Puppy as a Linux model

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Mechsus
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat 06 Aug 2005, 12:30

Puppy as a Linux model

#1 Post by Mechsus »

The other day, I thought I'd give yet another Linux distro
a go on a spare computer (Athlon 2Ghz, 120Mb HD, 512 MB RAM).

I wiped the HD, installed Tindows XP to an 8GB partition,
and left a nice big free space for a Linux distro - in this
case, Red Hat 9.

I happened to have a "Red Hat Linux 9 for Dummies" book
lying around, on a bookshelf that I'd never really used, so - why not?

The 2 CD's that come with the book are mislabelled: disc 1 is
really disc 2, and vice versa. There's a hint of trouble ahead,
when on p.40, a box at the bottom of the page is titled
"Confidential for Windows users".

This informs you "...You can install Red Hat Linux without
overwriting the NT boot partition if you select the Configure
Advanced Boot Loader Options button..."


OK. The book says so, so obviously the problem has been
tested and debugged. Of course it has...

To cut to the chase, after I'd installed RH 9, on reboot, the
computer happily booted into Tindows without even giving RH a
glance. I tried again, thinking that I'd missed the GRUB option
as I blinked. The same thing happened, so the only thing for it,
was a reinstall of RH 9, and a change in the CABLO. An hour later
I rebooted with my second brand new RH 9 install - and - No Linux.

I found what I was looking for on the Net. Turns out, to fix this
little GRUBBY problem, you have to do this:

http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials/1/ ... 19999.html

They must be joking. I wasn't going to go through that nonsense,
when I could install Puppy to a partitioned HD with Tindows XP sitting
in it - without any problems whatsoever.

To prove the point, I put my Puppy 1.0.4 mini-CD in the CD tray,
rebooted, and had a new Puppy installed -- in less than 5 minutes.
This included using cfdisk to delete the partitions RH had made.
And the install completed flawlessly.

I've been messing about with Linux distro's for a while,
and Puppy is way ahead of any distro I can think of
for ease and speed of install and reliability.

The Linux community should look at Puppy, for a
idea of where Linux should be headed as an
acceptable and easily implemented desktop
OS.

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Bancobusto
Posts: 168
Joined: Mon 13 Jun 2005, 20:52
Location: Vancouver Island

#2 Post by Bancobusto »

Right on, I agree.

One thing I've found, is that the ability to install the GRUB bootloader off the Puppy CD without necassarily insalling Puppy has saved me a couple of times with major screw-ups....

Puppy is going places! Puppy....

(just piddled on the floor) :shock:

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rarsa
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Joined: Sun 29 May 2005, 20:30
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
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#3 Post by rarsa »

Mechsus wrote:Puppy is way ahead of any distro I can think of
for ease and speed of install and reliability
Let me start by saying that I agree with that conclussion. That's why I like puppy, I use puppy and I recommend puppy as a light weight/personal distro to whoever wants to listen.

but... give me a break ... This is not a fair comparison. Not by far.
Mechsus wrote: happened to have a "Red Hat Linux 9 ...
A) If you are using a current version of puppy a fair comparison would be against a recent version of a RH distribution.
Mechsus wrote:The 2 CD's that come with the book are mislabelled
B) The misslabeled CDs are not a RH9 fault, it's an editorial mistake. In this case, don't blame the message, blame the messenger.
Mechsus wrote:you select the Configure Advanced Boot Loader Options button
C) You used and advanced option without understanding what it did. If you select not to install to the MBR then you have to manually modify the boot menu from your existing boot manager. You actually didn't have to go through all that trouble of manually installing grub in the MBR. (that's what that page shows).

D) Even RH9 sure does much more than puppy once it's configured and installed correctly.

Puppy is great for sure. But it cannot be a model for linux distributions simply because of its main advantage: Is very simple!

There are many things that are more difficult in puppy due to it's size. Puppy isn't designed to do them. Of course, a linux is a linux is a linux and you should be able to do the same things in puppy as in any other distro. But other distros do a lot of automatic things that you have to do manually in puppy.

Puppy is a great hammer, but not everything is a nail.

An unfair comparison always elicits suspicion and looses credibility. Lets keep puppy highly credible by talking about how well it meets its mission statement

Guest

#4 Post by Guest »

If you want to really see what RH-9 is like for installing download the iso's from the Redhat ftp site and burn those to disc....9 times out of 10 the versions that come with the book are an "Editors Version" and have small changes to the plain-vanilla RedHat install.......I've never had any probs with the discs burnt from the "official iso's"......Blame the publishers not poor ol RedHat

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Mechsus
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat 06 Aug 2005, 12:30

#5 Post by Mechsus »

rarsa wrote:but... give me a break ... This is not a fair comparison. Not by far.
It wasn't meant to be a comparison. It shows you what
most non-tech people (the ones I've come across, anyway)
experience 8 times out of 10, when first meeting Linux.
Actually, most people I know have never heard of Linux,
and expecting them to know what a MBR is, or what it does
is absurd.

Of course RH 9 has a much larger base of packages than
Puppy, and is probably more 'useful' by your definition - if you
can get it installed.

At the top of the list of my definition of useful, is the
ability to successfully install, first time, out-of-the-box,
without any hassles; Puppy does this. A good proportion
of Linux distros don't.
rarsa wrote:C) You used and advanced option without understanding what it did.
No, I was following the book's instructions to the letter.
It says "If you want to install RH alongside a prior Windows
install, then do this..."
rarsa wrote:If you select not to install to the MBR then you have to manually modify the boot menu from your existing boot manager. You actually didn't have to go through all that trouble of manually installing grub in the MBR.
And all the off-site tutorials explicitly warn you NOT to
install GRUB to the MBR if you're going to dual boot - which is
why I didn't. Perhaps you'd like to tell post a how-to.
rarsa wrote:Puppy is great for sure. But it cannot be a model for linux distributions simply because of its main advantage: Is very simple!
Not at all. Simple is good. Not everybody needs bells & whistles.
What do most people do with computers? They write emails and
surf the Net. Puppy is ideal for these. Puppy is ideal for using as
a basic non-micro$ OS.

BTW, I'm not some sort of Puppy evangelist - but when
I find a system that actually works like it's supposed
to - when most similar systems don't - then I say so.

Cheers!

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Lobster
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Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 06:06
Location: Paradox Realm
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#6 Post by Lobster »

I like Red Hat and Fedora - it deserves its reputation and price. Well Fedora is more up to date and free - but you know what I mean . . .

An OpenSuse has been created and Debian are developing a commercial wing. Fun.

Puppy is more fun. I like the Dotpups. I look forward to Puppy KDE. I enjoy chatting on IRC (well have not been there much lately) I like working on the wiki and experimenting with XUL and Bash and Tcl. I thoroughly enjoy these forums.

I am growing with Puppy into a penguin.

Whatever next?
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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Mechsus
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat 06 Aug 2005, 12:30

#7 Post by Mechsus »

Apologies to Red Hat :

The blame for the problem I had with RH 9, is with the Dummies publisher.

On p.40 the Windows Confidential advice seems pretty bizzare as by following their suggestion, I couldn't get into windows.
I took rarsa's tip, and loaded GRUB to the MBR (like you do with Puppy) and got a perfect RH 9 install - with the option of a Dos/Windows boot.
Why did Dummies confuse the issue? Or was I missing something?

Talk about irony - after sitting for 3 years on my shelf being ignored, I find Red Hat 9 to be the best large distro I've used.
This morning, I went to my local bookshop and got "Red Hat Fedora Linux 3 Bible" by Chris Negus.

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