Puppy Linux is not just one distribution. Instead its developers use a "recipe" to create highly compact, fast and flexible Linux systems from larger mainline distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, Void, etc.
If you are a MS Windows user and new to Linux or if you have used another Linux distribution you will find Puppy Linux changes, but simplifies a few basic things, including installation, and these differences account for a lot of its performance and flexibility advantages.
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Frugal Install = Puppy's standard and recommended installation, in a space saving compressed image file or folder.
Unlike Windows or a large Linux distribution, which, during installation, re-partitions your hard drive then adds a new full directory structure and thousands of individual files, a Puppy frugal installation will simply add a few large compressed files (called SFS files) to your existing storage medium.
Puppy’s entire operating system and included applications reside in these compressed files. The SFS files can even co-exist with your present operating system. Puppy Linux does not require re-formatting your hard drive, or removing a former OS, if you want to keep it. You can, if you like, re-format and create a pure Puppy computer, but it isn’t required for a full-fledged fully operational Puppy Linux system.
Puppy SFS files are similar to “Zip” compressed files in Windows. Puppy’s main SFS file contains the full Puppy operating system AND a full suite of user applications. Puppy Linux calls this method of installation “frugal” because it’s an efficient way to use your computer’s resources, not because it is a “lighter” version of Puppy Linux. A frugal install is a complete functioning Puppy Linux.
How does a frugal installation work? When Puppy boots up, the compressed Puppy Linux files are copied into computer memory. Puppy can then run its entire operating system, AND applications, completely from this image in memory. The OS fits in memory because it’s compressed and is stripped of bloat. Running from memory also provides much faster program performance than if the OS were continually accessing a hard drive for needed files... as other conventional operating systems must do. The speed-up with Puppy is quite noticeable, and has greatly extended the usable life of older computers, or provided newer hardware with spectacular increases in program performance.
Full HDD Install = is the other (and non-recommended) Puppy Linux installation alternative, yielding a traditional Linux hard drive installation, and requiring the creation of dedicated partitions and directories. This removes many of Puppy’s above mentioned advantages, but is sometimes used for very old, very low memory, or low power computers.
Puppy Advantage: A Read Only OS The Puppy operating system SFS file is a “read only” file and can be loaded from protected media, so it is always clean and unaltered on boot-up. This goes a long way towards making the base Puppy OS more stable and secure than other operating systems in which the OS is writable, and subject to alteration or corruption.
User Data Storage: When you create new documents or make changes, download files, add programs, etc. these changes are not saved to the read-only base OS, but saved into another compressed file (or folder, as an option), called a Puppy savefile, (or a Puppy save folder). This separate set of user alterations and user data can be easily secured and encrypted if desired, and backed up as a whole.
Installation Flexibility: The above combination of unique features makes Puppy Linux much more flexible and efficient to use than almost any other operating system. For example, with its small size it can:
run directly from a CD or DVD drive
run directly from a USB flash drive
run directly from its ISO file on a USB flash drive (using special tools)
run directly from an SD Card (if the computer supports sdcard boot)
run directly from an external USB hard drive
run directly from an internal hard drive in its own partition.
run directly from an internal hard drive sharing the same partition as fully functioning MS Windows (or alternate Linux) installation – called dual booting.
run completely within a Virtual Machine
Multi-Booting: You can run more than one Puppy Linux in the same partition. If you like you can have multiple configurations or multiple specialized or secure Puppy’s for different purposes, for example, for web surfing, or games, or for financial transactions, or a dedicated studio for audio/video processing, etc.
Puppies are a family of unique compact adaptable highly efficient and flexible operating systems that can work with most any computer storage configuration, either as as a standalone OS or in a multi-booting shared computing environments. There are many other innovations and advantages to running a Puppy Linux. We hope you’ll read further and try one (or more!) for yourself to learn more.