These distros do EVERYTHING that a Microsoft/Apple PC does!

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gcmartin

These distros do EVERYTHING that a Microsoft/Apple PC does!

#1 Post by gcmartin »

Appeal to the Puppy Community to those who are in any position to help
The text, enclosed in this post, is both an Announcement and an Appeal to our community.

Announcement
THE PUPPY that does Everything that a Microsoft PC or an Apple PC does without the need to install anything. These system deliver an Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) experience that provides LAN services and shareing along with its traditional desktop user services, that is equivalent to what is found in Mocrosoft and Apple desktop laptop PCs systems.

I have been around in the Puppy forum community since 2005. I am not a distro builder. Nor am I a applications developer. This community has great, great people who do wonderful jobs at that to the benefit of all of us.

Puppy has been maturing a lot over the years. Much thanks goes to this forum community members who have contributed immensely in what it has become.

In its start, there were many still running 486s. Today, almost all new members are arriving in Puppyland equipped with P4s at a minimum and many are running much, much, much faster PCs. When Puppy started it was addressing PC of 128NB+. Today, no new member that I have witnessed has entered Puppyland with such small memory size such that most, if not all come here with 1GB+ RAM.

In an initial effort to run such a small OS on such a small RAM platform over such a small link to the internet, Puppy had to take some very clever steps to meet those PC sizes. Today, some PUPs are evolving as they mature to reach the PCs that are in existence since 2006 to now. Further, many older PCs dating back to 2000 can benefit by added RAM which many members have done cheaply. (I have a P4 with 4GB of PAM, for example)

Everything that a Microsoft-Apple PC does without the need to install anything.

I have been running the LightHouse distros for several years. It was created by one of our community members who has fallen ill. I hope its not a terminal illness, but in his last message to us it appears to be grave. He and I had corresponded over his achievements in Puppyland since before his 32bit Lighthouse502 distro. He has always been a great guiding light during his 32bit development in 502 and 503. After completion of 503, in discussion on RAM in the forum, his attention turned from the 32bit series of Lighthouse progressions to 64bit. His distros for unique and blazing in the scope he brought to the 64bit community. It wasn't just another distro, it was "over the top" in its design, offering, product mix, boot process for initial ISO system usage (Live/Frugal/Full), a complete single screen localization effort at initial and subsequent use, a unique update tool, straight-forward desktop layout and Menu selections, along with an ability to address 32bit Window apps should a need exist. One of my LightHouse platforms has NOT been rebooted since I did an initial save-session to "contain' all or those used to create my desktop workspace. Its blazing fast and just runs and runs and runs.

In his latest version 5.14, he made a "Christmas Present to all of us" as he released a version that allows any device received at Christmas (or earlier) which talks to Microsoft/Apple, to share and use items with LightHouse64. This among other nifty items is one of the greatest contribution from an OOTB distro ever produced in our community.

I think each and everyone of us can appreciate that this is a Herculean feat. For we have someone with failing health cobble together one of the greatest achievements this community has ever witnessed. An OOTB COMPLETE REPLACEMENT FOR MICROSOFT/APPLE and you don't even has to install it because you can run it from your Live media (CD/DVD) saving your work to the Live media as you go.

Here's where our community can help itself and help ths member out. Since his health is failing, we can assist in several areas:
  1. Provide coverage of his LightHouse distro (versions 5.03, the 32bit and versions 5.14, the 64bit) while he is struggling to recover.
  2. We could anticipate that our help may mean to attempt recreation to carry-on his work his latest and greatest achievement
This was NOT a typical or an ordinary Puppy, on the banks of the Puppy shores, THIS IS THE LIGHTHOUSE64.

I have some personal reasons for the desire (or need) to run a RAM based OS on any PC. This goes back to my days of DOS in the beginning, to OS2, to Citrix to Knoppix to Puppy to one other newer distro which also is pushing for recognition. This grew out of a mainframe design spec I wrote over 31 years ago (not publicly published). Then, in the subsequent years, I was able to test this and bring it to implementation on several of the production mainframes of that era demonstrating significant opening of windows for workload management and increased transaction rates.

There is no doubt, today, that properly designed RAM based systems provides ample room for additions, expansions, and use. This is very clear to all vendors, today, who build hand-held products. These "real-time" systems will only continue to become the diections for business and consumer, alike. In fact, there never was a view in business of consumers. There is "Business"; the notion of consumers is really one of the business models that businesses approach. This is because products are a universal tool that merely expands in the audience who find use for it. And we see this over and over again in the technology arenas.

Lighhouse64 is a distro that has been designed from the "ground-up" to be a Linux RAM based system which, OOTB, does EVERYTHING you get from a Microsoft-Apple PC. .... Everything!

Further, my most personal of reasons is the humanitarian side that says if we can helps someone who may have fallen, lets pick and continue as a tribute to what has been provided for our stability and comfort. Let's do it to help a fellow comrade in a way which doesn't take anything from any of us.

in looking at his last message to the forum, he was humble and apologetic for his deteriorating condition. But he left us with a gem, that I think this community might be able to support and extend.

If you have a 64bit PC and you haven't looked at this, you may be thrilled, should you. I encourage anyone new to Puppy or Lighthouse64 to start with Mariner, for it is the most comprehensive in its deliver. If you are like me and others, you may notice that you'll never have needed to install anything to use an office suite, an Internet suite, and all the other items that OOTB you get from Microsoft-Apple.

And if you can help in any way, please do what you can such that this effort continues to push Puppy maturity forward for everyone.

My thanks goes out to TaZoC and my well wishes continue to be sent. And thanks in advance for anything anyone of us can do to help on the forum with LightHouse64 Mariner

Here to help
Edited 2013/3/01 Forum member Nooby raises a concern that he believes the intent of the title implies the runinng of all aftermarket programs and services that can be added to Microsoft or Apple. So the 1st main paragraph of this document intends to shed light as to how these PUPs compare with Vendor OSes. The thread was put together to highlight the additional features which are missing in Puppyland distros in an OOTB experience. The distro that are mentioned have a current SAMBA component sucht that the OOTB experience from the distro mentiond are equivlent LAN PC with matchings services and functionality.

Hopefully, this satisfies his concern.
Last edited by gcmartin on Fri 01 Mar 2013, 05:23, edited 2 times in total.

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BarryK
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#2 Post by BarryK »

TaZoc,
If you are still coming onto the forum sometimes, and read this, I hope you recover quickly!

To those who don't know, TaZoc has been with us for over five years, contributing innovative ideas, and of course Lighthouse Pup.

TaZoc also created a system-check script, that is now in Woof -- TaZoc sent me a pm late last year about planning to improve that script, but I heard nothing after that and wondered what had happened -- now I know.
[url]https://bkhome.org/news/[/url]

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Rattlehead
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#3 Post by Rattlehead »

Thank you for the news about TaZoc. I wish he gets well and is soon back in this forum. I got to know Lighthouse Puppy when I was looking for some video editing solution. I think it is a very elegant distro, with very nifty details (I love the uptime report during the shutdown process, for example).

My life is quite random these days, and what you propose, yet beautiful, is still vast and a bit vague. I'm not sure I can stably commit to a project like this right now, but I'll keep an eye on this thread and everything Lighthouse related, in case one day I can cross the line from being a hurdle to the project to contribute consistent help.

There is a small bug I found in Rox, now that I think of it; my Lighthouse version is 4.43 d_mariner, I don't know if it is been solved later; I have applied the solution only in regular Puppy 4.3.1. Here is the resource, fwiw:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=75552

Thank you for the news and the vision :)

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TekVahana
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I can help a tad

#4 Post by TekVahana »

I was messing around with some tiny flat file wikis, working on a little wiki for Fatdog64, and uploaded a few Fatdog files to my little webspace, and am currently working on mirroring some of TaZ's stuff, too (gotta download more first), and now this.

I always tested Pup on the lower end machines because that is what I had. Recently I acquired a couple old dual cores and fell in love with Fatdog and was getting ready to try the 64 bit Lighthouse on them, so I'm poised for testing (if that can help), along with some space and bandwidth I can spare at a couple domains.

Don't know what else I can offer to help out, but whatever it is, if it's for TaZoc, I'm game to give it a try!

Praying you're better soon, TaZoc! Since Lighthouse 3 you always were a Puppian SuperStar to me. Bless you ever so much, and many thanks to ya for so much you've given me right along with everyone else. I feel somehow blessed whenever I boot to one of your releases and I hope I'll see ya posting soon.

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#5 Post by starhawk »

I am curious, I admit, as to what TaZoc's illness is...? (Pardon the nosiness!) Sounds like he's done a lot of really nice things, although I've never had a system fancy enough to be able to use with Lighthouse (it's 64b only, right?)...

gcmartin

#6 Post by gcmartin »

starhawk wrote:I am curious, I admit, as to what TaZoc's illness is...? (Pardon the nosiness!) Sounds like he's done a lot of really nice things, although I've never had a system fancy enough to be able to use with Lighthouse (it's 64b only, right?)...
There are 2 major contributions from him; namely 64bit (V5.14) and 32bit. His 32bit version from last summer still is a PREMIER distro in this community. Take a moment and you'll be impressed. Its 5.03G at top of page on his site LHPUP.org. And, there's a forum available.

But, be aware that his 64bit is the one that I reference as a full OOTB Microsoft/Apple replacement without the need to install anything.

Hope this helps

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#7 Post by Lobster »

TaZoc is part of our kennel,

We all wish him comfort and well being.
If we pray or offer some form of healing, we will engage
with his situation in our way . . . :D

As for the distro that does everything . . .
Use, test document. feedback (it's a plan) 8)

Onward brave surface dwellers of the deep (aka Mariners) :wink:
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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TekVahana
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Greeetings from Lighthouse64 at Last!

#8 Post by TekVahana »

I'm booted up on an old Pavilion a1712n with a Gig of RAM and 4 gigs of frugal goodness and at least one swap partition. (I've taken to adding a Linux swap every time I format any healthy sized drives anymore - just in case. So there's always at least one on this sys, sometimes more, and I forgot to notice the swap count when I booted - I think it's two, though). :D

Even with only one Gig of RAM everything is pretty smooth even though I've got twice as many more sfs files loaded than I've ever run on old Fatdog boot before. :)

I wanted to use the other box because it has 2 gigs of RAM, but the optical drives seem to only work when they choose, so once it's booted to something it gets pretty much left that way. Hoped to get it to boot from this DVD, but for some reason it couldn't find L64-514.sfs once I did get it to fire. (I have gotten around that in the past by booting to something else and copying the sfs to the root of the hard drive and reboot to whatever I was attempting before. Rarely has that not been an adequate workaround in that situation. ) :wink: I'll keep working on that, 'cause if I can get it to boot from this DVD I'll set up a proper boot manager and just boot off the HDD.

OK, just opened Writer and it runs at a stately pace. More RAM is going to be recommended for stuff like that, but it still works even if it isn't exactly snappy. Been streaming a long playlist off the toobs the whole time I've been working on this post. For just a web surfer, one Gig of RAM might be OK.

TaZ has outdone himself on this puppy. No wonder gcmartin's hair is on fire!

P. S. My domain is down because I need to talk to Register dot com when the bank opens in the morning. I should have figured out to call them when I couldn't ftp in this afternoon. :oops:

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#9 Post by disciple »

I seem to remember a discussion where I contended that:
- There are lots of harmful things that Microsoft does which no Puppy ever will.
- In terms of helpful things, any Puppy does a vast number of things out of the box that Microsoft does not. About the only things it doesn't have out of the box are a remotedesktop viewer, and file and printer sharing.
:)
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

Classic Puppy quotes

ROOT FOREVER
GTK2 FOREVER

gcmartin

Re: Greeetings from Lighthouse64 at Last!

#10 Post by gcmartin »

TekVahana wrote: ...I wanted to use the other box because it has 2 gigs of RAM, but ...
There is a way to boot this box over the LAN.

Here's a forum thread that details how. Its really easy to do.

BUT, you cannot boot Mariner! The process will not allow the booting of Mariner!!! You can boot Lighthouse (just make sure the ISO is NOT the Mariner version.)

LightHouse will do everything FATDOG does AND it has the latest SAMBA such that ANY device that will connect to a Microsoft/Apple PC will also work with LightHouse.

Hope this helps

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#11 Post by russoodle »

Ditto all appreciative comments on TaZoc's LHP series. He is incredibly talented and does amazing work, with great attention to detail...i've run earlier 32-bit versions on an IBM T40P lappie and the more recent LHP-64 on an Intel Mac without any issues.

My thanks to you, TaZoc, and my best wishes for greatly-improved health in the near future.
[i][color=Green][size=92]The mud-elephant, wading thru the sea, leaves no tracks..[/size][/color][/i]

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#12 Post by starhawk »

Downloaded Lighthouse64 for trying out. My netbook is on the fritz, and if I replace it I'm going to want to stop being a hypocrite and move to puppy primarily... instead of Windblows XP.

I do have one system it will run on...

BTW, what is Mariner?

gcmartin

#13 Post by gcmartin »

starhawk wrote:Downloaded Lighthouse64 for trying out. My netbook is on the fritz, and if I replace it I'm going to want to stop being a hypocrite and move to puppy primarily... instead of Windblows XP.

I do have one system it will run on...

BTW, what is Mariner?
@TaZoC has presented his distros in each incarnation as a "base" distro and one called "Mariner"

Base is a bootable system and ALL PETs or packages will need to be downloaded should you need them. Base intends to be full-featured 64bit PUPPY and intends to be a smaller ISO to be downloaded ONLY.

Mariner is a bootable system which has everything the base provides with a subset of Packages built into the ISO so that you do NOT NEED TO DOWNLOAD them from the internet. As I remember, I believe its some 8-9 packages that when you boot a LIVE media, it will ask you which/all of the packages you want loaded from the CD/DVD you are booting from.

Booting from Live media (CD/DVD) you will have NO PROBLEMS booting either of these 2 incarnations. For example, I have only rebooted my LightHouse64 Mariner system once, to create a save-session on the Live media that adds the 2 PETs needed to add Netboot server to my LH64. Now, should I ever need, if I reboot, it will have ALL of the packages intact in the system at boot time without my needing to go to the Internet again. My LH64 system is stable, fast, and fully featured!

I add the warning because should anyone use a PXE netboot server, the netboot system hiccups when it tries to reference packages that are usually found with Mariner. But, with the base when using PXE netboot you have no such problem.

Netbooting is a way to boot any other LAN PC without using its local media. (For example, I would be able to boot your PC on the fritz without touching its DVD drive or putting ANYTHING on your HDD/USB or....) Netbooting gets the total OS over the LAN and does NOT require local media for booting.

So in essence, I have a system that does everything a Windows Server would do without spending the $1000 for Microsoft's software to do the same thing. (Well, almost everything....we still cannot do multi-media desktop serving from any Puppy, to date).

Hope this helps

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#14 Post by starhawk »

Mariner seems to add 13 sfs files :shock:

BTW I found what is probably a bit of a bug in the LHP universal installer -- namely that it sees ANY ext partition (ext2/3/4) as ext4! The obvious workaround is to only install on ext4 partitions, but that makes me a little nervous. I've not known Puppy to like ext4...

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#15 Post by Jim1911 »

starhawk wrote:Mariner seems to add 13 sfs files :shock:

BTW I found what is probably a bit of a bug in the LHP universal installer -- namely that it sees ANY ext partition (ext2/3/4) as ext4! The obvious workaround is to only install on ext4 partitions, but that makes me a little nervous. I've not known Puppy to like ext4...
I cannot confirm or deny this statement since all my installations are manual frugal installations. However, LHP is extremely stable on ext4 partitions, in fact that is true for all the latest's pups due somewhat to TazOC's pioneering effort. I've also have LHP as frugal installations on ext3 and ntfs partitions with no problems.

I totally agree with what gcmartin has said about LHP, both the 32bit 503 version and the 64bit 514 version. Both are as good or better than anything available now and is the only pup that comes with a KDE4 desktop if desired. I pray that TazOC will soon regain his heath and return, he is missed. His innovations have pushed the state of art for puppy users for many years and he has continued to put out quality products. One of his many innovations was the switch to use the faster, more stable ext4 partitions and the corresponding 4fs save files.

starhawk
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#16 Post by starhawk »

Looks like LH Update is broken on mine. It's fine on the CD but as soon as I install, make a savefile, and reboot...

...ouch.

Running from Terminal, it spits out a bunch of gobbledegook. Running from GUI, it fails to update. Looks like it gets corrupted soon as it hits the disk.

Is there an easy fix? Can I manually download this stuff?

EDIT: boy do I feel like a noob. It's on an ext4 partition, system is a Compaq SR2173wm with a 160gb HDD and 2gb RAM. Wifi (atheros PCI card) isn't being stable, either... lemme run memtest, see if that's what's going on.
EDIT2: nevermind, I'm just putting Racy Puppy 522 on this thing; it's honestly easier to go with something I know about.

gcmartin

#17 Post by gcmartin »

starhawk wrote:Looks like LH Update is broken ... I know about.
I, personally, do not do HDD?USB installs of any PUPs.

But, some on this thread may be able to help if we had a better idea of what's occurring. All Lighthouses (32/64bit) easily fit on a 2GB PC. So, you will not have a memory problem.

Question in order to help you
Is your laptop a 32bit/64bit CPU system?
IF you are running Mariner which Mariner are you running?
DId you bypass the very first message from a CD boot to reboot and create a save file or did you reboot for a save file? (this message although scary, is not a requirement of anything on your first system boot).

The above should give some idea of what's ailing your use.

If it were me, I would boot the Live media, ignore the reboot offer, and go straight to the desktop. Setup your localization and hit OK allowing the system to complete these items for your system's running. Completing this, will restart your X desktop.
Once, it returns to the desktop ignore the other Windows which pop-up and click the Update icon on the desktop. There, assuming you have internet connectivity, I would then run the Update icon on your desktop, clicking its very top-most selection for Update to update its tables. Then, look at the list of items in the update window, for it will show what is currently installed from the Live media (CD/DVD) you booted.

Once that is done, next I would open the PPM and add any additional package you may need, should you need any.

Finally, I would go to Menu>Shutdown>... to complete a reboot where you will be allowed to save your LightHouse session.

When reboot completes, you will be on your way and might be able to run without rebooting.

Should you complete this, you may want to post your
  • Menu>System>Report Video GLX as well a
  • Menu>System>HardInfo...Summary
to this thread so that we understand a little more of where you are.

Hope this helps.

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#18 Post by sickgut »

with puppy its possible to make an OS that is very good out of the box experience with everything you need but its what happens after that..... after you have a solid OS that does MOST things... where do you go?

the problem with puppy is that as soon as a user wishes to break away from the normal array of applications, its difficult for newbies to get software to run on puppy unless a puppy dev has done the same and made the application available as a .pet... the PPM can get binary packages from other major linux repos but most still require hand holding to work... also something a newbie cant do.

if you want an OS to be able to do everything a Mac or PC with windows can do then you need to have a system that gives you compatibility with a larger selection of software than that which is available for puppy right now.

right now puppy has compatibility but not 100% compatibility with current major linux distro repositories. If puppy had a package management system that could draw from debian or ubuntu or fedora or slackware repos with 100% compatibility then combine that with a decent out of the box solution, then puppy would kick ass.

but i fear puppy is too bleeding edge to make large stable repositories for.

my opinion is we can go 2 ways:

1). Pick the most stable puppy with the new linux 3 kernel. This will be fine for years to come. Focus on reliability rather than features, if something doesnt work quite right, dont include it. There is plenty of time to iron out bugs. Work at making high quality packages for Puppy that once done propperly wont have to be done again. Ofcause browsers and others will need to be kept up to date. This Puppy needs to be the only or main focus of the community until its made perfect and that will take years but at the end you will have something that will be better than windows or Mac. With one puppy that is now bleeding edge that will be the flagship for atleast 3 or 4 years that we will make a huge repo of software for, this will give all the package maintainers/ devs etc time to make a decent repo of software. If there are any fixes or important updates to the OS itself then it should be released as a patch, dont release an entirely new OS. Stick with one version of Puppy for years, this is what MS does with Windows and what MAC does with its OS. Simply put, people have time to make software for these OSes because they stay the same for long periods of time. Years. Yes. Years.
If we could agree to do this with puppy then i would devote my time and effort as well into making a good software repo. The reason i dont do this anymore is because i see it as completely pointless to release a new puppy every few months and then be expected to make a whole new repository for it. Stick with one version so we have time to make a repo that will be large and useful. Not leeching half assed from other linux distros but a large stable repo compiled on puppy or using binaries that we know work, packaged for puppy.

2). leech successfully from other linux distros already established repos in a more efficient way, the only way to do this is to start again, make something puppylike from the base of an already established OS and dont break compatibility with it, then software will install fine every time using the native package manager for the linux distro base that a new kind of puppy could be built on. It can be made just as small and in some cases even more memory efficient and as fast as what puppy is now.

ive flogged these 2 ideas to death on this forum so ill be quiet now

gcmartin

REcent Entry into this field

#19 Post by gcmartin »

A new entry into a Puppy distro where there may be little to no need to download anything to match most of what you'd get from an OOTB Microsoft/Apple PC is 01Mico's "FATSLACKO" distro. It provides some of the same subsystems as LightHouse64, but FATSLACKO does it for 32bit PC, for it, like most PUPs are 32bit OSes.
,
Although it is NOT as robust as TaZoC's Mariner Lighthouse64, it is a formidable entry in this field for matching the functionality we all have come to expect when we buy a new PC.

This entry is aimed (in my opinion) at PC with greater than 512MB RAM, preferably 2006 on. It is fast, and useful immediately OOTB with stable products for Office, as well as LAN services.

We now have a 64bit entry as well as a 32bit entry of the OOTB PUPs where you can have it provide the same services as an OOTB Microsoft/Apple PC provides.

And, bear in mind, each of these has the stellar Office packaging of LIbreOffice and the LAN service packages for communicating and sharing with ALL of the devices on your LAN.

These are 2 of the extremely swift Puppy LInus distro that are OOTB full fundtions.

Here to help

gcmartin

Never a need to remaster

#20 Post by gcmartin »

Although this will NOT be the dase for some users, I think it will be the case for many.

"There has NOT been a need to remaster either of these 2 distros that I have running because they do most everything one would expect"...OOTB.
  • LightHouse64 (Dec, 2011)
  • FATSlacko (last month)
The major contribution is reduction in time on the internet to set it up and reduction in time adding and tailoring the local system. In other words, for many, there would be nothing to add for an enriched OOTB experience. I dont have to spend the time on the internet trying to research on what needed to get the useful services operational within the distro as it was made ever so easy for user use.

This is the primary savings that the distros mentioned in this thread are offering...simple-complete use OOTB for almost any user.

Hope this is clear.

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