Puppy Linux 4.0: Has it Learned New Tricks?
Submitted by srlinuxx on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 13:06.
Puppy Linux 4.0 has been unleashed recently. It is a major distribution release version of this well-known mini-distro that is why I took some time to check it out. I have used Puppy Linux 3.01 before, and I have said that it was more than just a cute-named distro. So what are the improvements of this latest edition over its predecessor? Has it really learned new tricks?
There are plenty of ways to make Puppy run. You can boot it as a Live-CD, install it on a USB Flash drive, and even set it up to an internal/external hard drive. You can also remaster the Live CD if you want your very own customized Puppy. In my case, I made Puppy run on virtual machine (VMWare) to save me from the hassles of burning a CD.
Puppy Linux 4.0 started-off with the usual boot options menu where I was given a choice to add boot parameters, which wasn't necessarily needed, followed by keyboard layout set-up, and lastly the graphics configuration. At graphics set-up, you will be given an opportunity to test if your display is supported or not, which I think is very handy.
White on black ? Back on white ? Contrast issues for eyecandy ?
Eventually, Barry will discover the popularity issue depended on eyecandy.
White on black theme has unpleasant pixel issues to see poorly, any text fonts you choose except the bold types. Font types are also eyecandy. Some distros had ugly fonts.
So, seeking popularity, one may have to go back to black on white themes. There may be human nature involved. Conventional wisdom is that shocking colors are not as pleasant in the long run as pastel colors to sooth the nerves. Compiz used to give people headaches.
Puppy v4.0 is still made for older computers(5 years old because of memory requirement of SeaMokey which is less than Firefox). Barry failed to sell Puppy on ClassMate, because Puppy had to be stripped down to cpu, drams, and flash cards, using USB device(camera, video and sound) firmware(flash card drivers) only, once hotplug events are streamlined. Then SeaMOnkey SOA applications using cable edgeQAM or telco DSLam will suit ultra light laptops fine; and can migrate to cellphone with mainframe computer architecture(only cpu, drams and flash cards made up the computer).