The ProductiveLinux Podcast Episode 13 - Puppy Linux 4 (MP3 Format)
Posted on June 5th, 2008 by nathan
In Episode 13 (our longest episode ever!) we talk about the latest release from the dedicated Puppy Linux team. It rocks, and actually has some great personal productivity software installed!
Did you like this week’s podcast, or was it completely useless? Leave a comment and let me know!
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Filed under: App Releases, MP3, Podcast
Interesting review, Nathan. Since you mentioned older hardware, that it loads to RAM, etc., it would’ve been very useful to know more. Like if the compression method employed to cram that much stuff into 90MB is suitable for earlier Pentiums, how much RAM (plus swap) is required as a bare minimum, and whether the bloat of GTK2 is really such a good idea on older hardware.
I’ve already told you where I stand on the root-only issue. It’s deserving of more than a minor disclaimer that brushes it off at the end of a review. The irony of Puppy WRT Windows 95 is that users coming from Windows 95 will feel right at home because Puppy shares this identical wide-open vulnerability. That’s not trivial because root access on a network and/or on a system with storage can be accessed if the root account is compromised. In that sense, *TG* Puppy doesn’t automount. I can only imagine how much fun people could have with that.
I think it’s ironic, too, that you’d glow about things in Puppy that you were much less excited about in Absolute. Didn’t you pan the choice of Sylpheed in it? Weren’t you pretty harsh on the choice of apps like their scheduler because they were “ugly” and “gtk1 or fltk” — which is maybe a lot more suitable than gtk2 for the hardware Absolute targets?
This is precisely why I responded as I did then. Absolute’s target is older hardware that isn’t exactly ideal for running the latest versions and bloated libraries the big distros expect users to have now. Puppy suggests it’s in the same or similar category — worth using on older hardware.
If that’s the case, it’s fair to compare them on those grounds. If Puppy uses some blistering compression method to achieve packing 300MB of stuff into a 90MB ISO and the other doesn’t, a slower CPU is going to be more useful with the other. If Puppy requires 256MB of RAM (or RAM plus swap) and the other distro will function very well with its selection of “ugly” apps with much less, then it stands that older computers with less RAM will be much more usable with the other distro. If Puppy’s apps use big, bloated libs and the other doesn’t, older computers with fewer resources will be able to run more stuff at any given time than less.
And when Puppy runs as root and the other separates permissions in a manner consistent with Unix-like computing, it’s heads and shoulders above Puppy. No matter how ugly you thought it was.
You judged apps and versions. You judged aesthetics. Neither of those things explains why either distro you reviewed would or wouldn’t be suitable for certain kinds of users or computers.
Hi Lucky13, and thanks for the feedback.
Regarding sylpheed, I don’t think I was necessarily “glowing.” I said I haven’t used it much but it felt light and seemed easy to use. I would have definitely preferred Thunderbird, but I can see why light distros choose Sylpheed.
Regarding GTK1, GTK2, FLTK: GTK 2 is working pretty well on some Win95 computers at work, although I’m sure GTK1 or FLTK might be snappier, so in that regard Absolute may be a bit faster.
I’m sorry I didn’t mention it in the review, but 64MB is the minimum required to load everything (according to their documentation on distrowatch), but of course it can run off the CD with less memory as well.
As far as the root issue is concerned, I feel that I did more than “brush it off.” I explicitly warned against server and large scale roll outs, as well as the fact that it could be a security vulnerability. If you don’t feel comfortable running it as your main OS, I even listed alternative uses for the distro, such as a rescue CD.
Keep in mind I am also approaching from a “what do I get–out of the box–for personal productivity” point of view as well, so of course I’m going to focus on the application set that’s included by default. This will help certain kinds of users decide if Puppy’s for them.
I may completely wrong here, but I get the feeling I may have conveyed to you that I disliked the Absolute Linux distribution when I tried it. This is far from the case! I still have it installed on one my partitions on my main box (Puppy doesn’t get that), and because of Absolute I’ve taken a new interest in Slackware. I think it’s a fantastic, great project, that could use a bit a polish. That’s it. I’ve said as much about Puppy many times in the past.
For some implementations, Puppy works best for me. I’m pleased to know about have a some experience with Absolute Linux as well, because it too is a great option for lower end computers, and it would definitely be one of my top considerations when working with networked computers.
The two projects, while they share many similarities are also vastly different is many areas. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and even though I am–admittedly–partial to the Puppy project (I have much more experience with it) I would never say that it is better than Absolute, or vice versa. Clearly they serve different purposes and different user niches within the community.