Puppy Linux CE proposal.

[rockedge]

So far so good for sure. When you have the project running somewhat smoothly we'll give it some test runs and see how it boots and behaves,

[amethyst]

1) Browsers, what would you all like to see?

I think most would prefer that no browser is built into the base sfs itself. Suggestion is to add a browser to the distribution iso if you like but not as part of the base sfs. Some provide it as an additional drive in the form of an adrv/bdrv/extra sfs file.

[bigpup]

I suggest the latest version of Pale Moon browser.

Does not require run-as-spot
Seems so far to not be picky about what is providing sound for sound to work in it.
Does not constantly need to be using the latest dependency stuff.
Has an internal update feature, that works very well to keep it updated to the latest version. (set it to auto or you can be given choice on what to do)
The update improves it or fixes bugs, but does not require the need to use updated dependency stuff.
Is as full featured as any of the other browsers.
Now has a very large selection of add-ons.

[rockedge]

I also would go with Palemoon as a default browser. Either built-in or SFS possibly a portable version included in the final ISO. As mentioned before, getting quickly online easily is an important feature. As an add-on it would be an easy task to remove it if it will be replaced.

[amethyst]

I use Palemoon but the truth is it is getting difficult to get google sites (and other sites like LInkedIn) to work properly with it. Google Drive and google docs are already a nightmare. It also does not work correctly with google translate (documents) function. I have to use Chromium in these cases. I would suggest Chromium/Chrome.

[Jadm]

So I figured it's about time for an up date, no screen shot here because the looks haven't changed at all. but here's what I have accomplished so far:
The apt problem turned out to be a bdrv problem, which was actually more of a puppyinstaller ( the installer puppy uses for hard drive installs) problem ( I'm not surprised, the puppy installer is in critical needs of an update) any ways I fixed the installer to work with the bdrv, and submitted a pull request to the woof-ce team.

Turns out some one else was working on a community edition so I had to find a new name for my project.
I have named my project "jump-pup" I'm still hoping to make this an official release, but basically the goals of jump pup are really similar (if not identical) to the ones I already listed. I chose the name because I want this to be a well behaved puppy, you say Jump and he does !! I would still also like to make this an official release, eventually!
I have found and added to an d script that would convert jwm puppy menus to flux box menus, I had to add quite a bit to get it to work "correctly".
I still have a few things to set up before I can release a beta, ( I mean I think it's coming along nicely though ) . Below is a list of achievements I hope to hit in the next two - three weeks (give or take a bit my classes just started back ):

I have also settled on using Ubuntu as the base distro, mostly because it appears no one else is doing much work on this side yet .. ( I am thinking about doing a rotation of distros in the long term though)..

I have fixed the installer to work as is, but I would still like to add more improvements.

Find a better way to install apps. I have decided to keep Pkg, ppm and pets in my build. I know at first I stated I thought it was time for them to go, but after doing research finding what was actually causing my bugs, and thinking I believe it's best they stay. With all the major distros going to things like flat packs and snap we are going to have a harder time keeping puppy simple without some kind of internal package management system. I would definitely love some input on this from the community, any ideas ?

To solve the browser issue I think I'm going to release with none, that seems to be the communities over all consensus. (The alpha / beta will probably ship with firefox for simplicity unless I can start to resolve the above software issue before).

While looking for a place to host my project I found out the domain puppylinux.dog was Available, and well I couldn't help myself ! I do have some major hopes for that site, one of the things I hope to use it for is the package management issues.. I'm thinking I'm going to start a small pet repo of web browsers to start and hopefully build from there . ( Once I get it started I hope to host other community projects there as well ).
But for now outside of web browsers what other daily software do you think should go there?

So to sum it up progress has been made ! I hope to make a new post about the site, and beta soon.
As always I appreciate any and all feedback / input from everyone ! It was one of you all who posted, then deleted something that reminded me that it is the simplicity that makes puppy great, so please give feedback!!

[amethyst]

Since you have settled on ubuntu as a base, would this be Jammy or ....? Also will you try to keep it as slim as possible (but with the usual Puppy applications included) following the traditional Puppy trend?

[Jadm]

Since you have settled on ubuntu as a base, would this be Jammy or ....? Also will you try to keep it as slim as possible (but with the usual Puppy applications included) following the traditional Puppy trend?

Yes I plan to use jammy as my base it's what all my test builds have been in. I have only built isos with devx built in so far but all have been comparable to the size of the current pups. I plan to keep it light, and simple. I do plan to have 2 window managers jwm and fluxbox. Jwm will be classic puppy themed ( I'm thinking similar to the puppy 4.x serious ) while flux box will have a more modern look. I might do one iso with just jwm if there is enough demand. ( Flux box source is less then a mb to download though so I couldn't imagine this being much bulk). I plan to include abi word, mt paint, the usual. For the browser I'm not planning to have one in the final release but I do plan to have a small repo with plenty of browsers to choose from, I already have a current SeaMonkey.pet ready to upload on the 1st wave for the repo ( sea monkey was the browser included in all of berry Ks official puppies I believe ) so all the usual puppy apps will be there my goal is a nice stable daily use puppy, just like the "good ole days" with a modern " look" option.

[mikeslr]

About web-browsers: jrb published an application here, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 9#p1027621 which enabled a user to download the then latest 'mozillas'. It was only 32-bit and the specified download locations are no longer current. But as you intend to maintain your own repo, the applications code may prove useful.

Recently I've been playing with the Chromium clone slimjet. Reminds me of the old Opera. It's fast and light-weight. IIRC, there was only one 'flaw' which I think --pre-2nd cup of coffee-- was getting sound to work under pulse-audio. Someone who codes might be able to figure out why. Better still, don't follow the current rush to pulse-audio: use alsa and retrovol, maintaining them if necessary.

I don't know how to properly use it, but lazpaint can handle both vector and raster graphics. Might be a light-weight replacement for mtpaint.

With your own repo, something along the lines of Quickpet would be preferable to including fleshing out the core/base SFS with applications many don't use. Abiword remains AFAIK prone to crash while working on long documents. So SFS-loading LibreOffice is one of the first things I do. On his recent builds dimkr has also left out abiword because of its size. gnumeric is fine, if not exactly Microsoft excel compatible; but if someone plans on using LibreOffice or OpenOffice or FreeOffice, gnumeric is superfluous.

About Quickpet, josejp2424 developed a very 'Mint-Like' GUI. I'll see if I can hunt up a screenshot and provide a link to one of his Puppys which use it. I think it was Devuanpup, from this thread, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=3083 where you'll also find a version --may be the same one-- which includes both apt AND synaptic and does so without the additional overhead later Pups having both require.

See this thread about Utilities to include, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 513#p69513. Choose between mtpaint-snapshot and TAS; the latter if you leave out mtpaint.

[Jadm]

About web-browsers: jrb published an application here, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 9#p1027621 which enabled a user to download the then latest 'mozillas'. It was only 32-bit and the specified download location are no longer current. But as you intend to maintain your own repo, the appplications code may prove useful.

Recently I've been playing with the Chromium clone slimjet. Reminds me of the old Opera. It's fast and light-weight. IIRC, there was only one 'flaw' which I think --pre-2nd cup of coffee-- was getting sound to work under pulse-audio. Someone who codes might be able to figure out why. Better still, don't follow the current rush to pulse-audio: use alsa and retrovol, maintaining them if necessary.

I don't know how to properly use it, but lazpaint can handle both vector and raster graphics. Might be a light-weight replacement for mtpaint.

With your own repo, something along the lines of Quickpet would be preferable to including fleshing out the core/base SFS with applications many don't use. Abiword remains AFAIK prone to crash while working on long documents. So SFS-loading LibreOffice is one of the first things I do. On his recent builds dimkr has also left out abiword because of its size. gnumeric is fine, if not exactly Microsoft excel compatible; but it a someone plans on using LibreOffice or OpenOffice or FreeOffice, gnumeric is superfluous.

About Quickpet, josejp2424 developed a very 'Mint-Like' GUI. I'll see if I can hunt up a screenshot and provide a link to one of his Puppys which use it.

Yes something like quick pet is what I'm waiting to start with, and hopefully grow from there! I would love to see that gui set up! Also some automation would be great, I will check that out as well !!

[mikeslr]

I'm pretty sure the one I have is devuanpup64-Synaptic-RC-1.1.iso using JWM with synaptic from here, https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 799#p26799. As the following screenshot shows, it has synaptic but also quickpet with a very nice GUI. Hoving over an Icon provides the name of the application via a tooltip.

devuan-chimaera.png (99.33 KiB) Viewed 298 times

A really beautiful Puppy. But I had one problem with it which was never resolved. Although it could create either/both a SaveFile or SaveFolder, it wouldn't write to those created. That problem may have been specific to my computer but I don't think so.

To provide the screenshot I had to move my installation from a 'Not in Use' folder to the top of a partition and add a listing for it to grub2config. I'm posting from it now using one of MikeWalsh's portable-web-browsers. TAS took the screenshot, and portable-gimp resized it.

Kind of heavy on resources though. I think that's synaptic's contribution. mistfire has updated sc0ttman's pkg-cli. There have been many reports about how good it is. I've only used it once so haven't mastered it. But it's much lighter on resources so is more in line with Puppy's philosophy. It could, however, use a User-friendly GUI for the many who like me haven't, or can't, learn languages. Also, I'm not sure how to use it to create SFSes --again a Puppy characteristic useful in conserving computer resources.

fredx181 has some good apps in the DebianDogs which build on Apt to create SFSes.