Late with my homework again
Happy New Year to All, and especially you, John, waiting patiently for my response.
I've been mulling over your post for a few days now and I don't know if I can comply with a 10-point critique zigactly for TEENpup 2010 Mini Beta (TPMB) - and especially not for 5 "craze-inducing Cons"
First a disclaimer - I've been moving to research-based software such as 'R' (statistical environment), Zotero Standalone (ex FireFox add-on - bibliography and bookmarking), Docear (FreeMind+pdf management), and CowLog (scoring of filmed animal behaviours) - and have been spending most of my puppy-time with the DPUP avenue in the belief that I would have fewer installation problems and most would work OOTB in Puppy - as far as Debian-like support is concerned. Plus, my desktop preferences have moved from total bling to spartan, so with the exception of CowLog dependencies, KDE and Karamba haven't been my preferred working environment. Alas, the year hasn't been great for juggling fledgling career, family (including funerals) and full-time study - on top of floods*.
In short, my time with TPMB hasn't been consistent but in review:
1. I feel that it should be REALLY highlighted for any newcomers to the Puppy universe that "
If you are new to Linux - try TEENpup first". You've made extraordinary efforts to include extensive Help, Hints and advice throughout your distros. From detailed explanation of those zany (? sometimes daunting or uninviting) application names in the Menu, right through to your encyclopedic Tips library - and not forgetting that you've used super-stable KDE 3.5.7 that was time-tested not to break the spirit of Linux newbies - this is a
SERIOUSLY well-thought out bit of kit.
(Though all of your distros that I've tried are - and I know I'm on the record as a bit of a fan of your hand-crafting.)
2. KDE? Who is going to quibble resource usage (compared to openbox, fluxbox etc) when it comes to user-friendliness, tweaked applications (KOffice, Konqueror, KGet, ketc ketc.) - especially when a new user is in the process of cutting the cord from the claustrophobic Windows womb. So I hope you might be using Trinity (3.5.13ish) in the rebooted Mini...
3. I was using XPpro on the same machine (Satellite Portégé laptop). It became blisteringly hot after a short while of normal usage, while a reboot into TPMB kept the temperature blissfully tolerable after, and during, even longer usage. Proof I guess of Puppy's superior efficiency - even given the smarter bootup/shutdown and app start times. The direct consequence is a longer-lasting laptop, not land-fill
(and not thighs given third-degree toastings at the expense of a battered battery)
4. Opera. While I have kept my operamail.com email account (now fastmail) going since I started using Opera in the late nineties, I gradually migrated to FF mainly because of the add-ons (e.g., Zotero). I found that accessing my olde account was a snap and I'm still exploring about the abilities of the new Opera. The learning curve is pretty painless and intuitive though, I must say, so I *might* be happy to give away the FF bloatware in due course. I can't see how I might have multiple copies of Opera-10 open simultaneously e.g., drag a FF tab to the desktop to open the separate window - and certainly not running on separate desktops. Is this Opera-specific or something constrained in TPMB?
5. Desktop management. I can't find where the particular 'trigger' is to enable easy dragging of an open window across virtual desktops (in jwm - see next point), when arranging mutliple applications being worked on simultaneously. This is true of all of my attempts in different pupplets where it isn't standard behaviour. Some sort of border binding? I really think that for use in netbooks, the functionality for flipping fluidly between windows in any wanted wm is foremost (though others fail to find it fruitful)
6. Spartan desktop. I might have missed it, but making the doppleganger switch from ICEwm to jwm isn't clear - especially if you aren't aware of the wm that you're currently in. Indeed I only stumbled across it trying to establish mutliple desktops in the ICEwm environment. Once I got into jwm, it was a doddle to configure the extra desktops - delightful to see a pinboard-less desktop default with panels for icons, apps and widgets well-positioned. Crucial for small-screen lappies, thankyou (!), and how I'm preferring to work in either netbook or wide-screen real estate.
7. Extraneous Applications. Now your point is certainly well made from the get-go - at least two applications with overlapping abilities are loaded with TEENpup, in case of hardware/kernel conflicts. Once the user is familiar with their preferred/functioning application (or has installed another preferred choice) - might you include something along the lines of "Remove built-in application", or uninstall options (is that difficult for Kapplications?)? I wouldn't know whether this would streamline performance if someone wanted a TPMB-lite, but at present it seems difficult to me to be able to remove unwanted apps, such as games...
8. Hope I'm not too contentious here, but the stock-standard Puppy Linux games are a tired selection. Potato-guy, Rubix cube, Sabre (totally borks the 3480CT ) Shisen-Sho etc are getting a bit passe. Yes, I'm aware that they are super-small, GPL etc. and avoid 3rd-party issues like java and flash... but if you could provide support/help for java/flash -based games (will they run "native" in Opera, for example?) that would be fabulous. Would that assist the user-friendly modularity that you've always been striving for, at the expense of unwanted 3rd-party bloat?
9. Have Frisbee, Will Travel? I haven't personally been successful with any non-Frisbee configuration of automatic eduRoam reconnection - which, due to my university requirements - is pretty essential. Will you consider including Frisbee / wi-fi encryption tunnelling functionality in the reboot?
10. Is there a bandwidth upload/download meter widget available (especially useful for us rural suckers on BigSwamp 3G wi-fi. Where are you, NBN??)?
So, in conclusion I hope I've been able to outline the yin/yang issues that I've been having with TPMB. Given my sliding-scale of interests and your specific audience I'm not sure what you might find particularly useful in my "wish list", especially as I haven't put most of the applications/options through the wringer in the time that I've had with it.
Despite my personal hiccups, TPMB has been an absolute pleasure to use - which I regret can't be said for many other best-intentioned pupplets that I've flirted with this last year.
Please Keep Up the Great Work!
* and partly to blame for me not getting around to LegacyOS2.0 - all my machines have partitions for mutliple frugal-installs of wind:(ws and P:)ppy, and I didn't get around to the full install preferred for your other project.