppy was two-fold: dial-up support and the lack of a sort of paternalistic operating environment. At the time that I first tried out Linux, I was on dial-up, and I could not for the life of me find a system that would support my modem. Puppy 412 did, though, and it's just become more and more my favorite since.

Puppy rarely if ever condescends to the user, and there is no paternalistic or Clippy-like urge. From user permissions to package management to the modification of settings, Puppy patiently explains the options but does not constrain them. I can't say the same about most of the large, kitchen-sink desktop distros, unfortunately.

Finally, I greatly value some of the utilitarian, slightly spartan design choices that are made in Puppy in favor of a smaller and lighter system. I'm of the mind that pretty and flashy should always be optional, and should always be considered long after the design serves its main functional purpose. Puppy almost always does this magnificently.



Oh! It's a nice, live recovery system, too, and slick as a safe-browsing option!