When comparing Puppy Linux vs Anarchy Linux, the Slant community recommends Puppy Linux for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” Puppy Linux is ranked 10th while Anarchy Linux is ranked 65th. 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 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.
Pro LVM on LUKS encryption of whole disk possible
It works! Whereas neither the calamares installer used by arcolinux or manjaro nor the archlabs installer produces a working result.
Pro The end result is a well configured standard Archlinux system
Pro Saves a lot of time to set up an Archlinux system
Once you had your experience to set up an Archlinux system manually from scratch this distro saves a lot of setup time.
Pro Full access to Arch repositories as well as Aur
Pro Many preconfigured Desktop environments supported
Pro Fully developed in Bash
Being programmed entirely in Bash, it is relatively easy to find and solve errors or propose improvements.
Pro Everything you need in a small and fast Arch distro
Pro Low setup time
Even a person without prior knowledge will figure out how to set it up quite quickly.
Pro Looks good by default
Pro Supports 32-bit architecture
Use ArchLinux32 instead of the traditional Arch Linux to support 32-bit architectures.
Pro Friendly community
The community and developers are willing to solve any kind of inconvenience.
Pro Good for gaming
Smooth and cool. Easy to get going.
Cons
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.
Con Nothing new
It's just Arch with a graphical installer.
Con Anarchy Repo is completely unsigned
Ridiculous security risk.
Con TUI can be confusing for the uninitiated
The TUI is as good as can be expected, but if you're not comfortable with the command line, this isn't where you want to be.
Con Just an Installer
Anarchy isn't its own distro, it's just an installer for Arch. That's great if it's what you're after, but don't expect bells and whistles.
Con Redundant
It's just Arch with a graphical installer and ArchLabs already has this.
Con The installer has many bugs
Especially during the manually partitioning and the additional software installing procedure. If you do the automatic partitioning and you don't install additional softwares it's ok.