Puppy Linux for Old PCs
As I’ll probably say here 100 times, it is much better to rescue an old computer and make it useful than to simply toss it out into the garbage. Linux makes this easy – er, well, kind of easy, depending on the distribution and your tolerance for troubleshooting. While more and more Linux versions are requiring more and more computing power, thankfully, not all of them suffer from the never ending quest for software progress.
Puppy Linux is one of the lean, mean Linux distributions specifically designed to work well on older as well as newer hardware. There’s an extremely small version without a lot of added software, and a more “bloated” version that includes Seamonkey browser and email suite.
So I thought I’d give Puppy a try. Sure, there is “Damn Small Linux” but the Puppy logo is a lot cuter. OK, that wasn’t really the reason – I had just heard Puppy had a lot of fans and felt it was worth a shot.
Installation was relatively easy, though in some areas (notably Grub setup) too much detail was asked for (not good for a novice). On a positive, my monitor resolution was recognized – hurrah! The machine seems faster too, faster than when I had Mint or PCLinuxOS on it.
Unfortunately, my USB mouse is not working – though the touchpad works just fine. Any USB mouse jerks and stutters across the screen, and I’m testing the same ones that worked with the other two distributions. Ah well.
I installed the full version of Puppy with the added software. I will say this is where Puppy gets a little too techie for me, because for some bizarre reason, almost all the software in Puppy seems to utilize a forbidding combination of letters and acronyms. For example, the terminal is not just called terminal it’s called “rvxt terminal emulator” – and that’s one of the easier ones to remember. This may seem like a minor nitpick, but it’s not. It makes it hard for me to figure out what software means what in the various menus.
Overall, though, I’m happy with Puppy, since it seems to make my old computer run fairly fast. I have yet to fully take it through the paces but my initial review is positive. It most definitely smokes the CherryPal in terms of speed at this time, but perhaps that’s simply proof that the right OS – one that is finely tuned for the type of computer – can make or break your computing experience.
Tags: CherryPal, Linux, Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS, Puppy Linux
you should try TinyMe
I have tried both dsl and puppy and much prefer puppy due to stability (everything works as it should), user friendliness (even for beginners), and superior hardware support and auto-detection. Also, an amazing number of
preinstalled applications (most everything one could want or need.) DSL sacrifices way too much to keep the size within their precious 50 mg threshold. Good post, thanks. I sometimes use puppy live, but have not yet installed it to the hard drive. One very light distro I have not yet tried but would like to soon is Siltax http://www.slitaz.org/
First time to your website and it is very well designed and looks great. Content is good, too.
A bit OT, but being the green girl, I wondered what your thoughts were on the 80 plus computer power supplies
http://www.80plus.org/
Especially with your comments about leaving your PC on all day, it seems like an 80plus power supply would be a green solution and save on your electric bill (over time), too. I don’t have one, but I really like the idea.
I have intalled PclinuxOs in my old Celeron 900mhz! and works fine but a little slow.
I have never think about puppy.
Thanks.
My pc runs in rocket speed now!
Also, installed in a 2nd partition in my laptop, i have problems with usb wireless mouse and the usb wifi card.
I think that puppy linux is a great OS but maybe there are a few problems with new hardware.
I have installed Puppy in a IBM Thinkpad PII with 64 mb RAM and 4 Gb HD. It recongnized all hardware even the PCMCIA Netjet IBM adapter. Runs better and faster than originally Windows 98 OS, and without the assistance of AV and security software, it means that Puppy runs really fast more than W98. My customer is really happy with it, he could browse the web with Seamonkey and work with Abiword just like he did with Microsoft software, and this guy has 68 years old.
I ve tried TinyMe also, but it hangs up just after X server raise, and I still cannot find the solution for that issue.
Deli has the PCMCIA lack, so it wasn’t a solution for me.
Puppy is a well oriented distro for old computers, I’m really happy with my little pet.
Puppy Linux needs more memory than Damn Small Linux. From their website: “RAM : 128 MB physical RAM for releases since version 1.0.2 or failing that a Linux swap file and/or swap partition is required for all included applications to run; 64 MB for releases previous to 1.0.2.”
I think for a system w. less than 128 prob. ought to go w. DSL. I found that DSL is good w. really old systems, soundcards a question mark though. Haven’t tried Puppy. A lot of the Linuxes that supposedly are for light hardware require a lot of memory. Xubuntu needs 256 for example.
Puppy might be great for medium-old systems, for older ones than that, DSL may be the choice.
I have an old Pentium II desktop still sitting around because I have not gotten around to wiping the files off of it. Maybe I’ll test Puppy and Damn Small Linux on it, see how it does.
i am runing my puppy, with derivative one that call pizzagood-3.00, that basic at puppy-2.14, at my intel pII, mobo Asus, and memo 32 mb. and with xvesa. but i put my swap, vmlinus, init, and .sfs file on 4Gb harddisk that on my win98 c partition. if i do with puppy-4.10 its more slower then with pizzagood. its amaze for me to doing this. maybe its can be all green solution for me to, do you agree with this girl.
Have you thought of slitaz (seems less RAM greedy than puppy ; deli -another distribution- is very unpleasant, as meant towards *very*old computers)?
Perhaps Austrumi could be interesting, too -never had trouble with it-.
“For example, the terminal is not just called terminal it’s called “rvxt terminal emulator” – and that’s one of the easier ones to remember.”
This is the way old X terminals have been called for 10ths of years -> people accustomed to that (and to msys/mingw under Windows) have had a lot of time (between two centuries!!) to appreciate it , and therefore to remember it). The distinction between terminals is useful, as one cannot expect rxvt to be as sophisticated as a Konsole…..
I just installed Debian Lenny with LXDE and it flies on my Celeron 1.1 ghz / 256 mb machine. You need the special Debian XFCE / LXDE .iso. After installing, open a root terminal and enter “Aptitude Install Synaptic” and it will add the synaptic package manager and you’re off the races!
Thanks for your review. I run a small recycling operation based completely around Puppy Linux – it has HUGE potential for turning useless computer waste into working, useful and fast personal computer systems. In terms of the age of computers it can save from landfill, and the quality/ease of use of the end result it really does wipe the floor with the competition.
Puppy uses whats known as a “frugal” install by default (it uses a file as a partition to store settings and add on programs, and uses ram to store 100mb or so of programs compressed so they are there when you need them.) This is why it states that it needs 128mb BUT….
Something mentioned is puppies ability to also run as a FULL install….this is basically an install like any other linux…just the kernel/window manager is loaded, and the files use and entire partition proper instead of a “partition in a file”. Programs are loaded as needed. This reduces the hardware requirements significantly, at the loss of some program startup speed. Were talking 486 with 24mb of ram here (as reported on the forum). Ive used this method myself for really old hardware and it works very well.
Gload you found Puppy useful and frisky fun.
Check out the puppy web site and forum for the latest news, software, updates
etc
http://www.puppylinux.org/
I have an old pc i play with sometimes. it is a pentium 3 733mhz, 128mb ram, 80gb hd. I triple boot Windows XP Home Edition SP3, Puppy Linux 4.1.2, and DSL. I love the smaller linux versions best cause i can modify them the way i want <3
I discovered Puppy after helping out over a period of years with Lindows (which became Linspire), and PC-BSD. I even tried using QNX 6 in an early version and that was also fast. Sun Java Desktop System v2 for Linux was an excellent system and it baffles me how they could be so shortsighted to eliminate v3 for Linux after doing all the beta testing.
Chronologically, it was QNX (floppy disk), then Lindows, then SuSE9, then I moved and got Broadband ADSL. Then back to Lindows as I could download a distro, then it became Linspire, and then after the trumpet-blowing and back-slapping with 5-oh (I even get a mention in Peter van der Linden’s book) I looked at PC-BSD and tested their final beta and RCs of v1.0 up to 1.4 at which time Puppy had recently released 2.0 and been there more or less ever since.
Yes I’ve tried others, PCLinuxOS was surprisingly fast. Ubuntu is nice but I prefer the green-tinged Irish-developed “Mint Linux”.
I’ve also rebuilt a bunch of earlier boxen to run live (with a second CD drive for the system) and a small HDD for swap file and storage of work, as well as a more conventional build with installed (type 2) system.
I’ve never used the frugal type install apart from the Puppy 1.0.9 for Windows98 which can multiple boot (using Grub) with most other systems. Here is a link to some of my experimental stuff, with further links from the bottom of the page it goes to…
http://micro-hard.homelinux.net/puppylinux
Yes I have tried DSL but like others I find that Puppy outperforms it.
Agreed that you don’t need huge amounts of RAM if you have installed or run a swap file, or both. Remember, ALL live products need more RAM from my experience.
The great advantage of Puppy is that it sticks everything into RAM on start-up, and with old RAM for old machines often being free because the boxes are sent to the rubbish tip, unless the box is 386 vintage or earlier it is able to be worked around.
I have a 386 (100meg processor) with 64megs of very old slow RAM and a 1.5Gb HDD. That DOES RUN Puppy 2.02 AS FAST AS a modern machine. If I need do something that is calculation-intensive it is slower (of course).
Something I have discovered is that more modern Puppies by and large will run on older hardware (often requiring the IRQPOLL boot command), but the very useful add-ons for Ver 2 won’t actually install – despite trying to jump through hoops.
This is similar in many ways to the jump from version 1 to version 2. This means recent versions have little value in keeping older boxes alive. Which is why I have concentrated on the 2.02r2 Retro version I’ve developed futher – and call it r2d2
Please read my notes at that url above and check the links at the bottom. One standard look-alike and behave-alike desktop for all “renewed” old boxes in a small LAN teaching or cafe environment is essential. Or taken home in a single user situation.
So while this is not a criticism of the way things have gone forward, I think Puppy now needs dividing into several eras…
Version 1
Version 2
Versions 3 and 4
Version 5 which is being tinkede with currently (not by me)
I would be happy to discuss this further with anyone – irc.undernet.org is where I spend a lot of time (even if not at the keyboard. Look for a user called eagle`s – or email me. I run skype, ICQ and Yahoo (on ver2 puppy)
Richard in South Australia
I have an old (did I say old?) Dell laptop of the W98 era. It has only 80MB of memory and an 800×600 screen. It does, however, have a 15GB disk. The BIOS doesn’t understand the disk very well, but any Linux I boot does.
I tried DSL, having some familiarity with it. I found it was weak in PCMCIA support and didn’t like the slow way it shutdown with it’s version of a frugal install. It didn’t have a driver for my wirelesss card, and I was unable to get ndiswrapper to work.
Enter Puppy. Puppy booted up and found the wireless card immediately. The frugal install works much better, and it runs well on the Laptop. I did install the links browser, as Seamonkey was a bit heavy for my computer. I also installed the dwm window manager, and generally use it instead of the very nice ROX and jwm default. In this way I move to more of a keyboard controlled computer, and dwm uses much less memory than the panel, jwm, and accessories of the default install. With only 80MB, that’s a move I needed to make, but one that works on the computer very well.