Worthy Linux distributions from Ubuntu and SUSE run very well, but they are also rather large collections (though certainly not as bloated as Windows is!) and this has led to the creation of some smaller incarnations like Damn Small Linux and Feather Linux. The best of these lite Linux versions, though, has got to be Puppy Linux, which, in its 2.14 version, shows that it can run very comfortably with the big hounds.
Overview
Put together from scratch by Australian Barry Kauler, Puppy Linux is an extraordinary development, being a first-class OS than can load itself into and run completely from as little as 128 MB of RAM! And this includes being able to open and save your work completely in RAM. Naturally, working this way is very fast and quiet; you won’t hear much noise coming from your hard drive! Right from the sparse opening screen and the puppy bark, you are treated to a very warm, comforting little world unto itself.
Installation
You can download the entire distribution within minutes on a high-speed connection—everything is contained in an 84 MB ISO file! This includes all necessary drivers and applications. You can burn it onto a business card-sized CD-R if you like or even load it onto to a bootable USB flash drive. In our test we put it onto a tiny 193 MB re-writable CD and the system booted up from it like a charm.
For some reason, Compaq computers made around 2000-2003 seem to have no trouble with Linux and all hardware and peripherals were detected without any glitch or strain. Funny, because the ill-fated Corel Linux distribution coughed and froze during setup on the very same computer we used for testing Puppy Linux!
In Use
Using Puppy 2.14 is a dream! The default desktop has a soothing cool light blue shade with a few well-chosen icons occupying the left side—there is a very sharp-looking translucent recycle bin on the right bottom corner! The JWM window manager is small and lightning fast and things loaded up in a snap. Of course, working entirely in RAM propels things up a few notches as well. It is almost unsettling to be able to open up several applications within seconds and not have to endure the chatter of the hard drive.
There are wizards for almost every aspect of computer setup and the modem (a rather outdated Winmodem) was detected very easily (even Ubuntu had trouble with it). A firewall can be set up with a few mouseclicks and you rarely have to use a terminal screen at all.
You can mount your existing filesytems (such as your Windows partition) very easily with the media control panel and it is quite easy to copy files to and from your Puppy system with the mouse. You won’t have any trouble adjusting to Puppy’s layout—the icons and menu system feel a lot like Windows and you should be able to find everything very easily.
Though lean and light, JWM is highly customizable and you can even get a Windows XP look if you’re so inclined (to ease the transition, perhaps!). In the start menu, you will find a whole whack of apps for almost every purpose and then some.
Software
Puppy has not skimped on anything to achieve its compactness—you get SeaMonkey, the highly usable Mozilla-based web browser; AbiWord, a Microsoft Word-compatible word processor; the venerable Gnumeric spreadsheet program, and a host of graphics and multimedia software.
Some will notice the lack of OpenOffice and Firefox, but, in our tests, we didn’t feel we were deprived at all (you can also get Chubby Puppy, which includes OpenOffice at the expense of higher memory requirements). While you won’t be able to create any 3-D Hollywood-style production effects, you have access to several image editors, paint programs, CD/DVD players/rippers, network management tools, and a smattering of games.
Using the internet with SeaMonkey was a breeze and the included e-mail client is performs adequately. While not having the contemporary feel of Firefox, SeaMonkey still holds its own with tabbed browsing, multimedia plug-in capabilities, and in-place pdf reading via GsViewer. We were able to fully view and experience MySpace and YouTube pages with absolutely no problems. And the beauty of working entirely in RAM is that whatever phishing and spyware is going on won’t make it to the hard disk!
Working in RAM means that eventually you will have to save your files somewhere, of course, and Puppy Linux ingeniously lets you save everything in a personal settings file that can be written to a hard drive, USB device or a CD-R. This file will be automatically loaded the next time you start Puppy Linux.
Summary
In the world of OSes, Linux stands out as very streamlined and efficient, and in the world of Linux, Puppy is about as streamlined and efficient as you can get. Where else can you get a world-class OS, all necessary applications and supporting drivers to fit into an 84 MB disk image!? The true test of the quality of a Linux distribution is how long it takes before you start to miss your other OS. In our case, we used Puppy Linux for almost a week for writing, internet & email and basic image manipulation, and we didn’t feel like we were cramped or hindered at all—in fact, we thoroughly enjoyed the break from Windows XP! Three cheers to Barry Kauler for developing one of the most fascinating and enjoyable Linuxes out there.
In Brief:
Compactness: 5/5
Speed: 5/5
Software: 4.5/5
Stability: 5/5
Support: 4/5
Expandability: 5/5
More info: www.puppylinux.org
