Which upgrade - Slacko or Lucid?

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recycler99uk
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun 25 Mar 2012, 14:55

Which upgrade - Slacko or Lucid?

#1 Post by recycler99uk »

Which would be best for me - the latest version of Slacko or Lucid?

The motherboard on my old XP computer packed up, and I have been using a live CD of Puppy Linux 4.2.1 on another old computer.

I have now installed a RW DVD drive, so I can burn disks.

Things i would like to do -

* Be able to go online without having to enter any numbers. I have an ethernet card and an external modem. Puppy 4.2.1 does this easily without any problem.

* I want to put the hard drive from my previous computer into my current computer and burn back-up DVDs to save the data, then re-format. The current computer only physically allows one HD to be installed, not two. I think the HD is in good condition, but I'm not sure.

* I'd prefer Firefox if possible. Perhaps Firefox provides a file which I could copy to duplicate the way I had it set up.

* I would prefer something that is easier to use for a former Windows user, such as installing new programs easily. (I do not understand the Linux file system or this "mounting").

* Ideally I'd like to be able to read a paper book which will familiarise me with how to use the operating system.

* I would like to be able to have USB pendrives permanently plugged into the computer, for backup.

Which would be best for the above please - Slacko or Lucid?

Thanks
capicoso
Posts: 172
Joined: Fri 13 Jan 2012, 23:38
Location: Argentina

#2 Post by capicoso »

I don't know about slacko, didn't try it yet.
But you'll be ok with Lucid. It's compatible with .deb packages(ubuntu) so you'll have a thousands of programs to install with a single click from the puppy package manager. You can use firefox.
sfeeley
Posts: 812
Joined: Sun 14 Feb 2010, 16:34

#3 Post by sfeeley »

You have a burnable cd drive--- burn a disk of each and play around to see which feels better. Both will do what you want so it's really a matter of feel or the off chance that one plays better with your hardware than the other.
CDs are cheap.

I agree the mounting thing is a bit weird at first. But simply remember 2 things. 1 all drives are found through /mnt/
2. Think of mounting a drive as putting it into active use or not. In windows it's like having to hit eject before you take out a USB stick. Your really unmointing it but different terminology.
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RSH
Posts: 2397
Joined: Mon 05 Sep 2011, 14:21
Location: Germany

#4 Post by RSH »

capicoso wrote:... ... ...you'll be ok with Lucid. It's compatible with .deb packages(ubuntu) so you'll have a thousands of programs to install with a single click from the puppy package manager. You can use firefox.
You can also try LazY Puppy, which is based on lucid. It has a lot of programs already installed (iso size is about 200mb) and comes with many programs in sfs files (Program modules).

The favorite Audio- (Audacity, Rosegarden, a.m.), Video- (Openshot, Cinelerra a.m.), Office- (KDE-Office, OpenOffice), Graphics- (GIMP, Rawstudio a.m.m.) & Internet-Applications (Firefox, Opera a.m.) are already available in several sfs files.

Easy to download, easy to install/load (sfs-loader or menu) and easy to use.

Link to the thread is in my signature.
[b][url=http://lazy-puppy.weebly.com]LazY Puppy[/url][/b]
[b][url=http://rshs-dna.weebly.com]RSH's DNA[/url][/b]
[url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=91422][b]SARA B.[/b][/url]
mini-jaguar
Posts: 597
Joined: Thu 13 Nov 2008, 13:45

#5 Post by mini-jaguar »

Here's a manual, it's not that long:
http://puppylinux.org/main/Manual-English.htm

Puppy is not that hard, but it does have a difference from Windows (or Mac OS, Ubuntu, etc) in that you cannot put files on the desktop, only shortcuts go there.

And you will probably need to figure out a little of the structure of the file system.

You don't have to worry about mounting in Puppy because there's already drive icons on the screen, so they just get mounted when you look inside. Of course you need to unmount removable devices like USB sticks before removal (although just with right click to unmount, then again right click to remove the drive). If you never unmounted them in Windows before disconnecting them while the computer is on, you have been very lucky if you have not lost any data (or destroyed anything).

The "xwin" command is also useful to get back into the GUI if you get thrown in text mode.

All in all not really much to learn, it's not so hard.


Also, I would recommend Slacko 5.3.1 as it has been more stable on my computer as a full install. I have had problems with Lucid, but I now have it in frugal install and it seems to be working fine so far. Although that may be just because of my particular computer.
strategic_thinker
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu 15 Oct 2009, 13:29

Which upgrade - Slacko or Lucid?

#6 Post by strategic_thinker »

I prefer Slacko 5.3.1. It seems much more "predictable" and stable. For most users it should have enough software. I was also able to install the *.deb language packs from the Debian website.
recycler99uk
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun 25 Mar 2012, 14:55

#7 Post by recycler99uk »

Thanks. I have burnt a disk for Lucid and it is currently running as a LiveCD as I write this.

The deciding factor for Lucid over Slacko was that Lucid is said to be Ubuntu compatible, and thus may have access to the 30,000 (according to Wikipedia) Ubuntu programs. I do not know for sure yet if Lucid can really download install and run Ubuntu programs.

I tried to burn a disk for Wary Puppy, but I think I only downloaded part of it as what I have is only 60MB in size.

The other lightweight non-Puppy Linuxes that I may try are Linux Mint and Lubuntu. Bohdi does not seem to have enough support yet. However Puppy Linux seems to be doing a good job so far. The main constraint is that my CPU is only 698MHz; the memory I could increase up to 512MB.

Thanks again.
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