How can you run a full range of current applications on older
computers, netbooks, thin clients, and mobile devices? One way is to
install a lightweight Linux like Puppy, Lubuntu, or Vector Light.
Select the distro with the apps that meets your needs while matching
your computer’s resources.
Puppy is worthy of your attention because it’s pushed its way into Distrowatch‘s
top ten most popular operating systems by merit alone. It doesn’t
have a corporate sponsor or advertising budget. This article describes Puppy. Screenshots follow the article.
What’s Unique About Puppy
Puppy runs on many limited-resource computers. This includes Pentium
IV’s, III’s, M’s, D’s, Atom and Celeron netbooks, and even Pentium
II’s. I’ve used it in
refurbishing computers donated to charity yet I also run it on my
state-of-the-art computers. What makes it appealing is
how it combines three characteristics that normally force a trade-off:
2. Ease of use
3. Good performance on limited hardware
Puppy supplies all the
applications most users need while running
on low-resource computers. It does this
while retaining ease-of-use. So you can install it for
consumers on low-end or older equipment.
Puppy combines high
functionality with minimal
hardware. These
two goals force a direct trade-off — typically you get one or the
other, but
not both. Puppy employs specific techniques to circumvent the
trade-off and combine these two goals. Among them:
- Bundled applications are selected for high
functionality and minimal
resource consumption.
- Puppy excludes all but the mandatory Linux functions, code,
services, and
daemons.
- The OS and bundled apps automatically load and run from memory on
any
computer having 256 M or more. This executes code at in-memory
speeds and eliminates slow hard disk and optical
disc access. It yields good performance even on older computers with slow devices.
- Graphical user interfaces are the most resource-consumptive
component of modern operating systems. Puppy dodges the GUI performance bullet with the
lightweight JWM as
its default interface,
based on X-server with either Xorg or the more limited but efficient XVesa.
- Puppy’s frugal install
option copies the Live CD code into any Windows or
Linux disk partition and boots from there. This yields hard disk boot
speed without requiring disk re-partitioning.
Puppy doesn’t require the anti-malware software
that
overwhelms older Windows systems. You can take a Windows ME/98/95
system, replace Windows with
Puppy, and
have a secure, performant system running current software. Puppy is a prime candidate for reusing these old systems.
Flexibility
Flexibility is essential when working with low-end computers. You need
software that runs on the system you have, rather than requiring you to
upgrade, change, or fix hardware. Puppy doesn’t impose hardware requirements.
For example, Puppy installs and boots from any
bootable device and saves your work to any
writeable device. No hard disk, optical drive, or USB?
No problem. Want to use your old SCSI drive, floppy, Zip
drive, LS-120/240 Superdisk, or compact flash memory? Puppy does it.
It’s great to see a distro that leverages whatever odd old devices your system has.
Puppy can even use write-once
CDs or DVDs for persistent storage. It will
prompt you to insert a new disc when needed. It then carries all your
work forward onto the newly inserted CD or DVD.
Puppy gives you a choice of Linux kernels. It comes with the
latest one for
current equipment and older “retro” kernels for aging machines. So it
runs on computers most other lightweight Linuxes no longer support.
Puppy complements Windows. You can install and load
it from
within a Windows disk partition. Or install on its own partition using
Linux filesystems like ext2, ext3, ext4, or reiserfs. Puppy’s
boot manager, GRUB, recognizes all existing Windows install(s) and
generates a boot-time menu that asks you which OS you want to run. So
you can install Puppy on a computer that already runs Windows or
Linux without worry.
All this flexibility makes Puppy better suited for revitalizing mature computers than many competing lightweight distributions.
Apps Are the Name of the Game
I’ve described how Puppy achieves good performance on minimal hardware.
But what can you do with it?
Puppy bundles the applications to perform the same tasks as much larger
distros. I can comfortably use it for everything I do instead of Ubuntu. With Puppy you can —
- Perform home and office tasks with word processors, file and HTML
editors, PDF viewers, spreadsheets, and HomeBank
finance manager. Puppy bundles GNOME Office.
- Surf the Internet with your choice of browsers, and read, write, send and manage email with Sylpheed
- Play, record, mix, rip and manage music
- Scan in documents and pictures, read or scan photographs,
alter and manage images and graphics with image and vector editors
- Write your personal blog with PPLOG and the Hiawatha web
server, or create your own wiki with DidiWiki
- Manage your address book, personal contacts, and daily calendar
with Osmo daily
organizer
- Read, write, and burn CD’s, DVD’s, and Blu-ray discs
- Log in to remote computers with telnet and send & receive
files
- Manage your files and data with file managers, a file finder,
and tools for backup
- Manage your computer and its performance with a full set of
utilities for setup, configuration, and performance monitoring and
management
Here’s
a full list of Puppy’s bundled apps and their version
numbers. Of course, like any mainstream distro Puppy makes it easy to download and install addtional apps with its package GUI.
For smooth video, you need a machine running at perhaps 800 ghz or faster. In my experience Puppy runs video fluently
with a slightly slower processor than larger distros like Ubuntu, where
you need at least 1 ghz.
Where Puppy Plays
The current Puppy release — Puppy 5 or “Lucid Puppy” — boots in 128 M
ram and runs entirely from memory on
systems with 256 M or more. The CD download is 130 M.
(Older
Puppy releases are about 100 M
downloads and prior to version 4 Puppy boots in only 64 M).
Puppy is a performant system for Pentium IV’s, III’s, M’s, D’s, and Atom and Celeron netbooks. Pentium II’s
work well with many Puppy releases if you can maximize their memory to
256 M, which allows Puppy
to
run entirely from memory and perform optimally. You can actually use a
P-II for serious work! One important limitation is that
P-II’s
can’t run web video because the P-II line topped out at 450mhz. This is a processor limitation rather than a Puppy shortcoming.
If you have a really old computer in your basement or attic, Puppy
can help you revitalize it. Puppy also runs on P-II’s with less than
256 M and P-I’s. But here you forgo the speed advantage that comes
with
running the system solely from memory.
For my purposes — refurbishing older computers with software that
is user-friendly enough for end users — Puppy presents the right
balance of
usability with minimal hardware requirements. As long as you install
and configure Puppy, end users will be quite happy using it on Pentium IV’s, III’s, and even II’s.
I don’t want to leave the impression that Puppy is only
suitable for
low-end hardware. I install it as one of several operating systems on my state-of-the-art
computers. It’s a fun alternative to some of the full-sized distros like Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, or Fedora.
Puppy makes a handy
portable “rescue disk” on CD, DVD, or bootable USB pen drive. Just last
month my friend
corrupted his disk’s master boot record on a Windows computer. With a
Live Puppy CD, we fixed this fatal error in minutes. Puppy scanned the disk and regenerated
the master boot record for us. (My
friend could also have used the Windows recovery console with commands like fixmbr
and fixboot but he didn’t
know how).
I recently used Puppy to save data from a DOS FAT32 partition on a
failing disk. I booted Live Puppy CD, then used its tools to
rebuild the DOS partition’s corrupted file allocation table. After verifying the FAT structure was
good, I carefully copied files from the failing disk to a good one,
concentrating on the highest priority files first. Eventually we saved
all data from the bad disk partition except for two files that had damaged
sectors. Then we replaced the bad disk.
Puppy’s Profile
Puppy makes a nice match for computer
consumers — assuming a knowledgeable person installs and configures it
for them. It brings old equipment back to life. But it may not be the best fit for
corporate users who require software that changes little from
release to release, or for companies that need a distro with corporate backing. Puppy is:
— Puppy originated with one individual, Barry Kauler. A small inner circle adds
to his
efforts. No corporation underwrites or directs Puppy. Free support includes videos, wikis,
how-to’s, online documentation, tutorials, web sites, and active
forums. With one or two exceptions it does not offer corporate support contracts.
No “road map” — This is an
evolving distro. Every
version differs. There is no
long term “road map” for future development or set schedule for planned
future
releases and upgrades. The community develops Puppy as consensus evolves.
Version upgrades only — Updates are traditionally
through point releases. Puppy
5 adds a push-button for downloadable software fixes like Ubuntu or
Windows.
Root user id — Puppy runs as a
single-user system and this drives its development. The Puppy user
runs as the Linux root user id.
In theory this could be a problem — but in practice it presents
no downside. I’ve never heard of a single Puppy user suffering
a
problem due to this. If this concerns you, see the discussions
that explore all angles of this topic
in this
forum thread and this
one.
How to Run Puppy
In Puppy version 5.2, the Live CD download file is
127 M. Once you’ve downloaded the product, burn it to a “boot CD” and
you’re
ready to run.
Given its small size and quick boot time,
many run Puppy as a Live CD or DVD without ever
installing it. Puppy allows you to save your session work by asking if
you want
to create a Save File the first time you request a shut down. Place the
Save File
on any writeable device
(disk, USB, writeable CD or DVD, whatever). Next time you boot the
Live CD
or DVD Puppy finds the Save File to start your session. Ever after Puppy automatically saves your session work in the Save
File
without asking.
You can install Puppy to any
bootable device — disk (SATA, PATA/IDE or SCSI), writeable CD or DVD,
Superdisk, USB devices, Zip drive, or whatever will boot your
computer. You have two options here: a full install and the frugal
install.
The full install is a
traditional Linux install. You need to create a
disk partition for Puppy’s use. Puppy helps you do this with its bundled GParted
partition manager. Puppy also comes with GRUB for setting up an OS selection menu at startup. A Puppy partition need only be
500 M, though if you install additional apps, I’ve found 1 G to be a spacious
round number.
The frugal install simply
copies the Live CD files to
disk. Place these files in a single directory within
any
existing partition. This partition can be Windows NTFS or FAT32, or any
of the
common Linux partition types, such as ext2, ext3, ext4, or reiserfs.
The benefits to the frugal install are:
- Puppy can reside in any existing partition (assuming sufficient
space) - No need to shrink the Windows partition or create a new Linux
partition - Easy to upgrade — just replace the older version files with the
ones from a newer version
These advantages make frugal installs more popular with Puppy than
full disk installs. USB boots are also quite popular. Puppy fits on any 512 M USB memory stick with space leftover for your data.
New in Version 5
Puppy 5.x presents some
big enhancements over previous versions. It was created from Ubuntu
packages through a
new tool inventor Barry Kauler calls Woof. Woof
builds Puppy from the package repositories of various Linux distros.
Right now the supported distros include Ubuntu, Debian,
Slackware, Arch, T2 SDE, and Puppy.
The result is that Puppy 5 runs any Ubuntu or *.deb package! This opens
up the whole word of Ubuntu and Debian applications to Puppy. Prior to
version 5, you could only install apps from Puppy’s own repository.
While this repository contains
hundreds
of common Linux applications, enough for most people, it does not
compare to the thousands of free apps now available in the
Ubuntu/Debian repositories.
Puppy 5 tweaks the user interface. It boots directly into a
pre-configured desktop for quick startup. It gives users the
ability to easily customize the desktop with choices for
common
applications such as the browser. The new QuickPet tool makes
one-click
installation easy. Wireless and internet configuration are also much
improved. Barry Kauler’s blog and the
Version 5 Release
Notes give full details on everything that’s new in Puppy 5.
You can customize Puppy into your own distro with either Woof or the Puppy re-mastering tool. These are
so easy to use that they have resulted in an explosion of Puplets,
customized Puppy-based distros. Puplets address all sorts of special
interests, including multi-user
Puppy, Puppeee
for the eeePC notebook, UbuntuStudio
Puppy, and many more
designed for gaming, scientific disciplines, religious interests,
international languages, etc. If you’re interested in
customizing your own
Linux version, Puppy is an especially good choice.
Time to Adopt Puppy?
Puppy Linux combines a full range of applications and performance
in an
easy-to-use
system. Given its light resource requirements, it works well on older computers, netbooks, mobile devices, and other
limited-resource systems. It’s a great hobbyist system for revitalizing an older computer. You can make an old Windows ME/98/95
box useful again with Puppy.
I like Puppy because it’s the lightest Linux
distro I’ve found that is still suitable for end users. Install it on
an old P-III or P-IV computer and your family or friends will use it
just as effectively for common tasks as any expensive new
machine.
At OS News, we’re all computer enthusiasts, so it may be hard to believe.
But many people see absolutely no reason to pay for
a new computer
every few years if their old one suffices. Puppy is a godsend for
these folks.
I’ve run Puppy for five years with few problems. Forum support
is outstanding. And Puppy really flies — when the entire system runs from
memory, even an
older computer is responsive. A P-III with adequate memory runs Puppy
as fast as my dual-core e5200 runs Windows.
Without advertisements or corporate backing, Puppy has risen to become one of the world’s
dozen most popular distros. If you’re looking for a lightweight distro you should
give it a try.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Howard Fosdick (President, FCI) is an independent consultant who
specializes in
databases and operating systems. His hobby is computer refurbishing as
a form of social work and environmental contribution. You can reach him
at contactfci at the domain
name of sbcglobal (period) net.
Puppy Links
| Website |
| Overview and Getting Started |
| Forum |
| Puppy 5 review and intro |
| Another Puppy 5 review |
Previous Articles in
This Series
| 1. | Smart Reuse with Open Source |
How refurbishing defeats planned obsolescence |
| 2. | Scandal: Most “Recycled” Computers Are Not Recycled |
What really happens to many “recycled” computers? |
| 3. | How to Revitalize Mature Computers |
Overview of how to refurbish mature computers |
| 4. | How to Secure Windows |
A step-by-step procedure to secureWindows |
| 5. | How to Performance Tune Windows | How to tune Windows (any version) |
| 6. | How Microsoft Missed The Next Big Thing | How Microsoft missed the boat when it comes to the exploding popularity of small portable devices |
| 7. | How to Run Multiple Operating Systems | Describes and contrasts techniques to running multiple operating systems on a single computer |
| 8. | Lubuntu: Finally, a Lightweight Ubuntu! | Lubuntu review — why you should consider it on low-end systems. |
Puppy Linux Screenshots
The Main Screen
The icons in the upper-left side of the screen
are the main
applications. The optional row of disk icons at the lower left-side of
the screen shows the mount status of disk partitions. I’ve changed the
background wallpaper here from version 5’s default to that of an
earlier Puppy release —
Bundled Graphics Tools
This screenshot shows Puppy’s bundled graphics tools. Just right-click
at any open position in the screen to see JWM’s pop-up application
menus —
Using Puppy
I wrote this article on several of old P-IV and P-III computers with Puppy.
Here’s a screenshot where I’m researching and writing using tools like the KompoZer HTML Editor, Firefox, the ROX-Filer
File Manager, and the System Tools menu. I snapped and resized the screenshot with
mtPaint —
The Package Manager
Puppy 5 now installs and runs applications from the
Ubuntu as well as Puppy repositories. You can install any *.deb package —
Quickpet
This easy tool allows for one-click app installation and is an
easy-to-use addition
to the Package Manager —
Network Connectivity Tools
Puppy Version 5 enhances Puppy’s network connectivity
tools. Wireless and modem configuration are much improved —
Seems objective enough for me to drop a link in the puppy forums.
This is a great article. I’ve never seen ‘Puppy’ explained as lucidly as this. I’ve known about it for a long time, but now it’s going to be installed on several of my older, ‘useless’ computers, thanks to this superb review and explanation.
Keep up the great work.
I second your opinion. Great article.
And if I’m not mistaken, Howard is the most active non-editor author. I appreciate your involvement.
I get tired of “why I like my distro” articles.
I like this one because it gives FACTS showing what distinguishes this distro from others.
Kudos.
Which specific ISO file do I download to make a Live USB disc? There are a lot of download options and I’m not sure.
Puppy will install to a USB drive/thumb drive from any of the isos using the “Install” icon from the desktop. I have it installed to a 1 gig Corsair thumbdrive.
For some reason Puppy’s generic package manager never worked correctly for me.
Please, please, PLEASE, stop using the word “performant”. This word does not exist in the English language, nor even the American version, and is utterly meaningless.
I stopped reading the instant I saw that word. If you want others to value what you think and write, please don’t make up your own words. If English isn’t your first language then please use a dictionary.
If authors can’t be bothered to write correctly then I can’t be bothered to read what is written.
Nda
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/performant
I don’t know if WordWeb is in any way authoritative, but it does contain an entry for performant:
http://www.wordwebonline.com/search.pl?w=performant
I do like Puppy, and use it on my netbook. However, one feature that seems to impress the author of this review so much – the ability to install Ubuntu *.deb packages – doesn’t really work so well. The big problem is that, in Puppy Lucid, dependencies aren’t resolved unless you are using the native *.pet repositories. In Ubuntu (and all the Debian derivatives), apt-get installs everything you need to run a certain package.
So with Puppy, trying to install a package from the Ubuntu repositories leads to the infamous “dependency hell” problem that we thought was vanquished years ago. You try to install, let us say, Gwenview, you get hit with an error message to install five other packages. When you try to install those, you get hit with requests for another eight packages, and when you try to install those….ad infinitum.
So I pretty much found this feature useless. I’m not alone in this opinion. You hear grumblings on the Puppy forum that the previous version 4.x was better. I also think so. I wish that more effort was placed on adding a few more useful packages using Puppy’s native *.pet system.
Of course, I realize it’s all a volunteer effort, and as they say, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I greatly appreciate the work that’s been done by the developers. Anyway, just want to point out that the much hyped feature of being able to install Ubuntu packages on Puppy is a lot less useful than it sounds at first.
Edited 2011-05-17 01:25 UTC
hi ozenhole
in the lucid puppy package manager, there is the ability to turn on access to the ubuntu repos. Then when you click on an ubuntu package, you get the option to ‘examine dependencies’. Clicking this, resolves and allows you to install all dependencies for the chosen app automatically.
I’ve had a lot of success at installing ubuntu packages in puppy, you need to remember though that puppy is puppy, and not ubuntu, not every ubuntu package will work without a bit of tweaking, and more complex stuff, like the entire gnome desktop will always be problematic! It’s amazing how many people try to do this and then moan when it doesn’t work. However as a feature, it opens up a whole new world for puppy, and is a huge step forward from the puppy 4 series.
The new puppy being developed will be slackware based, and will have access to the slackware repo’s.
I think that having an operating system, that has access to another operating systems repo’s is a pretty cool thing.
How does puppylinux compare to tinycorelinux?
I know that both are minimalistic, can boot from ram, allows for frugal install, fast…
Looking at the screenshots, I’d guess Puppy is a little easier to use and gives you more straight out of the box.
Tiny Core seems to be more minimalistic than Puppy. While things like web browsing email and word processing can be done with Tiny core, Puppy does those same things in a more polished way.
Or, to put it another way, when you are using Tiny Core, you know you are using a minimalist distribution. Puppy on the the hand has a fuller featured user interface.
With an iso of only 10.5 MB, TinyCore is 1/12th the size of Puppy, yet it has a GUI and a lot of native tools.
Huh? TinyCore’s repository has almost every web browser that works on Linux: Firefox, Chromium, Opera, Midori, Arora, Links, Elinks, Dillo, etc. TC’s repository also contains LibreOffice, Abiword and the KDE and Gnome office applications.
How so?
Puppy’s default desktop is JWM (Joe’s Window Manager).
JWM was the default desktop on TC, but they switched to a modified version of FLWM (Fast Light Window Manager). The FLWM window buttons behave a little differently, but you have a WIMP setup, with icons in a Wbar dock.
Of course, TC has many other desktops/window managers in the repository: KDE, Gnome, XFCE. JWM, Openbox, Fluxbox, Hackedbox, WindowMaker, IceWM, EvilWM, TinyWM, Windowlab, Wmii, Aewm, Compiz, etc.
Puppy is a phenomenal distro, and so is TinyCore.
However, TinyCore’s iso is only 10.5 MB — 1/12th the size of Puppy’s iso. That’s a contemporary OS with a fairly robust GUI that fits into 10.5 MB!
Of course, to keep things small, the TinyCore iso has very few applications included. The user chooses the programs to install.
As someone else mentioned further down in the thread, Puppy runs everything as root, TinyCore doesn’t.
TinyCore has more options on how to configure the “persistence” of applications and user data. For instance, in TC, one can choose which applications load into ram, and one can choose whether to automatically save some data in an archived backup file with other data saved in a normal directory on a partition.
Like Puppy, TinyCore has an installer and it can be run live from CDs/DVDs, USB flash drives, flash cards, etc. However, TinyCore can also be installed merely by dragging two files from the iso onto one’s hard drive, an then directing the boot loader to those files.
TinyCore is younger and growing rapidly, but most of the major growing pains are behind.
TinyCore also has an even tinier (<7 MB), non-GUI version: MicroCore.
Just tested out both on vm.
Seems like puppy comes with more applications out of the box, along with codecs, also more user-friendly (for less technical purposes).
Contrastingly, TC feels much more modular and snappy, especially with its “odd” method of retrieving storing and “installing” packages and system directories.
Then comes a problem, I have issues trying to point Grub2 towards TC bootloader to boot automatically from config (and eventually had to manually boot it up), there is also a lack of easy frugal installation facility (I guess it is not a really important feature.)
Puppy in this case has improved (since 2008 when I last used it?) but I hope the boot time can be improved further.
That is correct. As I mentioned, TinyCore lets the user choose the programs to install. That is one of the ways they keep the iso so tiny.
Yes. It is very snappy.
“methods” — plural. There are a few different ways one can set up the “persistence” in TinyCore.
Well, it sounds like Grub2 is actually your bootloader, not TC. I can’t help with Grub2 too much, as I have avoided it. The Grub folks really screwed up the simplicity that was the menu.lst config file in “Grub <2.” I guess that’s progress!
TinyCore does have an installer, but it really is unnecessary — the method of merely dragging the two files to the hd is much easier.
Excellent article. I am an advanced Windows user(since DOS 6.11) and a Linux Mint(Isadora) newbie.
I downloaded Puppy(5.2.5)recently and installed it on a CD and a flash drive. I tested it on a ACER netbook with I gig of RAM.
Puppy, to me, is an excellent distro. It ran fast from RAM and should be easy for most Window users. It also allowed me to download Firefox 4.0 which ran very fast on the web. Page loads (to non-cached sites) were 1 sec. or less even to site with much java script. I watched HULU movies in excellent quality with very little or no delays for buffering. The choice of APPS is very good. Best lightweight distro I’ve used and its also fun.
Um. There wasn’t an MS-DOS 6.11. It went 6.0 -> 6.1 -> 6.2 -> 6.21 -> 6.22.
Of course, some OSAlert posters used 3.2, 3.3, 4, and 5 as well. Doubtless there are some 1.x and 2.x users around, too. :^Anot)
Hi, I had a Sirius running MS-DOS 1.0, no directories, no hard drives, tough times
My only problem with Puppy is that they don’t seem to pay much attention to UX. It’s still quite ugly in some ways and most of the dialogues aren’t very nice…
My chief problem with Puppy is a lot bigger than that, although you’re absolutely right.
It’s that the suggested, recommended and supported mode of operation, last time I looked (which was at Lucidpuppy), was still to log in and run as ‘root’. This is *unforgiveable*.
I’ve seen this conversation repeat itself a hundred times already but this time i’ll answer, just because the article seems objective enough that i’m planning to use it as a reference in the future when explaining to others what puppy is.
If i understand correctly, the idea behind running as root is that (i) if you’re running puppy you have already opted for the hands on approach (ii) since you’re running your OS from a liveCD there’s not much harm to running as root.
That said (iii) running as root is now an option being considered: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=67885
More reading here: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=67213
YMMV.
Can be described in two words… It barks.
I am not kidding. The live CD makes your computer bark, like a dog, when the boot process is finished.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think the distro is an absolutely wonderful idea despite its security flaws – in today’s world of resource-heavy desktop environments, it’s nice to know that someone’s still working on a functional distro for older machines. But I suspect that Puppy’s cutesie nature makes many would-be users gag.
I was very surprised how well it runs on my old Micron Transport Trek 233 with 64MB of RAM. I’d even call it a “useable” computer again, albeit for simple tasks. I used it for a few months in my back room as a print server for an old parallel LaserJet and light tasks like checking my Gmail and remoting to other boxes while I was working in there. Not only did it run impressively smooth but it also was very pretty even on that old, dim LCD.
Good, informative post as well. More like this and fewer “why I hate” rant posts (contrasted with this waste of anyone’s time: http://www.osnews.com/story/24535/Debian_6_Squeeze_Not_Good). +1.
How good is puppy with multiple languages?
Last time I tried several linux distributions for an old computer, only OpenSUSE LXDE was easy to configure with an other language (dutch).
Good article, I’m gonna get that old p-2 out of the attic and try it with Puppy. Should be fun to see if I can really do all what this artidcle says.