(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/t ... ag=nl.e539

Summary: After almost twenty years of working with Linux desktops, here’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols’ pick of the litter.

He says that "I prefer KDE to GNOME for my Linux desktop."

Is Puppy closer to what? I trust the puppy I use most likely is JWM?
Is that a smaller version of GNOME? Some of the more experimental
Puppy have KDE?

This was kind of predictable with Mepis being the only surprise. I guess the thing about Mint is, it just works without any fiddling required. Even codecs are included.

If Mint Linux is that good then PepperMint Linux steal the show?

Since I've been using Mepis for quite a while(since Mepis 6.5) I can understand how it made the list.Can't stand the new Ubuntu though......Unity/Gnome 3 are both pretty bad.

How much does AntiX differ from Simply Mepis?

Can Mepis do what AntiX failed doing in frugal install.
To write to the partition one booted from in frugal intall
was not allowed even if one was root. Yes I did ask for help at AntiX forum.

Them made heroic effort to help me it never succeeded. Had to give it all up.

I'm posting from Swift Linux (which is based on AntiX, but has some additional features such as Open Office) now.

I like it a lot, but as far as I know there isn't even an option to do a frugal install in either it or AntiX (which I also have). though you can do a full install to hard disk.

strange that people don't like unity...

IMO, it is an improvement over the previous gnome thing.

Colonel Panic wrote:I'm posting from Swift Linux (which is based on AntiX, but has some additional features such as Open Office) now.

I like it a lot, but as far as I know there isn't even an option to do a frugal install in either it or AntiX (which I also have). though you can do a full install to hard disk.

Well AntiC the Dev is kind guy so he has described how to do frugal on the forum so one need to search there I managed to boot both AntiX and Swift on NTFS but being a "Live" iso them are set up to make the partition them boot from to be a Read Only boot partition so one can not save anything to it. No permissions even of one are root. Maybe one can be some extreme SuperUser Root but they did not tell how to do that. So it sure booted but no writing to that disk

Porteus allowed it and Knoppix does allow it too and even TCL now when them have reconsidered the NTFS thing.

I have the worst luck with hard disk drives, so I won't consider using an OS that requires one. Running Puppy from a multisession DVD is the perfect solution for me. I save Puppy-related stuff - programs and settings - on the DVD and put everything else on an external drive, such as a USB flash drive. The only disadvantage I can see is that Puppy takes a while to boot from a DVD. That's a small price to pay for the peace of mind I get from having no hard disk.

Flash wrote:I have the worst luck with hard disk drives, so I won't consider using an OS that requires one. Running Puppy from a multisession DVD is the perfect solution for me. I save Puppy-related stuff - programs and settings - on the DVD and put everything else on an external drive, such as a USB flash drive. The only disadvantage I can see is that Puppy takes a while to boot from a DVD. That's a small price to pay for the peace of mind I get from having no hard disk.

Does not some Puppies boot faster using CD than them do using a HDD?

I guess it depends when one start the timer?

The thing I wish would happen is cheap USB memories that is as safe as a DVD. A lot of small Netbooks does not have a DVD drive. Unless one place it outside as an external one. Can one boot from such?

I have an adapter? that can boot from an USB HDD.

Flash wrote:I have the worst luck with hard disk drives, so I won't consider using an OS that requires one. Running Puppy from a multisession DVD is the perfect solution for me. I save Puppy-related stuff - programs and settings - on the DVD and put everything else on an external drive, such as a USB flash drive. The only disadvantage I can see is that Puppy takes a while to boot from a DVD. That's a small price to pay for the peace of mind I get from having no hard disk. :)

Do you have a way of backing up the data on the DVD?

~

Bruce B wrote:Do you have a way of backing up the data on the DVD?

As I mentioned, the only data on my multisession DVD are the programs I've installed and the settings I've changed. In other words, the changes and additions I've made to Puppy itself. Everything else, I save on an external USB flash memory or hard disk drive.
I can't remember a multisession DVD going bad in about six years, compared with at least four hard disk drives that failed on me in approximately that amount of time, so I haven't felt the need to back up a multisession Puppy DVD. If I did, there are two ways I can think of to do it.

1. Make an exact copy. I tried this once just to see if it would work. It did, but with a hitch that happened because the multisession Puppy I copied had been made from a DVD+RW which had previously been filled to the brim with something else. I hadn't bothered to blank it completely before I used it for a multisession Puppy and so the unblanked stuff, while not affecting its use for my purpose, was still on the disk so it got copied too. About 4GB worth. This couldn't have happened if I'd made my multisession Puppy with a DVD+R instead of RW.
Making an exact copy requires enough memory somewhere to temporarily hold the contents of the multisession Puppy DVD being copied. This might not be much of a problem since the only things on the DVD should be the Puppy iso, perhaps 150 MB at most; the saved sessions, which don't amount to much if you only save sessions when you've changed a setting or installed a program that you want to keep in Puppy; and whatever programs you've installed. So maybe only 500 MB of RAM or external flash memory should be enough to temporarily store the entire contents of a multisession DVD. However, I think the second way of backing up my multisession DVD is more elegant than simply copying it:

2. I call this defragmenting a multisession DVD. It's also an all-purpose way to back up a multisession DVD. I've used it many times to upgrade to a newer version of Puppy.

• a. Boot the multisession Puppy DVD you wish to back up.
  b. Replace it with a blank DVD. (Any kind of recordable DVD will work, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. It doesn't have to be the same kind as the multisession DVD you booted from in step a.)
  c. Using either Burniso2cd or Pburn, burn the same Puppy iso onto the blank DVD as is on the one you booted from in step a.
  d. With the newly burned DVD still in the drive, click the Save icon on the desktop. This will condense everything from all the sessions on the DVD you booted from in step a into the first session on the newly burned DVD (that's why I call it defragmenting.) Your settings and installed programs from the original DVD will all be there when you boot from this new DVD.
  e. Enjoy. I'd boot from it to confirm that it works as expected, then put it in a safe place.

Flash, wow I envy that second approach.

I used DVD multisession when I first started with Puppy and I did like it.

But my current computer is a Netbook and them are only 10" so not good place for a DVD burner.

Sure one can have an USB such. But it would be two things to carry around

I wish one could make USB mem stick as secure as DVD multisession.

My approach is to put all my data: docs, databases, spreadsheets, presentations, pdfs, eBooks, html files like Tiddlywiki on an SDHC card. (I have enough room so also store pets and source files and OpenOffice/LibreOffice extensions; java apps, etc. on it.)

Started doing that in 2008 when I retired and wasn't working for clients and didn't have to use Windows. By keeping my data on the card (which back up from time to time on a USB key using dd, I don't have to worry about hard disks failing, PC's failing or losing my data when I erase a partition that had data on it.

As to my favourite Linux distros, Puppy is #1 because I have complete control and don't have to fight to do what I want.

That said, I like Fusion 14, a Fedora 14 remaster, with Linux Mint menus. Didn't have to install much. Everything works - don't have to worry about dependency hell. so if have a problem with running something on Puppy, I can usually run it on Fusion or WINE in Fusion. (I don't like kde - have had too many fights with kwallet). Only 32bit.

Also like 64bit CLDG 11.3, Calculate Linux Desktop GNOME, a Russian Gentoo remaster. That means install = compile from source. Runs fast but couldn't get WINE to compile. But everything purely Linux appears to be working.

Also have 64bit Pinguy 11.04, a Mint remaster. Liked 10.10 very much - got fed up with recompiling keucr module every time there was a kernel upgrade but made the mistake of going to 11.04: no sound from mic. Not good for Skype.

I also have Knoppix, which is more for problems; the old version of Porteus, a Slackware remaster, is interesting; CTKArch, Petite Linux, an openSUSE remaster, and blackPanther, a Mandriva remaster. Haven't spent too much time with these distros.

nooby wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:I'm posting from Swift Linux (which is based on AntiX, but has some additional features such as Open Office) now.

I like it a lot, but as far as I know there isn't even an option to do a frugal install in either it or AntiX (which I also have). though you can do a full install to hard disk.

Well AntiC the Dev is kind guy so he has described how to do frugal on the forum so one need to search there I managed to boot both AntiX and Swift on NTFS but being a "Live" iso them are set up to make the partition them boot from to be a Read Only boot partition so one can not save anything to it. No permissions even of one are root. Maybe one can be some extreme SuperUser Root but they did not tell how to do that. So it sure booted but no writing to that disk

Porteus allowed it and Knoppix does allow it too and even TCL now when them have reconsidered the NTFS thing.

Thanks for the info. I don't really use AntiX or Swift Linux at home (where saving settings would matter), but if I did I'd copy your post down and use it there.

Best,

CP .

I don't want my confusing text to give the wrong impression.

Nothing wrong with Debian or Simply Mepis and noting wrong with AntiX neither because all of them are true to how all Unix variations are set up. The mare true to the Unix spirit

Them got constructed way before computers was so easy to afford that almost every middle class can have their own in the family and the Linux was constructed some 20 years ago on a University setting so obviously them had to be non-root to not get annoying pranks sent to them all the time from fellow students destroying all their work.

So it is as it should be with AntiX. As I get it all Linux is supposed to forbid such writing to the disk one boot up from.

I remember way back in say 2008? or earlier? SliTaZ Dev or some high up in the hierarchy at their Forum answered me that Slitaz was not supposed to save on a HDD at all only on USB for to protect the user.

So this "behavior" is a very long tradition among Linux Devs so Barry is an exception allowing us to not only be root but to be super admin of our own computer.

Only Knopper had same attitude maybe. Who else? Is there any other distro that can be used in the way Puppy can? Maybe Nimblex and he got much heap thrown on him for being root.

@ nooby

most of the people that I know who use linux will not entertain anything but running as root, as they want control over their pc and not have a piece of software telling them they are not authorized to make changes on their own computer.

cheers
Stripe

Is there a way to run any of 'the big five' as root? Guess you have to log in as root or something similar................

DaveS wrote:Is there a way to run any of 'the big five' as root? Guess you have to log in as root or something similar................

Not sure about all of the main "big" distros but for most just login as root at the login screen ......naturally there is usually an entirely different desktop to indicate the danger of running as root. Usually involving a lot of bright red.