Besides Mint and Ubuntu....

Story: Best Linux Distro For a New User?Total Replies: 7
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vainrveenr

May 20, 2013
11:56 PM EDT 		.... perhaps surprisingly (or not), quite a few eager n00Bs have followed through on using Puppy Linux when starting out for the first time.

Puppy Linux's DistroWatch description is as follows:
Quoting:Puppy Linux is yet another Linux distribution. What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full-featured. Puppy boots into a ramdisk and, unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, it loads into RAM. This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk, floppy disks, internal hard drive. It can even use a multisession formatted CD-RW/DVD-RW to save everything back to the CD/DVD with no hard drive required at all.


Obviously, it is unlikely that this small, less-advertised distro would be seriously considered fit for business uses by the Linux cognoscenti and security-conscious here at LXer. Still, one ought not to completely discount Puppy Linux for being an exceptionally easy-to-use distro for the masses, since it has ranked right up there among the Top Ten most popular Linux distros on DistroWatch over the last year or so, notwithstanding its more vocal detractors.
gary_newell

May 21, 2013
3:23 AM EDT 		Puppy Linux has something very few distributions have and that is it's uniqueness.

Have you tried MacPUP? This for me is the best version of Puppy available.
caitlyn

May 21, 2013
3:52 PM EDT 		Puppy Linux also runs as root without a password by default. Let's here it for taking the biggest single problem with Windows security and importing it into Linux.
vainrveenr

May 22, 2013
11:30 AM EDT
Quoting:Puppy Linux has something very few distributions have and that is it's uniqueness.


Almost exactly two years ago to date, author Howard Fosdick wrote the piece 'Puppy Linux: Top Dog of the Lightweight Distros' detailing here just HOW unique Puppy Linux was:
Quoting:What's Unique About Puppy

Puppy runs on many limited-resource computers. This includes Pentium IV's, III's, M's, D's, Atom and Celeron netbooks, and even Pentium II's. I've used it in refurbishing computers donated to charity yet I also run it on my state-of-the-art computers. What makes it appealing is how it combines three characteristics that normally force a trade-off:

1. A full range of applications

2. Ease of use

3. Good performance on limited hardware

Puppy supplies all the applications most users need while running on low-resource computers. It does this while retaining ease-of-use. So you can install it for consumers on low-end or older equipment.



Indeed, vocal detractors aside, Puppy Linux remains unique in this positive fashion.
Steven_Rosenber

May 22, 2013
2:43 PM EDT 		When I started using Linux, I was a bit Puppy user. You can get a lot done without doing a full install, and the system allows you to save your configuration and files on a Linux or Windows drive.

It's a great way to learn about Linux and get familiar with a lot of great applications. Puppy was my introduction to Geany, ROX Filer, MtPaint, Seamonkey and many more.
hkwint

May 24, 2013
5:49 AM EDT 		Best Linux distro for a new user has proven by hundred million people to be Android, period.

For GNU/Linux distro's however...
flufferbeer

May 24, 2013
3:30 PM EDT 		Way before Android, Mint, Baboon2, and IIRC even a bit pre-Pippy, there was the DamnSmallLinux (DSL) distro. So convenient as a super-small, bootable liveCD for those Lo$edoze users who never saw Linux before. Using cheatcodes, DSL gave some flexibility on how to boot up and use this on PCs. Sure, it didn't offer as much as the Knoppix's, MEPIS's, and PCLinuxOS's of the time, but still, a nice 'n quick alternative to the single and multi-CD full installation distros of the day. Too bad in a way that one of the key dev for DSL went on to start the TinyCore distro and left DSL to be on its own, mostly unmaintained.

2c
jdixon

May 24, 2013
4:49 PM EDT 		> Way before ...there was the DamnSmallLinux (DSL) distro.

And before that, there was tomsrtbt: http://www.toms.net/rb/

"The most GNU/Linux on 1 floppy disk."

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