pcPuppyOS Home Page

What is pcPuppyOS? New version RC6 10 Mar 2008 again "Expected to be the FINAL RC"

pcPuppyOS is a derivative of Puppy Linux , a lightweight operating system designed to be very useable on older systems - or very useable and very fast on newer ones. Puppy Linux is a versatile operating system, sharing binary compatibility with Slackware Linux, but is a complete operating system with many enhancements to make it meet its objective of being small, yet powerful. There are many derivatives of Puppy Linux, pcPuppyOS is one of these derivatives.
Philosophy. Unlike mainstream Puppy Linux and most of its derivatives, pcPuppyOS is not intended to completely load itself into RAM. Loading a system completely into RAM has the advantage of making it, and its applications, very fast and responsive, but can severely limit the practical number and type of applications available. pcPuppyOS will not even try to load completely into RAM on systems with less than 512MB of memory, and makes available a pfix=noram option to allow users to prevent total loading into RAM even on systems of 512MB and more if so desired. Partially as a consequence of this approach, pcPuppyOS releases are not overly concerned with ISO size, other than the need to fit on a standard CD. This allows the inclusion of larger and more sophisticated programs, a greater number of drivers, and other enhancements which are intended to make the system both more friendly and more powerful for users who share pcPuppyOS's philosophy of saving RAM for application requirements. The primary test system is an old Fujitsu P2120 laptop with 384MB RAM and a Transmeta™ Crusoe™ processor that emulates an Intel™ environment.
Functionality. pcPuppyOS strives to make the base Puppy system easier to manage, both by including some additional programs and functions, and by adding menu options to ease management of them. For example, pcPuppyOS adds auto-mounting of all drives, but also allows the user to quickly turn this feature off if not desired. It uses the IceWM window manager in combination with the Rox file manager, consuming very little RAM while permitting desktop icons.
Target User Group. While a very capable system for the general user, pcPuppyOS is specifically aimed at the business user. Programs such as the Cisco™ VPN client and Citrix™ thin client are not always easy to add and configure in a Linux system, but pcPuppyOS includes them by default. 'Heavyweight' applications such as the Open Office family of programs are favored over lighter applications such as Abiword, as is the ability to view pdf and postscript files. Antivirus is both available and enabled by default, and Samba is available for local file sharing, and is easily enabled. General applications such as Limewire for internet file sharing, Wine for running some Window's programs, and general utilities for playing DVDs and such are also included.
Future Development. As a modification of Puppy Linux, pcPuppyOS expects to continue to 'ride the coat tails' of the very capable Puppy system; as Puppy core systems change, pcPuppyOS will change with them. As other developers continue to add capabilities and enhancements to Puppy, where appropriate, those improvements will be added to pcPuppyOS as well. A very, very lightweight version of pcPuppyOS for use as a extremely rapidly booting VPN/thin-client only system is also under consideration.
Funding. pcPuppyOS is funded by donations from private individuals who share its objectives. Contributions of money or skill are always welcome, and can be offered by Paypal or email to helpus@pcpuppyos.com
Downloading & Ordering: pcPuppyOS can be downloaded as an ISO file, ordered as a CD from xxxxx.xxx, or as a bootable 8GB USB stick drive from xxxxx.xxx