My Dad's machine (600Mhz Celeron, 64 MB RAM) was ill. The doctor has hospitalised her. Till then he has given a legacy Celeron 266Mhz as a substitute.
He gave it with Windows98 loaded. But it came with a virus & my Dad was frustrated. So i thought why not put some old-machine-compatible linux. I tried Vector Linux...nope its not all that lightweight & Abiword (Dad uses a computer for Word processors) runs like a Titanic in shallow waters. Then i thought lets try MiniSlax. But then i thought i should put something with a striking resemblance to Windows.
Just by coincidence I came across Puppy Linux. Though the name may sound weird the distro has been made with a lot of sanity.
>> Its just 60MB, live-cd that can be installed.
>> It copies the entire 60MB to ramdisk & your CDROM gets free to use...unlike any other live-cd distro i have heard.
>> Since it runs from RAM, its as they call "blazing fast".
>> You wont believe me if i said it comes with Word processors, Spreadsheet, Accounting softwares, Browsers, Image viewers-editors, Instant messenger, Games, Vector graphics applications, Text editors, File managers, Audio players, Video player ( again with all formats support), cd-dvd writers, Backup utilities, Dialers(3 or 4) the list just goes on.
>> The better (for Dad like users) part is that it uses FVM95 as the Window manager that looks exactly like Windows interface.
>> It frees the Windows user from knowing Linux internals. Comes with mounting utilities & the like. The X configurator is pretty good & simple & by magic or what just works for older computers. It ran X on a vintage Vintron analog B/w monitor !!
>> Installation on disk is easy & comes with full partition as well as Windows-file type(UMSDOS) partition support.
The most important part was whether it ran faster when i installed it on disk. And bingo it did.In some way it has restored my losing faith in Linux being the "fast thing that can run on old computers". The ease-of-use factor of Puppy Linux rivals that of Windows itself & this statement has been made with beta tests [by Dad :)].
Category [ _Linux_ ] [ _Review_ ]
He gave it with Windows98 loaded. But it came with a virus & my Dad was frustrated. So i thought why not put some old-machine-compatible linux. I tried Vector Linux...nope its not all that lightweight & Abiword (Dad uses a computer for Word processors) runs like a Titanic in shallow waters. Then i thought lets try MiniSlax. But then i thought i should put something with a striking resemblance to Windows.
Just by coincidence I came across Puppy Linux. Though the name may sound weird the distro has been made with a lot of sanity.
>> Its just 60MB, live-cd that can be installed.
>> It copies the entire 60MB to ramdisk & your CDROM gets free to use...unlike any other live-cd distro i have heard.
>> Since it runs from RAM, its as they call "blazing fast".
>> You wont believe me if i said it comes with Word processors, Spreadsheet, Accounting softwares, Browsers, Image viewers-editors, Instant messenger, Games, Vector graphics applications, Text editors, File managers, Audio players, Video player ( again with all formats support), cd-dvd writers, Backup utilities, Dialers(3 or 4) the list just goes on.
>> The better (for Dad like users) part is that it uses FVM95 as the Window manager that looks exactly like Windows interface.
>> It frees the Windows user from knowing Linux internals. Comes with mounting utilities & the like. The X configurator is pretty good & simple & by magic or what just works for older computers. It ran X on a vintage Vintron analog B/w monitor !!
>> Installation on disk is easy & comes with full partition as well as Windows-file type(UMSDOS) partition support.
The most important part was whether it ran faster when i installed it on disk. And bingo it did.In some way it has restored my losing faith in Linux being the "fast thing that can run on old computers". The ease-of-use factor of Puppy Linux rivals that of Windows itself & this statement has been made with beta tests [by Dad :)].
Category [ _Linux_ ] [ _Review_ ]
2 comments:
>> It copies the entire 60MB to ramdisk & your >>CDROM gets free to use...unlike any other >>live-cd distro i have heard.
Check out the latest Knoppix. It got this ultra cool FS, forgot the name.
-Ashwin
Nice to see Puppy being used. Getting praise. 1.0.4 has just been released. Puppy is the way I thought Linux was. Now it is. Fast reliable and fun and yes it makes those old machines workable and makes great use of the fastest and latest.
Small is cute. Frisky and Fun.
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