Which Puppy should I choose?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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starhawk
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Which Puppy should I choose?

#1 Post by starhawk »

Hey, I tripped over something that makes me really able to abandon XP and feel good about it -- WITHOUT leaving anything behind!

I'm something of an artist, and my favorite program is CorelDRAW X3. I refuse to learn to use Wine to accommodate a company that won't accommodate Linux... that just doesn't "work" IMO. There was a version of Corel, many years ago, that ran in Linux (Corel 10) but I'm not going back that far, and it doesn't matter anyways -- that particular version is long gone from the Internets.

However, I recently discovered this. Xara Xtreme looks to be really powerful and useful -- exactly what Inkscape ISN'T! So now I can make the switch.

The question now is, WHICH PUPPY? I really like Puplite 5, but it doesn't make sense to run it on my nice and rather upgraded from stock Dell Inspiron 6400. I've tried Lighthouse64 in the past, and it has some issues that I can't work with (I don't remember exactly what they were, but they were enough to eliminate it as a candidate). I don't want something that's in Beta, either (sorry sc0ttman, that means Akita will have to wait), since I'd like to have as many bugs out as possible when I'm using it (stability is important!).

Here's my system specs...
Dell Inspiron 6400 / E1505 (both model #s are valid for this model)
Core2Duo T5500
3gb DDR2 RAM (physically 3gig, not 4gig)
250gb SATA HDD
WiFi card (but I don't remember which one!)
DVD burner

Recommend me a Puppy! ...and if someone can PET up a copy of Xara Xtreme (there's a tarball on the Downloads page) for me and others, that would be GREAT. (I can't. I've never gotten that tool to work.)

I'd prefer to NOT experiment around, I want to know what I want before I get it as much as possible... mostly because I have a horrible Internet connection (no, it's not Dialup, it's Verizon 3g and it runs at about the same speed as a Motorola DYNAtac!).

"Help me, Obiwan Kenobi, you're my only hope!" :D

starhawk
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#2 Post by starhawk »

...as a further note, here are the Puppies I already have downloaded... it's quite a collection, but it's a little dusty...

ClassicPup 2.1.4X-Top9
ClassicPup 2.1.4X-Top10
ClassicPup 2.14X (version not specified by name)
Barebones Lucid 5.0.1
Akita Linux, beta6
BrowserLinux 3.6.6
Dpup 009
Fastcairn 100 (one of my own creations)
FatFreePup 2.1.7 (very old)
Fluppy 11
Fluppy 13
Guy Dog 5.0.1
LegacyOS 2 (didn't like the look, sorry)
Lighthouse64 5.1.4 beta4 (had issues)
LighthousePup 5.0.2g
LighthousePup 5.0.3g
Lucid Puppy 5.2.0 (LuPu)
Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 (LuPu)
Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 (LuPu)
LucidLight 5.2.5
MacPup 5.2.5
MacPup 5.2.8
PupFluxLite 5.1.1
PolarPup 005
PULP 01 (really didn't dig the looks, sorry)
PULP 003 (also didn't dig the looks, sorry)
PupItUp 1.2
PupLite4
PupLite5 (the k2.6.32.28 model)
pUPnGO 200810 (not complete enough for daily use, sorry!)
pUPnGO 041210 (same issue)
pUPnGO 060211 (same issue)
pUPnGO 110612 (same issue)
Puppy 4.3.2 v3
Puppy 4.1.2 (IIRC I needed some libs for a pUPnGO effort that failed)
Puppy 4.1.2 Retro (same thing)
Puppy OneBone 2.0.1 w/ eLinks (why do I even HAVE this?)
Quirky Puppy 1.4.0 (it's very gray)
Racy Puppy 5.2.2
RacyNOP 5.2.2r1
Saluki 0.2.1 beta
SimplePup 0.3.1 (I'm pretty sure it's pretty old)
SlimPup 3.4
SnowPuppy 0.1.4
SnowPuppy 0.2.0
SolidPup 5.1.1 Standard Edition
Spup 0.5.5
Spup 1.0.0
TurboPup 1.0 (has some issues with it, natively)
Uhuru 4.2.1
Wary 5.0.0 (official)
Wary 5.1.1 (k2.6.31.14 model)
Wary 5.1.1 (k2.6.32.28 model)
Wary 5.1.3 (official)
WaryTiny 5.1.1
WhiteFang 0.2
MyWolfe 0.2.8 (IIRC I liked this one -- whatever happened to the dev guy?)

I also have a couple that I'm not entirely sure are Puppies...
inpu-002-SCSI.iso
TL-Os-v2b.iso
(If anyone can verify what those are, it would be helpful. Thanks!)

These are by no means limits on what I can or should use -- just what I already have archived that I could test without downloading. Oh -- and let me know if you guys want me to upload any of them somewhere, if they've been lost to the community or somesuch, and I'll be glad to put them up for download.

EDIT: OMG, that's eight gigs of Puppies!! Heavens alive, I didn't realize how many I had...

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#3 Post by Lobster »

"Help me, Obiwan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"
Daath Lobster here . . .
I would suggest 5.3.3 as it is up to date. Is xara compiled/available for it, ?Question that is . . . ? [seem to have gone a bit Yoda] :?

Your safest bet is probably the sfs here
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/XaraXtreme

Xaraxtreme is much faster than Inkscape and therefore usable . . .
BarryK is asking for artwork for Precise Puppy on his blog
. . . so something to aim for . . . 8)

I am using beta3 right now, it looks good. We need a desktop background and a new theme for the RC...
http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02965
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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Monsie
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Making the switch...

#4 Post by Monsie »

starhawk, this program looks very interesting :) I have a little project that I want to try for Puppy... but since you are
something of an artist
maybe I will PM you sometime in the near future about it to see if you might be willing and able to help me (Puppy Community) out... 8)

I downloaded the stable version 0.7 and have it running in Wary 5.3 One dependency to note: imagemagick v6.0 which I found in PPM. Though the source code is available, it seems there is no need to compile unless one wants a 64 bit version.

Monsie
My [u]username[/u] is pronounced: "mun-see". Derived from my surname, it was my nickname throughout high school.

starhawk
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#5 Post by starhawk »

Flash, if you moved this thread and retitled it... thanks, I guess, but PLEASE in the future PM me with the new title and location, so that I don't have to use the Forum Search ten times over to find my own thread!

I'll download the official Slacko and give it a run. I'll also look at FatSlacko, I seem to recall gcmartin saying that it was a drop-in Windows replacement... although I could be wrong about that!

Is Saluki out of beta yet? I seem to recall being moderately excited about it, last time I looked at it (which was beta 21 or something like that).

@Monsie -- PM me with the details. If it's within my abilities I will do it.

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#6 Post by starhawk »

Oh right. I'm going to be using Chromium browser, I think -- I have Google Chrome in XP right now... Firefox takes our already-slow Internet and makes it painful. As in, 30+sec to load the Google homepage. Ouch!

My question is, how do I transfer my bookmarks and such? Is there a file, or set of files, that I can copy over? or must I do it manually?

The PET package I'm thinking of is this one --> http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=80079

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#7 Post by starhawk »

Hmm. Last post I made didn't show up.

I'm running FATSlacko from CD. It's okay. A little slow, but OK.

Xara Xtreme needs ImageMagick to work, found a version on the forums that seems to have been effective. (It's here --> http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 725#515725) Other than that, it works just fine, although the *.desktop file needed a little finagling and proper placement. I just un-tarballed the archive and dumped it into /opt, and it ran just fine.

Chromium works and sync'd up with Google instantly (yay!). I used the recent package from Sheepy, here --> http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=80079 (although, I just saw Chrome 21 and may change it, here --> http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=80019)

Three concerns I have with FATSlacko.

One, right-clicking on the desktop used to bring up ROX's options menu (and does on every other Puppy I've ever used), and it doesn't do that in FATSlacko -- extraordinarily annoying, to put it mildly!

Two, it's a little sluggish, even compared with XP, but I can (probably) live with that -- I'm fairly sure it's just that I'm running from CD.

Three, I really don't need a PAE kernel. I have 3gb of physical RAM in this system, and I do NOT anticipate needing more anytime soon. I may PM 01micko to see if he can make me a FATSlacko without PAE, or I may try to remaster Official Slacko with what I need, and see how it performs. Not sure yet, particularly since my last attempt at remastering (which would have been called Whippet) resulted in a VERY broken Puppy (which is why it is not available for download!).

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#8 Post by starhawk »

Disappointed at the lack of response here.

Les Kerf
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#9 Post by Les Kerf »

I don't feel very well qualified to make recommendations, but I have been thrashing around with various Puppys for almost a year (didn't join until recently). I tried a bunch of different ones, but keep coming back to the "official" versions (Slacko, Lucid, and Wary).

Slacko has this wonderful way of connecting to networks and wi-fi without a bunch of hassles, but Lucid seems more "user friendly" in that it is more agreeable with the minimalist web browsers that I favor for use with my limited-bandwidth internet. Wary is the one I choose when working with older hardware.

Frankly, if Slacko 533 or Lucid 528 won't git 'er done, I don't know what will.
Les

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#10 Post by Les Kerf »

Double post

starhawk
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#11 Post by starhawk »

I'll probably try Official Slacko sometime tomorrow. If it doesn't have the problems that FATSlacko does, I'll try and do a roll-my-own deal. One of the things I love about Puppy is that it's so easy to customize!

To be fair, I uncovered my copy of OpenSuSE recently, I may try that to see how it does things... but I'm a Puppy lover at heart so I'm sure it won't last.

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#12 Post by starhawk »

Not gonna bother with OpenSuSE -- I have an aversion to distros that use RPM packages. Dunno why.

I am, however, testing out Slacko 533 Official as I type this... it's faster than FATSlacko for sure. Dunno why.

Now to find LibreOffice + Java and see if that changes... also hoping I don't have to make a CD save file to install 'em... I'm not dropping anything on my hard drive if I can avoid it, and CD save files don't work on laptops with Slacko... ;)

EDIT: found an SFS-on-the-fly method. BTW, can anyone tell me how to enable touchpad-tap-as-leftclick? PLEASE? It's really annoying not to have that...!

EDIT2: Got the touchpad working. There's a touchpad controller in the PupControl panel (why the $#!! is that labeled in the menu as "Wizard Wizard"? Should be PupControl, as that's what it is. Anyhow, got the tap working.

Dewbie

#13 Post by Dewbie »

starhawk wrote:
Wary 5.1.1 (k2.6.32.28 model)
I avoid that build of 5.1.1, because of this.

ggg

#14 Post by ggg »

An unbelievable
pUPnGO 200810 (not complete enough for daily use, sorry!)
pUPnGO 041210 (same issue)
pUPnGO 060211 (same issue)
pUPnGO 110612 (same issue)
and another
One, right-clicking on the desktop used to bring up ROX's options menu (and does on every other Puppy I've ever used), and it doesn't do that in FATSlacko -- extraordinarily annoying, to put it mildly!
and others
I may ...

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#15 Post by Les Kerf »

starhawk wrote:... and CD save files don't work on laptops with Slacko....
Hmmm.... I'm running Slacko 533 on my Acer ASpire laptop from a live CD with the save file on the CD. It seems to work fine.
Les

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#16 Post by starhawk »

Well, that's not what Puppy *says* in the shutdown screen.

@ggg: you sound like a bot.

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#17 Post by starhawk »

Any more suggestions, for Puppies I might try?

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#18 Post by 01micko »

Les Kerf wrote:
starhawk wrote:... and CD save files don't work on laptops with Slacko....
Hmmm.... I'm running Slacko 533 on my Acer ASpire laptop from a live CD with the save file on the CD. It seems to work fine.
Les
Some laptop drives can't cut it when saving back to CD/DVD. I haven't tried it for awhile but I think Barry has a warning about that.
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#19 Post by starhawk »

Well, the drive in this laptop is not the original -- which was failing when I got it -- but one I got off eBay to replace it.

The current drive is a TSST* TS-L532M, apparently originally from an HP DV1000. It's a DVD burner.

*TSST = Toshiba Samsung Storage Technologies Corp.

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#20 Post by starhawk »

Trying this --> http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=79737

My first experience of Linux was with Ubuntu 7.08 :oops: I ran it on an old Toshiba -- it was a Satellite 1415-S173.

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