Puppy is awesome!

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greeder
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu 31 Jan 2013, 07:04

Puppy is awesome!

#1 Post by greeder »

I love this little Linux!
A bit over a year ago my kids managed to roach the install of WinXP on their computer. To make matters worst, I couldn't find (and still can't find) my Windows install disk. In an effort to get the machine running, I tried several small footprint Linux distro's. I even installed Unbutu. Unbutu, what a disaster! It was the most frustrating experience I have ever had. Eventually I tried Puppy. Then moved up to Wary Puppy. Unfortunately Seamonkey didn't work well with many of the online Flash game sites my kids like. Then, last week, I moved to Lucid Puppy to get Firefox support. I don't know why it took so long for me to notice that Lucid/Precise had a choice of browsers. Flash and browser are working much better now with Lucid. (Pro tip: install Flash using the package manager).
If this continues to work, I will remaster the CD so I don't have to reinstall Firefox and Flash if something goes wrong. I'm going to continue to have it boot from the CD. It's a bit more secure that way. Viruses can't modify the CD. So clean install every boot. And if the lupusave file gets roached? well I already have a saved copy. It's like having a restore point.
My main machine is a Dell Optiplex 620 that runs Win XP. If Puppy continues to work well on the kids machine, the Dell will get Puppy by year's end.
Puppy is awesome! :D

ICPUG
Posts: 1308
Joined: Mon 25 Jul 2005, 00:09
Location: UK

#2 Post by ICPUG »

Welcome to the kennels!

May your time with Puppy be long and happy.

stifiling
Posts: 388
Joined: Sun 30 Dec 2007, 03:56

#3 Post by stifiling »

Yes welcome.

Puppy has lots of choices, a cpl of my favorite derivatives are Saluki, SalukiNOP, and PreciseNOP. My ultimate favorite though is ArchPup.

My reason for saying this is because, being new...sometimes you don't know which way to turn. Lucid is kind of old. I also feel that a derivative with XFCE as the desktop environment is a little more user friendly. One more word of advice is, in case you didn't know, you don't have to burn a CD for every puppy derivative you may want to try. I figured that one out about 5 coasters later. Also, you don't have to worry about viruses on linux. I run into a malware site every now and then...and play around with it for a lil while on purpose. Thinking, "Wow, if i was on Windows right now, I'd probably be screwed."

Windows is a really good OS, but when you have an alternative like GNU/Linux...it's not that good. ESPECIALLY...for the $$$price$$$.

knsridhar
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue 22 Mar 2011, 08:57

puppy linux

#4 Post by knsridhar »

Sir I have been using various puppy Linux versions and it is really great it does not crash , boots faster and has all the immediate softwares required by users.
knsridhar

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tallboy
Posts: 1760
Joined: Tue 21 Sep 2010, 21:56
Location: Drøbak, Norway

#5 Post by tallboy »

Hi greeder, and welcome to the forum.
I don't know how familiar you are with puppy, so please excuse me if I treat you as a total newbie! There are two ways to run a live DC/DVD puppy. As you say, you can remaster the existing CD, or you can just use the save option offered when using Shutdown from the root menu. Your options are limited if your CD is not burned as multisession. If you made the puppy from Windows, it is probably not multisession. In that case, the best you can do, is to download and burn a new .iso by using the Burniso2cd program in the Multimedia section in the puppy menu. When burning a new CD, you will get the option to burn it multisession, which gives you the possibility to add saves to a cheap CD-R disc, no need for a costly CD-RW. DVD is burned multisession by default. To explain it very simple, saving to a new session on a CD, is like expanding a partition on a harddisk.

If you choose to use the remaster option in the menu, please remember that all your configs and settings are not saved to a new .iso, you either have to copy the files from your existing puppy into the new puppy before making the .iso (you will have an option to open and modify the files in the remaster script), or setting it up again after booting your new puppy, and make a save at first shutdown.

After the first save to a multisession CD at shutdown, you may save to the CD anytime by clicking a save symbol on your desktop. A CD can take about 100-150 saves, a DVD at least 1000 saves, depending on the size of your saves, of course.

In my experience, remastering is the best option if you are going to remove, replace or add a lot of programs or libs, the remastering process may keep your puppy from growing too large.

If you only want to permanently add Firefox with flash and some extras, just install what you need and save to the disk, if it is burned with the multisession option. At the next bootup, your saved files will be read and added to the original .sfs. You may click on the CD symbol to mount it and see which files it containes.

I have never run a puppy any other way than live, and I totally agree with you regarding safety. I usually remaster (several times!) to get my puppy as perfect as possible, and save work files to a USB stick or HD.

BTW, if you don't need to save to a live disc at shutdown, just turn off the PC when finished; no need to go through a lengthy shutdown script!

tallboy
True freedom is a live Puppy on a multisession CD/DVD.

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