Legacy OS 4 Mini is outstanding

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trowsdale
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue 20 Nov 2012, 17:16

Legacy OS 4 Mini is outstanding

#1 Post by trowsdale »

Just wanted to congratulate John and his team for the wonderfully useable Legacy OS 4 Mini.

I've been using Linux off-and-on for about a decade. I'd describe myself as an "intermediate" - more end-user than tekkie, but I do understand a lot of the technical basics of Linux.

I've tried out a huge number of distros over the years (remember KateOS?) .... and was an steady Ubuntu user for about 5 years.

As many users know, even the popular and heavyweight distributions tend to have a number of small but serious flaws - bothersome enough to discourage installation, in many cases.

(Examples - some distros are more bloated than Windows, and CD/DVD/USB recognition is an especially sore point)

Like Lighthouse and Macpup, Legacy builds off the excellent Puppy OS, and adds even more useful apps, as well as a greater emphasis on the hard-drive-install option.

As a bonus, it defaults to my favourite WM, ICEWM, which is becoming less prominent as time goes on. Don't know why - it's fast, great looking, simple, and can be manipulated by the keyboard.

Yes, Legacy's default login of "root" helps a lot to smooth the user experience, but that still can't explain all of Legacy's polish. Almost everything "just works" and that's more rare than most people would think.

The root login is a big issue with some, but I don't care - my home PC is just something I use to surf the 'Net, read email, store files, watch media, and so on. If I click on something I shouldn't, it won't be the end of the world.

On my 2006 Acer laptop (AMD Sempron, 1.8 GHZ, 750 MG RAM, 40 G hard drive), Legacy just flies along. I dual boot Windows XP, and the "other half" is as app-bare and sluggish as Legacy is full-featured and zippy.

Puppy's vast collection of PETs has allowed me to make a few key upgrades .. most notably Frisbee, which makes wireless connectivity a snap.

Only trouble I'm having now is getting MTS files to play correctly on SMPlayer or KMPlayer (both play audio only), but there should be a PET for that, I'm guessing.

I only wish we could do full upgrades without re-installation, but that's a minor point. The apps I have now will be more than adequate for years, and can always search PETs for upgrades and patching.

Thanks again for a fine OS. I've been running it for months, and haven't even looked at Distrowatch during that time.

BT

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john biles
Posts: 1458
Joined: Sun 17 Sep 2006, 14:05
Location: Australia
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#2 Post by john biles »

Hello trowsdale,
First I'd like to say "Thank you very much for your kind comments". The goal for Legacy OS is to build on and improve one version of Puppy and not try and follow new releases as resources (Me!) are limited. I know this can annoy some users who like what they see in Legacy OS and want the same running on top of a number of current Puppy releases. In reality there just isn't the time to do so.
Only trouble I'm having now is getting MTS files to play correctly on SMPlayer or KMPlayer (both play audio only), but there should be a PET for that, I'm guessing.
Try Magic Scripts and see if you can convert it to mpg

Here's a link on converting MTS files under Linux. No guarantee it will work but you never know until you try.


http://justplainobvious.blogspot.com.au ... linux.html
Puppy's vast collection of PETs has allowed me to make a few key upgrades .. most notably Frisbee, which makes wireless connectivity a snap.
As I don't use Frisbee can you please list the steps you use to install Frisbee in Legacy OS 4 Mini so others can enjoy Frisbee as well. Any links to the version used would be great!
Legacy OS 2017 has been released.

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8-bit
Posts: 3406
Joined: Wed 04 Apr 2007, 03:37
Location: Oregon

#3 Post by 8-bit »

I have just did a frugal install of Legacy 4 and I honestly like it!
But being old school, I did not see and missed having a volume control icon on the task bar.
My solution may not be the best, but I remembered having a PET file called "retrovol-1.0" and tried installing that pet file.
I was greeted on a restart of X to a nice colorful triangle on the task bar that let me control the volume from it and also to access the mixer from there also.
Inclusion of that pet or making it available would be a nice addition.

I have not played much so far, but I am using a screen resolution of 1280x1024 and the quick launch window is set in from the right hand side of the desktop and I would like to move it to the right edge.
I will eventually figure out how to do that.
And by the way, I was able to use a kodak printer driver that was a deb format file that showed up in the window manager as a PET.
So my Kodak esp c315 all in one printer works fine.
I still have to install the added files for the Flight-Simulator that I downloaded when I saw them.

Also, it seems that in using StreamTuner, that Shoutcast must have changed things again as I cannot get a listing when clicking on that tab and even doing a refresh and restarting Streamtuner did not help.
But xliph worked so I am a happy camper listening to the classic country radio stations.
So I have to say Good Job John! You have developed a keeper in my opinion!

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john biles
Posts: 1458
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Location: Australia
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#4 Post by john biles »

Hello 8-bit
I have not played much so far, but I am using a screen resolution of 1280x1024 and the quick launch window is set in from the right hand side of the desktop and I would like to move it to the right edge.
I will eventually figure out how to do that.
8-bit do the following > right mouse click over sidebar > select Theme Creator > click on the blue folder top left of box > click on TEENpup_Sysinfo folder > click on TEENpupSysteminfo1024x768.theme file and click open

Top line says Karamba x=844 y=0 w=180 h=768 locked=true interval=1000

Experment with x=844 and y=0 to move the bar around try x=1100 y=128
now press save.
Again over sidebar right mouse click and select "Reload Configuration" and sidebar should move to ruffly where you want it.
I still have to install the added files for the Flight-Simulator that I downloaded when I saw them.
Extract downloaded tar.gz to / and no where else press Reload Menu and your ready to go.
But being old school, I did not see and missed having a volume control icon on the task bar.
Kmix is on the right hand side of the task bar? has many options? (green-blue-red-yellow icon) left mouse click on icon.
Legacy OS 2017 has been released.

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8-bit
Posts: 3406
Joined: Wed 04 Apr 2007, 03:37
Location: Oregon

#5 Post by 8-bit »

Kmix does not have an icon that I can see on the right hand side of the taskbar.
Also, the install of the retrovolume PET is still in place as far as the files.
But on a power down and boot, the volume icon has disappeared from the taskbar.

It is just strange that the retrovolume install is not working correctly in giving me a taskbar icon.
Could it be that a PET install will not overwrite files of the same name?
I had ran into that with the uncompress of the compressed sabre file as it's install did not overwrite the original desktop file and also another file was never created until I specificly choose options touch and overwrite existing files when I extracted the file contents.
I saw your info on getting a taskbar volume icon in another thread, but have not tried to implement them yet.


Oh, BTW, my system is a Compaq Presario PC with AMD dual core processor, 3 gigs of ram and a secondary (my install) ISA hard drive that all Puppy OSes run from.
And the sabre additional install files for control have stayed and work.

trowsdale
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue 20 Nov 2012, 17:16

#6 Post by trowsdale »

Hi folks, thanks for the replies!

8-bit, that all sounds cool - you might be a bit more advanced than I, as I did a "full" install ....

Actually John, I should revise my comments. I really don't care about version updates, and in fact, I don't miss the constant pressure from Windows and Ubuntu to install updates. And as much as I like Ubuntu, I always had the feeling that the version I was running (and just getting comfortable with) was out-of-date. I liked the LTS versions, and always got the warnings ... "NOTE - this version of Ubuntu will stop being supported in July 2010") ... and so on ....

For most of us, "stable" is our friend.

You ask about Frisbee? You know what, I don't remember the exact steps, but I think I just Googled "Frisbee on Puppy 4.x," and got the results. Found some pages that directed me to PETs. There might have been a bit of "fiddly" configuration, but not much, if at all. I just seem to remember everything clicking into place easily.

I will try the MTS conversion steps you describe, thanks! But regardless, I might just set my Sony Cyber-Shot to record in MP4 mode in the future.

Have a good Holiday season, and thanks again for such an enjoyable distribution. I've tried almost all of them, from an "intermediate end-user" perspective, and while Legacy isn't the fanciest one, it hits the sweet spots better than almost any other.

Bill

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