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Puppy Linux
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Puppy Linux is a Live CD Linux distribution that is very small and focuses on ease of use. If the computer has at least 256 MB of RAM, the entire operating system and all the applications will run from RAM, allowing the boot medium to be removed after the operating system starts. Applications such as SeaMonkey, AbiWord, Gnumeric, and Gxine/xine are included. The distribution is actively developed by Barry Kauler and other active members of the community.
The latest release is 4.00, released on 2008-05-04.
Features
Puppy can be useful for working on old computers, as an emergency rescue system, as a Linux demonstration system, or as a complete general purpose operating system. It can boot from:
- A USB flash drive/keydrive or any other bootable USB storage device (flash-Puppy)
- A CD-ROM (live-Puppy), with six flavours to choose from.
- A Zip drive or LS-120/240 SuperDisk (zippy-Puppy)
- An internal hard drive (hard-Puppy)
- A computer network (thin-Puppy)
- An emulator (emulated-puppy)
- A floppy boot disk that loads the rest of the operating system from a USB drive, CD-ROM, or internal hard drive
Installing a version of Puppy on hard disk, USB disk, Zip disk, etc. can be done from live-Puppy or another existing installation.
A unique feature that sets Puppy Linux apart from other Linux distributions is the ability to run a normal working environment on a write-once CD. (It does not require a rewritable CD.) Puppy automatically detects changes in the file system and saves them incrementally on the CD. When the CD is full, users can easily switch to a new CD while carrying over all their files and desktop environment. While other distributions offer Live CD versions of the operating system, they do not allow the programs to be permanently added nor do they allow files to be written to the CD.
Puppy Linux also features sophisticated write-caching system designed to extend the life of USB flash drives that Puppy Linux runs from.
GUI
Puppy comes with a choice of 2 graphical servers: X.org (full-featured) and Xvesa (lightweight). A wizard during the start-up process guides the user through setting up a graphical server appropriate for their video card & monitor. At the end of the wizard the user will be presented with a desktop and window manager; the default WM in most Puppy releases is JWM. The 2.15 Community Edition provides the IceWM manager by default.
DotPup packages of the IceWM desktop, Fluxbox and Enlightenment are also available via a link on the .
When the operating system boots, everything in the Puppy package uncompresses into a RAM area, the "ramdisk". The PC needs to have at least 128 MB of RAM (with no more than 8 MB shared video) for all of Puppy to load into the ramdisk. However, it is possible for it to run on a PC with only about 48 MB of RAM because part of the system can be kept on the hard drive, or in the worst case, left on the CD.
Puppy is fairly full-featured for a system that runs entirely in a ramdisk; applications were chosen that met various constraints, size in particular. Because one of the aims of the distribution is to be extremely easy to set up, there are a number of wizards that take the user through the process of a range of common tasks.
Package management and distribution managementPuppy Linux comes with a specific package manager called PetGet. An older kind of packages, DotPup, were used in previous versions of the system and are still compatible.
Puppy Unleashed is available for creating a custom live CD. It consists of more than 500 packages that are put together according to the user's needs.
Puppy also comes with a remaster tool that takes a snapshot of the current system and creates a remastered live-CD from it.
Puppy Linux uses the T2 SDE build scripts to build the base binary packages.
List of Puppy Linux derivativesThis is partially compiled list of the current derivatives in development according to and
>| Name | Window Manager | Description | Size MB | | NOP | Xfce | Based on 3.01. Uses Opera instead of Seamonkey and does not include Abiword by default. | 120 | | Barebones | None | Puppy 1.0.3 for slow connections that uses the dillo browser (no Firefox, Opera or Mozilla) and notably does not include Abiword | 40 | | BioPuppy | JWM | Puplet for Bio-informatics learners and beginners to Linux OS with pre-installed biology tools. BioPuppy site | 180 | | DCL | Xfce | Based on 3.01 with Xfce 4.4.2 for everyday user | 173 | | Digipup | JWM | Derivative customized for Ham radio users | 97 | | DingoPlus | JWM | A customised version of Puppy 4 for the Asus Eeepc. | 255 | | DragonPup | Xfce | Used Fatfree Puppy to created a stylish, Xfce-based puplet with Firefox, The GIMP, multimedia | 108 | | EcoPup | JWM? | Beta with Firefox 2 and OpenOffice 2 zipped up (for use once installed) rather than preloaded | 668 | | eBoxPup | JWM? | Alpha Puppy for the eBox 2300 with Opera | 57 | | EduPup | JWM? | Puppy 2.11 with other kid's software such as: TuxType2, TuxMath, GcompriS (also with Italian sounds), SuperTux - and TuxPaint (with tuxpaint-ConfiG and TuxStamp). | 166 | | E-PUP | JWM | Chinese localized Puppy 2.17 . | 110 | | Empty Crust | JWM | Very modular - Stripped away Puppy | 45 | | eXpand Barbie | JWM | Puplet for women with Xfce, StumbleUpon and 60+ links to flash games online including Bubbles. | 245 | | eXpand DOFUS | JWM | Puplet based around playing the MMORPG DOFUS. Includes many other programs as well for a complete web environment. Based on Puppy 2.14 and made by lvds. | 263 | | Fat Free | JWM | 2.17 cutdown to add your own pets | 51 | | Fire Hydrant | JWM | Firefox, flash, java, plus thunderbird, sunbird and lightning so you can get your mail and your calendar in one app. plus icewm, and 19 themes, a few new games in the firefox tool menu, xmms with a Sony skin, Limewire, shutterbug, Gimpshop, Yahoo messenger, aMSN messenger,etc a lot was added and no scripts removed. | 192 | | Gamepup | Xfce | Very early alpha aimed at games | 125 | | GrafPup | Xfce | Customized for graphic designers and other imaging professionals with current versions of Gimp, Cinepaint, Inkscape, and Scribus. Also has 397MB deluxe version | 80 | | Hacao | IceWM | Hacao is Vietnamese. The project's purpose is a complete, yet lightweight operating system that can run on low-specification computers. The entire user interface of Hacao has been translated into Vietnamese. | 80 | | Icepup | JWM | Minimalist puplet with wired and wireless network support. Firefox, Leafpad and VI Console Editor are the only applications present. | 60 | | KDEPuppy | KDE | Based on Puppy 1.07 and in alpha developmental stage | 125 | | PuppyRus | JWM | Russian localized Puppy based v. 3.01 | 117 | | Tmxxine | JWM, IceWM, Xfce | Various configurations (Prism, Rainbow, Shard, Vision) for specialized scenarios. | 333MB or less | |
See also
External links - *
- , - A tutorial on running Puppy Linux using Q to emulate it, before transferring it to a 256MB+ USB memory stick.
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