Puppy gets some stick at Distrowatch

[marksouth2000]

Puppy received a not-very-flattering evaluation from the creators of DSL in the interview published today in Distrowatch Weekly:

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20060508&mode=1

Seems like they haven't looked at Puppy since about 0.6, and they don't seem aware of any of its independent innovations.

You may recognise the handle of one of the people who commented on that page, BTW

[Lobster]

There was a time when I thought that merging Puppy / DSL and Austrumi would be a good idea.
Now I am not so sure.

DSL-N is really very similar to Puppy but not . . .
I think the article was about DSL and therefore I would not expect them to praise other distros. They also thought most Linux distros "big gorrillas" . . . so . . . LOL . . .

I have regularly viewed DSL but decided to NOT download DSL-N because it was so similar in the choosen packages to Puppy. Change to JWM as the WM for DSL and it is more Puppy like. They also use Lua which I think is a great idea and innovation but no one here has expressed an interest.

I would save your wrath for the MS Mafia. DSL are just our friendly Linux cyber neighbours. We should learn what we can from them . . . that is the smart thing to do . . .

What do others think?

[raffy]

Robert:

Their target of ex-Window users is certainly vast and growing due to the discontinued support of older versions of Windows.

John:

I am happy that Puppy exists... I don't think we have the same target audience... Puppy crams a lot of software into a very tight space.

Those are not only truthful but also helpful and friendly words. These gentlemen are entitled to some fun bones

I also saw Mark South, Lobster, and Khlrevolutionist, among other enthusiasts, in the comments section. Thanks to your efforts to publish the virtues of Puppy.

[peppyy]

It is always great to see the community gracefully support this distro. I have certainly tried both and prefer Puppy for several reasons. A different approach is exactly what I was looking for when I left windows behind and I don't really understand the comment that was made about hardware support. "DSL is made to be light and have broad hardware support." It really is a close call when you test on as many machines as I do. I suppose that it is a matter of which distro you are more familliar with when setting up non standard hardware. At last check I believe Puppy 1.0.8 had very nice hardware support and that has only gotten better with with the 2.6 kernel in 2.0. Both of course have their strong points.

I would love to see a side-by-side comparison done someday by an independant who knows nothing about linux but I suppose that would be a bit unfair since Puppy is a bit more nubee friendly.

[rarsa]

I found that the interview focused, appropriatelly, 99% on DSL.

The small mention to Puppy was actually a good thing. DSL is at # 6 so having the interviewer mentioning Puppy gives more credibility for those that haven't tried it.

I don't think its a topic for Distro wars. Most of us have tried DSL and preferred Puppy.

I am sure that there is a full group of people that tried puppy but prefered DSL and that's OK. Windows is in that mess for trying to be everything to everyone.

I'm sure that the mention along with the upcomming anonucement of 109 will make Puppy jump a place or two on DistroWatch

[muffinhead]

I was very opposed to what William Johnson said about not being able to afford a new computer to run the larger distros.

What happens if the only internet service available in your area was 56k dial-up? I would rather download a 50-60 megabyte iso, than spending ages trying to download a 600 megabyte Plus distro, which infact this is my current situation, in fact my computer can run every distro of Linux out there, as I'm currently running windows XP, and Puppy on a 2.66 ghz machine with 1 gig of ram, I just choose puppy because it is a small efficent, and darn good Linux distro.

I was never interested in linux before, until I tried puppy, I had tried DSL Previosly than puppy, but the interface and desktop, was a little scuzzy, and didn't suit my taste, while puppy did, after being a windows user all my life I found it quite easy with minimal help, to learn and use Puppy.

I know the article was about DSL-N, But Puppy is my b***h, it works for me, rather than me working for it (No offence meant ) , and hopefully in the future Linux will get more support from developers, rather than always windows getting all the support.

And about not being able to afford a new computer, Now I live in america, yet that does'nt mean because you live in america, work is easy to come by, especially in my area. My father went to college for two years, graduated, and still he gets rejection letters from employers, he has ove 25-28 years work experience, and has shown nothing but dedication to his jobs and work. He ends up getting injured and has to collect disability. and we Just find out a bank seized and froze thier account, making them unable to take anything out of the bank, for interest on a car, that the warrenty was not honored, and they are demanding 10,000 dollars, which we don't have, before they unfreeze my parents bank account.

Yes, I'm an adult living with my parents, due to a certain situation, and complications, I don't have a Job. It doesn't mean if you live in america, you have money, or it's "That" easy to get a job.

Sorry about my useless rambling, this is all I have to say, please don't criticise, or be harsh, I guess I'm looking for answers as to why my family is cursed with bad luck, bad outcomes, and misfortunes, I know this isn't the proper place to discuss this, and I apologize

[Pizzasgood]

I was very opposed to what William Johnson said about not being able to afford a new computer to run the larger distros.

Shoot, I'm not opposed, I'm downright offended. I get ticked off when people start assuming other people can afford things like that. And even if we can, why should we? Sure, I could afford to spend $5 on a candy bar, but that doesn't mean I will. Why should I pay when I don't need to? Bah. And you're right about the downloading problem too. That's the main reason I initially chose Puppy. I didn't start using it regularly until we got DSL (the internet connection, not OS), though, because it didn't like my winmodem. And before someone gets onto winmodems, hey, I didn't choose it. This pc was a doner from my uncle, because my family couldn't afford a 2GHz computer then. You try being a single mom supporting three kids (I was one of the kids, not the mom ). Personally, I'd rather have cable, DSL, and this old computer running Puppy than a 2GHz computer. Besides, Puppy is faster than the big distros period. I can't imagine how fast it will be on the machine I'm going to build after summer vacation (fears of theft and my thirst for power have led me to opt for pc over laptop and I got some scholarship money that will go towards it, so I'm gonna build my Puppy a castle )

Keep up the good work Barry. Puppy all the way!

[Caraibes]

[quote=
I would love to see a side-by-side comparison done someday by an independant who knows nothing about linux but I suppose that would be a bit unfair since Puppy is a bit more nubee friendly.[/quote]

I definitly prefer Puppy, even though I usually download and test DSL every once in a while, when there's a significant change...

As a matter of fact, Elive seems to me more interesting than DSL...

However, one thing to answer to the above quote : side by side Puppy and DSL, Puppy wins on everything, except one (major) issue : sound works absolutely great in DSL (and Austrumi), while it doesn't work in PUPPY (neither in Dyne:Bolic1.4.1, nor in Elive...)

Anyway, at the end of the day, I think it is positive to have various distros, various visions, various teams... No big deal if there's a little distro war, it is only good fun...

[GeoffS]

Don't knock puppy sound - I run sound under puppy 1.08 on a Thinkpad 600E, an AMD Athlon based desktop, and an old K6 based desktop. All achieved with absolutely no effort on my part, it just worked 'straight out of the box'.
I know some people have had problems but it can work well.
I've had problems getting sound to work under windows with odd cards etc.
Geoff

[Caraibes]

Geoffs, I get your point, and my critics abound sound problems are being posted here as a constructive feedback.

I know that since about 2 years, most of my posts in the Puppy forum mention at least a bit the sound problem for all of us, Via 82xxx chipset users in the world....

But keep in mind that I take the time to defend my point because I am a partisan of Puppy, so it is in all friendship...

[tempestuous]

side by side Puppy and DSL, Puppy wins on everything, except one (major) issue : sound works absolutely great in DSL (and Austrumi), while it doesn't work in PUPPY

As discussed in this thread www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic.php?t=7588 it appears that the snd-intel8x0 ALSA driver in Puppy 1.0.8/1.0.9 is faulty.
I hope visitors to this thread don't get the impression that Puppy's audio fails to work "out-of-the-box" based on the situation with this particular driver.

Puppy2 has a different version of the ALSA drivers which I think are fine.

[Caraibes]

By the way, let me give you some feedback on my test-drive of DyneII (the new version of Dyne:Bolic) : SOUND WORKS !!!

However, Puppy is one of my favorite OS (maybe THE favorite...), so I really need sound to work. And as mentioned in some of my other posts, it is not anymore an issue of buying a PCI soundcard, since a major amount of end-users in the world have Via 82xxx integrated chipset, or Sis chipset...

There

[Kal]

Hi, Caraibes
Just as interest to you, I seemed to have the same sound problem as you on the VIA motherboards. Switched to a PCI SB sound card a few days, before you found that solution. Testing the Puppy2 with the 2.6 Kernel, I turn on the onboard sound to find out if it worked, and it did. Very Pleased, Kal

[Caraibes]

Kal,
that seems to be a good news... It is high times for me to test the Puppy2 as well...
Will do it sometimes during the week and post feedback in the forum...

[peppyy]

I had sound on 6 of my machines that I tested, 2 laptops and 4 desktops, PI PII PIII P4 celeron and K6-2 mmx with both 2.0a7 and 1.0.9b2. First time I heard the bark bark XORG has also solved the neomagic problems on my older laptops along with a couple other minor issues.

I just booted to a new version of dsl on a 600e and was not impressed. I won't go into details but I didn't have the patience to deal with so many setting changes before I could use it. I probably have 30 live distros on cd and none have performed as admirably as Puppy, period.

[justinflavin]

for pure eye-candy , the latest Austrumi takes some beating - with its Enlightenment DR17 window manager. its gobsmacking how the E17 team has managed to put so much eye candy into so few megabytes. i know E17 isnt a reflection of the underlying distro - but Austrumi is the only one , so far, with E17 as a default - so at about 50 meg, its very handy if you just want to give E17 a test drive ( or maybe show it off to your friends..)

but for pure package selection/tool/menu layout , and just , ease of use - Puppy beats DSL , in my view. its the little things - like that WAG wireless app, or that "disks" app for mounting drives. but they all add up to a distro thats very useful and powerful , yet remaining tiny compared to the KDE/Gnome bloatware of the major distros.