Among the entire ecosystem of Linux distributions, there are some that stand out for their simplicity, others for the amount of tools available and others, like Ubuntu, because apparently they do everything right.
There are some, however, that have an attractive combination of accessibility, friendly interface and availability of utilities, and between these distributions We cannot fail to mention the Puppy Linux family of distros.
Do you want to know the benefits of this family of distributions?, read on to find out what it is Puppy Linux and why you should give this distribution and its derivatives a try.
What is Puppy Linux and how does this minidistribution based on the open source Linux kernel work?
It is a family of distributions with very particular characteristics, originally designed by Barry Kauler in 2003. It has all the tools for daily use that we find in a home computer. It has a friendly and easy-to-understand desktop environment, which greatly simplifies its extensive customization capabilities. It is one of the lightest distributions out there, weighing 300MB or less.
It is fast, versatile and optimized to run on both older and newer computers, thanks to its low resource consumption. Besides this, Puppy Linux comes in a large number of “pupples” or variants, each intended for a different purpose., for which you will surely find what you are looking for among its variants.
Features and functions of Puppy Linux What tools and applications can be run from this operating system?
Puppy Linux is a very functional distribution, which makes it a very solid option to choose for your home computer.
It has a large number of features and tools among which we can mention:
- Text processor: Puppy Linux has Abiword as its native word processor. This is characterized by its low demand, which allows it to run on low-resource computers, and its export compatibility from its native format to be read by word processors like Microsoft Word and OpenDocument.
- Spreadsheet: Gnumeric is Puppy Linux’s default spreadsheet tool, and has high import and export compatibility, allowing you to prepare your documents and export them to programs such as Excel, Oil or PlanPerfect.
- Web navigator: It has a variant of the Firefox browser known as Pale Moon. This browser has the same security features as Firefox and is optimized to work on both older and modern computers.
- Media player: Gnome Player is the default player based on MPlayer to play audios and videos of various formats, as well as other utilities such as managing subtitles and sound settings.
In addition to all these tools, Puppy Linux has a “pupplet” known as Puppy Arcade. It is a variant distribution of Puppy Linux focused especially on emulation and retro gaming. It has a wide range of emulators that allow you to play ROM files of various games. Among the programs included are emulators from Atari, to PSX. For the latter, as well as for PSP, Puppy Arcade has BIOS support.
On what kind of devices can Puppy Linux be used and what minimum requirements should it have?
The low weight of the Puppy Linux ISO makes it an ideal choice to function as the main OS of low-power computers and 32-bit architecture, in addition to being one of the best distributions available to use on bootable media such as USB sticks or CD / DVD.
Puppy Linux installation requirements are so low that even the most antiquated computers can be rescued with this little distro, since it only requires a Pentium 166 MMX processor as a minimum requirement, and a RAM memory of only 128MB. So it is an excellent option to recover that old PC that you no longer use. You just have to create a bootable medium with Puppy Linux and install it to give new life to your old computer.
List of the best Linux mini-distributions you can use as an alternative to Puppy Linux
Despite the fact that Puppy Linux is a very complete distro, It is always up to your consideration if you are looking for something more than just low requirements.
Here are some very light Linux distributions with low demands on physical resources:
AntiXLinux.com
It is a fairly light and complete distro. It has quite low requirements, since just ask for a Pentium II processor and a minimum of 64MB of RAM, although it is recommended to have 128MB, so it can be run on older computers without problem. Your ISO file is barely 700MB, can be easily written to CD or USB and contains a wide variety of application packages including text editors, office applications, web browser and media player.
SparkyLinux.org
It is specially optimized to run on older, low-resource computersDespite having a wide selection of desktop environments to choose the most convenient, among which are available LXDE and Razor-QT. Only requires 5 GB of hard disk space and a Pentium III processor. The required RAM memory varies depending on the desktop environment you choose, but at most you will need 384MB if you choose to use Razor-QT.
Lubuntu.me
It is the most popular distribution on this list because, in short, it is Ubuntu with low demand. It has the LXDE desktop environment, specialized for use on slow computers, In addition to having pre-installed software that adjusts to any computer. Lubuntu only requires one Pentium II or Pentium III processor and a RAM memory of around 200MB. One of its biggest advantages is that it has the support of the Ubuntu community, so it is updated with a similar frequency to this.
Elementary.io
Its interface is quite attractive and works very smoothly. It is a fairly light distribution, although it is not the most recommended for older computers. Although its requirements are low, it could be too much for some outdated PCs. In order to install ElementaryOS, you need at least 512MB of RAM, a processor with a minimum frequency of 1 Ghz X86 and 5GB of hard drive storage, plus a graphics card 1024px x 786px resolution.
PointLinux.org
This distro is characterized by its speed, simplicity and low weight. Point Linux is light, small, and optimized to be installed on computers with low resource availability. It is available for both 34-bit and 64-bit architectures and its ISO weighs just 1GB. For its installation, it only requires a 1Ghz processor As minimum, 512MB of RAM and 5GB of available hard disk space, requirements very similar to those of Elementary OS.