Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

darkstrike

Hi all - I've got an older Pentium IV machine with a 1.6ghz processor, 768mbs of RAM, and a 128mb video card. Currently it's running Lucid 5.2.8 and I'm quite pleased with it as such....all tweaked the way I like Smile

I've been taking a look at Precise in a VM and like it, but I was thinking, would there be any performance difference between it and Lucid? I don't want to upgrade to have my machine slow down because of some new aspect of Precise that works less efficiently on an older machine.

Thoughts?

mini-jaguar · Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 577

Well, Precise won't run most Lucid software. If you use basic programs like gimp and open office, you'll have no problems finding equivalents though.

If you just have a frugal install of Lucid it shouldn't be that much of a problem to try out Precise either, providing you have a gig or so left on your hd. Just make a folder, open the .iso and copy the vmlinuz, initrd and .sfs file into the folder, copy the menu entry of lucid and change the title and folder name and save. Check to see the names match, I'm not 100% sure but I think Precise uses an unusual extension for the initrd, not .gz.

Simple and you don't have to burn a CD.

darkstrike · Posted: Wed 23 Jan 2013, 13:21 Post subject:

Won't run most Lucid software? Hmmm...most of the programs I have installed are fairly common and I got a lot of them from the forums. I thought Precise and Lucid were both able to read Ubuntu packages? That's where some of the programs I used came from...

Skype, LibreOffice, Firefox....things like that.

As it is an older machine though (and sorry for asking as I am at work atm and don't have Precise with me to check), would Precise still able to run that Youtube Downloader program I've seen on the forums? (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1224664179&t=76835)

Youtube videos are a bit laggy on that machine under Lucid in Firefox, but they play fine through that Youtube Downloader/Viewer Smile

EDIT - Another thought; I currently actually run a Full Install of Lucid on that machine. Would running Precise as a Frugal install make a large performance difference as well? I'd love to cram every bit of omph I can out of it, haha!

RSH · Joined: 05 Sep 2011 Posts: 2420 Location: Germany

darkstrike · Posted: Wed 23 Jan 2013, 13:37 Post subject:

Thanks RSH - I actually knew that, I just was assuming most of Puppy's lighter apps were compatible with both and also, to use your example, most WinXP programs will work in Vista or Win7, so I was also assuming that Puppy would be backwards compatible as well Smile

Any examples of apps that won't work in Precise but work in Lucid?

I think I'll install Precise to a separate partition tonight after I get off work and see how I make out setting it up the way I want to....if I can remember the multitude of tiny changes I made to Lucid! Razz

RSH · Joined: 05 Sep 2011 Posts: 2420 Location: Germany

Yes.

I have tried the Openshot and the DVDStyler from Precise (to be found in Forum Multimedia) in my LazY Puppy (Lucid based). Didn't work.

starhawk · Posted: Wed 23 Jan 2013, 14:29 Post subject:

On the hardware end of things... that Pentium 4 sounds like a first-generation model ("Willamette" core), which could be a Socket 423 CPU. That socket is well known for its poor electrical characteristics...

...and ALL the Pentium 4 CPUs were power hogs on a grand scale. (...and really only did good things with multimedia tasks -- anything else bogs them down.)

You might consider upgrading to a Pentium M based setup -- while Pentium 4s can consume upwards of 100 watts by themselves, Pentium M stuff never gets above 35 watts -- and performs far better overall.

mini-jaguar · Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 577