Notable 2011 Acknowlegements

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gcmartin

Notable 2011 Acknowlegements

#1 Post by gcmartin »

In 2011, I have seen some extremely significant developments take root in Puppyland.

Several Puppies have become the first Open-Source distro which has all the necessary features for not only home use on a LAN with the plethora of games, entertainment devices, Microsofts and Apples, but also can play comfortably in the enterprises with UNIX-Microsoft-Apple servers managing the LAN networks as they do. Look at LightHouse64 with SAMBA 3.61 built-in and Slacko-V5.31 use of his PPM version of SAMBA3.61. These are the first distros built for all LAN devices currently built to "talk" to MACs and Windows since 2006 which use the SMB2 LAN protocols.

There has been some very significant steps forward in this single year.

Shinobar's Puppy Advancement
Shinobar introduced QuickSET, a distro with unique startup features, in 2010 with several new to Puppy features which has had a very positive impact on how Puppy is started on Live media. But it got some of its greatest advancements in 2011 from the several Puppy contributors who provided additional insights to his efforts.
To me, 2 of his MOST SIGNIFICANT advancements are in the area of how we start our systems.

The first of the 2 to mention is his "FirstRUN" and you'll find it in Menu on most systems under Settings as "Personalize Settings". What Shinobar did is provide a working mechanism for setting your system's localization upon arrival at the desktop versus the multiple text mode stops along the way to desktop.

What is so very important about this is
  1. he provides a video start to your desktop usage
  2. he provides an audio announcement (woof-woof) so that you know your audio facility is operating
  3. he provides a single screen for setting most/all of your localization for your needs.
  4. And, after resetting your system with your desire, he presents you with a verification of your selections in such a way as you are allowed to re-modify should you choose.
  5. This, tool also plants itself in the Menu system for should you need in the future, you can reuse/change any of the localization setting in this single screen as you need.
This is a very significant adoption in Puppyland ISO use as the user now sees in a single screen what his system is all about. (In the old text mode approach, once the enter key was hit, the user had NO WAY to go back and change anything. Now, ith the new way, its all there in ONE screen.) Further, through the combined efforts of TaZoC, 01Micko, Playdayz along with Shinobar, they have drastically improved ROX filer performance as they resolved issues with system pointers and the system hostname problems. instead of distro developers having to focus their efforts on the multiple text stops to get a users started to desktop, now, the developers merely present users with this one-stop localization screen.

The 2nd of the 2 of his, to mention, is one which has NOT gotten the same level of adoption, yet it too, is ahead of its time as it changes the way things are done.

His QuickPET distro starts on the CD/DVD (Live media) with a GRUB4DOS menu versus the normal F2-F3 function key menu Puppy is known for. The significance of this method is that Puppy is now afforded a CONSISTENT boot manager, no matter, whether you are using Live media or your HDD (full install) or USB (frugal install); it "ALL LOOKS THE SAME"...."GRUB4DOS". Several of the distro makers have employed this. But, its still being deployed gradually as more and more distro developers are seeing the power of this approach to starting their Puppy(s), consistently, using GRUB4DOS everywhere.

I applaud him for taking these steps which were far-reaching when he first provided them, but, in today's distros, its becoming a commonplace to see these when they are booted.

This leads me to the next 2011 Significant Development effort

SAMBA, with the SMB2 standard, is now a part of PUPPY Linux
The ability to Share folders/files/media with Windows/MACs has taken a GIANT step forward in November-December this year thanks to the individual work of BOTH 01Micko and TaZoC. Each, separately, has provided the most far-reaching inclusion of full SAMBA to the offering in both the 32bit and 64bit Puppy arena. With this, PUPPY CAN SHARE AND USE ALL of the same devices that have been developed for Microsoft and Apple networks. These 2 platforms use a SAMBA which is fully compliant with the 6 year old International standard for sharing on the LAN; namely SMB2. Puppy using this can be deployed at home, or deployed to manage a small business, or deployed in an enterprise as it will "comply", fully, with server technologies from UNIX/Microsoft/Apple.

In working with LH64 and SLACKO last night, I noticed that both are based on Slackware Repos even though the work from each of them is completely independent.

It is comforting to see that excepting for the kernel they recognized the need for this addition to the Puppy community. I wish there was some way to get prises to each of you for your contributions you have brought to this community in 2011.

We now have 2 versions of Puppy Linux that for the first time in the history of Puppy, are "network" centric Linux versions that have the Puppy monocle. The two of these are the premier versions of Puppy that have the OS, the packages, and the smb2 subsystems that makes them capable of talking to all major OSes, NASs, games,and other entertainment systems that most have on their LANs today. And, as already mentioned, this includes "no hassle" connection and participation with enterprise servers. Thanks to the contributions from 01Micko and TaZoC, 2012 will be a very very easy ride for all of us.

In 64bit PCs, Puppy's Lighthouse has resolved the hostname issues that confronts FATDOG, along with building SAMBA into the distro, so that there is nothing to do except to start it from the Menu. (He has provided and OOTB startup your use.)

In 32bit PCs, Puppy's SLACKO has resolved hostname issues that has confronted past systems, along with full SAMBA available from PPM. When installed from the PPM, he propels you into an OOTB startup where you can see what you share on your LAN. This is the best installation-startup procedure I have ever seen for advancing any users sharing on a LAN (this includes Microsoft/Apple/Unix/Linux).

For 32bit PCs, I have also found that Playdayz's Puppy V5.28U3 is capable of starting and running the SLACKO version of SAMBA (but even though it works, remember, it was NOT created to run on this older kernel).

Other GEMs that productively use our LANs

Netbooting
In early 2011, JamesBond has provided a very very capable service that has been tested on 64bit and 32bit systems for providing a LAN service where other PCs on your LAN can boot without using their hard-drives, USB ports, or CD-DVD media. Namely, excepting their motherboard's LAN connection, NOTHING IN NEEDED for the LAN PC to boot from JamesBond's Puppy NETBOOT subsystem service.

VOIP to SIP devices
Puppy has had a great contribution from Smokey01, Lobster, and JamesBond as well as the many testers who helped with suggestions and testing in getting VOIP to SIP devices into Puppy. This is now available on both 64bit and 32bit Puppy systems.

If you think CERN is a major accomplishment for mankind, then here's one for "Puppykind"

Using ALL RAM(PAE)on Puppy PCs
Puppy Linux has been significantly improved by the initial work of 2 developers; namely JamesBond and Pemasu. Without the demonstrations by these 2 individuals, Puppy would not have the newly used capability that is exhibits today. They showed this community that Linux use would allow the OS to take advantage of all available RAM found on any 32bit PC while gaining a performance gain as well. These 2 people are deserving of some special award for this contribution. Now, any Puppy PC user can add as much memory as they deem necessary with the understanding that Puppy will make all of the RAM available for system use and management. Since, the work of these 2, we have seen many contributions come to this community with fast, stable, practical implementations of Puppy using PAE.

Clusters
Now, for another deserving award, Master_Wrong is deserving as he has almost single handedly gotten Puppy to run in cluster mode. This means that now, I can have 2 or more PC lashed-together as one. This increases the "fire-power" I can throw at any need for my application mixes that would arise. For example, now, I can fire off a ground-breaking compile, while at the same time sharing major file transfers to-from my LAN, while watching movies without dropping frames....all at the same time as the cluster is able to handle all of this due to the increases in fire-power. This is far-reaching in what I can now do with a "single-system image", so to speak.

We should all take a moment and thank these mentioned. THANK, also BARRY for WOOF, too, as its part in all of the great things that were accelerated in Puppy development in 2011.

There have been MANY other individual achievement in Puppy Linux. These are just a few completely new in the 32bit and 64bit processing kennel.

Great, great efforts we have seen from EVERYONE! "What a year!" THANKS EVERYONE!

Happy and SAFE Holiday Cheers to all as we end our year. WOW! Woof-woof to eveyone in Puppyland.
Last edited by gcmartin on Tue 27 Dec 2011, 22:29, edited 1 time in total.

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#2 Post by Lobster »

Great post from gcmartin :)
What do others remember and look forward to?
:oops: I have done both :oops:

Looking back at 2012 (from my time machine)
http://tmxxine.com/

I think the use of Woof2 to create our ARM powered dogs has been a major success.

What fun we had with Raspberry PI and the first Puppy tablets. 8)
Our new ability to run Android apps is certainly good news as we continue to do good and less evil than others who shall remain Goo . . . [ahem] . . . nameless . . .
I'm gonna be the big bow wow, wait'll they see the old dog now. Stealing the show, my mom wouldn't know her pup! Class yes! Style yes! Out front by a mile yes! Look me up in your Dog's Who Who! Yeth thir! Gonna be hearing from Snoopy! Pardon my beagle but whoopie! Now I'm the big bow wow
Snoopy
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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