Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
I thought it was time to jump out of the Debian and Ubuntu world and have a look at a Linux distribution from a whole different world, Puppy Linux Slacko 7.0. While still a desktop distribution, Puppy is quite different in how it works and what it can be used for.
Background
Unlike some Linux distributions that have corporate sponsorship, like Ubuntu and Red Hat, Puppy Linux is a “community based distribution”, meaning it is built by a wide group of people who do this as a hobby. It was started by American Barry Kauler, and had its first release in 2003. Kauler retired from the project in 2013, and since then it has been run by a diverse group of developers.
The project is all dog-themed and was named after a dog that Kauler once owned, named “Puppy”. The operating system even barks when you boot it up.
Unlike some community projects, such as Debian, where each decision on how it looks, how it works, the software included, release schedule, and every other detail, is hammered out as a series of debates, votes and compromises, Puppy works very differently. Anyone can take the Puppy tools and put together a new branch or a release. In 2022, this means that there are three current releases, all offering a slightly different take and all put out by different teams or individuals. It is a bit anarchistic, but it means that no compromises are needed between developers.
Each release borrows application binaries from other Linux distributions, which saves a lot of development time and duplication.
As of March 2022, the three current releases of Puppy available for download were: • FossaPup64 9.5 (Puppy 9) 64-bit, which uses binaries from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) • BionicPup (Puppy 8) 32-bit & 64-bit, which uses binaries from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) • Slacko 7.0 (Puppy 7) 32-bit & 64-bit, which uses binaries from Slackware 14.2
There is help available for users in the Puppy forums and a blog for release announcements. It is a friendly community, welcoming to new people, unlike some distribution communities.
Slacko 7.0 is the most recent of the three current releases, out on 4 January, 2021.
Booting It Up
I downloaded the Slacko 7.0 ISO file from the Puppy repositories at https://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/ and completed a SHA256 check on it to make sure that the downloaded file was good.
The 64-bit download was 343 MB, while the 32-bit version was 323 MB. This is very small for a complete operating system!
I used UNetbootin to write it to a USB stick, as it conveniently leaves the stick in FAT32 format. UNetbootin specifically supports Puppy.
While Puppy can be installed conventionally on a hard drive, it usually isn’t done that way. Instead, it is normally run from external media, like a CD, DVD or USB drive. Being so small, it all loads into the computer’s RAM and then the external media can be removed.
Running all in RAM means Puppy runs very fast, even on old hardware, and also that it can be used on a computer with a broken or even missing hard drive. Saving files onto external media again can be done as you go or at the end of a session. At shutdown, Puppy will also prompt for saving files, as well as settings, which will all load on a fresh boot.
From the USB stick I did try to boot up Slacko 7.0 on my 2021 model System76 Galago Pro laptop and the boot loader wouldn't even recognize the stick for booting, although it booted fine on my nine year-old desktop computer. I suspect what I ran into was what the release announcement warned about: “some newer hardware may not work….”
User Case
People always ask about the user case for Puppy, in other words: what is it used for?
I have found that Puppy is useful in at least three roles, but there are probably several more that I haven't discovered yet.
First, it is a totally viable, lightweight operating system that can be run on older computer hardware, even 32-bit. Despite the tiny download size, it comes complete with a suite of applications, and is ready to go to work from boot-up, right “out of the box”, although, if needed, additional applications can be added from the repositories. That said, I am not sure anyone with a modern computer will choose Puppy over a more polished and full-featured distribution, like Ubuntu, but for limited hardware it is hard to beat.
Second, it is great as a user-friendly, data-rescue disk. It can be booted up from a CD/DVD or USB stick, and used to save files off a broken, unbootable, operating system. It quickly identifies any drives installed right on the Puppy desktop and then you can just click though, find your files and save them to a USB stick.
The third role I have used Puppy for is testing hardware. It is quick to boot up from external media, and can be used to check that a computer's hardware is working correctly or not.
Puppy is also well-adapted for off-line use or use with dial-up connections, which are also supported. Updates are generally not a worry within Puppy releases as you don't get any, just whole, new releases. This Puppy version does offer a list of some individual packages that can be updated one at a time, if desired, using the Puppy Package Manager.
System requirements
The listed minimum hardware for running Slacko 7.0 is: • Recommended for 32-bit: 1 GHz processor (P4 or later model AMD K7), 512 MB of RAM, and either bootable CD access, USB boot, or network boot access. A hard drive is not required. • Recommended for 64-bit: 1.6 GHz processor (IA64 or amd64), 1 GB RAM, and either bootable CD access, USB boot, MMC/SD card boot, or network boot access. A hard drive is not required.
Slacko does not support old P2, P3 or AMD K6 processors.
Applications
Some of the included applications with Slacko 7.0 are: AbiWord 3.0.1 word processor Evince (Gnome Document Viewer) 3.18.2 PDF viewer Geany 1.35 text editor Firefox 68.12.Oesr Extended Support Release browser Firewall set-up 0.8 gFTP 2.0.19 FTP client Gnome MPlayer 1.0.9 media player Gnumeric 1.12.28 spreadsheet Gparted 0.26.1 partition editor Gpicview image viewer HexChat 2.10.2 IRC client HomeBank 4.6.3 Accounting software Inkscape Lite 0.36 vector graphics editor Leafpad 0.8.18.1 text editor LXTerminal 0.3.2 mtPaint 3.50 graphics editor Osmo 0.2.10 personal organizer and calendar PBurn 4.3.19 CD/DVD/BlueRay burner Puppy Package Manager 2.5 package management system ROX-Filer file manager Sylpheed 3.5.1 email client Take A Shot 1.15 screenshot tool Transmission 2.60 bittorrent client XSane 0.999 scanning XArchive Manager 0.2.8
That is a pretty impressive list for a 343 MB download, but it also includes three games, ALSA sound, and CUPS printing. While Firefox is the default browser, there is a quick installation available for Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and Chromium, if desired.
The lightweight AbiWord word processor and Gnumeric spreadsheet may not be everyone’s first choice, so LibreOffice is also available for installation.
The ROX file browser is small, very fast, and light, but has its own quirks, like single-click file opening. To highlight a file you need to Ctrl-click it. Once you get used to it, it isn’t bad, though.
While not as extensive as the Ubuntu repositories, the Puppy list of available .pet applications is fairly complete and has a lot of the most popular applications ready for installation.
Using Slacko 7.0
Once booted up, Slacko 7.0 presents a very conventional-looking desktop with menus and a Mac-style launcher. People always ask, “which desktop environment does it use?” In fact, Puppy has its own desktop, and you will find components from KDE, Gnome and LXDE here, among others. It always visually reminds me of Windows 98 – simple and functional.
Older Slacko versions used a single menu system launched from a Puppy icon in the bottom-left, but this version has moved the menus and the panel to the top. It has two menus at the top-left marked “Applications” and “Places”, reminiscent of the Gnome 2 desktop used in Ubuntu up until Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat).
Because it is all running in RAM, everything in Puppy is fast. The menus are fairly cluttered, but a look through them shows that, for such a small download, it comes with a lot of default software.
Slacko has lots of user settings, choices and color schemes, so you can make it look and work however you like. The default theme is a bit garish but it is easy to tone down from the menus. The settings are a bit scattered about, but, with some perseverance, can be found.
Compared to Bionic Puppy, which is slicker and more professional looking, Slacko does look like an operating system built in someone’s basement, but it works well and has enough customization available to smooth out the visual impression a bit.
There is no doubt that Puppy is a quirky distribution compared to more conventional ones. For instance, the default user is “root”, although there is the option of creating a distinct user account under it, if needed. This is less of an issue than most Linux users might think, as each reboot replaces the whole operating system with a fresh copy and that gives fairly good protection against malware.
Conclusions
Slacko 7.0 is a good, solid release with no really bad points. It comes with an amazingly complete default assortment of applications, considering how small the whole operating system download is. For use in hardware testing or for a rescue system, Puppy is hard to beat. It is also useful for breathing life into older hardware or a computer with no hard drive, rendering it useful for daily work.
External links:
Official website: https://puppylinux.com/
Documentation: http://wikka.puppylinux.com/HomePage