Slacko: not a Puppy but a Monster Dog!

Since I have more free time lately thanks to Easter, I have embarked on several learning projects. One of them is trying on my little Toshiba NB-100 netbook as many lightweight distros --and other OSs: I tested Haiku and gave Minix a quick look--as I can. I have gotten different results with them.

Right now, although I am not a dog person, I am trying Puppy Linux.

I had tried Puppy Linux on an older system quite a while ago but had mouse problems and I even got attacked and bitten like a cat by Puppies when I talked here about MiniNo. Yes, I'm a cat person, hehe!

But well, now I am trying Puppy Linux 5.3.1. This version is called "Slacko" and is Slackware-compatible. Hey! To me, this is important! From my perspective, you cannot say you love Linux if you don't pay due respect to the oldest Linux distro. Respect your elders and learn from them, kiddos!

Slacko is different from Wary (the traditional Puppy) in the sense that it is designed for more up to date hardware. That was another good reason for choosing it.

Well, I gave Slacko a spin on my netbook.

What happened? As usual, Puppy did its magic and loaded itself on RAM so that my external DVD unit got free. This is one feature that I find extremely useful and convenient and I'd say it's hard to disagree with that.

I chose Spanish, my native language, and noticed that the menus were still in English, but I got a warning that the locale file was missing. Interestingly, most of the dialog boxes did come in Spanish, although they need a bit more work. Perhaps I could contribute in that area.

After that, the biggest problem came: Wi-fi access. For some lightweight distros I tried, Wi-fi enabling was a no-go. Slacko tried, too...but did not enable it.

Wait! This puppy knows several tricks! It comes with different methods for configuring Wi-fi access. I tried another one and whoa! Internet enabled! In fact, I am typing this on Seamonkey, the browser that Slacko comes with!

Oh, another problem for other lightweight distros on this netbook was recognizing the HD. Puppy got that from the very start without any hassle.

What about software? To me, this little distro comes with everything you might possibly need. In fact, after much searching, the only thing missing was software to use the netbook's webcam. And that is not essential in my case.

Can it play video? You bet. Even with softsubs using Gnome Player.

Oh...I realized then that unlike regular puppies, this one had been too silent. That was weird since audio was enabled. Upon further checking, I learned that I could only hear sound if I plugged external speakers. Well, that's not a big deal anyway. I always use an external USB speaker whenever I need this netbook for work.

Then, I decided to go tough on the little dog. I opened Seamonkey, Gnome Player, Abiword, a game, and a painting program...all to see if Puppy would run out of RAM (this netbook has 1GB).

Everything worked. This puppy is not a puppy but a monster dog! As its developers say, Slacko is Puppy on steroids!

By the way, did I mention that this little distro is very user friendly, too? It explains everything so that newcomers to Linux don't get lost. This is one outstanding feature of dogs...they are very friendly to people! Check out the installer on the image as an example:



I am really tempted to install it and thus start slacking the Puppy way! Kudos to the Puppy community for this impressive distro!

A Lightweight Distro for My Netbook

I have a small Toshiba NB100 netbook which I am very fond of. In spite of what many may say about netbooks and productivity, this tiny computer is my work machine when I am at the university. It is the computer I use for teaching, too.
It came preloaded with Windows XP, which I never boot, but I loaded this system with Mepis 8, Mepis 11, Pardus 2011, and Mandriva 2010.
I love the feeling of freedom I have whenever I turn it on. Although most of the distros use KDE (I also installed Gnome 2 on Mepis 8), booting into a different distro is a different experience to me.
This netbook also has a clean partition I use for my OS experiments. Yes, I know what virtualization is. Indeed, the small machine also has a VM, but I like to learn, and using a VM to install an OS, while convenient, is not the same as installing it on the actual machine.
Anyway, I now want to load a lightweight distro on this system, too. My desktop machine also runs antiX and MiniNo, which don't use KDE. I have learned from them what Fluxbox, ROX and IceWM feel like. I have SliTaz on a different system, so I also know a bit about Openbox.

Now, I have to decide which lightweight distro to install:

antiX
MiniNo
Puppy
Austrumix
SliTaz
Minix (this is not strictly a Linux distro, but I'd like to try it, too. Thanks to Linux, I came to appreciate different OS possibilities!)

Is there another lightweight distro I should try?

My Triple-boot Netbook...No More

In July last year, I wrote about my little netbook Toshiba NB-100. Even though it originally came with Windows XP preinstalled, I forced Redmond's OS to make room for SimplyMepis 8.0. That's how my dual-boot computer was born.

Sometime later, encouraged by the stability of Mepis and the flexibility of Linux, I went for a bolder move and installed Mepis 8.5 as well. I then had a triple-boot computer!! Oh, I was so proud of it!

Back in those days, I was happy to experiment with Linux. In fact, I seldom booted XP. Little by Little, XP moved away from the center and became more like a storeroom on my netbook. I didn't wipe that system out because of nostalgic reasons. Besides, the thought "if something goes wrong with Linux, you can boot Windows" was still present in my mind.

Bullseye! At least in part. Something went wrong with Linux! This was something that both Mepis 8.0 and Mepis 8.5 brought about...

My hard drive broke. But it didn't break down...it broke itself apart!

Let me clarify. My hard drive split into a new partition and Mandriva Linux took over it. It was interesting because Mandriva handles things a bit differently. Thanks to Linux, my tiny netbook became a four-headed monster!!

As if that weren't bad enough, the process repeated itself a couple of weeks ago. My neetbook grew one more head and this time it was called Pardus 2011 RC!

A very sensible question: Why do I have so many systems on my resource-limited netbook?

The answer is very simple: Because I have the freedom to do it. I am not tied to what OEMs want to give me. I am a free person and I want to experience technology freedom as well.

Second question: Do I use all those Linux systems? You bet! My favorite is Mepis 8.0, but I regularly boot Mandriva, and I used Pardus in class just today. Oh, Mepis 8.5 was the one in charge of my dissertation for my education degree. The only one I don't use is XP. Windows XP is still there, but I hadn't used it in ages. I don't need to. However, as far as I don't need its space, I think it will stay.

I didn't see this problem come. I never expected Linux to be so addictive...I had no idea that in a year it would encourage me to experiment and do things that all my previous Windows training didn't teach me.

My netbook is not a triple-boot computer anymore. Nowadays, it is a five-headed monster and I am so proud of it because it makes me feel free. I am still an amateur, but I feel I have taken customization to a level I had never imagined possible! Besides, my netbook works perfectly: four of its heads are always ready for work although one of them (its original one) is asleep...maybe forever.

Dolores de cabeza...

La HP Mini de una de mis colegas está especialmente diseñada para obstaculizar, por no decir impedir de plano, la instalación y el uso de Linux. He encontrado todo tipo de problemas "sutiles":

1. Impide iniciar desde USB
2. Posee ya cuatro particiones activas (el máximo de la tabla)
3. Incluye el acceso a la BIOS en una de las particiones anteriores
4. El Wi-Fi no es reconocido por Linux
5. No reconoce proyectores de multimedios

¿Culpa de Linux? Ciertamente no. Mi netbook Toshiba NB-100, definitivamente no la más poderosa en el mercado, no presentó ninguno de los problemas anteriores. Algunos fabricantes sencillamente complican las cosas un poco más para que los usuarios inexpertos desistan y se olviden de Linux.

No entiendo. Si Linux no representa ninguna amenaza para el Monstruo de Redmond, ¿para qué recurrir a estas alianzas y sabotajes? ¡Y dicen que Linux crea paranoia! ¿No es más paranoico actuar tan en contra de algo que no representa amenaza alguna?

Tiempos de arranque...

Se me ocurrió revisar los tiempos de arranque de cada uno de los sistemas operativos de mi netbook (Toshiba NB100, con un procesador Intel Atom N270 y 1 GB RAM) con fines comparativos. Estos fueron los resultados:

Mepis 8.0 (Sistema principal): 1 minuto 45 segundos (incluyendo la escogencia del tamaño de pantalla y la clave de usuario)-15 segundos del GRUB= 1 minuto 30 segundos.

Mepis 8.5 (Sistema secundario): 1 minuto 30 segundos (incluyendo la clave de usuario)-15 segundos del GRUB= 1 minuto 15 segundos.

Windows XP (Sistema original): 1 minuto 50 segundos (sin clave de usuario)-15 segundos del GRUB= 1 minuto 35 segundos.

Por lo visto, Mepis 8.5 es el sistema más rápido en mi netbook aunque los tiempos de arranque no difieren demasiado entre sí.