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Linux instead of Win 7?

5K views 107 replies 9 participants last post by  Biffons 
#1 ·
I have an older Noteobook supplied with Win 7 wich gets a new SSD. I do not want to use Win 7 anymore because of the support / updates ending next Januar.

Can / should I use Linux now? Can I go on using all of my programs then? Does Linux have a firewall, an antivir program?
 
#64 · (Edited)
So you are using Mint on that Acer Aspire E 15 (Acer E5-573) laptop ?
Yes, I do. I will try now with easy2boot various distros.

You can hit 'enter' during that countdown to continue the boot immediately.
A few seconds saved out of your life
Yes, I will do it now, obviously missed that countdown the very first time, cannot remember it.

If the notebook computer has Ethernet, use that instead of Wifi for now. Wifi not working in Linux is common. Linux doesn't support all Wifi chipsets. Wifi chipsets like Intel and Atheros are best supported. Others are not.
Connecting now works (with Cinnamon), the same proceed as Allan said like in Win, very easy.

It's best to use a desktop to use Linux. When using notebook computers, there is a lot of fiddling to set each hardware up. Using a notebook for Linux and this is your first time, your experience using Linux will be sub-par. I want you have good experience using Linux, so get a desktop computer.
Thank you. I wished I had a PC but I only have two Notebooks.

Using WINE when you come over to Linux should never be considered. Not all WINE versions have the same errors and not all Windows programs are able to run. It's best to use a virtual machine like VMware Workstation Player (Free for personal) or Virtualbox to make the transition to Linux easier. Windows can be installed on this virtual machine. Of course you will require another copy of Windows to do so. This may be more expensive, so a multi-boot is better. Use separate drives for each OS when setting a multi-boot. This is when a desktop comes in handy when using multiple drives. Notebooks makes this hard to do.
Yes, I understand, a good point, but the older Notebook is not in use and I do not have a Win OS licence so it can and should be used for Linux (solely), above all I want to have a computer in case of emergency, if I get trouble with the actual Notebook.

I'm not sure if this been explained. You can copy your profile for Firefox and Thunderbird over to Linux with no modification. If you have loaded up Firefox and Thunderbird in Linux, you will have to change the default profile to your default profile that you copied over to Linux from Windows. Your email filters, email account information, bookmarks, extensions, and any settings are stored in your profile, so they should work just fine in the Linux versions of these programs. Mozilla.org has information about this and the location that the profiles are located.
Yes, I wil try it with the profiles.
Whereto do I have to copy the portable Firefox, portable Thunderbird, etc., my own Data to Linux on the USB-Stick? I had created a folder there but I cannot find it within Linux.

On my computers running Linux takes less than a minute to boot into Linux and login -- GUI in all. This is from a hard drive not a SSD. My SSD drive takes a few seconds. Running Linux from USB is always going to be slow. Install Linux to a hard drive will be better.
Yes, I will do so after I know which distro works fine for me. But since Linux is loaded to the RAM it should be very fast, if I understood it right.

And to not to have to press F11 or another key to show the boot menu each time I start the Notebook I have to set in the BIOS the USB port to be booted from?
 
#66 ·
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Yes, I wil try it with the profiles.
Whereto do I have to copy the portable Firefox, portable Thunderbird, etc., my own Data to Linux on the USB-Stick? I had created a folder there but I cannot find it within Linux.

Yes, I will do so after I know which distro works fine for me. But since Linux is loaded to the RAM it should be very fast, if I understood it right.

And to not to have to press F11 or another key to show the boot menu each time I start the Notebook I have to set in the BIOS the USB port to be booted from?
Assuming the portable is configured the same for profiles, and I think it is ......several ways to access the profiles in Firefox are:
A.
1. Open the working Firefox 'Help' menu and click 'Troubleshooting Information'
2. A page opens with a blue menu. Beside 'Profile Directory' click on 'open directory'
3.Save the info.

4. Open new Firefox same way.
Delete contents of the 'open directory' and paste in saved info from the working FF.

B. Click on the 3 hash marks in the upper right hand corner of the FF window.
For what ever reason, I no longer see 'troubleshooting Information' there since going with FF v57.

Either way, be sure to double check 'preferences' in the 'edit' menu. I've found that not all the profile is carried over.

As to 'speed', the 'fastest' in booting will be from a SSD.
Booting from a USB drive is faster than from a DVD.
The 'fastest in operation' will be the Puppy version on a DVD because all of the distro is copied into ram.
An SSD is not faster than ram. Any installed app that is opened is first copied to ram, then opened in ram. Puppy on a DVD skips that first step. It's already in ram.
On USB flash drives, though, installed apps often originate from the USB and copied into ram where they are opened. So opening an app is going to be slower.

But once in ram, an app is going to only run as fast as ram allows .....unless it has to make calls back to the hard drive/SSD.
And this is where Puppy on a DVD can really kick but. The call is made to ram, the fastest source in the computer.
Puppy on a DVD may boot slower, but an application's going to function fast.

If you are curious. Setup a Puppy DVD and a USB version, the same content. You'll notice Firefox opens slightly slower from a USB flash drive than the DVD, but feels identical in usage.

I started out with the Puppy Live DVD but have grown to like the USB version a bit more as I understand it better.

Personally, I'm not a fan of dual booting. I've seen users have problems and I don't like spending time troubleshooting and/or having to re-install because of problems.
I have tried out Virtual Box on a Windows platform and run Linux virtually. I had no issues.There was no possible interference to booting Windows. Mint was the very first I tried out that way and it was relatively easy and safe.

I'm not familiar with your bios.
I have an old Toshiba laptop from the Pentium 4 era, that had no permanent boot selection and I had to use an F key on boot every time I wanted to change boot order. grrr.
If you have the option to change boot order, it will be in your bios. It's probably there.
Often the 'delete' key or the 'F10' key , on boot will open the bios. From there it's simply menus.
 
#67 ·
Yes, made it with A. Thank you.

For what ever reason, I no longer see 'troubleshooting Information' there since going with FF v57.
Yes, the same with my actual ESR Firefox.

Either way, be sure to double check 'preferences' in the 'edit' menu. I've found that not all the profile is carried over.
Yes, there are some settings missing. It seems even the or most of the add ons are available, have still to check if they are working.

The 'fastest in operation' will be the Puppy version on a DVD because all of the distro is copied into ram.
Which Puppy version / distro is it? I just tried wary-5.5, looks quite...ugl...like a 80ies OS or twenties or so. And I just tried xubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-i386. Cinnamon looks very good actually.
And since the programs and OS are completely copied into RAM it will not be possible to open as it is on Win.

If you are curious. Setup a Puppy DVD and a USB version, the same content. You'll notice Firefox opens slightly slower from a USB flash drive than the DVD, but feels identical in usage.
Can one just copy the entire content of a bootable USB-Stick (containing Puppy, one or more distros, easy2boot) to the hard drive or another USB-Stick or a DVD and use it then the same way? Or do one has to create it again each time?

Personally, I'm not a fan of dual booting. I've seen users have problems and I don't like spending time troubleshooting and/or having to re-install because of problems.
So only one OS on one system / drive?

Yes, the boot order is in the BIOS, OK.

At the moment I would like to use Cinnamon generally (on SSD installed and on stick). Very similar to Win, easily to use, I guess (will try out WINE yet). I want to have 2 partitions on the SSD (the SSD has 250 GB totally). How many space should I use for Linux Mint Cinnamon? The second partition is solely for my own data. So if Linux would not start anymore or make problems I simply could re-install it on its own partition (I assume).
 
#68 ·
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Which Puppy version / distro is it? I just tried wary-5.5, looks quite...ugl...like a 80ies OS or twenties or so. And I just tried xubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-i386. Cinnamon looks very good actually.
I'm using Xenialpup 7.5
The icons are not exactly inspiring ( :D ) but they can be changed. Mike is the artist and has some very interesting wallpaper and icons on his Pups. He's the guy to ask about visual aesthetics :)
I march on with the default icons and backgrounds of past motorcycles with places visited.
Mint has the utilitarian desktop I like, just add one of my wallpapers and it's a go for me.

And since the programs and OS are completely copied into RAM it will not be possible to open as it is on Win.
The file structures between the two do not compare. You can access them, but as 'they' say, Linux is not Windows. The files on a Puppy Linux Live USB are easily opened for manual editing.
I don't go there :D

Can one just copy the entire content of a bootable USB-Stick (containing Puppy, one or more distros, easy2boot) to the hard drive or another USB-Stick or a DVD and use it then the same way? Or do one has to create it again each time?
With my Puppy ( usb and DVD ) I keep copies of the install in a folder, saved to another computer for future reference if something goes terribly wrong like a failing drive or bad media.
They can be copied directly to a fresh DVD or USB without having to make the media bootable. The necessary files are among those saved.
I've not tried setting up a USB with multiple distros. So I can't say other than give it a copy and paste tryout and let us know what you find :)

Mike has pointed out ( at another web site ) that copying the Live USB Puppy 'save.2fs' folder is a worthwhile consideration. Simply paste it to a new install and you have your 'old' system back.
Or if the 'save' file gets corrupted like from a bad install, just replace it.
You would have to make a new USB install bootable, though

So only one OS on one system / drive?
With a virtual os setup like VirtualBox, you can have many virtual Linux distros .
What's nice, if you run Windows as you main system (Host), You boot up Windows and can run the virtual OS at the same time, but more like an application than another operating system
vying for control of the computer. The virtual OS is compartmentalized. You can even run several virtual OS's ( Guests ) at the same time as the Host ( Windows ) is running.
Of course, why would you need to? But you can.

At the moment I would like to use Cinnamon generally (on SSD installed and on stick). Very similar to Win, easily to use, I guess (will try out WINE yet). I want to have 2 partitions on the SSD (the SSD has 250 GB totally). How many space should I use for Linux Mint Cinnamon? The second partition is solely for my own data. So if Linux would not start anymore or make problems I simply could re-install it on its own partition (I assume).
I'll leave that question for someone that dual boots :)
 
#69 · (Edited)
I'm using Xenialpup 7.5
Ah sorry, yes, you told me, I had downloaded it but removed it then, I thought, it is only usable for UEFI computers, but it isn't? Can I use it on a BIOS Notebook? Although there is written, "especially for old computers".
Edit: yes, it works, just tried, very easily done with easy2boot. But I again do not find a way to connect to the Internet...found it now.

The icons are not exactly inspiring ( :D ) but they can be changed. Mike is the artist and has some very interesting wallpaper and icons on his Pups. He's the guy to ask about visual aesthetics :)
I march on with the default icons and backgrounds of past motorcycles with places visited.
Mint has the utilitarian desktop I like, just add one of my wallpapers and it's a go for me.
Yes, that sounds good, a thought of mine (often is) was, when the design is like that the program / OS might work like that.

And since the programs and OS are completely copied into RAM it will not be possible to open as it is on Win.

The file structures between the two do not compare. You can access them, but as 'they' say, Linux is not Windows. The files on a Puppy Linux Live USB are easily opened for manual editing.
I don't go there :D
Sorry, I have left out some words, I meant: And since the programs and OS are completely copied into RAM it will not be possible to open as many programs as on Win.

At the moment I would like to use Cinnamon generally (on SSD installed and on stick). Very similar to Win, easily to use, I guess (will try out WINE yet). I want to have 2 partitions on the SSD (the SSD has 250 GB totally). How many space should I use for Linux Mint Cinnamon? The second partition is solely for my own data. So if Linux would not start anymore or make problems I simply could re-install it on its own partition (I assume).

I'll leave that question for someone that dual boots :)
Sorry for my bad expression again. I meant, I would use Cinnamon solely on the old Notebook, without Win or anything else. And additionally use it on a stick. Alone or with others.
 
#70 ·
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Sorry, I have left out some words, I meant: And since the programs and OS are completely copied into RAM it will not be possible to open as many programs as on Win.
Remember, Puppy is a small distro to start with. Linux apps tend to be much smaller in size than Windows apps.The total size of a DVD is 4.7 gb and even with a full libre Office installed, not filled up.So there is a lot more a DVD can hold and with memory in most recent computers over 4 gb, no issues.
My first attempts with Live versions were on CDs and yeah, there wasn't a lot I could add :D
With a USB version of Puppy, the provided distro gets copied into ram, but if you notice in the lower right hand corner of tray there is a green cylinder that shows the size of personal storage. That's the size ofyour 'save' file. In Puppy you can enlarge it as needed to accommodate apps you install, changes you make . I have mine set to 1.5 gb with only 400mb used, and that doesn't count the basic install. So if needed, with my physical 8gb of memory available, I have a lot of memory left to work with in the future.
Of course, much older computers that had 1 , 2 or less gb would be limited as to how much a Live version would sustain, so for them, a hard drive install might sometimes be better.

I don't think you have anything to worry about :)

Sorry for my bad expression again. I meant, I would use Cinnamon solely on the old Notebook, without Win or anything else. And additionally use it on a stick. Alone or with others.
If you are running your OS/distro or distros from a USB flash drive or a DVD, you could consider all of that SSD be your data partition. Keeps things simple.
Then no matter what USB you plug in, so long as it's a Linux distro, the data is there to be read or worked with.
What ever is convenient for you :)

My USB 'save' file was big enough to download a Mint distro I just tried out, and configure a different Live USB flash drive with that Mint 19.1 on it and I don't have a hard drive or SSD installed in my Computer.
Linux....adaptable to your needs.
Windows, they toss in the 'kitchen sink' and you adapt to it.

I do still use Win 7. As a stand alone. With a lot of software on it.
But for internet connectivity, I'm happier with a distro like Puppy. :)
 
#71 · (Edited)
@ Biffons:-

The thing to remember about recent releases of Puppy (really, anything within the last couple of years), is that the 'UEFI module' is auto-selectable by Puppy at first boot.

What this means is that if Puppy discovers an 'old-fashioned' MBR type of BIOS, it will set Puppy up in MBR-boot mode. If Puppy discovers a UEFI type of BIOS, then it will set things up in UEFI-boot mode. That side of things is taken care of for you, without user intervention.

I still say for any older type of machine, Puppy takes some beating.

---------------------------------

As for being the 'expert' on aesthetics, well; I'll let a screenshot of one of my desktops speak for me. A picture is worth a thousand words!

This is Xenialpup 7.0.8.1 (one of the slighter earlier 'betas', prior to general public release of 7.5):-



This was designed completely from scratch. From hunting the backdrop down via DuckDuckGo (an item from a search for 'Liquid Metal'), to hundreds (if not thousands) of icon searches over the years (I have a very eclectic selection of PNG icons to choose from, and, if I can't find what I want, I'll create the icon myself). I have what I like to call my 'System & Info' panel on the right. At the bottom is a small display from Puppy's own pWidgets - a kind of 'mini-Conky' (showing the state of my 'save-file', and local weather) - and above that is the gKrellM system monitor. This gives a continuous, real-time readout of what your system is doing.

Here's a close-up GIF at near-normal size.....(the 'GIF-maker' itself was built by fredx181, one of our community forum members):-



I have the clock option on this set to a large enough font to serve as my desktop timepiece. The font is a beautiful one I tracked down on FontSquirrel a few months ago, called 'Exo 2', and now serves as my global font throughout the 'kennels' (I run around a dozen Puppies, all told...)

(That's just one of many hundreds of different themes available. This one's called 'DreamWorks', by Anthony Liekens.....)

http://www.muhri.net/gkrellm/nav.php3?node=gkrellmall&sort=name

Don't let anybody ever tell you that Linux is 'boring'..!! Like any OS, you get out of it exactly as much, or as little, as you're prepared to put into it. Unfortunately, many people want to achieve the same effects as those who've put in hours of work.....all for just a few clicks. A lot of themes are available for many distros.....but I've always enjoyed graphic design as a hobby, so I 'roll my own'.

Personally, I happen to like a 'busy' desktop, with plenty to look at. Many folks go to the other extreme, with extremely plain, simple desktops.....and look up everything via menu after sub-menu (cascades of 'em!) Not for me, I'm afraid; this is my one 'hangover' from nearly 13 years of Win XP..... :LOL:

Mike. ;)
 
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#72 ·
OK, good, nothing to worry about regarding RAM and size.

If you are running your OS/distro or distros from a USB flash drive or a DVD, you could consider all of that SSD be your data partition. Keeps things simple.
Yes, good idea. There is more space left for the own data then. And above all there is no loss of speed.

I do still use Win 7. As a stand alone. With a lot of software on it.
Because the programs do not run on Linux, I could imagine.

So UEFI in the ISO file name always means the distro also runs on UEFI computers and BIOS computers are included.

This is Xenialpup 7.0.8.1 (one of the slighter earlier 'betas', prior to general release):-
Yes, looks pretty good, indeed. And yes, a lot of work to get it like that.

And the clock area as well, very nice. The entire desktop.

Personally, I happen to like a 'busy' desktop, with plenty to look at.
Yes, so do I.

Here is still another gif maker: https://www.screentogif.com/ and one of the best screenshot programs I know, also making gifs and FFmpegs (with upload option): https://getsharex.com
 
#84 ·
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Because the programs do not run on Linux, I could imagine.
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Actually 2 considerations.
I've always kept business, family and general concerns that identify me, on a stand alone computer. Why take the chance that I may not be better at protecting my data than someone trying to steal it for financial gain?
My first stand alone computer was bought at auction for $150 19 years ago. Win 95 on an Ultra, Pentium 200 MMX. Slooooow! :D
So I committed myself on it, to the Microsoft way.
As a newbie to computing,I needed a lot of hand holding. Self taught mostly, though. Didn't find TSG for several years.
Linux wasn't friendly like it's becoming.

Over the years, I progressed through faster computers, software that became a bit more specialized but MS bound.
I became used to PaperPort as a better filing solution, but it had a proprietary file format ( .max ) no one else used, and nothing under Linux that would open, edit or save a .max.
After 19 years of business and tax filings, I have many thousands of .max files and only PaperPort that works well with them.
Classic trap ahead.
PaperPort was sold to Nuance. Not only did Nuance degrade the app in stability, they dropped supporting the .max format. Sure, newer versions had the ability to convert all the .max files into Adobe .pdf. And consumer complaints confirmed a user could also wind up with a corrupted data base.
That is one reason I keep on with MS Win 7. Well, that and Paperport Ver.8 isn't supported on Win 10. It's even a forced install on Win 7.
The other big reason I stick with Win 7 is that I use a lot of voice recognition from time to time. And it doesn't work well under Wine. Dragon Naturally Speaking, also eventually bought out by Nuance, whose latest versions are probably past DNS's zenith of efficiency. ( :rolleyes: )

In the above case, it's just not practical to jump ship.
I'll keep on using what works best for what I need.

That's why I considered Puppy for Internet connectivity.
The MS Windows path no longer seems friendly to me with Win 10.
I had issues with the very first rollup security updates with Win 7.
I'd had enough of MS bungling updates. I had been playing with Linux Live CD/DVDs for a while and committed to using SlackO Puppy full time on the Internet, progressing to TahrPup and now XenialPup. That started about 3 years ago.

It's said there is no perfect OS. But I believe Puppy is much better than Win 10 for what I want to do :)

I guess that's enough of the Puppy promotion for now :D
 
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#73 ·
This is my Desktop with Puppy Slacko 6.3.2-uefi booting from an Easy2Boot 128GB Usb stick on a N0N Uefi laptop. I changed the Background and the Icons from within Puppy. I like the uncluttered look and the retro style Icons.

Azure Sky Rectangle Font Screenshot
 
#79 · (Edited)
@ Biffons:-

Nearly forgot; I never showed you my wee puppy, endlessly romping across my desktop.... :LOL:



I'm now in the 'classic' Slacko 570 - this one's based on the older Slackware 14.0. Allan's 6.3.2 is built around 14.2, I believe.

The 'Slacko' (Slackware-based) Puppies aren't quite so feature-rich as the Ubuntu-based Puppies.....but they're more stable, due to Slackware's famed conservatism. 570 is the Puppy I always turn to when I simply want to get on with things.

------------------------------------

BTW, you can add any wallpapers you want. Find an image you like online (I find it easiest to simply Google or DuckDuckGo for 'desktop wallpapers' or 'desktop background images'.) Try to find one in the same resolution as your screen; most wallpaper sites will offer a selection of different sizes.

Download it, then move (or copy) the downloaded image to /usr/share/backgrounds. This is where the Background selector in JWM Desk Manager looks to find wallpapers. Once there, you can select & apply it in the normal way.

Mike. ;)
 
#80 ·
Yes, the ever romping puppy is awesome. I didn't try Slacko yet, I am just downloading it, also very small, 238 MB. Had tried Xenialpup before with the squirrel.

OK, very easiely to handle the wallpapers, thank you, Mike!
 
#81 ·
@ Biffons:-

Just as a little demo of what I meant, here's how I load new wallpapers in Puppy:-



Hope that's clear enough.....

Mike. ;)
 
#82 · (Edited)
Further to my post about my wee puppy on the desktop, I thought I'd just mention that the same Fredx181 who built the GIF creation tool, also built the small app that I use to place Puppy exactly where I want her on the desktop.

It's called, quite simply, 'Animated GIF on Desktop'. Fred originally published this as a series of .deb packages (he also publishes, and maintains, the 'Debian Dogs'; based on the Debian Live CD, but heavily modified to look and behave like Puppies); for ease of use, I simply concatenated everything into one simple, easy-to-install .pet package.

Anyone who's interested can find it here:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aXA0Isf_O94EvE6Q063IKuf867uQG_QC/view?usp=sharing

Once installed, you'll find it under Menu->Graphic->Animated GIF on Desktop.

You need to have your GIF image ready to use; once again, it's simpler, probably, to find a suitable GIF image by either Googling, DuckDuckGo-ing, or visiting Giphy (or similar sites). The script also pre-supposes that your GIF image is the correct size for what you want. If you need to modify a GIF image in any way, this site is the place to go:-

https://ezgif.com

Any mod you wish to apply to a GIF image can be performed here.....literally, anything. And it's a lot simpler to let their servers perform the 'grunt' work of conversion, trust me!

------------------------------------------------

Once your GIF is 'ready to use', run 'Animated GIF on desktop'. All it does is to produce a 'run script' that positions your GIF on the screen, where you want it, via 'x' & 'y' co-ordinates. The script will be created in /root.

If you want this GIF to start, with Puppy, every time at boot, simply move it into /root/Startup. The contents of this directory are executed at boot time. Left-click:hold->drag to 'Startup':drop->in the wee window, select 'Move'. All done!

-----------------------------------------------

One last thing. 'Animated GIF on Desktop' makes use of 'ffmpeg' to run correctly; 'GIF Creator' does, too. The 'ffmpeg' supplied with older Puppies (5-series, and some early 6-series, used a very old ffmpeg that didn't support some of the necessary options; they were simply never 'compiled-in' at build time) needs to be updated. Fred, once again, compiled a relatively new version of 'ffmpeg'.....and I, once again, took the compiled binary and packaged it up to make it a simple 'click-to-install' item.

The original, elderly ffmpeg - from around 15 years ago! - is around 700KB in size. The new version is considerably larger, weighing-in at around 30MB.....but the way it transforms multi-media stuff in Puppy is quite noticeable. If you'd like to upgrade, you can find both 32- and 64-bit versions here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dy_0usSjPUHXC72oACa7ECMT8h1WdQvO?usp=sharing

The 64-bit versions are only needed for older 64-bit Pups; both Xenialpup64 7.5 and the newer Bionicpup64 (currently at 7.9.8 RC1 status), both have sufficiently new enough versions to make this unnecessary.

Have fun!

Mike. ;)
 
#87 ·
Hope that's clear enough.....
Yes, of course, can't be clearer, thank you very much for the video!

Many thanks, great, just downloaded.

You need to have your GIF image ready to use; once again, it's simpler, probably, to find a suitable GIF image by either Googling, DuckDuckGo-ing, or visiting Giphy (or similar sites). The script also pre-supposes that your GIF image is the correct size for what you want. If you need to modify a GIF image in any way, this site is the place to go:-

https://ezgif.com
Thank you very much for this!

Once your GIF is 'ready to use', run 'Animated GIF on desktop'. All it does is to produce a 'run script' that positions your GIF on the screen, where you want it, via 'x' & 'y' co-ordinates. The script will be created in /root.

If you want this GIF to start, with Puppy, every time at boot, simply move it into /root/Startup. The contents of this directory are executed at boot time. Left-click:hold->drag to 'Startup':drop->in the wee window, select 'Move'. All done!
OK, and the same for every other program, I guess, to be started with Puppy.

The original, elderly ffmpeg - from around 15 years ago! - is around 700KB in size. The new version is considerably larger, weighing-in at around 30MB.....but the way it transforms multi-media stuff in Puppy is quite noticeable. If you'd like to upgrade, you can find both 32- and 64-bit versions here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dy_0usSjPUHXC72oACa7ECMT8h1WdQvO?usp=sharing
Many thanks for the link.

Thank you very much, Mike!

I've always kept business, family and general concerns that identify me, on a stand alone computer.
Yes, that is a good idea. But quite a lot more work to separate those, I assume.

In the above case, it's just not practical to jump ship.
I'll keep on using what works best for what I need.
Yes, but to find out what is the best for oneself seems to be much work. And using different Operating Systems (at the same time) as well. And to get used to Linux. Thank goodness those distros, Puppy, Mint are very similar to Win.

I guess that's enough of the Puppy promotion for now :D
Well, I should have heard that promotion earlier. 23 days ago - after a Win update (don't know if it was caused by it) - the Notebook didn't start anymore, was not repairable (with the Win tools or else by myself), no access to my data, so I bought a new SSD I put in the Notebook and an enclosure to copy the data from the disassambled SSD back to the Notebook to the new SSD and re-installed Win 10 on the new SSD. If I had have a distro running on a USB-Stick I just had plugged it in that Notebook, had started Linux and simply had copied the data to an external drive and re-installed Win on the old SSD without the need to disassemble the Notebook.
 
#88 ·
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Yes, that is a good idea. But quite a lot more work to separate those, I assume.

Yes, but to find out what is the best for oneself seems to be much work. And using different Operating Systems (at the same time) as well. And to get used to Linux. Thank goodness those distros, Puppy, Mint are very similar to Win.

..............................
Not as much extra effort for me as you might expect.
This is of course 'my story' and other's would have differences.
I had already divorced my online usage and personal usage over a decade ago, so my 'drill' so to say was already set and in motion.
You and others may want or need a different plan.

When I jumped to full time Puppy for internet connectivity, things got better. I have more time for myself rather than constantly having to read up on the latest Windows vulnerability, react to it, worry over it, install the latest security update that breaks something, causes a new vulnerability or even bricks a computer.
And over time, all of that has happened to me, even though I'd wait a couple weeks to see what updates were being removed, re-released or with drawn for a work around.
The last straw for me was coming home from a stay in the hospital to watch the security update model change for Win 7 to the Win 10 model, rollups.
After a less than a dozen reboots, one computer refused to boot and the repair disk complained the restore function was corrupted. Only a drive image could restore the damage from the update. The other Win 7 computer slowed up drastically on several reboots, but rather than drag out the pain of the other one, I did a restore right away after seeing the same problem and it functioned properly. This was not a common problem, but a search found others having issues also like mine. Apparently some similar software configuration issues. The later went into closet storage as a backup and the other is now used, but seldom, for testing software packages and playing a few older games.

For me, getting Windows off the internet and switching to Puppy has made my life simpler
and more enjoyable. A lot easier ;)

But that's me :)
 
#89 ·
If you have Puppy on an Easy2Boot Usb stick change the .iso extension to .isoPUP then in Puppy do Menu > System > Puppy Event Manager > Save Session tab > set Save interval to 0 (zero) and tick the Ask at shutdown ... box that appears > Ok

That will make Puppy ask you if you want to Save the session or not when you shutdown, handy if you mess anything up and don't want to save.

You can also use the Save icon on the desktop to save changes at any time.
 
#91 ·
For me, getting Windows off the internet and switching to Puppy has made my life simpler
and more enjoyable. A lot easier ;)
Yes, I would like to get rid of Windows as well. The biggest drawback of switching to Linux from Win seems to be to get all of your settins, programs and whatever to Linux. I assume, many programs (may be not that many, I am not sure) are not available for / working with Linux but obviously more than I had thought. Some searches show a lot more than I had thought of.

That will make Puppy ask you if you want to Save the session or not when you shutdown, handy if you mess anything up and don't want to save.

You can also use the Save icon on the desktop to save changes at any time.
These are super options, thank you.
 
#92 ·
Yes, I would like to get rid of Windows as well. The biggest drawback of switching to Linux from Win seems to be to get all of your settins, programs and whatever to Linux. I assume, many programs (may be not that many, I am not sure) are not available for / working with Linux but obviously more than I had thought. Some searches show a lot more than I had thought of.
Are you using the official repositories for the specific distribution you're using?

With Puppy, click on the 'install' icon on your desktop.
Open the tab, 'install applications'.
Choose 'Puppy Packet Manager'
A new window opens up.
Click on the 'tools' icon.
Another window opens up.
Click on the 'update' tab then the update icon.
When the update finishes, you can then see what is available to install when another window reopens..
From there it's simply following the instructions to install.

The basics like Libre Office and Gimp are there along with a lot of names that won't seem familiar.
Often, you might try searching for example 'Linux alternative to *MS what ever*' to find the name of what you want.
There are sites that keep lists, but I haven't had the need.
 
#93 ·
Are you using the official repositories for the specific distribution you're using?
Actually I would say, yes, but I am not sure. What / where are those? How can on recognize them? I will try with Xenialpup.

When the update finishes, you can then see what is available to install when another window reopens..
From there it's simply following the instructions to install.
I am not sure about the window. The "Puppy Package Manger v2" window shows up. It looks broken somehow, there is no content in it, nothing shown, it cannot be closed. And the tab "Choose repositories" in the "Puppy Package Manger - Configure" is shown.

...second try with another / new Xenial on another stick, seems to work. The "Puppy Package Manger v2" shows Packages, so all of the programs available here for installation now. I downloaded some, then the download froze, after a second one, no response anymore.

(Portable) Win programs (with an exe file) cannot be installed or executed (bei double clicking the exe)?

Yes, programs not available / findable here I would try to get with Google or so. Thank you.

In the Puppy Manager on the left panel the repositories, does it matter which one of those I choose? ubuntu-xenial-main, multiverse. etc.? Are they all working on Xenialpup?
 
#94 ·
I can only conclude there is something wrong with your installed Puppy distro.
I've not seen anything go wrong with the Puppy Packet Manager unless there was an Internet connection problem and it got stuck in the update process.

Are you sure you waited for the app update to finish before moving to the next step?

As to the distro list that is being updated, on mine I leave Tahrpup unchecked and the rest checked.
Makes no difference which one you download from, simply different points of source that work.
 
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