When comparing MorphOS vs Puppy Linux, the Slant community recommends Puppy Linux for most people. In the question“What are the best operating systems for old laptops?” Puppy Linux is ranked 5th while MorphOS is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Puppy Linux is:
Puppy Linux requires 128MB of RAM and 333Mhz of CPU, although 256MB of RAM is recommended.
Specs
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Pros
Pro User-friendly
If you have used and loved Amiga, this is like classic Amiga but more stable and fun to use.
Pro Lightweight
Super lightweight, start up takes less than 20 seconds on 10 year old hardware. Works on most PowerPC-hardware by Apple.
Pro Old Amiga software compatibility
I was surprised to see most of my must have Amiga software worked without problems here like AmIrc, ArtEffect and Personal Paint.
Pro Customizable
You can customize the GUI or download already made parts of GUI from MorphOS storage sites like this one here.
Pro Extremely low minimum system requirements
Puppy Linux requires 128MB of RAM and 333Mhz of CPU, although 256MB of RAM is recommended.
Pro The whole OS runs off of RAM
Since Puppy Linux is completely loaded and run off of RAM instead of HDD, it's read/write speed is not a factor.
Pro Designed to run as a live USB/CD
A portable version, that can be carried on a thumb drive without requiring installation, weighs less than 100MB; a Live CD - less than 150MB. You can even save your settings and files for Puppy on the external device/media.
Running off a live CD also has security benefits, as your system will reset to the known config after each boot.
Pro Different distro based versions available
Puppy Linux offers a few different releases.
The first is an Ubuntu based release called Tahrpup, by using this version the user is able to take advantage of all software and support from Ubuntu.
The second version is called Slacko, which is built upon the Slackware binaries.
The third is called Wary and it is built to support older hardware than the rest.
And the fourth is called Quirky, which is used as a base to explore new ideas.
Pro Linux distro designed for this exact purpose
Pro Offers a long term support release
Puppy Linux offers an LTS release called Precise.
Pro It can be the only distro that works
Sometimes, Puppy Linux is the only distro that works on an old machine: all other distros are more demanding.
Pro JWM used as window manager
JWM is a low resource window manager that is used in most Puppy Linux installs.
Cons
Con Entirely lacks in security
There's no security at all. All programs share the same memory. The system can easily get hacked, even by a less skilled hacker.
Con Lack of software
Compatible with most modern Amiga software compiled for MorphOS, but does not run modern Windows or MacOS software.
Con A bit ugly
Using puppy makes you feel like you just jumped 20 years into the past. Being that the purpose of Puppy Linux is to run or really low resource machines the software used is often on the older side, which is precisely why it has a 20 year old look.
Con Not as light as it used to be
It's light, but not as light as it was 1-2 years ago.
Con Smallest software library ever
You can barely find any precompiled packages for Puppy.
Con No built in compositing
Being a low resource distro there is zero built in compositing for the JWM window manager. Though one can be added through a bit of work.