Puppy, Slacking Off

Readers (all both of you) here may recall my fondness for Puppy Linux. The new “standard” Puppy, version 5.2.8 is Ubuntu-compatible, but still the same lean Puppy that loads from a CD or flash drive and runs in RAM. Very slick. The ONLY thing to hold against it is that it doesn’t do palm check on my touchpad on this lil lappy when I have a mouse plugged in. But seriously, that’s the only negative I can think of. Update: *sigh* I feel like such an idiot. It was right in front of my face… just in a different place than where I was looking. Turned the touchpad off. No complaints whatsoever, now. 🙂

Newer? Puppy 5.3, “Slack Puppy” based on Slackware. Notalotadiff, really, except for repositories and a couple of cool utilities (the Frisbee network setup applet is no better or worse than the usual Puppy network setup utility, but it’s as easy, which is to say, super easy-peasy). One thing I just noticed that I might end up down-checking 5.3 for is strangely lower volume levels. I may just have to fiddle with something. (Yep. Adjusted things via the Alsa setup wizard. All fine, now.)

Very nice is the simplest Flash setup of any ‘nix distro I’ve used to date. When I specified I wanted to install Opera, Puppy offered to install Flash, installed it and… that’s all.

Anywho, ‘s’cool. I think I’ll put this version on a flash drive like I have with Puppy 5.2.8 so I can carry a “computer” around in my shirt pocket. Any computer that will boot from a flash drive can then have a customized Puppy, with my saved files, needed apps, etc., right there. Yeh, yeh, I have a bunch of stuff “in the cloud,” but sometimes, it’s really, really handy to be able to have another OS to boot someone’s computer to, and keeping all MY files (and activities) segregated–and back in my pocket when I leave–can be a very, very Good Thing.

BTW, here’s a screenshot from my flashdrive Puppy 5.2.8:

Further Update: Another neat version: Puppy “Racy” 5.1.111. Pretty cool initial setup wizard making the already simple Puppy setup even easier. I do NOT like the absence of some repositories (particularly the Ubuntu repositories) in the default installation menu. Notaproblem, really, but just a lil flaw in an otherwise superb build.