Is there a Puppy for the 'Average person'?

[vjones777]

Firstly, MANY THANKS to all contributing to this great project. I really like puppy and I want to give some friends and relatives CD's so they can continue to use their older PC's as they dont have the money to buy newer ones (and windows is dying).

Even as an experienced linux (ubuntu) user, I find many of the menu items intimidating. For someone who can basically use a web browser, most of the menu items would be intimidating or dangerous.

I'd like to get a puppy that doesnt have menu items like SSH, FTP, pwsget, network, console editors, partition managers etc.
Id like to have some document editing (one that would open MS docs) and a spreadsheet.

Can anyone recommend a puppy that is geared for an average non-techie user? I'd heard that teenpup was meant for that, but development on that seems to have stopped.

Alternatively, is there an easy way to set up a standard puppy that way?

I know there's a load of 'puplets' but I get lost looking at the descriptions of them all - they seem to just list packages without mentioning who the target user is. Ideally I'd like a version that is under active support/mainstream.

Sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find anything in the forums.
Thanks for any help - hopefully this will be of use to others thinking of coming over to puppy.

Ideally I'd like one that is under active support/mainstream.

Vic

[darkcity]

Hi Vic,

The pup menu has been criticized from time to time for being too cluttered. It is relatively easy to remove items-

all the entries are .desktop files stored at-

/usr/share/applications

delete or move the ones you don't want, then run fixmenusand restart window manager.

there are a couple of programs that can do this via a GUI, see
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/JWMMenuCategory

---

Maybe have an icons on the desktop only for the programs your friends need.

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To keep changes... either supply the pupsave file or remaster puppy. remastering creates a base SFS using your current setup.

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Good luck, my experience is people distrust linux and will refuse to let you install it - even if their computer is knacked.

[sfeeley]

you might try adding xfce, or using saluki (which has xfce built in). Xfce is a bit more "windows-like" than the regular puppy set up.

If you did this, I don't know if you could still adjust the menus as suggested by darkcity-- it might be worth a quick try.

maybe also set up double-click rather than single click
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=30605

some people might be quite happy with
http://www.browserlinux.com/

[nooby]

Is not Lupu 528-005 easiest to set up?
I am not only using the name Nooby
I am a even worse than a newbie
in that I fail to remember those things
that I managed to do some days ago
ago and fail to find where I wrote it down
on how to get those things going.

And to me Lupu is easiest.

[L18L]

.. continue to use their older PC's as they dont have the money to buy newer ones (and windows is dying).

... Ideally I'd like a version that is under active support/mainstream.

... Ideally I'd like one that is under active support/mainstream.

Wary

[rokytnji]

Based on Lupu 520-005. But comes with a lot IMO.

May 13th, 2012
Full Version (With LibreOffice 3.5.3 and Java Runtime Environment 1.7u4)
http://revolutionvoice.com/Diamond528_512_full.iso
MD5: 079E37AF1472552AA08E37579DB1E781
ISO size: 465 MB

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=75858

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 385#630385

[Monsie]

.. continue to use their older PC's as they dont have the money to buy newer ones (and windows is dying).

... Ideally I'd like a version that is under active support/mainstream.

... Ideally I'd like one that is under active support/mainstream.

Wary

I'll second this recommendation if you want a good working Puppy for an older PC. Wary Puppy has had a lot of bug fixes over the past eighteen months. Many of us use Wary on a Pentium 3... myself included. Then, I would follow the directions given by darkcity to edit and trim the menu accordingly. I've seen many comments or criticisms that the Puppy menu is very "Windows 95 like" but for long time Windows users, that may be ideal once the desktop is set up to show only those features that you want.

Monsie

[vjones777]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

sfeeley Isn't saluki based on Racy - i.e for newer hardware? May be a good option for friends with a bit newer h/w. Thanks for the pointer to setting up double click.

nooby Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give lupu a look.

L18L & Monsie As far as I can tell, Wary has abiword which, IIRC, doesnt fully support MS Word files. The friends may be ok with that, but if they find they do need word/excel compatibility, would I then have to install libreoffice as an SFS https://sites.google.com/site/quirkyuk/downloads, or is there a better way ?

darkcity Thanks for the tip on customising the menus. What I would need to do is set everything up at home, then take 'it' over to the friends PC to install (frugal I presume) there. When you say "supply the pupsave file", I take it you mean just copy the sfs file(s) from my machine and copy it to onto their machine.
If I remaster another CD instead, do you know if would that boot/operate faster than with a custom sfs (especially if the sfs is large, eg if I include libreoffice)?
To save space, whats the best way to remove unused s/w (as opposed to just deleting the menu shortcuts? It may not be an issue, but I'd like for them to be able to run puppy out of ram as I'm sure the speed will impress them. If I understand correctly, leaving unused s/w in eats up space in the sfs, takes puppy longer to boot and makes it run slower as it cant all be held in ram. I may be completely wrong on all of that though.

rokytnji I like the idea of having Libreoffice and Java already in.

Thanks again everyone.

[Lobster]

Is there a Puppy for the 'Average person'?

Puppy is above average.
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppyVersionIndex

[Monsie]

L18L & Monsie As far as I can tell, Wary has abiword which, IIRC, doesnt fully support MS Word files. The friends may be ok with that, but if they find they do need word/excel compatibility, would I then have to install libreoffice as an SFS https://sites.google.com/site/quirkyuk/downloads, or is there a better way ?

AbiWord has limited compatibility with MS Word. A workaround (of course) is to use rich text format when creating documents since most word processors are capable of handling rtf format. That said, there are a couple of options for Wary Puppy listed here and also over here so have a look at those. OpenOffice and/or LibreOffice will require Java runtime for complete functionality. As for the sfs packages, you would only need to "install" them if you have a full installation of Puppy.To do this, you would want an sfs installer such as the one here by dejan555. An easier way (in my opinion) is to load the sfs package which you can easily do with a frugal installation of Puppy. Really, it comes down to user preference --there is not necessarily "a better way".

Hope this helps,
Monsie

P.S. I don't know for sure if the LibreOffice package put together by TerryPhi (that you provided a link to) is compatible with Wary Puppy or not... There is a very good chance that it is, but you should check with him to be sure.

[Terryphi]

P.S. I don't know for sure if the LibreOffice package put together by TerryPhi (that you provided a link to) is compatible with Wary Puppy or not... There is a very good chance that it is, but you should check with him to be sure.

Not mine. It is actually at http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/sfs/li ... -3.4.4.sfs . It should work with Wary. If you don't have Java installed it complains at first opening. Keep clicking and nagging message eventually goes away. Java is not needed for most functions so you can switch Java off in LibreOffice settings.

[darkcity]

Thanks for the tip on customising the menus. What I would need to do is set everything up at home, then take 'it' over to the friends PC to install (frugal I presume) there. When you say "supply the pupsave file", I take it you mean just copy the sfs file(s) from my machine and copy it to onto their machine.

Puppy in frugal mode uses a layered filing system. Very simplified - the SFS file/s are loaded and the pupsave sits on top recording any changes. Only the pupsave file is writable, it uses a compressed filing-system within a single file, the extension is .2fs or .3fs http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SaveFile

A)

if you want to supply pupsave file (copy it with it isn't mount) (http://puppylinux.org/wikka/HowToAvoidLoadingSaveFile)

initrd.gz (for booting)
vmlinuz (for booting)
lupu_528.sfs (lucid files)
libreoffice.sfs (libreoffice files)
lupusave-mysave.2fs (my changes)

B)

if you remaster, make new pupsave on first boot

initrd.gz (for booting)
vmlinuz (for booting)
lupu_528remaster.sfs (lucid files + mychanges)
libreoffice.sfs (libreoffice files)

not actually sure how remaster handles extra sfs - if they are merged with base sfs or kept seperate.

[L18L]

Libreoffice directly from their server using a pet and so you can always have the version you want
GUI to download LibreOffice

[sfeeley]

Depending on how far you want to go, it's not too hard to install Msoffice 2003 with wine. That would really put your friends at ease.

The wine file gets pretty huge, but much of it is fonts. The nice thing is that once I've got things set up I can copy .wine and carry to other computers so you really only need to go through the install of office once. In the thread on Msoffice I think somebody even says they remastered a puppy with Msoffice built in (for their personal use , not distribution)

The plug in for modern .docx files also works.

I mentioned saluki because even though it says newer computers I've had some luck with older and it already has xfce.

[Dewbie]

Also keep this in mind.

[Sky Aisling]

vjones777 writes:

Is there a Puppy for the 'Average person?'

darkcity writes:

Good luck, my experience is people distrust linux and will refuse to let you install it - even if their computer is knacked.

Hello vjones777,

I have the same experience as darkcity that many people distrust any OS coming into their computer that isn't familiar to them. Most average users can't separate hardware from software and somehow feel that their familiar, albiet broken, MSOS is still "home" and that it will disappear when you install a Linux OS. I suggest you might want to introduce Puppy via Live CD rather than suggesting the idea of *installing* a unfamiliar OS. I find that some people will cautiously accept a Live CD. I think because the Live CD can be physically taken out of the machine. Once they get used to the idea that they can have multiple OSes on one machine, then they might listen more closely when you suggest *installing* a Puppy. Also, I find that it helps to give a careful explanation that Puppy loads into RAM only and that RAM goes away when you shut off the machine. This takes away some of the *fear* of loosing the familiar.

Thanks for asking the question. I too would like to see a stripped down version of the menu for certain users. (I guess I'll have to learn how to make my own Puppy). I can adjust the icons and text on the desktop page, but, have yet to figure out how to simplify the menu. Good Luck!

[darkcity]

Great idea to suggest Live CD and good analysis, I guess people see Windows as 'part' of there computer rather than a mode of operation.