Where is Puppy headed? How about a webpage to tell us?

[Fishback]

What's next, or what are the current objectives, in the 4.x series, the 5.x series, or the updated ver 2 project that tuxxx and others are working on? For instance, if you go to the WOOF home page you see a nice logo and lots of info for those developing the release. But what exactly are their (current) objectives? There's next to no information about future releases available to the many users of Puppy Linux unless they read through (and can understand) all of the developer's threads. Here are a few questions that come to mind:

- What made ver 4.x so different from ver 3.x so as to create a new series?
- What makes ver 5.x so different that a new series was created?
- Why is ver 5.x under heavy development when new versions of 4.x are still actively being developed?
- Is WOOF the same as ver 5?
- What changes or improvements are currently planned for future releases?
- Is the updated ver 2 project a sanctioned 'official' project? What are its' objectives?
- I read on a random web page that a future release of Puppy would be able to access the Ubuntu repositories. True?

Anyone know where to find such info? I can't find it on any Puppy pages, official or otherwise.

==========================================

I understand the questions above can be read as criticisms, but they're not meant to be. Rather, I'm just trying to point out that for most users Puppy Linux is a black box project - whereby every once in a while a new version pops up with no prior notice of what changes or improvements may be implemented. I have to believe that without that kind of info being available, more users turn to Arch or other linux distributions.

It's not fair to point out a perceived deficiency without offering a possible remedy, so here goes ...

A simple solution would be to set up web pages that provide one-way communication from the developers to the many users of Puppy. Ideally, each release under development would have a home page that began with a paragraph stating something like:
- 'The current (and ever-changing) objectives of this release are:'.
The paragraph would make clear how the release would be different from the previous one, and would indicate how the planned changes would affect the end-users of Puppy.

The page would also have links to relevant forums and pages, for developers and users alike. Likewise, all current and older releases being offered for download would be listed on a page that offered the same information, plus info as to why you might want to use a particular older release rather than the newest.

These home pages wouldn't need to include information that needs constant updating - only general info and links.

On the other hand, I could be completely wrong. Maybe what I'm asking for already exists somewhere. If someone could point me in that direction, I'd very much appreciate it.

[Artie]

The developers blog is at http://puppylinux.com/blog/ and information about the different puppies you can find at http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/puplets_view. Otherwise I'm thoroughly confused myself.

Artie

[Aitch]

Hi Fishback

my suggestion is to go to Barry's blog, get a username and ask him yourself

- he doesn't bite

Aitch

[Lobster]

answered
http://www.puppylinux.com/blog/?viewDetailed=00885

[ttuuxxx]

I'm currently in heavy development for 2.14X and dpup woof, 2.14X was initially a way to waste some time for a week or two, while waiting for dpup to get a kernel update, but the kernel never came and I ended up getting really attached to 2.14X, I personally think its the best puppy version ever Well its the most user friendly version, it might not have all the latest drivers, but if it works on your system, Then go for it, its stable and really fast, and Firefox 3.5 and flash 10 run perfect.

Dpup I started working on today with gposil, I'm not hanging up my compiler on 2.14X just yet either, just wanted to give dpup a bit of a boost But my long term goals is building "Living Water" and "Fire Hydrant" on Dpup base. so first Dpup has to be solid like 2.14X.

Puppy 4.22 and upup are the most worked on versions by Barry and the main developers for video/wifi. Really its about choice in the end, they are all pretty good Plus I guess there's a 64 bit alpha version and slacker version by bigbass also in heavy development.

ttuuxxx

[Fishback]

Lobster - Thanks much for the link! That provides much of the info I was looking for, but not all.

ttuuxxx - Great post. Thanks for replying with such a detailed update.
(www.ttuuxxx.com is in your sig line, but a visit to that page brings up an Apache notice.)


I doesn't appear we're going to have a unified webpage for all the Puppy variants anytime soon. So, maybe we can have a sticky post for the most popular variants that includes the following info for each one:

Puppy or Puplet Name, and Version: Fire Hydrant 3.01c
Release Date:
Is this a Final Version Release?:
Is This the Latest Version?:
Genius Behind It: ttuuxxx
Download Size: 117 MB
Parent, or Based On: Puppy Linux 3.01
General Description (advantages & why you may want to try it): (From ttuuxxx) - "I personally think its the best puppy version ever Smile Well its the most user friendly version, it might not have all the latest drivers, but if it works on your system, Then go for it, its stable and really fast, and Firefox 3.5 and flash 10 run perfect."
Components (what's inside): Installed: 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.
Future Development Plans: (????)
Links:
* home page: http://www.puppylinux.org/?q=downloads/ ... drant-301c
* forum(s): http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 30&t=23910
* download: http://www.puppylinux.ca/tpp/ttuuxxx/fi ... m3.01c.iso


Does anyone else think this would be useful? At the very least, it would list all of the more popular Puppy variants and where to find them.

[Fishback]

Somebody was able to add the second question to the subject line of the original post in this thread. That perhaps makes the content of the thread more clear, but how does one go about changing somebody else's post?

[Pizzasgood]

Somebody was able to add the second question to the subject line of the original post in this thread. That perhaps makes the content of the thread more clear, but how does one go about changing somebody else's post?

One uses one's moderator powers. (Not that it was me or anything - this is the first time I've looked at this thread. Just answering your question...)

[Pizzasgood]

- What made ver 4.x so different from ver 3.x so as to create a new series?

For 4.x, everything was recompiled from scratch with T2, using a significantly different set of options and versions of base libraries. Also, 3.x was binary compatible with Slackware. 4.x was not. (Not the same as guaranteeing that binaries from Slackware would or would not work in 3.x and 4.x, just impacts the likelihood). Puppy 3.x also supported GTK1 and TK, both of which were dropped in Puppy 4.x. Some of the internal scripts had some major changes too.

- Is WOOF the same as ver 5?

No. Like "Unleashed" before it, Woof is only a build system. It is tool used to create a Puppy (or another distro for that matter). Woof is to Puppy as OpenOffice is to a term paper.

[Fishback]

Thank you for that info, Pizzasgood!

[Lobster]

Here is your page
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/FuturePuppy

and here is how to edit it . . .
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/UsingThisWiki

[Fishback]

Lobster,
Thank you very much for creating the wiki page and providing the necessary links. However, in my humble opinion, there's a general problem with making information on the Puppy pages readily available - It's not a simple matter of the information not being on a Puppy page - somewhere. After all I'm basically compiling info, not creating it.

Creating a wiki page to consolidate the information I'm (as well as others) looking for just creates another Puppy page that's buried - where it probably won't be found by those looking for that information. In my opinion that information should be posted elsewhere - maybe next to the downloads.

One of the moderators already suggested that I compile the version information I'm looking for and post it on a 'Latest News' page ( http://puppylinux.org/news). However, I found there are TWO 'Latest News' pages linked from http://www.puppylinux.org - one in the header line and one a couple inches down on the page. They're both labeled 'Latest News' but link to different pages! (The other Latest News isin the header line and is linked to: http://www.puppylinux.org/home/latest-news.)

That problem can be quickly and easily fixed, but it seems symptomatic of the organization of the Puppy pages - and why the info I was looking for is unavailable. Unless you're a developer and already know the structure and content of the Puppy pages, it can be very difficult to find answers to specific questions. For starters, a new Puppy user is faced with 3 (three!) official domains.

By far, the easiest places to obtain information for Puppy is in the forums or on IRC. So, I will pull as much of the information together as possible and post it in the forums.

End note: I feel obligated to add this .... In no way am I trying to disparage Puppy or the many talented developers who have been, or are involved with moving the product forward. Puppy is a fantastic OS, and I have nothing but respect and gratitude for all involved.