We have another Puppy in the Precise series. The new version of Puppy in Precise series was announced and is called Precise Puppy 5.7.1. Are you exited to try? Oww, oww slow down guys. If you are new to Linux, you should read this article very carefully.
Do you have an old machine with less than 256MB of RAM or you have a super machine? You need this information because you have to choose which flavor to install. This pup comes in two flavors; One for older machines and/or thus on dial-up internet and one for modern machines. So you got it, right? I am glad you did.
I have a modern computer so I will download the precise-5.7-iso which is smaller than the ISO for old computers. A very good thing is that there are many infrastructure improvements in this pup.
What is Precise Puppy?
This is a question that someone without any knowledge about Linux may ask. What do you say guys, should we help him/her or not? Ofcourse yes. This is the reason why we are here. If we do not explain to newbies what Precise Puppy is then how can they follow my review and test Puppy Linux by themselves.
Precise Puppy is a Linux distribution built from a “Puppy builder” system named Woof. There are other puppies built with Woof such as Slacko and Racy. Since there are many other puppies you can choose the one you want to try and use based on your particular needs. It can be software or hardware needs or something else. I think this is enough for an introduction. Now it is time to get our hands dirty.
The first time I have run puppy Linux on my laptop I tried to connect to the internet and see how it works. The question that popped on my mind was ‘Do I have internet connection?’. I clicked the Connect icon which is shown in Figure 1 and I was surprised that the Simple Network Setup program was there to help me. It was so easy for me to connect to my wireless network.
A good thing is that there are many improvements and fixes for this new pup. The modern flavor distribution, which I am running now is based on Linux kernel 3.9.11 and it comes with only one browser pre-installed. This is Seamonkey 2.19. So nice! The retro-flavour distribution comes with two web browsers, Seamonkey and Opera browser. This pup comes with a new graphic processing software. PeasyGlue is the new application that can be used to join images together.
The default chat client is Pidgin and it runs so fast and smooth. Precise Puppy 5.7.1 gives you a default account to chat on their IRC channel. I personally experienced a very warm community. They are there to help if you ask them anything about Puppy Linux. There are many new features added and improved in the infrastructure level such as IPC mechanism and support for running internet applications as user ‘spot‘.
What about the new theme?
The theme creates a warm environment for the user and it is very high in quality. I think due to the newer kernel.
Ok guys, now let me create a list about what is new in Precise Puppy 5.7.1.
The “retro flavour” has analog modem drivers for agrsm, dgcmodem, ess, conexant hcf/hsf, Intel 536/537, Lucent, pctel, smartlink and more- Many libraries, utilities, and applications have been upgraded
- PeasyGlue is a new application for joining images together, has been added
- Pidgin has been added as the default chat client
- Retro flavor is based on Linux kernel 3.2.48
- Modern flavor is based on Linux kernel 3.9.11
