Many questions re: installing & using Puppy

[joshuaiscool]

I have a 4-5 year old desktop machine that runs Windows XP Media Centre Edition very slowly (iTunes takes 10min to start). I have tried defragmenting, virus scanning, limiting startup programs, error scanning, drive cleanups, compressing desktop backgrounds and simply deleting large amounts of unwanted data.
Nothing seems to work but I remembered in the March issue of Silicon Chip they had talked about a great program called Puppy Linux that was a much lighter, faster operating system than XP. I thought maybe I should install this but I have a few questions.
1. Do you think it is a good idea to install Puppy?
2. Will I still be able to run windows applications?
3. How can I create a bootloader to switch between XP and Puppy?
4. What is the minimum system requirements of Puppy?
5. Does Puppy have any Anti-Virus/System Maintainence utilities?
6. How can I update puppy?
7. Is puppy prone to viruses?
8. I have a very slow CD drive will this cause the boot time to be greater than XP?
9. Can I use password protected user accounts?
10. What's with the name "puppy"?
11. Is it completely free?
12. How cool is it?
I hope someone can help me with these questions.
Thanks, Woof Woof

[CatDude]

Hello joshuaiscool

That is a lot of questions for one post.

Here are my answers to them,

1.. A most definate YES.
2.. Some if you install Wine.
3.. Install GRUB when you make your Puppy Install.
4.. Less that what XP requires.
5.. Yes.
6.. I have never updated a Puppy install, i prefer to start afresh.
7.. I would have to say NO.
8.. Wouldn't make a difference if you make an install to the hard drive.
9.. You might want to take a look at this thread: Multiuser Puppy 4.2.1
10. Tut tut, how rude , your'e best asking the creator BarryK
11. Yes, but you could always make a donation to BarryK if you like it.
12. Veerrryyyy.

Please bear in mind that this is just my take on things,
and you may wish to wait for others to give theirs.

All the best, and welcome to the kennels.
CatDude
.

[omskates]

You can easily run puppy from CD/DVD as it loads into your RAM & saves settings to a small file in location of your choice.

OR

How to Do a Dual-Boot Install of Puppy with Windows XP
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=43203

good luck