Talk: Puppy Linux Deconstructed - JT Pennington (Q5sys, 2014 SouthEast LinuxFest)

[bark-woof-fetch]

Found this 6 years old talk by JT Pennington which really explains clearly how Puppy et.al. works, in particular layered, squashed filesystems.
He was a Puppy dev (as Q5sys) not sure if he's still around.

Single video camera a bit off distance so try the 720p upload to follow along his projector slides and demo.
https://invidious.site/watch?v=ymBQPBEVgQI


Anyyway, highly recommended, brought /home what a lot of written info didn't for me.

For those who prefer diagrammed overviews there are a few nice ones over at https://www.linuxsecrets.com/tinycoreli ... grams.html

[bigpup]

He was a Puppy dev (as Q5sys) not sure if he's still around.

He is still around.
Member of this forum since July 29 2020.
Does not seem to be actively posting.

Not bad as a general explanation of how Puppy works.

All of this discussion is when Puppy is run as a live install or a frugal install.

Puppy as a full install, works totally differently.
There is no layered filesystem.

Just keep in mind that this was in 2014.
Some of the information about how much RAM is used and how low in specs the computer can be has changed a little.

With the newest versions of Puppy, initial boot up will use around 300MB.
Actual size of the newest Puppy iso is around 300MB to 450MB.

I do not think any of the newest Puppies, will run on any processors older than p4.
However, this is more about what hardware the Linux kernel supports.
A kernel 2 or 3 series, put into a Puppy version, will run much older hardware, than a series 5 kernel.
But the 2 or 3 series kernels, will not run very new hardware, with all the new features they have.

This was done just about the time that save folders were being developed.
He did not talk about save folders.
However, they work about the same way that a save file does, being layered into the file system.

We old users of Puppy, all know, you can do all kinds of eye candy stuff to the looks of Puppy.

[bark-woof-fetch]

appreciated and duely noted bigpup, thanks

It's been quite seamless for me to get started with you and all the other veterans and devs busy posting and answering on the forum.

I remain convinced that a live frugal 'installed' Linux variant is easily the best option for most users whatever their needs and requirements yet seems to be overlooked in lots of articles and talks re. how to switch/get started with/dualboot/and so on.

Looking forward to be part of the movement.

br

[foxpup]

Found this 6 years old talk by JT Pennington which really explains clearly how Puppy et.al. works, in particular layered, squashed filesystems.

Anyyway, highly recommended, brought /home what a lot of written info didn't for me.

For those who prefer diagrammed overviews there are a few nice ones over at https://www.linuxsecrets.com/tinycoreli ... grams.html

I agree, he explains the basics really well.

I still enjoy reading from the classic article from Barry:
https://bkhome.org/archive/puppylinux/d ... works.html
This is the main feature, but not the only one, that makes Puppy so exciting.
It is good design that is fun.

[bark-woof-fetch]

Mr. Pennington came up on my radar again today courtesy of https://podcast.asknoahshow.com/204?t=2610

It appears he's been a producer for some Jupiter Broadcast podcasts and is now hosting his own as well, https://www.theopiniondominion.org and https://www.opensourcevoices.org

Haven't heard it yet, looking fw to it. Will check for stray dogs and puppies and report back accordingly.

[mikewalsh]

@bark-woof-fetch :-

Very informative! Like you, I too now understand a few Puppy concepts better, having watched the vid. Thanks for tracking it down, and for sharing.

Cheers!


Mike.