Thank You, Mr. Kauler, for Daedalus 6.4.4

[tigerflag]

Thank you Mr. Kauler! I'm absolutely LOVING EasyOS Daedalus. It's a work of art.

I've been using BionicPup 8.0 daily since 2019 and still have it on my old Thinkpad. It was, and is, perfect. But I'm getting new mini-pc's that require a modern kernel. I needed a new distro. I tried BookwormPup but couldn't get it to work. I was so disappointed to find it nothing like my comfortable old BionicPup. One needs heavy commandline skills to make it work and that's not me. BionicPup didn't require me to be a commandline expert.

After all my efforts to make BookwormPup work ended in failure (my failure, not Bookworm's) a member of the forum suggested I try EasyOS Scarthgap. I've never been able to make bootable .iso's, but thanks to your BRILLIANT EasyOS concept and help from wonderful forum members, I succeeded in making bootable EasyOS flashdrives! However in Scarthgap, the packages I wanted to download had too many unavailable dependencies to make it a keeper.

While running Scarthgap I tried Daedalus in a container and instantly felt at home again. Daedalus feels so much like my old BionicPup; it's more like BionicPup than the latest actual "Puppy." I switched to straight Daedalus v.6.4.4. While there are a few bugs to work out (which I'll post questions on), I feel like Goldilocks because this distro is "just right!"

It's funny how with probably hundreds of distros out there (and I've used quite a few over 22 years), BionicPup checked all my boxes like no other. And then when I had to change distros, none of the other ones I tried "just worked." Either I couldn't figure out how to make an .iso, or the ones I bought via mail order failed to do simple things like detect my linux-friendly soundcard and usb wifi dongle. It was another genius concept of a distro from Mr. Kauler that saved the day.

I understand your desire to retire (I just retired myself last month). You've certainly earned it! But I sure hope you find a way to keep the spirit of EasyOS alive in further development once you become a gentleman of leisure.

Thank you so much!

[pp4mnklinux]

Thank you Mr. Kauler! I'm absolutely LOVING EasyOS Daedalus. It's a work of art.

I've been using BionicPup 8.0 daily since 2019 and still have it on my old Thinkpad. It was, and is, perfect. But I'm getting new mini-pc's that require a modern kernel. I needed a new distro. I tried BookwormPup but couldn't get it to work. I was so disappointed to find it nothing like my comfortable old BionicPup. One needs heavy commandline skills to make it work and that's not me. BionicPup didn't require me to be a commandline expert.

After all my efforts to make BookwormPup work ended in failure (my failure, not Bookworm's) a member of the forum suggested I try EasyOS Scarthgap. I've never been able to make bootable .iso's, but thanks to your BRILLIANT EasyOS concept and help from wonderful forum members, I succeeded in making bootable EasyOS flashdrives! However in Scarthgap, the packages I wanted to download had too many unavailable dependencies to make it a keeper.

While running Scarthgap I tried Daedalus in a container and instantly felt at home again. Daedalus feels so much like my old BionicPup; it's more like BionicPup than the latest actual "Puppy." I switched to straight Daedalus v.6.4.4. While there are a few bugs to work out (which I'll post questions on), I feel like Goldilocks because this distro is "just right!"

It's funny how with probably hundreds of distros out there (and I've used quite a few over 22 years), BionicPup checked all my boxes like no other. And then when I had to change distros, none of the other ones I tried "just worked." Either I couldn't figure out how to make an .iso, or the ones I bought via mail order failed to do simple things like detect my linux-friendly soundcard and usb wifi dongle. It was another genius concept of a distro from Mr. Kauler that saved the day.

I understand your desire to retire (I just retired myself last month). You've certainly earned it! But I sure hope you find a way to keep the spirit of EasyOS alive in further development once you become a gentleman of leisure.

Thank you so much!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you, @tigerflag , for sharing your journey—it resonates so much with my own experiences! Like you, I’ve been amazed at how Barry Kauler’s genius continues to shine through his work.EasyOS Daedalus truly is a masterpiece, and it’s inspiring to see how his innovative approach has helped long-time Linux users like us feel at home again.

I completely agree with your sentiments about BionicPup, sentiments that we can extend to other distros. They were such a well-rounded, user-friendly distros, and for many of us, it set a high bar. I’ve also struggled with finding modern distros that “just work” without requiring heavy command-line skills, which is why EasyOS daedalus feels like a breath of fresh air. Barry’s concept of bootable flash drives and containerized environments is not only brilliant but also empowering for users like me who aren't "programmers".

Your analogy of Goldilocks is spot-on! Daedalus hits that sweet spot of being modern yet approachable. It’s fascinating how it bridges the gap between innovation and the simplicity we loved in older distros like BionicPup or (for me) F96CE_XFCE_FUSILLI.

I also share your hope that Barry’s vision continues to inspire further development. Even in retirement, his work has already left a lasting legacy, and I believe the Linux community will carry his spirit forward.

Thank you, @BarryK , for giving us something “just right” once again, AND PLEASE, CONTINUE WITH YOUR WORK.

CHEERS

[tigerflag]

Glad to know I'm not alone in wanting something that doesn't require me to be a programmer to use it. The big, popular distros are pretty easy but they use systemd and don't have that clean, crisp feel from running in RAM. To me they have a rather soulless quality. They're pies from a grocery store filled with unpronounceable ingredients. EasyOS is a good homemade pie made with love.

You got me curious about F96CE_XFCE_FUSILLI. I watched a video demo. The visuals are truly amazing but "too much" for me. The spinning cube and animated window frames made me feel carsick. A lot of the customizations I do to firefox involve disabling autoplay, animations and flashy, flashing visuals. I'm happy right here which is good because... no .iso required!

[pp4mnklinux]

Glad to know I'm not alone in wanting something that doesn't require me to be a programmer to use it. The big, popular distros are pretty easy but they use systemd and don't have that clean, crisp feel from running in RAM. To me they have a rather soulless quality. They're pies from a grocery store filled with unpronounceable ingredients. EasyOS is a good homemade pie made with love.

You got me curious about F96CE_XFCE_FUSILLI. I watched a video demo. The visuals are truly amazing but "too much" for me. The spinning cube and animated window frames made me feel carsick. A lot of the customizations I do to firefox involve disabling autoplay, animations and flashy, flashing visuals. I'm happy right here which is good because... no .iso required!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m so happy to see that I’m not the only one who’s realized how fantastic EasyOS is! It’s truly incredible how this operating system is able to meet the needs of so many different users across various use cases.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, EasyOS offers something for everyone, and it really shines in its simplicity, flexibility, and overall performance. It’s refreshing to find a system that combines efficiency with ease of use, making it accessible to so many people.

It’s great to see others r

Barry Kauler has hit the bullseye once again! With this new operating system, he’s created something that will undoubtedly be remembered by countless Linux users for years to come. His dedication to innovation and user-centered design is evident in every aspect of EasyOS. What’s even more impressive is how Barry is constantly showing his remarkable character, both as a person and as a programmer. He listens to the suggestions of all his users, taking them seriously and never dismissing any of them. This approach truly sets him apart, demonstrating a level of professionalism and respect that’s rare in the tech world. It’s clear that Barry’s work is not only shaping the future of EasyOS but also leaving a lasting, positive impact on the Linux community as a whole.

Have a nice day u all.

CHEERS

[Stogie]

The best part about Easy OS, in my opinion, is while you CAN install it on an internal HDD/SDD, you don't have to, and if you don't, it completely de-couples the operating system and its whole associated environment (programs, settings, preferences, files, everything) from the PC and its internal HDD/SDD.

The importance and flexibility of this cannot be overstated. Until now, Linux distros could be run "live" with no persistence from a flash drive but only for testing purposes, then you had to install them to your internal HDD/SDD to use them "for real".

The problem was, installing an OS to an internal drive and then customizing it tied the OS and that environment to the PC, and also made it difficult to do dual-boot or triple-boot setups to run multiple OS environments on that machine.

Now? Get a bunch of $10 USB flash drives and install different Easy OS versions on each. Customize each to your heart's content. Add software, change preferences and settings, set up a dev environment, whatever, and the whole thing forever lives on that flash drive, and IS NOT associated with that PC!

You'd think running permanently from a self-contained bootable USB stick would be slow and would kill the drive with too many writes, but Barry used ingenious adaptive RAM-caching techniques and write-limiting, lifespan-extending techniques to overcome all that, and Easy OS runs lightning fast this way! A great side effect of this is that if you screw something up badly, simply shutdown and choose NOT to save your session... and it's like it never happened! Sessions are in RAM and aren't "real" (except for the /files/ directory) until you CHOOSE to commit them to the USB stick. This protects against big screwups, and if you do NOT save at the end of most of your usual working sessions (and save all your files in /files/ for persistence), and you periodically start special very brief sessions where you only update stuff (browser etc.) then shutdown and choose to save, and you keep all your usual work sessions NOT saved at shutdown, this TOTALLY PREVENTS build-up of "crud" and slowdown in the OS over time! This is a WONDERFUL capability, I can never go back!

Plug an Easy OS USB stick into another PC, it (generally) works! Your entire environment is now ready for you to use, on that PC. Then, plug it into another one, same deal... there's your whole environment ready to use, on any machine, with no linkage between the OS/environment and the machine itself! This gives incredible flexibility!

Upgrading used to be a risk. What if the update bricks my PC? Now, in addition to Easy's built-in rollback functionality, you can also just clone the USB drive to another one, then update one of them. If it goes horribly wrong, just reboot into the other, and you're back where you started.

Worried about your environment getting corrupted and not booting anymore? Clone the USB stick to another periodically. Solved forever!

Your PC's hardware dies? Plug your (or one of your several!) Easy OS USB sticks into some other PC, and you're back in operation, with the entire environment and all your files exactly as you left them and want them!

It's this "decoupling" that's the best feature. I have three PCs, and several Easy OS versions on different USB sticks (Buster, Kirkstone, Scarthgap, Daedalus) and I can plug any of them into any of the PCs at any time. I have multiple complete computing environments that are independent a particular PC!

This is FANTASTIC. I tried to achieve this with Puppy but for a number of reasons it's a lot less feasible than it is with Easy OS! Puppy Linux with its savefile and inability to run entirely in RAM and unplug the boot drive completely after boot and several other limitations didn't feel like a "real" Linux OS, but Easy OS does and is!.

The only problem left was the move away from Debian-based Buster and to OpenEmbedded-based Easys resulting in a tiny repository with almost no software in it. But now with appi, flappi and most importantly Daedalus once again giving us access to the enormous Debian/Devuan repos just like Buster had, Easy OS is perfect!

Night and day difference compared to all other Linuxes! I tell all my technical/Linux-aware friends about it, and several of them are using it now and they love it!
.

[SteveS]

Totally agree with all of you.

There is another incredibly underrated feature that I love: the lockdown modes.

With them, you can make frugal installs and use EasyOS entirely in RAM.

2 possibilities:
- lockdown mode #1: "Copy session to RAM & unmount all partitions"
- lockdown mode #2: "Copy session to RAM & disable all drives"

Personally, I am a fan of lockdown mode #1. It allows you to mount partitions on demand to save files on the PC without ever needing a USB stick. Impressive.

I think every new EasyOS user should read this article that explains everything:
https://bkhome.org/news/202008/save-ses ... n-ram.html

Have a great day everyone, and let's share the passion!

[tigerflag]

I'm learning so much from you guys. EasyOS just keeps getting cooler by the minute. Thank you!

[BarryK]

I think every new EasyOS user should read this article that explains everything:
https://bkhome.org/news/202008/save-ses ... n-ram.html

I have just now read that page; it needs updating, was written 4 years ago.
I will add that to the to-do list.