Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

BarryK

See this:
http://www.puppyos.com/olpc/

Puppy-Publicists, see to it that this page gets known about in the right places!

klhrevolutionist · Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 1124

Very good! However at the bottom it reads "Coomunity-supported Puppy home: http://www.puppylinux.org " Community is mispelled.

If you could somehow put up a "mail to a friend" box, then we could make this article news-worthy. Anyway, I will send that to as many people as I can.

ndujoe1 · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 741

Right on, Barry !

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

Yes, that is well-done as usual by Barry.

Will add that link to the PuppyLinux page I've built in the OLPC wiki:
http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/PuppyLinux

Will also write Walter of OLPC, and desktoplinux.com so they can add the link to the OLPC/Puppy Linux news item (or create a new item).

Cheers!

EDIT: Article composed for desktoplinux.com (feel free to circulate):

Lobster · Posted: Sun 14 May 2006, 03:39 Post subject: Added to digg

I have posted it here (sorry I can not work out the exact address . . .)
http://digg.com/linux_unix/digg

Please Digg it Cool

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

Enthusiasts can replicate Barry's effort and demonstrate Puppy in machines with about 400 Mhz CPU power and 128 MB RAM - the equivalent specs of the OLPC machine.

In doing so, we promote not only Puppy but also assure the public that the OLPC machine (and Linux) is not slow.

marksouth2000 · Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 620

So, Barry, when do the rest of us get to have a go at breaking this 13th May snapshot of which you speak? Twisted Evil

Pizzasgood · Posted: Mon 15 May 2006, 19:31 Post subject:

I'm actually using a 450 MHz machine with 256 MB of ram, and have been since I first got Puppy over a year ago. Run's great. Abiword gets slightly skippy when scrolling, but all-in-all the whole thing is pretty rock-solid. I've only crashed it when doing things I shouldn't, which normal people would never even approach doing. Other than Abiword (which, skippiness aside, still runs better than Word, the ant doesn't crash but the paperclip does), everything runs as fast as any other computer I've ever used. Faster in many cases, especially Rox 1.2.2. Rox 2.4.1 is at least as fast as any normal filemanager, but 1.2.2 seems like it's changing before I've even clicked the icon, and done before I'm finished.

In fact, I tend to forget that I'm using such an "old" processor since I've started using Puppy. I initially saw those specs and though it seemed like it would be slow. The I remembered that that's nearly what I have, and my first thought was "Dang, that Puppy is fast."

As for the software, I'm still amazed. Not that Puppy is so small, but that the other OS's are so big. If they suddenly came out and said, "Yo, what once took 200 MB now fits in 60," just think how much publicity they'd get. They'd probably wet themselves. Yet that's exactly what Puppy does (compresses, not wets itself...). I know, I've taken it apart. With the whole filesystem extracted, it was around 190 megabytes. Compressed, it's about 60. All I can say to that is "Bam!"

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

First the good news: see desktoplinux.com - there is an article about this development. To post comments, go to the Forum thread suggested by the site.

Now the bad, from the OLPC wiki:

http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Special:Recentchanges

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

Ivan Krstic, replying to my question, "Would you have some advice or comments to make in the direction of Barry Kauler and his co-enthusiasts?":

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

This will log current policy about the OS for OLPC as published in the OLPC Wiki.

As of May 24:

The proposed $100 machine will be Linux-based

It is true that the first prototypes run Fedora Linux, however other systems have also been considered and could be loaded later.

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

Someone (Dhbarr) started recreating the PuppyLinux page in the OLPC wiki, and by now there are new posts there as well as in the discussion page (while in the PuppyLinux page, just click on the "discussion" tab to view the discussion).

Localization is an area currently being pushed in the discussion.

Edit: As of June 4, there is a "Minimal Linux Distros" page at the wiki with links to the PuppyLinux page and Barry's article.

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

From the OLPC Community News of June 4, 2006:

memracom · Joined: 10 Jun 2006 Posts: 4 Location: London

Quite frankly, the idea of using Puppy as the base OS for the OLPC isn't going to go anywhere. They need a big organization like RedHat to support them and they need that organization to be in America so they can meet more easily when needed. It means that they have to do a lot of work subtracting and slimming down, but that is the path they have chosen.

Puppy folks could help by pointing out areas where they could do some further subtraction and slimming on Fedora. Or, possibly by contributing slimmer replacements for some bits.

But the main way Puppy folks can help is to port Sugar to Puppy and offer a Puppy ISO with Sugar included. That way, Puppy could become the easy choice for application developers. Some people have tried to install Sugar on Ubuntu but failed even though there are instructions on the OLPC wiki. If I knew that Puppy had Sugar included and that Puppy developers were tracking new Sugar releases, then I would use Puppy for my development.

Another thing is to test Puppy on various other limited devices like the NTAVO and the Flepo Mini PC1 http://www.barebone-online.de/index.php/cPath/66_68

Developers don't need a machine identical to OLPC in order to do development. Most of their testing could be done on another minimal system. Then when the app has passed those tests, publish it so that people who do have access to OLPC hardware can validate the app on the OLPC.

raffy · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4829 Location: Manila

Puppy used to be low-key and humble until the "Linux is bloated" news was floated by OLPC's top brass in April 2006. From that point on, Puppy could no longer just keep silent about OLPC, so Puppy enthusiasts began visiting the OLPC wiki and putting entries there about Puppy.

We welcome your arrival in the Puppy Forum and are glad that you are giving us updates about the important developments at OLPC.

Cheers!

PS - We always try to be humble but stick to the facts. If ever Puppy is posting achievements that are still on the drawing board of OLPC, it is because the Puppy project had three productive years already (by June 18, 2006), thanks to Barry Kauler and co-developers.

Readers, please see also this thread: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=8574

EDIT: Fixed the old forum URL.