(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Wow, wow, wow! And did I mention wow?

I had to register and post on here just to say how amazed I am with Puppy. It was actually the first Linux distro I ever considered trying out a few years ago when friend gave me an old Compaq with 64 MB of RAM. That didn't end up happening at the time, and I moved on to Fedora and Ubuntu on a newer machine.

However, just recently, my girlfriend's parents bought an old Acer Travelmate 2420 for about $10. Her father just wanted a little laptop to check his e-mail and surf the web with. The machine had Windows XP installed, and it looked like there might be no saving it. If you tried to open anything, especially a web browser, it was double-click, go have a lunch, come back and watch the window finally appear on the screen. Literally 10-15 mins for IE 7 to open, and this was with XP running as minimally as possible.

I tried 6 or 7 "lightweight" distros, mostly direct derivatives of Ubuntu, and would always give up after waiting on the "Try" or "Install" dialog to disappear after clicking.

Then, I tried Puppy. And, as I said, wow. Everything works perfectly out of the box, and I'm still absolutely stunned at the speed. Firefox, for example, takes about 3 seconds to open, and pretty much everything else is the same or faster. I've never seen an OS so completely transform a machine like this has.

I have no idea why I was a little hesitant to try Puppy, but I certainly feel like an idiot for waiting so long. From now on, if I know anyone who's considering throwing away an old laptop, I'll be saying "I think not, sir", and installing Puppy.

I wish more people were aware of it (and knew the basics of Linux). I can't think of how many people are out there wishing they could afford a computer, when $50 or less and Puppy can get them what they want, and more.

So, this is me thanking anyone and everyone involved in Puppy. Please, keep up the good work, and you now have one more fan out there spreading the word. Cheers,

John

Welcome to the kennels, John. Like you, I don't understand why more people don't make the logical connection that Puppy is "man's best friend"! I have a dual core laptop with lots of RAM, but I still use Puppy as my daily hack. I just can't go back to the old, slow way of doing things under other OS choices, including other Linux distros.

WhoDo wrote:Welcome to the kennels, John. Like you, I don't understand why more people don't make the logical connection that Puppy is "man's best friend"! I have a dual core laptop with lots of RAM, but I still use Puppy as my daily hack. I just can't go back to the old, slow way of doing things under other OS choices, including other Linux distros.

Funny you should put it that way W. I put Mint 10 on this laptop last week. More than enough resources, but it still only lasted two days. Format HD and install Lucid.. all back to normal

DaveS wrote:Funny you should put it that way W. I put Mint 10 on this laptop last week. More than enough resources, but it still only lasted two days. Format HD and install Lucid.. all back to normal

Having a faithful Puppy kinda spoils you for other friends, doesn't it?

" I have a dual core laptop with lots of RAM, but I still use Puppy as
my daily hack. "

The man from Vista...ha!..ha!

//////////

Seasons greetings WhoDo.

And welcome to Puppy lonegreyride.

An OS that is Christmas all year long.

Chris.

cthisbear wrote:The man from Vista...ha!..ha!

Season's Greetings? You're not gettin' soft on me Chris, are ya?

Same to you, buddy!

Thanks for the welcome guys. Seems like a more enthusiastic community than I'm used to seeing with other Linux distros. Cheers and happy holidays to all.

This forum and the people on it are great. Hopefully you be around enough to find that out. As far as Puppy, one experience I highly recommend, spend about a year using Puppy on a doorstop rescued from a closet, an Acer Travelmate 2420 should work fine, then go to a store where they have all the latest computers. Pick a pricey one. Play for a while. Reboot. Contain yourself or they will ask you to leave.

Of course, if you're like me, there's nothing they're selling you would even think about buying. As they're skanks you out you could pass out Puppy CDs.

WhoDo wrote: ...Like you, I don't understand why more people don't make the logical connection that Puppy is "man's best friend"! I .....)

Could it be that the introduction page and etc. is chaotic ?

When I read the beginner's forum I think to read tallk only among tweakers etc.

The tutorials I find also not instructive. You tubes are fast and almost unhearable small letters, despite the efforts.

Pity I do not see tuts in Wink anymore.

Menu names like Pudd, ppm etc. do not lead newcomers very quickly to the right spot.

Link on the frontpage to the forum leads you to somewhere else.

I am afraid the older frontpage eventually worked better, more inviting, at least for me.

"Pets". let alone "quickpets" is that a language a newcomer will understand ?

All the nice derivatives get lost by sinking to the next page.

To see the latest additionale software one needs to browse at least 10 categories, instead of seeing them at a glance on a daily basis, like before.


In short, I am afraid Puppy will never become more popular as long there is not a better frontdoor and leading halls and stairway to te right spots DESPITE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY AND KNOWHOW that is invested in them. Such a waste of diamonds.

Yes there are some good personal iniatives but they often get snowed under. It often remains likesearching in a haystack.

Should one ever reconsider the site one should first sketch a global framework and then fill in the details, and, apply low profile users asking them what would you like to do and how they thjink they would manage etc.

nancy reagan wrote:

Could it be that the introduction page and etc. is chaotic ?

When I read the beginner's forum I think to read tallk only among tweakers etc.

The tutorials I find also not instructive. You tubes are fast and almost unhearable small letters, despite the efforts.

Pity I do not see tuts in Wink anymore.

Menu names like Pudd, ppm etc. do not lead newcomers very quickly to the right spot.

Link on the frontpage to the forum leads you to somewhere else.

I am afraid the older frontpage eventually worked better, more inviting, at least for me.

"Pets". let alone "quickpets" is that a language a newcomer will understand ?

All the nice derivatives get lost by sinking to the next page.

To see the latest additionale software one needs to browse at least 10 categories, instead of seeing them at a glance on a daily basis, like before.

In short, I am afraid Puppy will never become more popular as long there is not a better frontdoor and leading halls and stairway to te right spots DESPITE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY AND KNOWHOW that is invested in them. Such a waste of diamonds.

Greetings Nancy "Astrid" ! Happy New Year !

This section is usually about complimenting Puppy for being such a good doggy-doggy.

However there is some truth in your post, like it can be a bit "strange" for newcomers.

As you say this forum is mostly about "tweaking" (hacking) at the kernel and code, the language here can seem at least "hermetic" for newbies.

I suggest that you and some other folks (I could give a hand), set up a free hosted website and forum tailor made for first time Puppy users.
A place that explains what "pet" & "quickpets" are all about, etc...
That could sort alphabetically all puplets, derivatives, available software, libs, docus, howtos, and the likes.

Also listing all the sites, wikis and forums dedicated to Puppy.

Also the team setting all this up could "work" as active "militants" to promote Puppy on non Puppy, and non Linux sites and forums.

What do you think Mrs. Reagan ?

Now about John: Welcome aboard lonegreyride.
Puppy is amazing and gracious.
It does wonders and miracles...
It radiates enough bliss to start a new cult !
But let's not lose our heads, it's only IT, not ET.

Such a waste of diamonds. ..... Yes there are some good personal iniatives but they often get snowed under. It often remains likesearching in a haystack.

nancy reagan, you are spot on! The newbies who have kindly contributed to the 'Puppy needs your help' thread are saying exactly this - in great numbers! - the No. 1 turnoff factor, by far, for newcomers is the difficulty they find in getting to the excellent information resources which are already out there.

eztuxer, right, but yet-another-website would fall down the same hole as all the other excellent work by fellow Puppy enthusiasts unless newcomers can be directed to it more easily.

I am very pleased to see that Barry has in Wary500 done much to address the second biggest newbiefear (installation woes) but IMVHO the longstanding 'jumping-off page' format is manifestly failing to perform as intended. A simple revision of this page might be the most important and easiest way to keep our newbies happy, and I'm up for that if nobody steps into the breach before me. (suggestions?).

nancy reagan wrote:

WhoDo wrote: ...Like you, I don't understand why more people don't make the logical connection that Puppy is "man's best friend"! I .....)

...[snip negative crap]...
Should one ever reconsider the site one should first sketch a global framework and then fill in the details, and, apply low profile users asking them what would you like to do and how they thjink they would manage etc.

Ah, the power of ONE! That "one" might be you, mightn't it? After all, how much effort does it take to offer to review the wiki pages, tutorials, contribute to the home page, etc. People who are great at telling others what needs doing but piss-poor at doing anything themselves are one of the chief reasons I don't bother with this stuff much any more! Pat yourself on the back at my absence if you like!