Which is your favorite variant of Puppy Linux?

[Tag365]

Hello everyone on the new forum. I am a user from the prior forum. What is your favorite variant of Puppy Linux? I switch between quite a few, usually Fatdog64 and something else.

[vtpup]

Tahrpup32, mostly because everything I need it for in applications works. And that's true, because of a lot of work over the last few years to get it so.

I would like to migrate to Bionicpup64, because there are improved or better featured programs for the standards I use, and to avoid obsolesence. But there have been some basic roadblocks, like nonfunctining printing with my color laser so far. Chipping away at these, and am hopeful. But day to day, now, it's rock solid Tahrpup32.

[bullpup]

Bionic64, no contest.

I have a really recalcitrant notebook which freezes with no apparent reason (quite sure it's a driver thing) and I'm too lazy (short on time) to figure out why.

Bionic (RAM only) works very well, no issues, no freezing it just works and keeps on working.

So, yeah

[mikewalsh]

Gawd. How long's a piece of string?

I guess, for day-to-day all-round reliability - and software compatibility - you have to go with the newer ones. For me, my go-to Pup has to be Xenialpup64 7.5; absolutely everything works as it should, and I can DO anything I need to with it. Radky's DPup 'Stretch' 7.5 runs a very close second.

But for 'playing with', hell; the sky's the limit..! I play around with so many Pups (or used to; this new HP hardware, being UEFI - with a very odd BIOS - has kinda put the kibosh on what I used to enjoy, since nothing that doesn't employ a 4-series (or later) kernel, or the efi.img/vesamenu.c32 stuff will boot on here.) My all-time 'favourite' has to be Slacko 5.6.0; although I've re-built it with a 4-series kernel, and it'll now boot on here, it's got plenty of 'issues'.

jrb's 'Lite' take on BK's Quirky 'April' 701 comes in a close third for me.....and I'm currently trialling Fossapup64, having mostly set it up with 'portables', AppImages & self-contained apps. So far, so good.....


Mike.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh

perhaps time to experiment with VirtualBox or some of the other virtual machine packages! You could start booting all kinds of OS's with relative ease. Might be something to get you back on track testing out the thousands of Puppy variants out there!

[mikewalsh]

Hi, rockedge.

Unnh.....I don't get on with VMs, me. I've tried them over & over again, but they've always ended up creating more issues for me than they solve..!

The suggestion IS appreciated, though.


Mike.

[liogab11]

Peebee's LxPups are great for me at the moment, since I do not like JWM-Rox, not even a bit. Once I get the hang of Woof-CE, I'll be using my own Pups from then on.

[DixieDog]

Like BULLPUP
my favorite at this moment
Bionic Pup 64

I am tempted to try Fat Dog

[01101001b]

It's no secret my favorite Puppy-derivative is josejp2424's DPupBuster64, hands down (w/ Openbox and Lxpanel. I simply can't get any work done comfortably with rox-filer or jwm And no desktop. But this is just a matter of personal taste, not DPupbuster default setting).

And in 32bit versions, radky's Dpup Stretch 7.5. Rock solid

As you can see, I shun Ubuntu and prefer Debian (just because in Devuan not always I get all the soft I need ).

By the way, I gave a spin to FatDog and it really is quite interesting and stable (but again, being able to get easily the soft I need made me stay in Debian's vicinity )

[Trobin]

I have a fair collection of Puppy Linux Versions. But the ones I use now are Easypup and Bionic64.

[ndujoe1]

Bionicpup64 and Puppylinux 2.15 CE

[blackgatonegro]

I used to like Wary and Racy but nowadays I mostly use Fatdog 64, Someone really should port the radio pup app to it. Or whatever is called, is been a while,

[smokey01]

@blackgatonegro Fatdog64 comes with VLC installed and it can do radio.

xscreenshot-20201004T172408.png (93.83 KiB) Viewed 1088 times

I used to like Wary and Racy but nowadays I mostly use Fatdog 64, Someone really should port the radio pup app to it. Or whatever is called, is been a while,

[blackgatonegro]

@blackgatonegro Fatdog64 comes with VLC installed and it can do radio.

xscreenshot-20201004T172408.png

I used to like Wary and Racy but nowadays I mostly use Fatdog 64, Someone really should port the radio pup app to it. Or whatever is called, is been a while,

VLC on Linux has problems, I still use it. Also mplayer that works slightly better but needs some technical skill,

[user1111]

exec Fatdog811

[smokey01]

@blackgatonegro Fatdog64 comes with VLC installed and it can do radio.

xscreenshot-20201004T172408.png

I used to like Wary and Racy but nowadays I mostly use Fatdog 64, Someone really should port the radio pup app to it. Or whatever is called, is been a while,

VLC on Linux has problems, I still use it. Also mplayer that works slightly better but needs some technical skill,

What sort of problems?

[Moose On The Loose]

I'm going to say it in my thing that I developed from 528.
I have started working on migrating to a ScPup based system but very little has happened on that project.

I won't bore you with the full list but here are the high points.
Please remember these are my opinions.

Everything "just works"
wine works for all the Windoze things I need it to work for. When I click on any music or video file (I know about) it plays correctly. Samba works and my special "flaky networks" script works on "flaky networks"

All the dialog boxes for stuff work for for any screen size including 640x480
It works when you change screen size.
The menu fits on screen too

Plugging in memory sticks doesn't land icons on top of other icons

The help system is very good.

All the programs and development tools I want are in there.

It runs on a very limited non-PAE machine just like on a bigger one with speed being the only difference.

It is "ready to go right out of the box" including having seamonkey

It works well under VirtualBox.

[blackgatonegro]

What sort of problems?

Basically video decoding in some video formats needs the Linux decoders to work correctly and even then mplayer and mplayer2 work better at doing that. Still works quite well for audio.

[mikewalsh]

Y'know, I don't know whether to be "amused" at this or to just say, "Hey! whatever floats your boat..."

I see post after post, week in/month out, declaring loud & clear that the poster simply cannot "get on" with JWM/ROX-filer, and "can't get anything done" with it.

This, like so much else in Linux, is a very personal choice.

I never was that happy with Windows File Explorer. When I moved to Linux, during my mainstream distro-hopping phase, 'twas the same story; I still wasn't really satisfied.....but at least the mode of operation was familiar! And then came the initial trial of Puppy... Like all noobs, ROX-filer was a bit of a shock; I asked several questions about its operation over the course of the first couple of weeks, and, as time went by, gradually became more familiar with it. One thing I'd originally liked the sound of in Windows was the "drag'n'drop" thing, yet it never seemed to function quite how I envisaged it ought to.....it just seemed "awkward", somehow.

Drag'n'drop works perfectly in ROX!

In the intervening 7 years, I've tried out several other Linux distros; some 'mainstream', others.....not so much. But one thing they all have in common.....and that's a 'conventional' file-manager which, after ROX, seem so clunky, awkward and just downright sluggish now. For me, it's the opposite tale; I've got SO handy with ROX over the last several years, I simply cannot see myself ever returning to a conventional FM again. I may have moved a LONG way beyond Puppy, hardware-wise, this last year, but I value an ultra-light, 'speedy' file-manager more than ever.

The only one that made me think twice was AntiX.....and that was due to ROX being one of the built-in, 'selectable' options by default. Summat I was used to.....but I eventually became dissuaded/disillusioned by the Synaptic package manager crap (yet again!)

To me, conventional file managers no longer make sense any more. They seem to be designed by masochists.....for other masochists..!!

Am I the only one who feels like this about ROX?

Mike.

[foxpup]

Am I the only one who feels like this about ROX?

Mike.

I totally agree Mike: ROX is fantastic!

Not only ROX-filer but the pinboard with the icons on the desktop as well.
And we use the panels and apps not nearly often enough.

When I change the window manager on Puppy (sorry jwm, I do), I always take ROX with me for my DE. I never change that.

I consider ROX the second most fantastic essential feature of Puppy, just behind the layered/frugal system.

[foxpup]

For an all time favorite:
Classic Pup 2.14X from @ttuuxxx .

My first Puppy was Wary5.5 from @BarryK himself.
It is a very close contender.

[JASpup]

Tahr to Xenial-era XFCE puplets

I write this too often: I use others and JWM, but XFCE is most user-friendly. The other issues are compatibility and system resources.

[d4rkn1ght]

Am I the only one who feels like this about ROX?

Mike.

You are not alone!

Before Puppy, I was using Classic Mac OS with the Classic Finder, so using ROX felt right at home for me with the window-shade, etc. I think once you change ROX with Thunar, xfe, etc, Puppy just become another random distro, and there is nothing wrong with that. But part of Puppy's charm for me is the combination of ROX/Pinboard/JWM/SeaMonkey. The simplicity, not base on eye-candy, and usefulness is what I like of that combination.

I started using Puppy in version 2.x booting old PCs. I remember using 4.x a lot browsing the net. But Lucid (Lupu) was the real beginning of my love affair with Puppy.

My favorite Puppy right now is FossaPup, but I also was happy with Bionicpup, Xenialpup, Tahrpup, Precise, Lucid, etc. I still use them all, plus others.

[PipzDex]

that's a good question....

naaah! I'm working with my modified version of precise 5.7.1 (precisely_5.8) <--- just a name -- who works perfect in my machine

=== CPU Proccesor ===
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz
2gb Memory Ram
=== Distro ===
Puppy Precisely 5.8
JWM v2.3.7
ROX-Filer 2.11-17w
=== video-info ===
2.0 VGA compatible controller:
Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
dimensions: 1280x1024 pixels (270x203 millimeters)
=== Development ===
Kernel: 5.0.1 (i686)
Bash: 5.0.0
Geany: 1.31
Gtkdialog: 0.8.4
Perl: 5.14.2
Python: 2.7.3
Yad: 0.42.1 (GTK+ 2.24.10)
Java: 1.8.0_172
busybox: 1.31.0
dhcpcd: 6.7.1
Devx GCC: (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2) 9.3.0
Glibc: 2.30
OpenSSL: 1.0.1 14 Mar 2012
wpa_supplicant: 0.7.3

weeeeell not so legacy, even with its known restrictions, it is perfect for navigating with firefox 79 (maximum due to problems with gtk3) and to be used as a basic home system.

for a newest version of puppy... Quickpup-20.06 very fast

and for 64 bit version... fossapup64-9.5 fast enough with some details due my system but most of the time works with a problem

So on my list, there are three, which work perfectly with my mentioned specs ...

[ttuuxxx]

For an all time favorite:
Classic Pup 2.14X from @ttuuxxx .

My first Puppy was Wary5.5 from @BarryK himself.
It is a very close contender.

Thanks Glad you liked it, Man I really did a lot of work on that one., It was actually the first puppy to have Gtk3 and the only to have GTK1, Gtk2, and Gtk3 all running at once. lol , Why just because I wanted to try it out and see how far I could stretch it out.
ttuuxxx

[geo_c]

To me, conventional file managers no longer make sense any more. They seem to be designed by masochists.....for other masochists..!!

Am I the only one who feels like this about ROX?

Mike.

I agree. Rox, once you've used it for a few years is the most handy manager out there. I use a combination of XFE and Rox. When I want to open files, see thumbnails, do quick copies, change permissions, just things that a person does every hour, Rox is lighting fast and stable, and it's integrated with puppy on every level. When I want to organize and see everything laid out so I don't confuse myself, I fire up XFE with a tree and dual panes. But XFE has drawbacks, doesn't display thumbnails, etc. It's a solid file manager though, installs easily and smoothly on every puppy I've tried. Between those two, work gets done efficiently.

[backi]

XFE is my favorite Filemanager.Almost perfect...aside from not showing Thumbnails.
I also would like to see the Possibility to mount Partitions with Xfe.....but this is not a big Thing.

[amethyst]

To me, conventional file managers no longer make sense any more. They seem to be designed by masochists.....for other masochists..!!

Am I the only one who feels like this about ROX?

Mike.

I agree. Rox, once you've used it for a few years is the most handy manager out there. I use a combination of XFE and Rox. When I want to open files, see thumbnails, do quick copies, change permissions, just things that a person does every hour, Rox is lighting fast and stable, and it's integrated with puppy on every level. When I want to organize and see everything laid out so I don't confuse myself, I fire up XFE with a tree and dual panes. But XFE has drawbacks, doesn't display thumbnails, etc. It's a solid file manager though, installs easily and smoothly on every puppy I've tried. Between those two, work gets done efficiently.

Only Rox for me. Probably only me but I use one fixed sized window to access all folders. Lots of entries stored under bookmarks for super quick navigating. This, with a good integrated copy/paste application like multicopypaste from SFR works perfectly for me.

[geo_c]

And since I'm hi-jacking the thread into file managers, I should add my favorite pup. I haven't used them all, but my first download was 4.3.1 and I was really happy when Lucid came out soon after, because as a Linux newbie Lucid was a lot more user friendly. I just kept upgrading to the latest mainline, so Slacko and Bionic were also in there. Being a musician I used lowt3ch's puppy studio builds, all of them. Now I'm pretty jazzed about puddlemoon's Jackal pup re-master of fossa, because I have mainline fossa fine-tuned and it's as nice as any puppy so far. I'm super happy with fossa and jackal, and I think I can probably get a lot of life out of them, especially if Mike keeps putting out those portable apps!

[Zuzia]

Not need talk more ^^