Puppy Linux
Overview and Getting Started
Linux is a free operating system, and Puppy Linux is a special build of Linux meant to make computing easy and fast.
Puppy Linux enables you to save money while doing more work, even allowing you to do magic by recovering data from destroyed PCs or by removing malware from Windows. See these example articles: recovering files from Windows and safe Internet banking with Puppy Linux.
With Puppy Linux, you can carry your programs and data anywhere.
- Easy - Just use a CD or USB flash to boot a PC. Puppy Linux is downloadable as ISO, an image that can be burned to CD or DVD.
- Fast - Because Puppy is small, it can live in your PC's memory and be ready to quickly execute your commands, whereas in other systems, programs are first read from drive storage before being executed.
- Save Money - Even if your PC has no hard disk (ex, broken hard disk), you can still boot Puppy via CD or USB and continue working. Old PCs that no longer work with new systems will still work good-as-new with Puppy.
- Do More - Puppy boots in less than a minute, even in old PCs, and it does not require antivirus software. Administering Puppy is quick and minimal. With Puppy, you just have to take care of your data, which you can easily save to USB flash (Then forget about your operating system!). Your data can be read by other computers.
- Do Magic -Help your friends suffering from computer malware by booting Puppy and removing malware from their PC (use antivirus that is built-in or can be installed in Puppy). Example - bad Autorun.inf is easily removed by Puppy (Just delete it as well as its companion exe program). If your friend thinks that she has lost data from her corrupted hard disk, boot Puppy and try saving her data!
- Carry Anywhere (Portable) - Because Puppy is able to live in CD/DVD or USB flash, as well as save data to these same devices, you can carry your programs and data with you.
Are you now ready for Puppy? Keep these important reminders before using Puppy:
- You don't have to install Puppy (to hard disk) to use it. Simply burn the ISO to CD/DVD and boot the PC or laptop with it. Once booted, you can then install it to USB flash (see the Setup menu), so you can use it for booting the PC when a CD is not available.
- You don't have to save data to hard drive to work with Puppy. You can save data to USB flash or even to Internet storage (like www.drop.io ). When installed to USB flash, Puppy consumes only a little over 100 MB, or about 256 MB with OpenOffice. You can use the same USB flash (where Puppy is installed) for saving data.
More About Puppy Linux
What is Puppy Linux?
Puppy Linux is an operating system for computers. Other well-known
operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and MS-DOS. Puppy
Linux is based on GNU/Linux. It is completely free and
open source software.
How is Puppy Different?
- Small size, ~100MB! This lends itself to some very useful and unique features.
- 'Live' booting from CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives, and other portable media.
- Runs from RAM, making it unusually fast even in old PCs and in netbooks with solid state storage media.
- Very low minimum system requirements.
- Boot time is well under a minute, 30-40 seconds in most systems.
- Includes a wide range of applications: wordprocessors, spreadsheets, internet browsers, games, image editors and many utilities. Extra software in the form of dotpets. There is a GUI Puppy Software Installer included.
- Puppy is easy to use and little technical knowledge is assumed. Most hardware is automatically detected.
What are Puppy's Goals?
The Puppy Linux goals (adapted from Barry Kauler) are:
- Puppy will easily install to USB, Zip, hard drive or other storage media.
- Booting from CD (or DVD), Puppy can load itself totally into RAM so that the CD (DVD) drive is then free for other purposes.
- Booting from DVD (or CD), Puppy can save all work to the DVD (CD).
- Booting from USB flash drive (or other flash media), Puppy will minimize writes to extend its life.
- Puppy will be extremely friendly for Linux newbies.
- Puppy will boot up and run extraordinarily fast.
- Puppy will have all the applications needed for daily use.
- Puppy will just work, no hassles.
- Puppy will breathe new life into old PCs.
- Puppy will load and run totally in RAM for diskless thin stations.
How is Puppy organized?
The community is marked by openness and flexibility, and gets organized around goals. Barry Kauler is traditionally the chief developer who leads the development of official releases, the latest being version 4.3.1. Community Editions (official CE versions) are created by teams, the latest being version 5.1.1, and before this, version 4.2.1. Projects are run by individuals or groups and posted/discussed in the Forum.
Who owns Puppy?
We all do. Puppy is covered by the GPL/LGPL license.
Who is the creator and how does he control the project?
Puppy Linux was first released in June 2003 by Barry Kauler. The community that later developed is completely open, without any formal agenda or structure. It often takes newcomers a while to realize that, other than being friendly, there aren't really any rules to Puppy. If you want to do something, make a new Puplet, offer your skills or take things in a new direction, just do so and be surprised that support will be around. However, questions will be asked so be ready to defend your ideas. Refer to what Barry Kauler has written about how the project is run.
Where does the name come from?
Puppy as immortalized
in Barry Kauler's avatar
"The real Puppy, the mascot for Puppy Linux, was a very tiny dog, a Chihuahua, but totally fearless. He didn't seem to know that he was vulnerable because of his small size. Once when my sister was visiting my country property, she brought her Blue Heeler, a very solid middle-sized dog named Muti. We were out walking, and suddenly there was a substantial rustling of branches of a large bush, something was in or behind the bush. Muti took fright and ran back behind the legs of my sister, whereas Puppy got into launch position in front of the bush and barked furiously. It turned out to be my dad playing a trick on the dogs. Puppy used to chase kangaroos and other big wild animals. Anyway, Puppy Linux is like that, reckless, unshackled, in memory of the mascot." - Barry Kauler