Puppy Linux

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Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux 4.00 with applications running
Website www.puppylinux.com
Company/
developer		 Barry Kauler, et al.
OS family Linux
Source model Open source
Latest stable release 4.00 "Dingo" / May 4, 2008 (2008-05-04); 38 days ago
Marketing target Live-CD and aged systems
Package manager PetGet
Kernel type Monolithic kernel (Linux)
Default user interface JWM
License various
Working state Current

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.[1]

Contents

[edit] 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:

Installing a version of Puppy on hard disk, USB disk, Zip disk, etc. can be done from live-Puppy or another existing installation.

[edit] GUI

Desktop with one of multiple integrated themes with XMMS, mtPaint and gxine running plus an opened text file under Puppy Linux 2.15 CE Viz (with default WM: IceWM)
Desktop with one of multiple integrated themes with XMMS, mtPaint and gxine running plus an opened text file under Puppy Linux 2.15 CE Viz (with default WM: IceWM)

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 Puppy Linux Wiki.

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[citation needed], there are a number of wizards that take the user through the process of a range of common tasks.

[edit] Package management and distribution management

Puppy 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.

[edit] History

SeaMonkey, AbiWord and MineSweeper running under Puppy Linux 2.13
SeaMonkey, AbiWord and MineSweeper running under Puppy Linux 2.13

Puppy Linux 3 features Slackware 12 compatibility.[2] This is accomplished by the inclusion of almost all the dependencies needed for the installation of Slackware packages. However, this does not mean that Puppy Linux is now a Slackware-based distribution.[3]

Puppy version 2.14 (86.5 MB) uses the Mozilla-based SeaMonkey as its Internet suite (primarily a web browser and e-mail client). It comes in different sized editions.

  • The standard edition uses AbiWord as the word processor and is 68 MB; a live-CD ISO file with Mozilla Firefox is 52.4 MB; with the full Mozilla suite it is 55.3 MB; with Opera it is 49.6 MB.
  • A 96.1 MB "Chubby Puppy" version includes the OpenOffice.org suite as well.
  • A 39.9 MB "BareBones Puppy" version contains no GUI,
  • and an 83 MB "zdrv" standard edition, which contains more kernel drivers and firmware.

Along with Morphix, Puppy Linux is one of the few Linux Live CD distributions able to save files to the Live CD itself (multisession), allowing users to carry data, and more importantly, added programs and customized settings, along with them in the CD. Puppy-multisession is 55.7 MB.

Puppy 1 series will run comfortably on very dated hardware.[clarify] For newer systems, the USB keydrive version might be better (although if USB device booting is not directly supported in the BIOS, the Puppy floppy boot disk can be used to kick-start it). It is possible to run Puppy Linux with Windows 9x/Windows Me. It is also possible, if the BIOS does not support booting from USB drive, to boot from the CD and keep user state on a USB keydrive; this will be saved on shutdown and read from the USB device on bootup.

[edit] List of Puppy Linux derivatives

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can (January 2008).

This is partially compiled list of the current derivatives in development according to List of Puppy Linux Derivatives Community Website and Ongoing Puplet Family Tree

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
DCL Xfce Based on 3.01 with Xfce 4.4.2 for everyday user 173
Digipup JWM Derivative customized for Ham radio users 97
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
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. Icepup website 60
KDEPuppy KDE Based on Puppy 1.07 and in alpha developmental stage 125
PuppyRus JWM Russian localized Puppy based v. 3.01 117

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kauler, Barry. Puppy Dingo 4.00 released.
  2. ^ Kauler, Barry. Puppy 3.00 Released (Updated to 3.01).
  3. ^ Kauler, Barry. Puppy Linux release notes v3.00.

[edit] See also

Free software Portal

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Linux distributions