(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

ecomoney wrote:Lobster I like the way this is going. Users dont know about files and locations (many of them dont even know about directory "hierarchies", especially in linux). The "my document"isation of windows has unfortunately meant this basic knowledge is lost on a great many people.

Say what ..

@ Jonjo

This is true. Most end users dont know the inside of their pup_save files from the outside! Our challenge is to make a linux where they dont have too. At the moment Users are saving all of their files to "/root", and when this fills up their puppy's are dying because there is no mechanism for handling full pup_save.2fs's (currently when this happens, their icons disappear and they are left (in their eyes) with a non-working computer.

Im not saying this is good, Im saying, from what Ive seen working with people this is what happens.

I was not clear.. this part applies to me..

ecomoney wrote:Users dont know about files and locations (many of them dont even know about directory "hierarchies", especially in linux). The "my document"isation of windows has unfortunately meant this basic knowledge is lost on a great many people.

I am more often than not, at a loss when folks who know linux give solutions to problems here in the forum. Mostly gibberish..to me.

I pick up the odd thing here & there..bit by bit over time. Took me ~ 3 mths to figure out how to copy paste in the console.. Still can't believe it when I think about it now..did lotsa accurate typing there for a bit..

Took ~ a year to figure out a linux wifi connection..

Easy (as possible) = works real good for me!

And just to underscore the difficulties that us win refugees can encounter in coming over to linux..here's another example. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 379#154379

I have dabbled with a number of linux distros over the last 4 years and despite being very keen none have ever managed to last very long (less than a day for most) as just setting them up made my head hurt.

I have used a number of live cd distros including knoppix but never could get onto the internet with any.

and yet

After about a year of no experimenting I came across Puppy, I thought why not.....

.... well I popped the cd in my Toshiba Satellite Pro Laptop and within 2 mins was wirelessly browsing the internet, fantastic. I had a bit of a play around and was very impressed with the general speed and feel, it made my 1.7 ghz P4 with 256MB Ram feel like a power machine. After about an hour using it and setting up my email and MSN I decided to install puppy over, yes over Windows XP and use it as my OS full time on my laptop.

Thanks Jonjo for persevering and giving so much feedback to this project. I had you down as a "power user"!

Okay, first thing I noticed is that you use absolute paths for icons that you include with the script. These should probably be relative paths, so that the script runs properly from wherever it may be. This makes the script more robust.

Second thing, the offline links to programs should try to run "/usr/local/bin/default***" instead of a specific program. For instance, I clicked on "Edit" and it tried to open Leafpad, which I do not have installed. If it refers to "/usr/local/bin/defaulttexteditor" it will work on any Puppy system. Again, this makes the script more robust and allows for better portability to other Puplets and future versions of Puppy.

Third thing, a common error I am getting is: I assume that this has to do with the specific theme I am using since it refers to the themes directory.

Fourth thing, the first window has both "Yes" and "OK" which do the same thing. One should probably be removed, I would remove the "Yes" if it was me.

Fifth thing, I must agree that the tail-wagging dog needs to go. If we were making a Puplet specifically for young children he might be okay. Otherwise, he just looks like an even more useless Clippy, and makes me want to reach for my longsword (okay, so I was only reaching for my dagger, but that's because the sword is in another room).

Otherwise, it's looking good right now. I think I concur that the list of squash files should be pulled from a seperate list rather than being hardcoded. I will try testing its functionality when I boot into a clean save file. I will also take a look at the code and see if I can understand it enough to be of any further help.

this is the complete Scruffy prototype 2.5 MB
it will install into a directory called 'photon5'

http://www.puppylinux.ca/lobster/scruffy0.2.tar.gz

Community help required

Wot no community inspired coders?
Who want's a community edition?
How much?
Just remember, any work done will lead back into your own projects . . .