Mint Vs Puppy Linux?

[Yoni]

Be Gentle with me as i'm still a Windows users at the moment looking to change over to Linux.

Can anyone give me the Pros and Cons between Puppy Vs Mint as both have been suggested to me.

People have said Puppy is better for older hardware and Mint is best on newer hardware but there must be more to it than that surely?

Thanks

[xenopeek]

You can try both out by booting from the installation media. See which you like best. Both Linux Mint and Puppy have multiple editions, that come with different desktop environments (e.g., Linux Mint has Cinnamon, KDE, MATE, and Xfce editions) -- desktop environments are basically the user interface to your operating system. Most users have one that they like best.

What kind of hardware you have? Few years old with multi-core CPU and more than 1 GiB RAM? Linux Mint should run fine. On very lightweight hardware, like the trash netbooks that flooded the market few years back, Puppy should run better.


This is probably not what they mean with older hardware, but heh

[Yoni]

LOL , the days when everyone had Mechanical Keyboards.

Running i3 2100 with 4gb of ram.

[killer de bug]

pfiouuuuuuuuuuu with that you can go the Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon and enjoy the beauty of Linux

[fu-sen]

Linux Mint and Puppy Linux are good friends for me, and both these install it in a PC.
Linux Mint will be usually comfortable. Puppy Linux is convenient for root authority operation.
We have a place unlike other distribution in Puppy Linux, Specifically please visit forums of Puppy.

[wanderer7]

Puppy Linux runs from RAM. It doesn't even need to be installed on the HDD. You can install it on a 4GB USB flash drive, for example. When you boot your PC with Puppy, it loads into the RAM and when you want to shut down the PC, you have the option to save your session on that USB.

So, normally, unless you have a really old computer, it's better to choose Mint.

[Neil Edmond]

Looks like wanderer7 posted while I was typing, but here is what I wrote anyway...

Another of the differences between Mint and Puppy is, Mint works best as a full install that can be easily kept up to date. Puppy is designed to be run as a Live system with a save file (although it can also be installed). Puppy can also be installed (frugal) within a functioning Windows or Linux system without the need to give it a seperate partition, which makes it especially easy to run both.

So, my recommendation would be install Mint 17 on your system, then if you still want to experiment with Puppy, just boot it from Live media and use it that way since that's the purpose for which it was designed.

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Puppy is best used on computers with single-core 900MHz CPU (processor) or slower, and 512MB RAM or less. It's for REALLY old stuff, or for running off a USB stick and easily porting it around. It's what your revive a 10+ year old computer/laptop with. I have it on my IBM ThinkPad X23, which is completely incapable of running anything else because of it's low factory specs (866MHZ CPU & 512MB RAM).

Mint is easily used on anything with better specs than my laptop. Mint is also lovely for novice Linux users.

[Nilla Wafer]

Puppy is best used on computers with single-core 900MHz CPU (processor) or slower, and 512MB RAM or less. It's for REALLY old stuff, or for running off a USB stick and easily porting it around. It's what your revive a 10+ year old computer/laptop with. I have it on my IBM ThinkPad X23, which is completely incapable of running anything else because of it's low factory specs (866MHZ CPU & 512MB RAM).

Well my processor is a little faster, but my Mint 13 Xfce computer runs sweetly on 512 RAM - installed to the HDD, unlike Puppy which is not meant for installation.

nilla

[shengchieh]

Puppy linux is an excellent distro if you use it for liveCD/liveUSB, but I would not install it because it defaults as no root (I know you can add users).
For installation, which I do all the time, i prefer LM, #!, Korora, etc. For someone who travels all the time and use other people computer, Puppy
is lightweight and a good fit. [And use liveUSB to store your data on it.]

Sheng-Chieh

[xerion567]

Puppy is fast, really fast. I've yet to come across anything that comes even remotely close to it's crisp responsiveness. It is also small enough that you can easily add it to your installed OSes (so you don't have to choose one vs another, you can pick both! ). Compared to Linux Mint it is bit rough around the edges in terms of ease of use, software management, eye candy, and security. Personally I use both: I use Puppy for when I want to get the best performance out of my hardware, and I use Linux Mint to demo a Windows alternative that gives users something familiar to get started with. (Ubuntu Gnome is my home OS, I really dig the interface!)

[Fuzzy Penquin]

Puppy is best used on computers with single-core 900MHz CPU (processor) or slower, and 512MB RAM or less. It's for REALLY old stuff, or for running off a USB stick and easily porting it around. It's what your revive a 10+ year old computer/laptop with. I have it on my IBM ThinkPad X23, which is completely incapable of running anything else because of it's low factory specs (866MHZ CPU & 512MB RAM).

Well my processor is a little faster, but my Mint 13 Xfce computer runs sweetly on 512 RAM - installed to the HDD, unlike Puppy which is not meant for installation.

nilla

Yup, XFCE is awesome like that. I think my laptop's lack of CPU speed is what makes the biggest difference, in this case. Because I have another laptop with 512MB of RAM, that has a bit faster CPU, and it can run SolydX (XFCE) just fine.

[Yoni]

Thanks for the info.

[linux-dummie]

Puppy's harder to learn for a new Windows refugee. However, it is eminently practical and comes with a LOT of useful software installed; most are bare-bones apps which do the job but have zilch eye-appeal, though you can always add more if you have the space. If you take the time to really learn Puppy, you might find it is all you need. Mint is like a full-size Cadillac---has all the bells and whistles, looks and drives with utter elegance, and takes you wherever you want to go in style. Puppy is like a Porsche engine running inside a go-kart body.
In my work, I find that on my older Athlon64x2, heavier OS's like Mint run Gimp more slowly than I would like. I use Gimp a lot. When it's time to process a bunch of pictures, I reboot into Puppy which is completely contained on a tiny USB stick (about the size of a tiny oblong Lego), and use Gimp there. The internet connection is disabled, which gives a little extra speed. Gimp goes so fast there I can almost smell the smoke! Then I reboot into Mint to do the rest of the day's work in soft comfort. The only downside is that if I have to do a minor change to an image I edited in Puppy, I have to change the permissions. Easy enough to do, though.
Use whatever Linux tools you need to get the job done.