Puppy Linux, Ubuntu and Darwin's Theory of Evolution!

I have always been a compulsive distro-hopper! I have always been looking for the one special version of Linux that can do everything! This has meant that I have generally used one specific distro on all of my machines for several months and then jumped to a new one when something better came along, or a significant bug arose. The distros which lasted longest were Ubuntu, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, Sabayon and Puppy Linux.

When choosing a distro I have always had two conflicting desires: one is to have a fast, simple and flexible operating system that I can install or use as a live operating system; the other, to have an all singing all dancing operating system which has a vast array of applications and can handle processor intensive tasks and 3d graphics etc. This explains my distro-hopping to a large extent as there is no single distribution that can meet all of these needs. For this reason I have come to value the ability to remaster a distribtion as an absolutely essential feature. This means I can customise a distro to my own needs and then it becomes very easy to install it on other machines or reinstall it if there are any serious problems. 

The remedy for my obsessive disto-hopping I am currently deploying is to have a dual approach: one distro for the fast simple live stuff and another for the big flashy stuff. I now useDingoPlus on small netbooks like the Asus Eeepc 701, as a portable live USB/CD Operating System and on old PC's; and a heavily remastered version of Ubuntu installed on the faster, newer machines.  Ubuntu is no match for PuppyLinux as a livesystem or on older machines. Similarly Puppy Linux in no match for the power and wide range of uptodate applications offered by Ubuntu.

Why did I mention evolution? Well because the world of Linux is often seen as a competitive environment in which only the strongest can survive, in the end there will only be one distro to rule them all! However, evolution doesn't work like that. Bigger animals require small animals to survive and there are places for all kinds in nature. I believe that currently Puppy Linux and Ubuntu are respectively the best in their own niches. Puppy is by far the most advanced small independant Linux distro which performs brilliantly on older, lower spec hardware, while Ubuntu offers the widest range of uptodate applications and hardware support as an installed system. It is just a shame that Puppy Linux has not yet been preinstalled on any of the new generation of netbooks. Something which might actually bring in the financial rewards for the many years of hard work that Barry has put into Puppy.

drbongo