Puppy love?

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I am a big fan of Puppy Linux, and I am really feeling the void of there being no PowerPC port.  There was an attempt at a beta back in 2009 with PowerPup, but the developer seems to have abandoned it with no updates for 3+ years.

There are others out there in the PowerPC community that like Puppy Linux, and a proper version for our favourite architecture is exactly what it needs.  The greatest thing about Puppy is that it runs entirely in RAM which means it's lightweight and extremely fast.

We need developers and testers to step forward and make this happen.  I do OpenBSD development for both PowerPC and x86 myself, so I will bring all I can to the plate, but I can't do it alone.

Who's in?  We need some great people with amazing skills to step up and push PowerPC forward by helping port what could possibly be the perfect distro for our hardware; especially G3's and slower G4's.


Puppy links:

Official Page - Community Page - Wiki Page
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10 comments:

  1. skinnie16 October 2012 at 05:24

    When you bein your linux odissey, my instant thought was Puppy Linux.
    No other linux distro is so "efficient" about dealing with "low end hardware" as puppy.
    You can talk about DSL but in my opinion that is too extreme on the "eye candy" (or the lack of it).
    Although puppy is very lighweight is supports lots of modern hardware too!and has every needed app, sometimes out of the box!
    I just hope you can get the right people for a DEV team.
    Although let me give a suggestion for another distro to try:
    Arch Linux: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_Install_Guide_on_a_PowerPC

    It is not "user friendly" but with this distro you get exactly what you want!
    As soon as I have my new laptop I will install it.
    Unfortunately I don't have spare time for my powerpc hardware (I have an Ibook g4 14' waiting to be repaired), but as soon as I do I will give linux a try!

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    1. zen16 October 2012 at 08:53

      Arch Linux is great also and has about the best Openbox implementation I have seen but I prefer Puppy all round. Arch already exist for PowerPC but the site went down a while ago so some unknown reason. I have a copy of the newest version on CD so if anyone ever wants it I will make an iso and throw it on mediafire.

      Puppy is the fastest Linux on the planet in my experiences and it's also very user friendly. The fact that it can run in RAM alone makes it perfect for an old computer with a dead HD. You can run it in RAM and use a USB stick for writing files and caching. This makes it usable in most systems that no longer boot properly.

      The point is that Puppy is EXTREMLEY flexible while still light and screaming fast.

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  2. Wes Medlin16 October 2012 at 13:53

    Funny, I'm coming the other way. I've been using Puppy linux for many years, and now I'm looking to get my hands on an old PPC Mac.

    Puppy is built from the depositories of other distros, with a system called Woof. I don't know if it would be possible to use it with a distro with PPC support, but it's worth looking into. Puppy derivatives based on Debian are called dPups, and there are several of them around.

    Also, check out this thread: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=39715&start=150 . Other people are wanting the same thing.

    By the way, nice blog.

    :)

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    Replies
    1. zen16 October 2012 at 17:21

      I will check that url out. Thanks for it and the compliment.

      Delete
  3. dr.dave16 October 2012 at 15:04

    There was an attempt to port Puppy to PPC a few years back, it went nowhere fast as I recall, but maybe its something that could be built on. One thing I love about Puppy on x86 is the incredible range of OS's for varying levels of hardware (Wary, Racy, Slacko) and also the very specialized pets that are available on the puppy forums for everything from browsers to flash to youtube viewers. I've never seen another distro with a more active user base. I am very happy to be a early adopter tester, but lack the skillz to do much else.

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  4. zen16 October 2012 at 17:23

    Testers are just as important as the developers IMO. Any and all help puts the final goal closer.

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  5. Anonymous28 January 2013 at 14:45

    Hello,
    I just installed mintppc on My imac g3. It fells like a new machine, Puppy would take it to a whole new level. I volunteer as a tester, unfortunately My linux skills are about no existent. But willing to help anyway I can this sounds like a worthwhile project.

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  6. Anonymous11 March 2013 at 19:22

    I too installed mintppc on a g3 ibook. Though it worked, it was sluggish, slow,etc. Too bad, the ibook still works but has no OS. But, nice try mintppc! Maybe mintppc.org can help you with your project.

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  7. JFrederick23 June 2013 at 10:37

    I'm in. I know just enough linux to get into trouble, but I've been messing with PPC systems since I was a kid, and have working PowerMac systems from 601 through G4 (and G5 if you count my Xbox 360) to use for testing. I too tried MintPPC on my G4 Tibook, and just found it made me really want PuppyPPC. I've just gone ahead and registered puppyppc.org. Let's make this thing happen! Say, is there any chance we could crowd-fund this project to offer incentive the right people with the right skills to jump in? I can be reached directly at arremex@gmail.com.

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  8. Unknown9 August 2018 at 12:07

    Contact the people on this PuppyLinux site. There should be someone here who can help with code: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/

    ReplyDelete

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