Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello there,
i decided to create acc in forum first so i could clear all my doubts. Before working with the installing process.
i am a linux mint cinnamon 19.3 user. Looking for a transition with the OS, I have read recently some good reviews abt puppy linux. I want to maxmise my pc's performance to a higher level with everything minimal. When i moved from windows to linux mint. i was amazed with the performance likewise i want to see if puppy linux gonna offer me more performance boost and functions likewise.
for example: even though i moved to linux mint the pros were i came across to hassle free browsing experience and the use of general purpose softwares built in for daily usage but when i try to multitask open 4/5 tabs in browser performance gets slow, coming to softwares i am able to use multimedia apps for prposes like to edit a video , sketching, coding, using gimp, audio edtiing , using lmms, etc some of these softwares do run dont get me wrong but after using them for few mins they gets slow.
now i know my hardware is not upto the mark to run them efficiently and even running it this smooth in linux mint is something which am very grateful abt but you know i just want to test and see or maybe would like to take you guys opinion on whether to shift from mint to puppy or not.
its that curiousity part on me to know whether if i can do more things on my pc with puppy linux more better than linux mint or not. I really hope you understand what am trying to say here.

thank you for you time
i really appreciate it
looking forward for responses

edit: removed the specs from here bcuz i feel like my this post/title was edited by someone else.

Perhaps one of the Bionic Pups would be familiar to you, check viewforum.php?f=115 . Judging from what you posted about your PC specifications, you could
try either 32 or 64 bit BionicPups, but the 64 bit may be a better choice for you in regards to
various software applications available, especially web browsers. 32 bit is still viable, but good
all-purpose web browsers are getting harder to find. Other specialized programs even more so.

For the record, I run on Slackware based Puppys, restricted to 32 bit by CPU limitations, but ScPups
by peebee are very well polished releases, and you may find ScPup 64 quite satisfactory!
Wiz

@Venk

I can't see how much RAM your machine is equipped with. That is one of the most important limiting factors. The fact that you can run Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon should mean that it's at least 1GB RAM.

I'm running Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon on a 15 year old Dell Latitude D610 with 2 GB RAM. It's a bit slow, but reliable.

I'm currently running a project with the aim to find out what's the limit to how old and low spec computers can be, and still be given a new life using Linux. The last few weeks I have tested a number of different 32 bit Puppy versions on an Acer Aspire 3100 with 512 MB RAM. Some of my results ar in the thread "Best 32 bit version with support beyond 2023?" (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3245). There's a summary on page 12 of the thread.

If your computer that runs Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon slows down when you open several tabs in a browser or when you run several programs at the same time, it's quite possible that it runs out of RAM. During testing, I have kept the Task Manager open in the lower right corner of the screen at all times. In doing so, I have been able to continously monitor CPU load and RAM usage. This gives you a lot of information about what slows your computer down.

If your machine runs low on resources, a 32 bit version might be a good choice, since in general they require less resources. A downside of this is, as previously mentioned, that some programs no longer are supported in 32 bit. So, it's a tradeoff depending on what you prioritise.

Perhaps I have missed it but you don't quote the amount of RAM you have which can be critical for snappy performance. I am guessing 4 GB? If you want to stick with Mint then switch to xfce which is less demanding on RAM and maybe consider a SSD.

Puppy is light on resources and can run well on hardware that the more main line Distro such as Mint struggle with. However, Puppies and Fatdog do not always have all the software that you appear to need. Luckily, it is very easy to multiboot Puppies alongside Mint, etc. Puppy uses a frugal install system which means that it operates from a directory. Many use Puppy on a USB stick and since it loads into RAM and works from there it runs quickly. With your hardware, there is no real need to have the latest kernel as all the drivers will be in with earlier Puppies and they may have the programmes you want. I suggest you try Bionic 64 as with the Ubuntu compatibility you are likely to get the programmes you want. See: https://puppylinux.com/download.html

Since setting up Puppy to run frugally is so quick, I suggest you just try the Puppies to see if they meet your needs.

As an aside the terminal command "top" will list what processes are consuming your CPU and RAM resources which helps work out why the PC is slow.

With Puppy Linux you have to just try some.
There are several versions and they are all slightly different.

That computer should be able to run any of them.

One thing you need to understand.
Puppy is Linux, but it does some things the Puppy way.
One is not having all possible Linux commands.
Puppy only has the commands that are needed to do what you need to do, using programs compiled for Puppy.
Puppy is full of programs, compiled for Puppy, by Puppy users/coders, and designed to do specific things, the easy way, not complicated way.
Try them all.
You may like them better, than the big blotted stuff, you may have been using.

Any of the Puppy versions listed here will work.
https://puppylinux.com/
These are the official Puppy versions.
The list is in order of newest version at top.

Note:
Raspup is for Raspberry Pi computers, not X86, like you have.
Tahrpup is and was a very good version, but it is kind of showing it's age. Getting latest software working in it can be an issue.
Fossapup64 9.5 has the newest and latest updates of everything usually in Puppy.

Puppy is very much about.
If it is not broken, do not try to fix it.
So, get out of thinking you have to always be updating.
Except for web browsers.
Those things are constantly updating.

In this forum are other versions of Puppy or Puppy like operating systems.
Derivatives section is full of Puppy versions that someone modified to look and work the way they wanted.

Get your feet wet using one of the Official Puppies.
This is Puppy.
Learn you must.

This info will help you:
Installing additional software
viewtopic.php?p=14307#p14307

Easy to try many Puppy versions, if you install Puppy to a USB, making it a live Puppy install.
Want to change versions.
Delete the old version and install a new one.

Here is some programs for doing USB installs.
viewtopic.php?f=156&t=157

This is an optional install method to just boot using the Puppy iso
viewtopic.php?p=1894#p1894

If you have to use Mint to do anything to get Puppy on a USB.
Some people report problems using Mint to get installs working.
If you have issues.
It has already been figured out what you probably need to do.
So, tell us and we can get you booting Puppy.

Note:
If computer has UEFI bios.
Go into the UEFI bios setup and disable secure boot, enable legacy boot, or enable CSM.
This eliminates a lot of boot issues.
Puppy iso's do not have needed files for secure boot enabled.

We are Puppy!
Resistance is futile!

I admit I don't read your specs well. Your dual-core CPU has four core speeds.

In my opinion, the only time you need to shy away from the latest Puppy is when your machine is old.

I use Xenial because I also use a Xenial XFCE puplet and 32-bit Xenial.

If my fast 64 machine were my only I'd probably run Mainline Bionic.

I came from Mint XFCE because of 32-bit system resources. Puppy runs better.

That said, if you machine is old/slow, it won't matter which distro you boot for multiple browser tabs and video editing.

Wiz57 wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 7:49 pm

Judging from what you posted about your PC specifications, you could
try either 32 or 64 bit BionicPups, but the 64 bit may be a better choice for you in regards to
various software applications available, especially web browsers.

Kjellinux wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:41 pm

@Venk
I can't see how much RAM your machine is equipped with. That is one of the most important limiting factors. The fact that you can run Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon should mean that it's at least 1GB RAM.

peterw wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:48 pm

Perhaps I have missed it but you don't quote the amount of RAM you have which can be critical for snappy performance. I am guessing 4 GB? If you want to stick with Mint then switch to xfce which is less demanding on RAM and maybe consider a SSD.

JASpup wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:25 am

I admit I don't read your specs well. Your dual-core CPU has four core speeds.
In my opinion, the only time you need to shy away from the latest Puppy is when your machine is old.

Hey there everyone , i am quite surprised on what has happened with this post. Because there is some false information abt my pc in the post. I remember writing abt my ram which is 4 gb and my computer that is 32 bits. idk if it got edited by someone or is a bug. The title itself was "Help me select the best version for my old pc please" seems like someone definitely edited my post. Just why?

Anyways, here is my pc specs 32 bits , 4 gb ram , 500 gb hard disk, processor: Intel© Core™ i3 CPU M 350 @ 2.27GHz × 2

Don't think anyone on the forum edits others post.
Still on with the search. Your PC should be able to do 64 and 32 bit Puppies as the CPU supports both: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... 6-ghz.html And in the title you state 64 bit. I guess you want a 32 bit Puppy. Then either Bionic 32 bit one or the Slacko 32 bit one will work fine.

peterw wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:57 am

Don't think anyone on the forum edits others post.
Still on with the search. Your PC should be able to do 64 and 32 bit Puppies as the CPU supports both: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... 6-ghz.html And in the title you state 64 bit. I guess you want a 32 bit Puppy. Then either Bionic 32 bit one or the Slacko 32 bit one will work fine.

i think my computer architecture is 32 bits am nt sure
which one would be the best option for me to go for ?
fossapup64 or bionicpup32 keeping my system requirements in mind.
i am interested in the lastest version fossapup bcuz ofc its the latest version so id be updated. But am not sure if i can run it down on my computer because the version title itself includes 64 not sure if thats a reference to 64bit architecture.

this is my detailed pc info again :

System: Host: venk-desktop Kernel: 5.4.0-80-generic i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia
base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: INTEL model: INTEL H55 v: INTEL serial: <filter>
BIOS: American Megatrends v: 080015 date: 05/09/2015
CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3 M 350 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem
rev: 2 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 18089
Speed: 1201 MHz min/max: 933/2267 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1057 2: 1265 3: 1021
4: 1097
Graphics: Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0046
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics (ILK) v: 2.1 Mesa 20.0.8
direct render: Yes
Info: Processes: 193 Uptime: 7h 44m Memory: 3.75 GiB used: 810.0 MiB (21.1%) Init: systemd
v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0 alt: 7 Client: Unknown python3.6 client
inxi: 3.0.32 .

@Venk :-

Yup, that's 64-bit hardware, right enough.

CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3 M 350 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem
rev: 2 L2 cache: 3072 KiB

You should be able to run Fossapup64 on there with no problems.

Mike.

Stop trying to over think this.

Just try Fossapup64 9.5.

Your computer info readout is saying it supports 64bit.
The processor ability controls this.
No way, is a Intel i3 processor, only going to support 32bit.
It can use 64bit or 32bit OS's!!

mikewalsh wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 11:39 am

@Venk :-

Yup, that's 64-bit hardware, right enough.

CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3 M 350 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem
rev: 2 L2 cache: 3072 KiB

You should be able to run Fossapup64 on there with no problems.

Mike.

bigpup wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:14 pm

Stop trying to over think this.

Just try Fossapup64 9.5.

Your computer info readout is saying it supports 64bit.
The processor ability controls this.
No way, is a Intel i3 processor, only going to support 32bit.
It can use 64bit or 32bit OS's!!

ok guys thank you so much. Ill back up stuff and go for it. Will let you know on how it is doing.

so all these days i was living in a lie that my pc is 32bits.
wow, my bad

Maybe you were "deceived" because your Windows OS was 32 bit and you thought the PC was only 32 bit. 32 bit Operating Systems can run on 64 bit PCs with no problem, however if you have more than 4 GB of RAM then the extra will not be used by the 32 bit OS.