Do Any of You Use Puppy on Modern Hardware?

[Linux Lounge]

Puppy Linux has something of a reputation of being something that people install on old hardware, I'm curious if you use Puppy exclusively on old hardware yourself or do you also use it on modern hardware? If so why?

[6502coder]

I run BionicPup64 on a 3-yr old HP laptop. I have some ancient 32-bit laptops and run Pups on all of them, but this is my only relatively new laptop and therefore the only one that is capable of running an up-to-date browser without hassles. And of course I cannot stand Windows. As for why BionicPup64, it's solid and I'm used to Puppy. I do also run MX-19 on this laptop but rarely have any need to use it.

[BologneChe]

Hi,

I am using bionicpup64, fossapup64 and easyos Dunfell64 on USB. The age of the material is less of a constraint in general.

[taersh]

Motherboard Vendor: ASRock
Product Name: B450 Pro4

BIOS Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
Version: L3.31
Release Date: 05/31/2019

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six-Core Processor
Min/Max Speed: NA/NA MHz
Current Speed of Core 0:3950 MHz, 1:3927 MHz, 2:3913 MHz, 3:3969 MHz, 4:3969 MHz, 5:3963 MHz, 6:3972 MHz, 7:3931 MHz, 8:3933 MHz, 9:3962 MHz, 10:3954 MHz, 11:3954 MHz
Core Count: 6
Thread Count: 1

Distro: ArtStudio64 1.0.0 (based on Bionic64)
Window Manager: JWM v2.3.7
Desktop Start: xwin jwm

Linux Kernel: 5.4.70-rt40 (x86_64)
Kernel Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT_RT Sat Oct 17 20:44:16 EDT 2020
Build GCC: 9.3.0

Kernel Command Line:
pconfig=Audio pxdrv=on plang=de_DE.UTF-8 pkeys=de psubdir=ArtStudio64 pmedia=atahd pfix=ram mitigations=off

[JASpup]

Both, but I usually use old 32-bit machines. One has my best keyboard.

Human interface matters hugely.

Once you learn any distro, other family versions are going to be more familiar to you.

You can also see how experts can use anything once they master the dynamics.

So familiarity is one reason.

Another is, from what I've seen it's the best distro to be run in LIVE mode (all in ram).

My modern XFCE 64 Puppy desktop out-of-the-box (these days it's more customized):
http://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=8456#p8456

[Grey]

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six-Core Processor

Hi taersh. You seem to have a Ryzen processor. Please tell me, what temperatures does a utility like pmcputemp show in idle and in operation?

[vin]

I am using xenialpup64 7.5 on Asus X55C (Intel core I3), 4 GB memory.
Reasons ---
1) Less taxing on RAM (uses just ~ 130MB while idling). So the remaining RAM can be utilized for other memory-savvy operations
2) Highly configurable (you can just see 'system' & 'setup' submenus)
3) It can be also used as a rescue OS alongside other OS

[PuppyandCo]

I was using puppy on modern hardware... but then the hardware wasn't modern anymore ^^

For me the priority is portability - I can put a puppy usb into any PC at home or at work and it's got a configured desktop/apps/etc
Also backup:- if anything on the USB breaks it can be recovered from a disk image
Also: puppy and other linuxes have stopped me needing modern hardware, by no longer running loads of apps at once on a single powerful PC but using 1 little old PC for each role or function (2x media centre, 1x fileserver, 1xcctv recorder, 1xgaming, 1xmusic recording, 2xinternet....)

[mikewalsh]

@Linux Lounge :-

I guess I'm at the two extremes. I run two Puppies on an ancient, 2002-vintage P4-powered Dell Inspiron laptop.....where they run very well, albeit "sedately". And then I run a half-dozen relatively modern Puppies on a powerful, 18-month old HP desktop rig.

In both cases, it was a no-brainer. The Dell, yes; because Pup is brilliant at "restoring" hardware of that vintage, and keeping it still useful. As for the HP desktop rig, well; I fell in love with Puppies a long time ago, and on modern hardware they run so fast their wee paws don't even touch the ground. They're incredibly versatile, will run anything the "big boys" can, and I know what I'm doing with them, so.....case closed, really!

As m'colleague bigpup is wont to say,

"We are Puppy! Resistance is futile!"

to the kennels.

Mike.

[bigpup]

I use the latest official Puppy (Fossapup64 9.5), on a very new computer, to do everything except, play Windows based, high end games.
For those games only Windows will work well.
Especially for VR games.

The Puppy versions, do need to be using a Linux kernel series 5, have the newer collection of hardware firmware, and kernel drivers.
Older versions of Puppy. Do not have hardware support, unless you want to spend time tweaking them.

why I do not run Windows to do anything but play games.

Every time I start Windows.
It spends, who knows how much time, downloading a new update, installing the update, rebooting several times, and finally getting to a working desktop.
I hate it!

[amethyst]

I use the latest official Puppy (Fossapup64 9.5), on a very new computer, to do everything except, play Windows based, high end games.
For those games only Windows will work well.
Especially for VR games.

The Puppy versions, do need to be using a Linux kernel series 5, have the newer collection of hardware firmware, and kernel drivers.
Older versions of Puppy. Do not have hardware support, unless you want to spend time tweaking them.

why I do not run Windows to do anything but play games.

Every time I start Windows.
It spends, who knows how much time, downloading a new update, installing the update, rebooting several times, and finally getting to a working desktop.
I hate it!

You can stop all those Windows updates at startup easily by unticking the appropriate boxes running msconfig from commandline.

[xenial]

it is quite the opposite for me.
One of the main attractions of puppy linux for me was the ability to resurrect a landfill site destined laptop.
I am a stalwart for making things last as long as i can and i really am not into getting the very latest shinies available.

Why throw it when i can still use it effectively.

So the upshot of it all is no i tend to use puppy on quite old hardware.

[amethyst]

it is quite the opposite for me.
One of the main attractions of puppy linux for me was the ability to resurrect a landfill site destined laptop.
I am a stalwart for making things last as long as i can and i really am not into getting the very latest shinies available.

Why throw it when i can still use it effectively.

So the upshot of it all is no i tend to use puppy on quite old hardware.

I'm also like that, I just don't like discarding things that still works well. For instance, I have an old boombox which is nearing 40 years of age and a portable radio of about 30 years still in daily use. I actually still use the stuff regularly and it hasn't been replaced by newer models. My bicycle is also about 30 years old.

[xenial]

it is quite the opposite for me.
One of the main attractions of puppy linux for me was the ability to resurrect a landfill site destined laptop.
I am a stalwart for making things last as long as i can and i really am not into getting the very latest shinies available.

Why throw it when i can still use it effectively.

So the upshot of it all is no i tend to use puppy on quite old hardware.

I'm also like that, I just don't like discarding things that still works well. For instance, I have an old boombox which is nearing 40 years of age and a portable radio of about 30 years still in daily use. I actually still use the stuff regularly and it hasn't been replaced by newer models. My bicycle is also about 30 years old.

Lol i still have an amiga500 computer from the 80s and with the original box and paperwork.
I will admit i do cycle and that is quite new.
When you get to a certain age we need to start looking after ourselves a bit more.

[hundido]

I have an AMD Radeon 5800. I was using exclusively Puppy for a few months. I have eye problems that cause me to only be able to use a computer with a blue light filter. The only Puppy that gave me a blue light filter that works on this computer is Slacko64-8.2.1, but it was really difficult to get a lot of other things working on it. I'm hoping to start using puppy full time again once a Puppy comes out that will run redshift on this computer and works well. I'm using Manjaro until then.

Family is sending me an old 32 bit computer, so I'm looking forward to playing with puppies again on that.

[williams2]

only be able to use a computer with a blue light filter

You should start a new topic for your question.

By "blue light filter" do you mean:

1) you want the screen to be more red and less blue

or 2) you want the screen to be more blue and less red

If you want #1, you can use redshift.

In BionicPup64, redshift should be in the menu, or you can type redshiftgui.sh in a terminal.
In FossaPup, redshift is a portable version (unzips to /tmp), which might need tweaking to get it to remember your configuration.

You do not need to use redshift, you can use, for example, xrandr or xgamma, if you prefer.

[mikewalsh]

@williams2 :-

Umm.....pointless 'picking up' on that particular tidbit. We went through all this 3 months ago:-

viewtopic.php?t=3227

8 pages and nearly a fortnight later, still no resolution..... You yourself contributed, as I recall:-

viewtopic.php?p=32040#p32040

(*shrug...*)

Mike.

[666philb]

I have an AMD Radeon 5800. I was using exclusively Puppy for a few months. I have eye problems that cause me to only be able to use a computer with a blue light filter. The only Puppy that gave me a blue light filter that works on this computer is Slacko64-8.2.1, but it was really difficult to get a lot of other things working on it. I'm hoping to start using puppy full time again once a Puppy comes out that will run redshift on this computer and works well. I'm using Manjaro until then.

Family is sending me an old 32 bit computer, so I'm looking forward to playing with puppies again on that.

@radkys new jwmdesk has tinting options for the desktop.
https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... =95&t=3561
it's recommended to install 'sct' for nicer tinting

[mikewalsh]

@666philb :-

Phil:-

Made an interesting discovery, t'other day. I've recently been playing around with Barry's EasyOS Buster64 2.6.2.

I don't know if you remember the rather long-running thread about the 'Brightness & colour temp' controls Fred and I had going back at Murga, a few years ago.....inspired by one from johnywhy:-

https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 9&t=114277

This was the thread that eventually led to Fred building his 'portable' RShift-light self-extracting script. The original thread went through no end of variations on a theme until the pair of us were happy with it. One of those variations had the brightness slider, but I was investigating 'sct' at the time; so instead of the colour temp slider of the later versions, we built this one to simply make use of two buttons, 'Night' & 'Day'.....and those buttons directly implemented pre-set values using the wee 'sct' binary. It was always one of my favourite versions of the thing, and one of the smallest/simplest, too.

Damn me if Barry didn't go and build it into EasyOS 2.6.2. Ya could have knocked me down with a feather, 'cos I never really considered it to be worthy of inclusion in somebody elses's OS!!

I was quite chuffed wi' that....

Mike.