Puppy Linux (or derivative) for old machines?

Gullible Jones · 2010-08-09 01:37:33

I haven't used this one much, but it certainly seems like it (or a derivative thereof) might be useful for aging computers. It has udev scripts that let you mount external drives without HAL (kind of like Vector's VLHot but less crappy); it's light, it's fast, it's easy to install, and it has a ton of simple graphical config utilities. And it can do pretty much anything that a novice user would want. In general it looks absolutely perfect for old computers.

There are two big problems I can see with it though.

1. It's far too cutesy. It doesn't look "unprofessional" or "cobbled together with duct tape", it looks like something designed by kids for kids. Which would go over fine with kids, but not so much with less computer savvy adults, I'd think. Nobody likes to have their intelligence insulted, and IMO that's what the branding does.

I figure it would be possible to strip out some of the more gratuitous puppy branding, but I'm not sure exactly how right now. I'd have to get familiar with the puplet creator scripts (apparently called "Woof", because Barry Kauler had to make it fit with the general theme I guess). Anyway, I don't think this should present *too* huge an obstacle.

The other though...

2. Portions of the Puppy community appear to be nuts. And I don't mean "we stand by our tradition of running outdated software as root" nuts. I mean just standing there when community members send bloody THREATS to people who dare criticize Puppy Linux, and then accusing the critics of being delusional when they complain to the community. That's unacceptable. If I create a Puppy-based live CD, I don't want users to wind up with a community like that for support, because it will at best fail to provide.

That could be somewhat harder to work around. Does anyone here know which Puppy-related forums are the sanest of the lot, if any?

More importantly, is messing with this distro a smart move, or will it turn out to be really, really dumb?

karol · 2010-08-09 02:16:38

http://bkhome.org/quirky/ -< Puppy "derivative"
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Main_Page <- distro for old computers

Gullible Jones · 2010-08-09 02:21:53

Hmm hadn't thought of AntiX. Last I used it, it was very kludgy IIRC, perhaps it's improved by now...

(Edit: still kludgy. But then, so is Linux in general isn't it. )

Last edited by Gullible Jones (2010-08-09 02:23:42)

karol · 2010-08-09 02:31:42

Gullible Jones wrote:

Hmm hadn't thought of AntiX. Last I used it, it was very kludgy IIRC, perhaps it's improved by now...
(Edit: still kludgy. But then, so is Linux in general isn't it. )

Ubuntu and Fedora don't look "cobbled together with duct tape", but most distros do.

Slitaz is one fun little distro. It's still young but quite polished.

Edit: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php?f=35
TinyMe
Lubuntu

Last edited by karol (2010-08-09 02:55:52)

Gullible Jones · 2010-08-15 00:00:58

I tried it out on the remaining Thinkpad...

Way, way too slow for the IBM. Even with the full install. No idea why, Slitaz boots fast enough.

(I did try to install Slitaz xvesa flavor on it after I was through with Puppy, but something in the install got corrupted and it wouldn't finish booting. Could be the thing's hard drive is going.)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-08-09 01:37:33

Puppy Linux (or derivative) for old machines?

#2 2010-08-09 02:16:38

Re: Puppy Linux (or derivative) for old machines?

#3 2010-08-09 02:21:53

Re: Puppy Linux (or derivative) for old machines?

#4 2010-08-09 02:31:42

Re: Puppy Linux (or derivative) for old machines?

#5 2010-08-15 00:00:58

Re: Puppy Linux (or derivative) for old machines?

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