This review is based my distro review framework which can be found here.

Puppy Linux version 1.0.3

Easy to find:

• Website contains information on what versions are available: 2/2
• Working links to download repository: 1/2. Not well organized, Initially the tabs at the top of the page get you to the right place, but the ISO file repositories aren’t consisent. Easy to download wrong ISO as I did the first time.
• FAQ or Forum support: 2/2

Easy to download:

• Downloads in ISO format: 2/2
• MD5 Checksums available: 2/2

Easy to install:

• Pre GUI asks for basic configuration information: 1/2. Asks for type of mouse but offers easy to understand options.
• Installation allows for selection of a windows manager: 2/2
• Basic installation configures video, sound, networking, keyboard, and mouse: 0/2. Puppy failed to configure at least one of the basic configurations on all three test platforms. Note: I did not include networking in this review because all three test platforms are on WiFi at the moment and I don’t expect a distro to be able to configure WiFi out of the box.

Easy to use:

• Distro includes following applications: Office application, Internet browser and email, Graphics program, PIM application, File browser: 2/2
• Figuring out how to launch programs: 2/2
• Figuring out how to log off: 2/2

Total score: 16 18/22= 82%. Not Recommended for new users! (man my math sucks. Thanks Brian!

It’s important to note that I reviewed the Live CD only and I did it with a view of how suitable it is for beginner Linux users since that’s what we’re doing around here. The full-blown distro may be completely different and suitable. I don’t know…I didn’t try it.

Onto the Live CD. It was a total bust on my Dell Inspiron 1000. It failed to pick up my USB mouse or my onboard trackpad. The first thing Puppy asks you when the desktop loads is to pick a screen resolution from an available list using the mouse. Well, since neither of the two mice or the onboard trackpad that I tried worked, I was unable to get past this step. I tried CTL-ALT-Backspace to get back to the command line (which worked) and then tried a manual ‘xwin’. That prompted puppy to ask me what type of mouse I had: ps/2 or serial. Neither of those are suitable selections for my USB mouse.

That’s pretty much where the review on my laptop left off. Since I can’t click on anything and the keyboard shortcuts don’t appear to work, I was left staring at the desktop unable to do anything.

I tried Puppy Live on my desktop and it fared better. It booted, recognized my USB mouse (weird…) and keyboard without a problem. It incorrectly offered me the possible screen resolutions for my video card (stating that only 640X480 was available). However, by following the pretty simple instructions I was able to get a higher resolution working. Then I was able to play with the distro itself.

Since it’s a very, very small Live CD (23MB download) I wasn’t realy expecting much in the way of applications. Puppy delivered a standard set of applications that would probably answer the needs of any run of the mill user. There was a graphics program, audio player, some office suite applications, basic Internet tools, and file system browsing utilities. I found the interface a little hard to get around because none of the applications were the standard applications I was used to. For instance, there is no Open Office suite; rather the word processor is Ted, the spreasheet is ABS Spreadsheet, the PIM software is Xcal. Same with the Internet tools; rather than the familiar Mozilla or what have you there are three web browsers installed: Links, Dillo, and Amaya. None of which are very intuitive.

None of that mattered though, since Puppy failed to pick up and use my desktop network card. Yes, it’s WiFi, but still…for me no Internet means no computer.

Puppy Live CD has earned a spot in my Live CD collection for a while. I want to play with it on different machines and see how it reacts. I want to be clear that the lack of the mainstream applications is completely understandable since the object of Puppy Live is to make it as functional and as small as possible. This doesn’t make Puppy Live a bad Live CD, it just makes it that much harder for beginner users to get going with.

With that in mind, I don’t recommend Puppy Live CD as a suitable testing distro for new Linux users. If you can only download one distro today - don’t make it Puppy Live :)