that there is no accurate way to measure the popularity of freely given, freely acquired softwareBruce B wrote: What to make of this change in number from 10 to
number 8?
perhaps if everyone running a server were to count iso downloads . . .
Mr Henderson wrote:Dogle's inital point is worth
revisiting: that most Puppy forum members fade away,
and this might correspond to members ceasing to use
Puppy after an initial trial.
{text cut for brevity}
Why can't people look at the box? If it specificallyMr Henderson wrote:The only suggestion I can make is
that Puppy's limitations should be presented to potential
users before they even download an ISO. For instance,
looking through the forum discussions on wireless cards
(an area where I've had a bit of a struggle) it seems that
many can only be got working properly under Ndiswrapper.
It would be better to explain this clearly, and reassuringly,
from the outset. A clear and up-to-date list of
problem-free cards would be helpful too. No doubt this
would put off some potential users, but it would produce
the maximum proportion of satisfied users.
So a friend of mine, innocently looking over my shoulder,bugman wrote: perhaps if everyone running a server were to count iso
downloads . . .
Well bear in mind there are people fleeing Vista right now. Returning to XP or eventually trying Linux.n01fu wrote:so maybe the big issue is that people arent just as used to linux as winxp.
idk, just a thought...
I did not say or imply anything about proselytising. However, you may want to look at the forum thread subtitled 'Promote Puppy'.Are we proselytisers?
If so, then more questions, such as: Why? How? When?
It is difficult to respond to this part of the post as it is not entirely clear whether you agree or disagree with me. We are in agreement that it would be good if information was more accessible, yet you are scornful of people who have problems because the information is not easy to find. Perhaps you are saying that the main problem with Puppy is that it gets used by the incorrect type of person. A defensible position, but if true, I had better go back to Windows.Square pegs in round holes? What possesses people to do
such things?
Certainly, as you suggest, an up to date list of supported
hardware would be nice!
I agree. I myself have been using puppy for a while, but really had no need to post here much, as everything works great. I do most of my "chatting" elsewhere. But I will make a point of coming here more often.Béèm wrote:It's not because someone don't post that he doesn't uses the product. If he is satisfied and has no problems.
Yea I used Puppy 2.(don't remember) awhile ago and had a very similar experience with a wired PCMCIA ethernet card. No problem in 4.2, Puppy is reallly growing up. 4.2 is almost everything I need and runs much faster than other ditros/oses. The whole hardware/driver thing is very intimidating for new users. I am glad a lot of that is being worked out.popeye wrote: I have tried Puppy of couple of times in the past but stopped because it was too difficult to get my hardware working (as a newbie I can't always follow the the explanations in the forum or the explanations just don't work as described). Puppy 4.2 is the first version that recognizes all my laptop hardware. Having said this I tried to install it on my new family computer and the wireless card was not recognized. Once I swapped out the new card for the old one all was fine but many newbies would be afraid to do this.
True that, after a few years of using Linux I am beginning to understand terminal commands a little (I've learned a few things the past couple weeks trying to repair my Ubuntu install after upgrading to 9.04 ). I think it would be worth breaking the 100MB limit to make things a little more graphical. From what I understand the Geany Vala thing can create really small but nice GUI tools, right?Also not having had any formal computer training, using the command line is somewhat challenging. Many of the explanations in the forum make assumptions / expectations that the reader is familiar with Linux commands. For most of us this is not true. Instead what us newbies do is type in exactly the code we find on the forum pages and if this doesn't work we more than likely give up and go back to whatever system we were using before.
I have two XP partitions, an Ubuntu partition and a Frugal install of Boxpup 413. One of the xp partitions is for gaming and playing around, the other one I don't even have the network enabled on because i use it strictly as a DAW. I use Ubuntu or Puppy for everything else. I have been trying to use Puppy more and more but my girlfriend (a Mac person without a working Mac) prefers ubuntu. When i get home from work the comp is always booted into Ubuntu. Sorry I'm rambling but my point is she likes it because of the interface and i like it because of the package manager. These are two places I think that Puppy could improve.I was lucky and it worked but if it hadn't I most likely would have gone back to Ubuntu.
I don't like ROX either. Try boxpup 413 if you havent already the default file manager is Thunar. Since it came out I haven't used any other puplets.I am having a hard time adjusting to ROX and haven't been able to get Thunar working for me yet..
This was an excellent summary of why some new Puppy users might not stick around. I would agree with this list a new Puppy user myself. I believe I have to help solve some of these issues though. I could do some more reading about 1+3 in how to secure Puppy, and why Puppy has chosen to run as root. 2 is a big one for me. Could be fixed with one repo for each major release number so 4 uses 4 packages. If packages from 2+3 work then they could simply be moved into the 4 repo instead of remaining in separate repos. Community packages that work could be in a community repo like Arch. 5 is true of most open source and free software projects, but I will admit that the manual is really a great read for a beginner with Puppy. Also I have found some excellent wiki articles. I would love to see some of the forum how tos turned into wiki articles too. Documentation is an area most of us could lend a hand as well by editing the wiki.dr_willis wrote: New users in the channel seem to be turned off of using puppy more for the following reasons.
#1 - lack of full multiuser support (they want each faimly member to have their own account just like other disrtos do)
#2 - Confusion in the package manager listings, redundant packages, having to search the forums and irc channels for links to what they consider must have packages.
#3 - Scared by the running as root (related to #1)
#4 - there is no #4 (at least None i can think of)
#5 - i would say lack of good docs.. but I notice that the wiki pages are improveing. Someone has been doing some editing and updates! (Good job!) of course this assumes the new users actually bother to read any docs. (most dont seem to even know they exist) So there is no #5