4.1.1 Hard drives, partitions and file systems
The hard drive can be divided into several parts (partitions). In the operating system, each such partition looks like a separate one HDD. On Windows, each partition hard drive(as well as floppy drives and CD-ROM drives) have their own letter. Typically A: is the floppy drive, C: is the primary partition of the hard drive, D: is CD-ROM drive, E: - second partition of the hard drive, etc. Most often Windows uses file NTFS system or FAT32.
On Linux, the primary partition is addressed as /dev/hda or /dev/sda. First letter ( h da) indicates the type of disk: “h” - idehd, “s” - satahd or flash, the second (h d a) the letter means: “d” - disk (disk), third (hd a) - disk number. For example, if your PC has second hard disk, it is addressed as /dev/hdb or /dev/sdb . Sections are numbered in order, starting with one. The hard drive partition /dev/hda1 corresponds to drive C in Windows, partition /dev/hda2 corresponds to drive E (if D is a CD-ROM), etc. Linux can work with many different file systems, including ext2, ext3 or ReiserFS. These FS in Windows will not be read without special software, but Linux can freely work with file files Windows systems. FAT32 is best supported in Linux, so for exchanging information and sharing data in Linux and Windows is better just use this FS. The main thing to remember is that you cannot place files on FAT32 if their size exceeds 4 GB..
4.1.2 Defragmenting the hard drive
Download the defragmentation program Defraggler. The good thing about the program is that it works faster than the built-in one. Windows defragmenter. Constantly updated and improved, unlike the last one. Russian interface is present. So there will be no difficulties when using it. Install Defraggler on your computer, launch it and first of all select the interface language:
After localization, select the disk that needs to be defragmented (1), click the Analyze button (2) and check the disk for fragmented (split into parts) files. Such files are displayed in red. If there are many such disk spaces and the disk size is large (40 GB or more), the defragmentation process may take a long time.
After reviewing the analysis results, click the Defragmentation button and wait for the operation to complete.
4.1.3 Creating partitions
Now you need to plan the number, size and type of partitions you will create. I recommend creating three more partitions in addition to the Windows partition. This example assumes that there is initially one Windows partition (drive C:). After partitioning, the hard drive will look something like this:
Primary section: NTFS or FAT32 (Windows)
Second section: ext2 or ext3 (we will install Puppy on this partition)
Third section: Linux swap partition
Fourth section: FAT32 (for file sharing between Windows and Linux)
We will leave Windows on the primary partition. The second partition will have a Linux file system (ext2 or ext3), here we will install Puppy. The third partition needs to be made slightly larger than the size of your computer’s RAM and formatted as a file Linux system swap. This is the section for swap files. The fourth FAT32 partition will be intended for exchanging files between Linux and Windows; its recommended size is all the remaining free space.
You can familiarize yourself with the procedure for dividing a disk into partitions (preparing for installation) by watching the video. Video clip
Video size: 516 Kb
At the end of all procedures you should get the following:
Close GParted. Now you can proceed to installing PuppyRus on your hard drive.
4.2 Installation
4.2.1 Frugal installation using the "Universal Installer PuppyRus (Puppy Universal Installer)"
Frugal Installation copies the Puppy image file from the CD to your hard drive. When the system starts, Puppy is read into RAM(RAM) the same way as if you were booting from a CD, but much faster. Thus, this method combines the advantages of booting from a CD (protection from unwanted spyware) and booting from a hard drive (speed). Moreover, the procedure for switching to new version Puppy - all you need is to replace some files. ()
To get acquainted with the installation process, you can watch the video. Video clip will start playing after it is fully loaded. Depending on the size of the video, loading may take a long time.
Video size: 4.8 Mb
Click to download and watch a screencast created with Wink!
You can also download the video for local viewing on your computer: Archive with video (4.8 Mb)
To watch the video, unpack the archive into a folder and run the html file.
4.2.2 Manual Frugal installation / Puppy update
To use this option, a bootloader must be installed on your computer. If the boot loader is not yet installed, we recommend using the “Grub Boot Loader Configuration” ().
Boot from the CD using the puppy pfix=ram option. Copy the files PUP_301.SFS ZDRV_301.SFS INITRD.GZ VMLINUZ
to a Linux partition (ext2/ext3) or FAT32.
If you are updating Puppy, please rewrite existing files. Configure the GRUB boot loader by editing the menu.lst file. It is usually located on the Linux partition in the /boot/grub directory.
Add the following lines to the menu.lst file: title Puppy Linux 301 frugal (on / dev/ hda2) rootnoverify (hd0,1) kernel / vmlinuz pmedia =idehd initrd / initrd.gz
Note: (hd0,1) indicates the hard drive and partition on which the GRUB files are installed. Depending on the device you are booting from, you will need to set the value pmedia on usbflash, usbhd, usbcd, ideflash, idehd, idecd, idezip, satahd, →
Of the hundreds of freely available Linux distributions, have you chosen yours?
Make a list of your needs. What will you use your Linux for? What features are important to you? How would you prioritize them? What features do you not care about?
Once you have your custom needs list, compare it to different Linux implementations. The Linux OS is configurable and gives you full control (as you would expect from open source software) over itself. So, in theory, you can create almost any Linux distribution to suit your needs. But most likely it makes more sense to choose the most suitable Linux distribution from the hundreds available.
Puppy Linux is one of the twenty most popular Linux distributions in the world (according to disrowatch.com rankings). Puppy is created for those who want from Linux:
- Includes all applications required for daily use
- Works out of the box
- Easy to use and suitable for those new to Linux, as well as those who have recently switched from Windows to Linux
- Works great on limited hardware
- Works without problems on old computers, thin clients and diskless stations
- Installs and runs from any bootable device, including USB, hard drives, zip drives, LS 120/240 SuperDisks, CDs and DVDs and over the network
Unlike other distributions, Puppy is not based on any of them. It was created to meet the above objectives.
Let's discuss the characteristics and, summing up, consider how it differs from other Linux distributions.
Fast and easy.
Puppy was specifically designed for limited hardware environments, including older computers, thin workstations, and diskless computers.
Puppy achieves this goal using several methods:
- The standard software included with Puppy covers all typical application needs while requiring minimal resources
- Minimum size operating system
- The entire system is loaded entirely into memory by default and executed there
- Puppy boots and runs from any available device - your computer does not need to have special devices such as a hard drive or CD drive
As a result, you can take your old Pentium III, install Puppy on it and enjoy its excellent performance. Memory access is much faster than disk access. Just make sure your computer has enough memory to run Puppy from RAM.
To see how it works, read what I wrote earlier about my experience installing Putty on a Pentium III 550MHz with 448 MB of RAM. Driven by Putty, these technical means of the past century work with typical applications as quickly as they cope with equivalent applications Celeron 2.6 GHz with a gigabyte of RAM running WindowsXP!
Puppy allows old computers to breathe new life again and work on diskless computers and thin workstations.
Flexibility.
As with many distributions, you can try Puppy using the "Live-CD" version and see how it will be compatible with your computer hardware. A Live-CD is a bootable CD that you can burn Puppy onto after you've downloaded it from the Internet. You must use the "Create a bootable disc" option in the menu of your CD/DVD burning program. (Options such as "data CD", "music or audio CD" and "video CD" do not allow the creation of a bootable disc.) The LiveCD version of Puppy of course also includes programs for burning CDs and DVDs. If you are on Windows and need a CD burning program, you can download free program ImgBurn to create boot disk with Puppy.
If you don't want to install Puppy on your hard drive (or perhaps your machine doesn't have a hard drive), you can run Puppy from a LiveCD. When you're done using Puppy, it will give you the option to save your personal preferences, settings, and any additional software you've added to it. basic system, on any device that supports data recording. This again could be a USB stick, a hard drive, or recordable CD/DVD discs.
If you run Puppy from a LiveCD, you'll quickly discover another advantage to running the system loaded into memory. You can remove the CD and Puppy will continue to work. So, after downloading, you can listen to the new audio CD you purchased today, or burn the data to a CD or DVD. Other Linux versions release the CD drive after completing applications.
You can also take advantage of Puppy's unique support for multi-session CD/DVD discs. Any type of CD or DVD (or -) is supported, which with Puppy you can burn your data into sessions to continue recording the next time you use Puppy. Puppy includes tools for burning multisession discs.
When installed on hard disks Puppy offers two alternatives: a full (or traditional) or a "frugal disk" installation.
Peaceful coexistence with Windows.
Windows usually comes with many computers, so many users begin their computer experience through Windows. However, they soon discover that Windows has serious weak sides despite its lightness and convenience. The only great step in this case is additional installation Linux as a second operating system. In this case, when you start your computer, you get a unique opportunity to choose which system to work on - Linux or Windows.
The advantages of Puppy are also obvious in that you can run it from a Live-CD or from a USB stick, without replacing your existing hard drive system.
When you exit Puppy, it asks you if you want to save your settings and intermediate session data by selecting "save file" and specifying the path to your USB stick or recordable CD/DVD. You also you can write a file with settings to any Windows partition of your hard drive (Under Windows file saving Puppy will appear as a single large file in the root directory).
Another option for running Puppy is to run it from Windows. Simply start Windows and unzip the Puppy file to install Puppy on Windows. Create a Puppy icon on your desktop, double-clicking on it will launch Puppy. Quit Puppy and you'll be back in Windows.
The GUI is launched using two graphic servers - Xorg and Xvesa. Their presence allows Puppy to provide video GUI support for a wide range of PCs.
Puppy's "helpers" appearing in the form of interactive forms are another feature of its ease of use, making all aspects easier system installation and configurations.
What separates some of the most user-friendly Linux distributions from others is their level of support. Puppy Linux was written and developed primarily by one person - Barry Kauler. Support is provided by the Puppy community, which consists of several active forums providing technical assistance and distribution tips. Puppy contains 3 MB of documentation. You can also view ( and ) extensive information on the system. An active community supports a Wiki, Wiki community news, and IRC chat. Puppy has tutorials written in Flash and instructional videos. Also here you will find documentation for Puppy in HTML and PDF formats. There is support for various languages (not only English).
Puppy's abundance of documentation makes it on par with many common Linux distributions.
Adding applications.
Once the system has booted, chosen the installation type and saved settings, and coexisted with Windows, the key aspect of flexibility when using Puppy is how easily you can access additional software and also install it.
Puppy also includes features that allow you to customize your system. Select "Remaster" from the menu to create your own customized bootable CD. Or use Puppy Unleashed to create a Live-CD with the programs of your choice, from over 500 official packages.
What Puppy is not for.
I extolled the delights of Puppy and described its capabilities. It's the Linux that users around the world love, and the size of its community proves it.
Still, sometimes we have to say that Puppy is not intended for something. This does not mean that Puppy cannot be used for some purposes. This suggests that they are not the main impetus in its development.
To begin with, remember that Puppy Linux is "small Linux". It doesn't have to include the extensive amount of software libraries that big Linuxes like Fedora or RedHat do, but you can easily turn it into one like them using the PETget package manager.
Puppy uses special methods to offer users applications for daily use.
Puppy is developed as a user system. You can of course install it on servers, since it has all the capabilities for this, but the goal and main focus of the project is the PC user.
For example, Puppy users always log in using the user ID "root". Comparing this to other Linux systems which, from a security and multi-user perspective, insist on using a different user ID. The Puppy community agrees that running the system as "root" does not pose any security risk. Test my own systems, powered by Puppy and open to the world as the ShieldsUp site! and on the other hand invisible to the outside world, thanks to the configured firewall.
Finally, keep in mind that Puppy Linux is evolving rapidly and each version has more significant improvements. You can choose for yourself any version currently available on the releases page.
The Puppy community is constantly moving towards releasing new versions. Typical applications and tools change with each release. This may not satisfy those who want a "frozen" system with minimal changes.
What's your verdict?
I've covered the features of Puppy Linux in this article to show its potential uses. But I missed one fact of life - Puppy Linux is just fun. With a friendly interface, easy-to-use "helpers" and built-in how-to information, it still has the ability, with your help, to become a full-fledged system that can be used to solve serious problems. Puppy is a fascinating system that has all the features that make it eligible to participate in the evolving user society.
You can download and test Puppy Linux using its Live-CD version, without making any changes to existing partitions on your hard drive and without fear that a third-party system already on the disk will be damaged. This way you can be sure that Puppy Linux is fully compatible with your hardware and make sure that it has the ability to manage video, system devices and have the interface you want.
Visit the main Puppy Linux sites located at and. Or download Puppy from here or from here. Many people try to buy Puppy, but "buy" is the wrong word, since Puppy is free and available. So let us just say that usually those who meet Puppy immediately want to take him home.
Screenshots of Puppy Linux:
It all started when I booted my laptop from a flash drive and received this wonderful PuppyRus-A system (PRA for short)! My delight knew no bounds - everything flies, the battery lasts 50% longer, there is everything you need for work, and all this on a 200 Mb distribution! Having configured the system for myself, I recommended to my friends to install PRA for themselves. After 3 days I find out that out of 4 people, none of them coped with this seemingly simple task! The problems were as follows
how to choose the right distribution
how to make a bootable flash drive
how to install system and software on a flash drive
1. How to choose a distribution
2. How to make a bootable flash drive
To install PRA you will need a 4-8 GB flash drive, you are unlikely to need more. To avoid confusion with files, clear the flash drive of all contents, you can even format it. We only need space equal to the size of the distribution image + 300-500 megabytes for the settings save file - in total, about 1 GB on the flash drive will be used for PRA, the rest of the space can be used to store anything, i.e. The flash drive can be used for its intended purpose. The file system on the flash drive is fat32 or ntfs.
Choose a flash drive based on speed characteristics. This will reduce the time it takes to load and save your future system! Use performance measurement utilities.
We will do all work on preparing the flash drive in Windows environment(It’s also possible on Linux). We will need any program that allows us to reveal ISO image (7-zip, UltraISO, Total Commander with connected plugins, etc.). We will take everything we need from inside the isoshnik or create it ourselves. Let's find the folder in the isoshnik win along this path: pra03-1503middle1.iso\boot\grub4dos\install\ and copy it to the root of the flash drive. Let's copy files from the ISO root to a flash drive grldr And menu.lst. The contents of the flash drive at this stage look like this:
Now let's make the flash drive bootable. Need to work with administrator rights!!! Let's run the file on the flash drive /win/grubinst_gui.exe, select your flash drive in the top window (do not confuse it with a hdd and be guided by size!)
UPD: If you want to speed up booting from a flash drive, then check the “No backup MBR”, “Disable PrevMBR” checkboxes and enter 0 in the “Timeout” field
click below Install and we get this window:
This is where problems sometimes arise! In some cases wingrub exits with an error. But sooner or later we will be able to get a result, in these ways (you can suggest your own methods):
read the error message, add the suggested key in the “Extra” box and try again
didn't work in Win7, but it turned out easy WinXP
happened after formatting the flash drive with the utility HP USB Disk Storage Format(found on the Internet)
it helped if you put a sign on the flash drive boot in a programme gparted V Ubuntu(select a section, manage flags, check the box boot).
in the environment Win You can make the flash drive active using the built-in utility diskpart from command line or external software. Such a flash drive in Windows(disk management) will show the partition sign " active" For some reason grub sometimes it doesn't do this on some flash drives. (Google it and you will find it!!).
burn the iso image to a CD, boot from it and, while working in the system, create a bootable flash drive (start-system-frugal installation).
take advantage UltraISO programs or Rufus, they can format and create bootable flash drives from ISOs.
UPD: Sometimes you need to enter a key in the Extra –skip-mbr-test field.
It has been noticed that most often problems occur with flash drives on which the manufacturer preinstalls its software!
Using these methods, we managed to make 8 flash drives bootable, which refused to become bootable the first time! By the way, everything that we did with a USB flash drive can be done with an SD card, but not every device supports booting from an SD card. If none of the available ways to make a flash drive bootable helped you, change the flash drive!!!.
And so, all the preparatory procedures are completed, we try to boot from the prepared flash drive, setting this option in the bios of our device (for different devices There are different key combinations for entering bios, no one has had any problems, look for help online). If, as a result of the first boot, you received a multi-colored menu with krakozybras on the screen, placed in a frame - congratulations! You've done it, just one last step left! To make the menu readable, delete the folder on the flash drive win, write down the entire folder instead boot from the isoshnik (there are fonts and everything you need), we reboot, AND!!! You can look through the cool menu!
It's worse when you don't see anything on the first boot. Do everything described above again, perhaps you made a mistake at some stage, or try replacing the flash drive. there are answers to many questions related to preparing a flash drive and booting the system.
3. Upload the software to the flash drive
This is the simplest thing we need to do. We delete everything that we wrote to it from the flash drive and copy all the contents of the ISO there. That's all! Now the flash drive looks like this:
We boot up, select the line “boot into RAM…..>500 mb” in the menu and get a clean system!!! All that remains is to customize it and save it. More on this in the next step by step instructions -
https://youtu.be/WJ86H8qYFAE - Here is a video - how to install PuppyRus-A Linux (ballast) on a flash drive.
4. installation on HDD
The ballast can be installed on a hard drive as the main (only) operating system or in addition to an existing one, for example win7. Installation on a hard drive in both cases is no different from installation on a flash drive, you need to follow the same steps
while in Windows, unpack the contents of the iso to the root of the C:/ drive, in this case you will have all the files and folders from the control gear and Win mixed up, but this is a purely aesthetic inconvenience, it will not affect the operation of the system in any way, in this case there is no need to edit menu.lst
run the file /win/grubinst_gui.exe under account administrator (run as) and install the grub4dos bootloader on the disk, as described above
Now you can reboot. You will have options to download ballasts and Win. You can get to win from 2 places during the download process. The first time by pressing the spacebar in response to the bootloader message, the second time from the ballast boot menu by selecting the “boot from HDD” item.
If the ballast is installed as the only system and you do not have the opportunity to boot under win, then all installation procedures can be done by booting from a CD created from the ballast image, then select frugal installation and go through the steps, selecting the necessary items in the proposed menus.
https://youtu.be/3b-AL7w-mOY - here is a video on how to install PuppyRus-A Linux (ballast) on a hdd.
- Here detailed description another option, without installing the bootloader, with the ability to rollback.
The process of installing Linux Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 (Lupu-525) on a hard drive does not represent some kind of super task, however, some features of this process can confuse a beginner. Below, the installation of Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 will be described step by step, including the installation of the bootloader (Grub bootloader), with the reproduction of screen images issued by Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 during this process.
The operating system Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 has a data volume of 128 mb on CD and is capable of working directly from a CD. Its distribution, distributed in the form of an iso file (CD image), is written to a CD, the CD is inserted into the tray, and the computer is restarted. If the BIOS shows the CD-ROM as the first boot device, the computer will “pick up” the CD, load the files into RAM, and after about 2 minutes, the Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 operating system will be ready to work, despite even being present on the hard drive a computer with a previously installed operating system.
Working with Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 in live-CD mode has such significant advantages as reliable protection from viruses, since viruses cannot get onto a CD. However, in this case you have to put up with a long computer startup (copying files from CD), which is a significant drawback. Installing Lucid Puppy 5.2.5 on your hard drive allows you to significantly speed up loading, and use Puppy like a regular “stationary” operating system, and at the same time it is very fast.
So, installation on the hard drive.
 |
The installer is ready to go, you can launch it by clicking the “Install Puppy to sda1” button, but we won’t rush it. The hard drive was previously formatted in NTFS, and besides, it has only one partition. It is not good. Linux, including Lucid Puppy, has its own file system; in addition, it will be useful to reduce the living space for Puppy somewhat, without giving it the entire hard drive (in order to be able to install another operating system on the same hard drive, if in the future we will need this). Thus, now our task is to create a Linux partition on disk sda1 with a capacity of, say, 5 Gigabytes. (It is not recommended to create a partition of less than 2 gigabytes for Puppy - taking into account the installation of additional Puppy programs, there will not be enough space.) Accordingly, click on the "Filesystem in partition" button. |
Since the sda1 hard drive was formatted by us, it is clear that there is no Hornbeam on it. How to install Hornbeam - see the material "Grab downloader for Lucid Puppy 5.2.5", which directly continues this article.
Modern Linux distributions are often too heavy-handed (LibreOffice, for example, requires a lot of memory due to the use of Java), so you can’t really get around on low-power computers. Fortunately, there are distributions that are as small as possible in size, but still contain everything you need for more or less comfortable work.
Introduction
To begin with, it is worth giving a definition. Mini distribution - Linux distribution, capable of running on low-power hardware. Low-power hardware, as a rule, was released seven or more years ago and has 512 MB of memory, a 2.4 GHz processor and an integrated video card. Modern versions of full-fledged distros, of course, cannot be run on such hardware - they are too heavy. However, there is still a problem of what to deliver. Of course, you can install distributions from that time, but there will clearly be more errors there than in modern ones, and no one releases security updates for them anymore. There is an option to assemble everything yourself from scratch, but this is too radical. All that remains is to use mini-distributions. The article will describe four mini-distributions general purpose. But first, a short excursion into the history of distribution development. First, let's remember why distribution kits are needed at all. Initially, they were just a convenient tool with an installation script for combining programs. Then (due to the emergence of dependencies between programs) package managers emerged. Then came the current pillars of distribution and the desktop race. There have been numerous attempts to create a user-oriented distribution. And somewhere in 2000–2002, the first Live distribution kit appeared - Knoppix, which allows you to work without installation, and it became much easier to find out what Linux is. On the basis of Knoppix, the most popular mini-distribution was developed - Damn Small Linux. I think we can finish this short excursion and finally move on to mini-distributions.INFO
If you specifically need an environment with a desktop other than KDE/GNOME, you can use Xubuntu.TinyCore
There are three versions of this distribution: Core, TinyCore and CorePlus. The first one takes up 9 MB, but since this option contains only the command line, we are not interested in it. The second one already contains a GUI, which, with a volume of 15 MB, seems surprising by modern standards. However, it does not have non-English keyboard layouts, so only CorePlus is suitable for a Russian-speaking user. All three options run on the 3.16 kernel. When loading, a menu will appear in which there are as many as seven window managers to choose from. The default is FLWM - that's what we'll load. After launch, the desktop immediately appears. At the bottom there is a nice application launcher, from which you can launch the editor, control panel, application management utility, log out, install it and perform some other actions. Let's see what can be done from the application management utility. TinyCore boot menu When you launch it for the first time, you will be asked to look for the nearest mirror. This is the first window we see, so let's pay attention to the title. It looks like it came from the late nineties - the window control buttons are inexpressive and don’t stand out in any way. There is no system menu for windows at all. But let's get back to the content. After pressing the Yes button, a search for mirrors will be performed. At the end of it, you need to agree again, this time with the selected mirror. This point seems unnecessary - this is the second question that is not directly related to software management. But then we clicked OK, and the application selection window appeared. The left list, which is supposed to contain available applications, is pristine. You need to select the Cloud (Remote) submenu in the Apps menu and click the Browse button. A huge listing of applications will be displayed, sorted alphabetically and not distributed into categories in any way - the latter, of course, is a huge minus and sharply limits the users who can work with this distribution, despite the fact that, in principle, it is not positioned as a distribution for system administrators.
TinyCore package management utility Let's try to install AbiWord. There is no search as you type - which is quite logical, since the distribution is designed for low-power computers. After pressing the Enter key, the appropriate package will appear on the left side. By selecting it, we will get information about it on the left side. However, when you try to install it, it turns out that this is impossible - apparently, installing applications is not designed to work in Live CD mode. In this case, however, the question arises: why give the opportunity to run this utility without an installed system? Let's try to install this distribution on the hard drive. The installation procedure consists of approximately six steps: selecting a hard drive, selecting file system, bootloader parameters, selection of installed extensions and confirmation. After installation and reboot, we tried to install AbiWord again, and again unsuccessfully - this time the program refused to start due to the inability to find the library. 
Installing TinyCore on HDD One can say about the distribution that, unfortunately, it is clearly not suitable for novice users. Why, it’s not even for system administrators. It can be called a constructor for someone who wants to create some kind of analogue of Parted Magic. But it is not suitable for direct use. Puppy Linux
The latest version of this distribution is based on Ubuntu 14.04, so programs from it are quite suitable. But, unlike Ubuntu, the size of the distribution's ISO image is just over 200 MB and uses its own package format and its own repositories. After launch, a nice desktop and an initial setup window will appear, in which you can select the language, time zone and monitor resolution. When you select the Russian language, a warning appears that a package is needed for localization. You have to install it manually, but it’s quite simple: click Install on the desktop, then on the Install applications tab select Puppy Package Manager and find the langpack_ru package. After this you will need to restart the X server.
Initial setup of Puppy Linux Let's look at the set of available applications and at the same time evaluate the GUI. Let's start with the last one. The default desktop is the JWM window manager. The title bar with buttons looks standard, there is no retro desktop feel, and the system menu is also present. By default, there are three virtual desktops; using the system menu, you can move windows to any of them. The developers managed to squeeze a lot into 200 MB useful applications- from spreadsheets (Gnumeric) to a browser based on Firefox 24. There are even several entertainment programs. It is worth noting, however, that 256 MB of memory is not enough for the distribution - at first, of course, it works fine, but then the brakes begin. For comfortable work, therefore, you need at least 512. Let's move on to packages. Graphics manager packages somehow supports not only the Puppy Linux repositories, but also Ubuntu repositories, however, standard apt-get is missing. That is, not only packages designed for it are available in Puppy, but also full list Ubuntu packages. When installing a package, a console window appears, which displays all the commands being executed. After installation, another window will appear with a report on the work done. This seems pretty logical, but wouldn't it be better to display a message that the installation was successful somewhere in the corner? 
Puppy Linux Package Manager Let's try to install the distribution on the hard drive. To do this, click “Install”, then Universal installer. The first installation steps are quite intuitive, but starting with partitioning, inexperienced users may have problems - it was not worth separating the partitioning program from the installation program. In addition, the idea of a “simple” installation is certainly interesting, but it seems strange for installation on a hard drive. The idea is that it is not the executable files themselves that are installed, but the Squashfs images, and all changes are made not to them, but to a dedicated FS directory. This allows you to install Puppy even on FAT/NTFS partitions, which is extremely useful for installation on flash and other external drives, but somewhat confuses the user, since the latter is offered a detailed but rather unclear description of the proposed options. The translation into Russian, by the way, suffers from a huge... number of... ellipses. When you shut down, you will be prompted to select a location to save your persistent data. And everything would be fine, but the question arises: why can’t you remember the user’s choice in the installation program? But the ability to encrypt this storage is a separate plus - there are three options to choose from: without encryption, weak encryption and strong encryption. 
The first step of installing Puppy Linux After rebooting and launching Puppy from the hard drive, for some reason you need to specify all the parameters again, although it would seem that they should be preserved, because it was not in vain that we set up persistent storage. However, apparently, there is some kind of flaw here, because the next time the work is completed, they will again ask about permanent storage. But then they won’t ask. Overall, the distribution looks like a smart choice for users who have old computer. Moreover, it is aimed specifically at users, which, combined with its size, looks extremely attractive. However, the distribution kit has a huge disadvantage - by default, the working user is root. SliTaz
The ISO image size of the latest unstable version of this distribution is 42 MB. Kernel version - 3.2.53. During loading, a language selection menu will appear - unfortunately, there is no Russian in it. After the timeout expires, another menu will be offered, in which you can select the desired desktop option or start without it at all. After launch, the desktop will appear - OpenBox is used as such in the distribution.
The second menu that appears when loading SliTaz In general, the GUI does not stand out in anything special, but it does not give the impression of being too old-fashioned. The developers chose the option of placing the panel (and, accordingly, the main menu) at the top. It is approximately identical in functionality to JWM, and even surpasses it in the customizability of the title bar. There are not very many programs in the distribution, but still enough. In particular, there is a PDF reader and music player. The default browser is some pathetic one that doesn't even support JavaScript. An alternative is the Midori browser, based on the WebKit engine. Unfortunately, when trying to open some pages, this browser automatically closed. 
Midori browser TazPkg is used as a package manager, which is a script written in ash. The package format is a CPIO archive with an attached file cpio.gz and “recipes”, which include dependencies. It is not clear why it was necessary to reinvent the wheel - there are more than enough package managers, including lightweight ones. Installing a package looks extremely easy: # tazpkg recharge # tazpkg get-install mc Let's see how to install this distribution. In the application menu, select System Tools -> SliTaz Installer. A browser window will appear asking you to enter your username/password. After this, a web page will open asking you to install or update the distribution. When choosing an installation, you will need to partition it, for this purpose you need to run GParteed. After the split you can move on. The next page will have all the other options. Everything is very clear and precise, the only thing missing is the time zone selection. 
One of the steps to install SliTaz After installation and reboot (note that the disk is not automatically ejected), the login screen will appear. This login window is perhaps the most minimalist I've ever seen - there's not even a mouse pointer during the login procedure. IN installed system The Midori browser worked like a charm, but did not respond to the mouse wheel at point-blank range. 
Login screen in SliTaz The distribution looks extremely interesting (perhaps its size/functionality ratio is close to the maximum), but the lack of Russian language is a rather significant drawback. Besides, having yet another package manager doesn't seem like a positive quality. 4MLinux
This distribution is available in two versions: Basic and Full. Version 11.1 (based on kernel 3.14.27) Basic takes up 70 MB, while Full takes up just over 370. When I tried to boot into a virtual machine with 256 MB of RAM, the Basic version refused to start. Therefore, the recommended minimum for this distribution is 512 MB. After launch, an editor window will appear in which you need to specify the locale of the window manager (by the way, specifying it does not affect anything - neither immediately after editing, nor after restarting the graphic system), and after closing it - a desktop with a bright background picture and information about system load. JWM is used as a window manager. There is a panel on top quick launch applications, the standard panel is located below, and on it there is a second panel, this time quick access to settings. There are more than enough effects in this desktop, you can even turn on 3D - although why they are needed in a lightweight distribution is unknown. Among the available applications is the NetSurf browser on its own engine, originally developed for RISC OS. Unfortunately, Russian-language sites are not displayed correctly in it. In addition to the browser, there is also mail client Sylpheed and MPlayer player. It is also possible to install, for example, Firefox or LibreOffice.
NetSurf Browser Again, the developers did not use any of the common package managers, but created their own - zk, an almost five-kilobyte script in ash. And everything would be fine, but this manager not only doesn’t support repositories - it doesn’t even support dependencies, which was bad manners back in 1995. In fact, it just unpacks tar.xz archives to the root and supports updating the distribution. To install, you need to select 4MLinux -> Installer in the main menu. A console will appear, where after pressing Enter there will be... an error. It says that no partitions were found. It is not difficult to create one, but the installation program must be designed for such cases. We created and ran the installer again... and again received an error - the partition cannot be mounted. After creating the file system and launching it again, we will be prompted - attention! - format the partition. This, in an amicable way, should have been suggested at the stage of the second error. Then the question will be asked: will this distribution be the only OS on the computer? Since it is better to install such things for the first time virtual machine(which is what we do), you can safely answer “Yes”. After this, a warning will appear that the system boot loader will be installed. This is not Grub2 or even regular Grub - LILO. And this is in 2015. There is nothing left to do but agree. Next step there will be a check to see if the data is correct. Here we boldly give a positive answer. And after that the installation will be carried out. The process takes less than a minute, then you need to reboot. 
Partition selection stage when installing 4MLinux After the reboot, you will be prompted to set the root password. Next will be a text invitation to log in to the system, and, despite the preliminary setting of the superuser password, it will be allowed in without a password. No GUI is launched even after logging in - it must be launched manually with the startx command. After launch, everything looks absolutely identical to the Live CD. The distribution makes a very strange impression. Its graphical part looks very nice, but the fact that it is impossible to run on less than 512 MB of RAM (despite the fact that the image itself takes up only 70) is surprising. The range of available applications is also small - it feels like developers instead useful programs they crammed exclusively all sorts of effects. Managing so-called "packages" is also puzzling at best - distribution Red Hat The 1995 model, I repeat, in this regard looks even more solid. The installation also brings back memories of the early days of Linux: not only is the installer unable to partition disks itself, but it also uses the ancient LILO boot loader. NanoBSD
It is possible to create a stripped-down version of FreeBSD for use on systems with limited memory. The NanoBSD script will help with this. Features of the resulting images:- packages (and ports) work absolutely identical to the original system;
- unless otherwise specified when building the image, the functionality is also identical;
- The root file system is mounted in read-only mode, which allows you to turn off the power without entering any commands.
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