Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux Precise is a special edition of the Puppy Linux operating system that uses packages from the latest upstream Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) release. The distribution is suitable for old and semi-old computers and allows users to install Ubuntu applications.

Available for download as dual-arch, minimal Live CDs

Puppy Linux Precise comes in two editions, a standard release and a Retro flavor. As expected from a small operating system, it is distributed as dual-arch, minimal Live CD ISO images of approximately 200MB in size, suitable for both 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64) computers and deployable on either a CD disc or a USB flash drive.

Minimal boot prompt à la Puppy Linux

As this is actually an official Puppy Linux remix, it boast the same minimal boot screen that is available on other Puppy Linux editions, designed from the ground up to start the live OS in 5 seconds from the moment the user boots the Live CD from the BIOS of a PC. Advanced boot options can be entered on the boot prompt, so make sure you check out the basic and advanced help screens by pressing the F2 and F3 keys.

Ultra fast graphical desktop environment with tons of lightweight apps

It takes a few seconds for the live environment to load. Once loaded, you’ll immediately notice the snappiness of the graphical desktop environment, which is powered by IceWM and uses a traditional setup with a single taskbar located on the bottom edge of the screen and a slim main menu.

As usual, the distro is loaded with tons of lightweight apps, among which we can mention ROX-Filer, mtPaint, InkLite, Viewnior, AbiWord, Leafpad, Geany, SeaMonkey, HomeBank, Gnumeric, Figaro's Password Manager, gFTP, Transmission, uGet, Pidgin, ISO Master, Asunder and GNOME MPlayer.

Bottom line

All in all, Puppy Linux Precise is a very fast, stable and attractive operating system for users who want to install and use Ubuntu applications on a Puppy Linux base. It also supports the standard Puppy Linux packages and can transform an old computer into a powerful workstation.

What is new in this release:

• Another pup in the Precise series! This pup comes in two flavours, one for older hardware and/or those on dialup Internet, the other for those with relatively modern hardware.
• The "retro flavour" is an upgrade path for those who have used our Wary Puppy, that targeted older PCs and analog modem dialup -- unlike most other Linux distributions, it continues to support a wide range of analog "winmodems". It also has two web browsers, SeaMonkey and Opera, the latter preferred for PCs with less than 256MB RAM.
• The "modern flavour" only has one browser, SeaMonkey, and forgoes most of the analog modem and true-SCSI drivers, and is the choice that will suit most people with a PAE-capable i686 CPU, no ISA cards, and 256MB or more RAM. You also get the benefit of a much smaller download, the live-CD .iso file is 155.7MB.
• There are many fixes, improvements and new features in this pup, and the release notes give details. In particular, there are exciting new features at the underlying "Woof-level", or infrastructure-level, such as the more efficient pup_event daemon and IPC mechanism, and support for running Internet applications as user 'spot'.

What is new in version 5.7 RC1:

• Login and Security Manager (System menu).
• SeaMonkey maybe faster.
• pup_event_frontend_d, the daemon that manages desktop drive icons (amongst other things), should be faster.
• JWM 784, Psync fixed, BaCon 2.1.7.
• Linux kernel 3.9.5, maybe better drivers. Configured with devtmpfs, PAE-enabled, i686 CPU.
• Also under-the-hood, udev replaced by eudev.

What is new in version 5.6.1:

• Precise Puppy 5.6.1 is a bug-fix release of 5.6. I will probably also release a Service Pack PET package for those who already have 5.6 running, though it is easy to upgrade from the 5.6.1 live-CD.

What is new in version 5.6:

• Relative to Precise Puppy 5.5, this latest pup brings some exciting new features, including a new Xorg Video Wizard (with forced-reboot recovery mechanism), new non-PAE 3.2.44 kernel with lots of analog modem drivers (making this an excellent pup for those still on dialup Internet), many more applications internationalized, many applications upgraded, lots of bug fixes, and so on! Plus, a huge number of fixes and improvements at the infrastructure/system level. In all, a great new edition of the Precise series.

What is new in version 5.6 RC:

• Pmusic:
• Have rolled back to version 2.6.7, as the 3.x series requires ffmpeg >= 0.11, whereas Ubuntu Precise Pangolin only has 0.8.x.
• Needs testing.
• Boot help:
• At first boot screen, pressing key brings up help. There is a typo in the examples, "pfix=fr" should be "pkeys=fr". Already fixed in Woof.
• Analog dialup:
• Rerwin has put in a lot of work compiling drivers. This is shaping up to be a great pup for those still on dialup, even rivaling Wary.
• Many of these drivers were not in beta2, so need testing.

What is new in version 5.6 Beta 1:

• Kernel: 3.2.44, no PAE support.
• For anyone interested, includes Kompozer web page designer.
• if you are one of those unfortunate enough to have troublesome video hardware, and all you get is a black screen, and/or the keyboard and mouse are dead, this pup has a new recovery mechanism:
• If you can get to the text-mode console, fine, then run the Xorg Wizard by typing "xorgwizard". This will enable you to select alternative Xorg drivers.
• However, if the system is black-screen/dead, then if the PC has a 'reset' button, press that, or, hold down the PC's 'power' button for 4 seconds -- on virtually all PCs this will force a power-off. Then power-on again, do nothing, wait, and this time the Xorg Wizard should automatically start. Then you should be able to select an alternative Xorg driver.
• If this forced reboot succeeds in getting you to a graphical desktop, let me know. or if failure, let me know also -- with some details about what type of video you have, if you know it.

What is new in version 5.5:

• The very first Precise Puppy was version 5.4, on 23 October 2012, built from Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04.1 binary DEBs. Since then we have had bug-fix and minor upgrades, versions 5.4.1, 5.4.2 and 5.4.3, the latter released 17 December 2012.
• Well, time marches on, and Ubuntu have released their second build of Precise Pangolin, 12.04.2. Precise Puppy 5.5 is built from 12.04.2+ DEBs, but of course it is extremely important to understand with Puppy Linux that our use of the binary packages of another distro is only a convenience for us, to obtain binary compatibility, hence compatibility with that distros package repositories -- in all other respects, from the lowest levels of the infrastructure upward, Puppy is unique.
• There have been many bug-fixes and improvements at the Woof-level since Precise 5.4.3 was released, plus many package fixes and upgrades. Enough to warrant the number jump to 5.5.

What is new in version 5.5 RC:

• I have decided to release only one Precise Puppy, with the 3.2.29 kernel. Pemasu is providing the variant and other enhancements.

What is new in version 5.5 Beta:

• This build has rerwin's puppyfied Frisbee (originally created by Jemimah).
• Built from Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.01.2 binary packages.