Puppy vs Mint: how do they compare?

[Yoni]

Be Gentle with me as i'm still a Windows users at the moment looking to change over to Linux.

Can anyone give me the Pros and Cons between Puppy Vs Mint as both have been suggested to me.

People have said Puppy is better for older hardware and Mint is best on newer hardware but there must be more to it than that surely?

Hope it's ok to ask for a comparison on here.

[neerajkolte]

Hi Yoni,
Just I am just using linux for 3 months.
I choose Puppy for it's small size.
As I feel for everyday work you don't need heavy programs.
My machine is quite new one Intel i3 with 6Gb ram.
At first I was overwhelmed by sheer number of Puplets available.
It was hard to choose. I selected Fatdog64 for it's a 64bit OS.
Now that I have never booted in my windows7 on my hard disk.

Puppy-
1) Is small sized.

2) Can install ubuntu or slackware or Debian packages easily depending on what Pup you use.

3) Runs entirely in RAM. So it's Blazingly fast.
My Fatdog64 from clicking power on button boots from my old usb stick in 17sec flat to desktop!
It's like having SSD installed when I don't have one.

4) Installing puppy is simple, write ISO to CD or DVD and Boot from it. or Install it to any USB stick. or install it to hard drive.

5) No need to format your drive to ext2/3/4, you can use existing windows partition.

This is not a comparison as I didn't use Mint.

But I have downloaded Mint 17 rc isos.

I will be running them inside my Fatdog64 in virtualisation software.
I have ran Windows7 and Ubuntu this way they ran quite smoothly.
( I use KVM-Qemu but I also have installed and used Virtual Box).

So in short If my work gets done by small and fast Distro I would never go for bigger one.

But that's just my opinion.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

-Neeraj

[Yoni]

Thanks Neeraj

Fatdog64 , lol , another new one to consider

[neerajkolte]

Fatdog64 is just a Puppy in 64 bit.

If you want 32bit I would recommend
Puppy Precise 5.7.1 ( based on ubuntu precise youcan install software directly from ubuntu repos)
Or
Slacko 5.7 ( Based on slackware)

There are so many more even some special purpose like ArcadePup(The name is explanatory) ....


For 64bit

Fatdog64 ( based on T2)
OR
Lighthouse64 (based on slackware)
OR
Slacko64 (again based on slackware)

Happy hunting

[Blackfish]

I started out with UBUNTU and it didn't quite cut it for me. MINT is AWESOME. I have been using Linux since January 2014, so I am a newbie, too. I have at least twenty five different distros on my CD/DVD stack and have ripped into every single one of them. Every single one of them is great. I have no complaints.

I was an XP guy, wondering what to do about the fact that Microsoft would no longer support it come April 2014. I remembered I had tried some Linux many years ago and thought I would check into it again. I went to the electronics store and found a magazine with a disc and various versions of UBUNTU on it. I bought it, brought it home, wiped Windows off my hard drive in the very first install, and I haven't looked back or regretted it. I will never go back to Windows. I should have been doing Linux all along.

The trick with Linux, to my mind anyway, is to simply work various distros until you find what works for you. What works for others, might not work for you and vice-versa. It all depends on your needs and desires.

This is my favorite Linux distro of them all:
Precise-retro-sp1
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lxpup/files/LxPup14.02/

It's the best Pup in the world. I install it to a USB stick, boot it from a USB stick, do all my work from the USB stick, and save all my files on the Internet and on the USB stick. It's the simplest thing in the world.

I also have it installed on my hard drive and use it to download images of all the other Linux distros I try out and burn them on to CD/DVD. It does everything I need.

I am a minimalist and I am very practical by nature. The smaller and the more stable the distro the better. The less money I have to spend on computer equipment the better. Right now, I am running three old 32-bit laptops and this Pup runs like a clock on every single one of them. It has never failed me or even so much as flickered for that matter. You can't beat that.

My advice to you is simple: try every Linux distro you can get your hands on until you find the one you love.

[session]

Puppy and Mint are about as user-friendly as Linux gets but that comes from different things: Puppy from its vibrant community and encompassing nature, Mint from its refinement and emphasis on traditional UI metaphors. I will argue that the Mate desktop (read:Linux Mint) is pretty speedy on some older hardware, and some pups run exceptionally well on newer hardware.

[mikeb]

pic and mix.... if you get away from the constraints of what someone else has built a world of choice opens up.
My daily linux is based on slax with xfce4 but has lumps of puppy in there and debian supplies the libraries...works nicely and is more complete than pups are for core linux stuff. You might like porteus.

If you dabble in compiling then there are more options again...... creating a system around you (linux friendly) hardware will give you the best results.
Windows lacks these fun options and all you really have is bloat and virus friendly software removal but pure choice seems to be something that cannot be bought.

mike

[Yoni]

Thanks for the feedback

I'm loving Fatdog64

The only thing i'm finding highly frustrating is that a single click doesn't seem to do anything and a double click opens two windows.

And the Mouse Wheel in FireFox is useless and hardly moves the page.

[infromthepound]

I prefer Mint to Ubuntu, but I think the latest Zorin is even better. Don't bother with the light version though, it's had too much stuff left out or changed.
I like Phat Slacko, Magoo, Fat Dog or Legacy, depending what I am doing.
JB

[Blackfish]

Thanks for the feedback

I'm loving Fatdog64

The only thing i'm finding highly frustrating is that a single click doesn't seem to do anything and a double click opens two windows.

And the Mouse Wheel in FireFox is useless and hardly moves the page.

I don't have a 64 bit machine lying around here, otherwise I'd be taking Fat Dog out for a stroll. Fer sure.

Click once and wait. Maybe you're going too fast.

Fat Dog also has Sea Monkey browser. You can give that a shot and see how you like it. It's my favorite browser.

[neerajkolte]

Thanks for the feedback

I'm loving Fatdog64

The only thing i'm finding highly frustrating is that a single click doesn't seem to do anything and a double click opens two windows.

And the Mouse Wheel in FireFox is useless and hardly moves the page.

I am using Fatdog for last 3 months. I never came across these problems.
Please ask for solutions on Fatdog's thread HERE The experts and regular users there might have answers.

[Sky Aisling]

Hi Yoni,
Welcome to Puppy!
You might want to learn more about Linux.
There is a free online class being offered this summer.
http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... is-summer/

I've used both Puppy and Mint.
Mint is pleasant and has good forum support.
Puppy is fast, effective, versatile and way more fun in my opinion.

[Al1000]

I started out with UBUNTU and it didn't quite cut it for me. MINT is AWESOME. I have been using Linux since January 2014, so I am a newbie, too. I have at least twenty five different distros on my CD/DVD stack and have ripped into every single one of them. Every single one of them is great. I have no complaints.

I was an XP guy, wondering what to do about the fact that Microsoft would no longer support it come April 2014. I remembered I had tried some Linux many years ago and thought I would check into it again. I went to the electronics store and found a magazine with a disc and various versions of UBUNTU on it. I bought it, brought it home, wiped Windows off my hard drive in the very first install, and I haven't looked back or regretted it. I will never go back to Windows. I should have been doing Linux all along.

I have also recently ventured into Linux with my only previous experience being briefly trying Knoppix a few years ago, and I can totally relate to what you say. I also tried Ubuntu first and wasn't particularly impressed, and only came across Puppy when I was looking for a ''live'' Linux system that could boot my laptop so that I could manually delete a folder I had inadvertently downloaded that contained a virus. That was all I wanted it for at the time, but since then I've used it more than anything else! I was so impressed with Puppy on my laptop, that I decided to install a Linux system that wasn't Ubuntu on my desktop pc. Mint 16 seemed like the obvious choice, and I also think it's awesome.

Although I confess that I have only got around to using Linux as a dual-boot system and still use XP, but I am gradually migrating. XP is habitual more than anything else, whereas Linux is addictive!

BTW I appreciate the link to puppy-retro. I had never heard of that one before so will download and try it out now.

Yoda, my suggestion is to try Puppy out and see what you think, rather than deciding between it and Mint. Although Puppy can be installed to a hard drive, it's designed to be used as a ''live'' operating system. All you need is a blank CD and an ISO burner. If you don't have an ISO burner (which BTW comes as standard with Puppy) for Windows, I highly recommend this one. It's free including of spyware, and small and simple enough as to require no installation.

I have one 16GB USB stick with various 'pupsave' and other files, and various CDs containing various versions of Puppy. All I do is put whatever one I want to use into the CD/DVD drive... boot the computer and the drivers needed to access the hardware load from CD, then everything else loads from and is saved to USB. If your computer is more modern and can boot from USB, you wouldn't need the CD. Or the other option is to use Puppy as a multi-session CD or DVD if you don't plan on installing much, in which case you wouldn't need the USB.

I would just bear in mind that Puppy is a tiny operating system compared to something like Mint. While you might find it does everything you want, OTOH you might find some limitations.

I also agree with the opinion of the above poster. ''Pleasant'' is a good word to describe Mint, while Puppy is more ''fun.''

[bigpup]

Yoni,

What are the computer specs?

[Yoni]

Please ask for solutions on Fatdog's thread HERE The experts and regular users there might have answers.

Will do , Thanks

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Thanks for the feedback.

Yoni,

What are the computer specs?

Gigabyte Matx

I3 2100

4gb DDR3 Corsair Ram

Microsoft 5 button Optical Mouse