Alternative Form Factors and how they relate to Puppy Linux

What works, and doesn't, for you. Be specific, and please include Puppy version.
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Q5sys
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Alternative Form Factors and how they relate to Puppy Linux

#1 Post by Q5sys »

Instead of spamming the forum everytime a product comes out that fits in one of these catagories, I figured it would make sense to have a single thread that we can discuss all of these alternative form factors. Not only general talk about these; but how (if at all) these can relate to PuppyLinux.
If you are aware of a form factor that has not been listed here, please post it so that it can be added and we can all talk about it

As more information is posted I Will update the Opening post to include that information.

This is a open community thread, so everyone is free to add input and to voice their opinion and discuss their thoughts on what everyone else has shared.


Desktop:

Laptop:

Workstation:

Netbook:

UMPC:

Phone:
Puppylinux on Phone/Tablets: the definitive thread

Tablet:
Puppylinux on Phone/Tablets: the definitive thread

TableTop Tablet: (basically a larger tablet)
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/cnet/a ... 604143.php

Dockable Tablet:
Transformer: a NEW kind of PC+Tablet+Laptop

AIO PC:

Server:

Cluster:

Google Glass:

TV:

starhawk
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Location: Everybody knows this is nowhere...

#2 Post by starhawk »

This promises to be a quite useful thread indeed... and a minor industry to keep up, given a certain member's tendency to pop up with all sorts of threads that will need to be indexed here. LOL.

Q5sys, I think you've quite got your work cut out for yourself... I hope you're up to it.

----------

In regard to netbooks, the Pupeee / Puppeee series is of particular note. They're for the EeePC netbooks specifically, of course, and a bit out of date, but IIRC they're the only Puplets specifically for a line of netbooks.

Those with non-EeePC netbooks could use Fluppy 011/013 or Saluki/Carolina. Fluppy (and I believe Saluki and Carolina) are useful on most laptops as well.

I hope jemimah's OK... I'm sure that I'm not the only one missing her presence here! (Last I heard on here, she was in a really sucky but otherwise nonspecific job that paid the bills but kept her away from dev work...)

For computers of all kinds with Poulsbo graphics, I would point people to Upup Raring 387 and its eventual successors. (@Pemasu: is Upup Raring intended to replace Upup Precise 3831? For now I assume so...) It works beautifully, where the mainline Puppies unfortunately currently do not. I'm running Upup Raring 387 on an Axiomtek PICO820 board with Poulsbo now -- it's not my main system but the goal is that it eventually will be -- as well as my final switch over to Puppy for as much as I can.

PupPi can be altered to work with the original (A10 based) MK802 stick PC, so probably deserves an honorable mention in the TV category.

Also -- there is an XOPup I've seen for the OLPC laptops, which are odd enough to deserve a category of their own IMO. I've not used XOPup though, since I don't have the hardware for it.

One other thing -- for properly archaic systems (Pentium II or early Pentium III) I would have to recommend pUPnGO 2012 Plus Extras. I've got it (mostly) working on The Infernal Dell aka a Dell Latitude CPi D300XT. That's 1999 hardware! Oooooooooooold junk, LOL. That said, that particular Puplet on that particular hardware is remarkably peppy. (I can cough up the specs of that laptop if needed.)

Hope I've been helpful here :)

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Q5sys
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#3 Post by Q5sys »

starhawk wrote:This promises to be a quite useful thread indeed... and a minor industry to keep up, given a certain member's tendency to pop up with all sorts of threads that will need to be indexed here. LOL.

Q5sys, I think you've quite got your work cut out for yourself... I hope you're up to it.

My hope is that instead of people making a new thread for each new product we an just post the information here and keep the forum organized and not have information scattered all over the place.
Ill add in your thoughts into the main post later today.

jamesbond
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#4 Post by jamesbond »

Puppy's already on desktop, laptop, and netbook, and there it feels a badly needed niche. I will list a few that seems like easy targets:

---

Once upon a time I used Fatdog as a "VM" server, on a server-class machine. I installed VirtualBox there, add a web-interface for VirtualBox, an voila we have a server. Fatdog is well suited because:
a) can schedule to up 32 CPUs
b) can access unlimited RAM
c) lightweight.
Setting it up is a matter of minutes (it took longer for the server to boot up than to setup Fatdog + VirtualBox on it) :lol: Of course, the server was only for a private network and in the hands of a friendly users; otherwise a serious security review would be necessary 8)

---

Alternatively, we can go for the cluster machines. Puppy's small size (and ease of installation + boot from various media) is ideal as an OS for independent "smart" node in a cluster (either shared-nothing architecture, or shared-disk, etc).

---

Virtualised desktops were (are they still are?) the rage. Puppy is ideal for this as its small footprint (both memory and disk), and it comes with a ready-made day-to-day apps. One can setup read-only shared disk for SFS-es so every desktop automatically have access to it. In fact, I think someone has already done this but don't bother to post in the forum :)

---

Others, though, it is not an easy target to break through, as many threads (some of them have sadly been deleted! :evil: ) have pointed. I may sound like a broken record, but the points are always:
a) what's the point of having puppy there?
b) who's going to do the hard work? (Talk is both easy and cheap, creating / maintaining a distro is hard and time-killing).

About b), starhawk raises a good point: even within the "desktop" class, there are many subclasses - very old, old, not-so-old, recent, rather-new, very-new, BIG desktop (like Q5sys' :lol: ), etc, and one puppy cannot rule them all. Yet, every puppy variant is managed by different person(s) - for the simple reason that Barry can't (and isn't interested) to cover all of them.

That being said, some of the newfangled form factors borders on the ridiculous - I can't wait to see how they will pan out in the next couple of years regardless of the support from many manufacturers today. For example, the only place I can see for tabletops are "information kiosks" or some sort of "industrial control pads", or may be "interactive whiteboards" for schools, and I'm willing to bet that those are as far market penetration these tabletops can go.
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nooby
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#5 Post by nooby »

q5sys that is a very good initiative we only have to found
a way to make people get aware of this thread.

Could be me not a native user of English but the title

Alternative Form Factors

does not sound like many would know what it is about? Am I wrong?

I don't criticize the need for this thread I am 100% supporting it
I am not sure that the title make people find it. Very few would get it?
without reading it and would they really do that?

Had I not seen that it is you starting it then I would not have read it.
I trust you take up important things so I got curious and very surprised
that the title Alternative Form Factors was about what the text says.
I would never have guessed.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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