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Add to SafariWhen comparing Puppy Linux vs Adélie Linux, the Slant community recommends Puppy Linux for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distros that don't use systemd?” Puppy Linux is ranked 20th while Adélie Linux is ranked 41st. 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
Question Ranking
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 Simple packaging system
Built on Alpine's APKBUILD system, which is an accessible and simple packaging system. If you're familiar with Arch's ABS or Gentoo's ebuilds, APKBUILDs are a breeze.
Pro Is pure Python 3
There is a hard and fast rule against Python 2 software in the main repositories, with efforts focused on adapting software to use Python 3 where possible.
Pro Small and performant
A standard installation takes under 200 MB. Only the bare necessities are included.
Pro Inviting and receptive development team
The people building the distro are knowledgeable and helpful when issues arise. Merge requests are actively suggested and reviewed, and the developers thank users for taking the time to learn the distro.
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 Not (yet) ready for Linux newbies
As of November 2018, there isn't an installer yet. If you're familiar with installing Arch or Gentoo (via chroot, fdisk, et al) then it's no big deal. An installer framework (called Horizon) is in the works.
Con Is pure Python 3
Python 2 support is not supported by the distro, so many older upstreams who haven't adapted to Python 3 yet will need their software patched to work (this is both a pro and a con).
Con Somewhat limited package set for servers
As of November 2018, it's still missing some server software. It's primarily a desktop-oriented distribution, but accepts server packages and progress has already been made on that front, including lighttpd, apache, and php-fpm. Contributors are already bringing more server software to the distro, including certbot, cgit, and Nextcloud.
