What's new in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 6.0
Oct 28, 2014
- Significant improvements in using the Aufs layered filesystem
- Improved automatic detection & configuration of analog & 3G modems
- Samba printing issues resolved
- The Xorg Wizard has improved detection and configurability options
- Many improvements & bugfixes for bootup & shutdown scripts
- Simple Network Setup (SNS), very simple wired and wireless setup
- Recovery after improper shutdown (such as power failure)
- Single location for GPL licenses
- Integrated handling of all the network setup tools
- New small GUI utilities
- PET package creation tools, package management, improved
- Some system utility scripts are improved
- System services can now be enabled or disabled
- Improved hardware detection and localisation in the initramfs
- Woof hosted on Bones version management system
- Major enhancements to the Woof build scripts, new GUI
- New Woof logo
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 5.2 (Jan 6, 2011)
- Lucid Puppy 5.2 is a Puppy through and through. What that means is that the *architecture* is pure Puppy--it just happens to be that many of the building materials (applications, utilities, libraries) are Ubuntu binaries. With Puppy founder Barry Kauler’s Woof Build System the packages could just as easily have been Slackware or Arch binaries. In fact, the Wary Puppy that Kauler recently released to bring the advantages of Puppy to vintage hardware was also built with Woof, using compiled T2 binaries. One of the innovative features of Lucid Puppy is Quickpet, a multi-purpose tool to install additional software, diagnose and install advanced graphics, and open LupuNews with its several tabs of Tips and Tricks and Instant Updates.
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 5.1 (Aug 13, 2010)
- The brilliant new Puppy Linux 5.1, code-name "Lucid" as it is binary-compatible with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx packages, has been released. Lucid Puppy 5.1 is a "full-featured compact distro." It's a Puppy, so it is fast, friendly, and fun, and it can also serve as one's main Linux desktop. Quickpet and Puppy Package Manager allow easy installation of many of the best Linux programs, tested and configured for Lucid Puppy. It is just as easy to choose your favorite browser and your language. And it all looks as good as it is, because the core Lucid team now includes an Art Director. Lucid Puppy boots directly to an automatically configured graphical desktop, with the tools to personalize the desktop right at hand, and it even recommends which add-on video driver to use for high-performance graphics. The main emphasis relative to Puppy 5.0 has been to improve the user interface, both to make it even more friendly and to enhance the visual appearance. Also many packages and tools (especially for video and printing) have been upgraded/improved, including synchronising with a recent release of the Woof Puppy-builder.
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 5.0 (May 17, 2010)
- Significant improvements in using the Aufs layered filesystem
- Improved automatic detection & configuration of analog & 3G modems
- Samba printing issues resolved
- The Xorg Wizard has improved detection and configurability options
- Many improvements & bugfixes for bootup & shutdown scripts
- Simple Network Setup (SNS), very simple wired and wireless setup
- Recovery after improper shutdown (such as power failure)
- Single location for GPL licenses
- Integrated handling of all the network setup tools
- New small GUI utilities
- PET package creation tools, package management, improved
- Some system utility scripts are improved
- System services can now be enabled or disabled
- Improved hardware detection and localisation in the initramfs
- Woof hosted on Bones version management system
- Major enhancements to the Woof build scripts, new GUI
- New Woof logo
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 4.3.1 (Oct 17, 2009)
- New modem drivers and improved modem detection and dial-up; fixes for CD remaster script; Asunder CD ripper replaces Ripoff; Cdparanoia upgraded to latest; You2pup, fix for spaces in paths; Ayttm multi-protocol chat client upgraded to 0.6.0-9; DidiWiki personal Wiki upgraded to 0.8; JWM window manager upgraded to revision 457; NicoEdit, our secondary text editor, upgraded to 2.4; Pburn upgraded to 3.1.1; 'resolv.conf' circular symlinks maybe fixed; JWM Configure tool bug fix; 'man' and Help page fixed when search on linux.die.net; frequency scaling fix for 'small' ISO (modules were missing); shut-down problem when upgrade 'pupsave' (shutdown scripts in wrong place)....
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 4.3 (Sep 18, 2009)
- Latest kernel. I have built 4.3 with the 2.6.30.5 kernel, configured for SMP (multiprocessor) systems (but also works fine on uniprocessor systems) This kernel supports the ext4 filesystem and is patched for Aufs2. Thanks to tempestuous for help with upgrading the firmware. 1
- Internet by dialup. Unlike many other distros, Puppy has not forgotten those who access the Internet by analog modem dialup. The kernel has drivers for many modems, including Agere, ESS, Lucent, Conexant, Smartlink, Pctel and Intel chipsets. Rerwin has done an incredible job here, and in most cases we have automatic detection and configuration. Rerwin has also done a lot of work on dialup via 3G devices. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Pstreamvid. This is a great GUI for playing streaming video, that is, Internet TV. Created by trio. 1 2 3
- CPU Scaling Ondemand. A convenient little app created by trio, for those who find their CPU runs too hot. 1 2
- JWM Theme Maker. A convenient little app created by trio, to create a theme for the JWM window manager. 1 2
- Psync. Created by tasmod, synchronises the clock to an Internet time server. 1 2
- Mscw. Kirk created this interesting little GUI to change sound cards. 1 2
- pCD. Zigbert has created many applications for Puppy. Many of them, including Pburn, Pfind and Pbackup, are upgraded. pCD is a new little app for playing audio CDs. 1 2
- QUISP. Puppy has not yet settled on any particular database development system. QUISP was in Puppy 2.x series, and I have decided to bring it back. The attraction is that it is extremely small yet very powerful. QUISP is a CGI web-browser frontend that can be used for providing anything in a web page, including but not limited to support for the SHSQL backend. I have put a tutorial into 4.3, plus the 'devx' file has the full documentation and further tutorials. Basically, QUISP is back for us to play with and evaluate, to be considered as a possible permanent resident. 1 2 3 4
- SQLiteManager. This is a frontend for SQLite and is an addon for SeaMonkey (but does run as a standalone application). Like QUISP, I have put it in for evaluation. Note that there is also SQLiteDBMS which is not included but is available as a PET package. 1
- Hiawatha. This web server is being used in Puppy to serve CUPS, PPLOG and QUISP pages. Hiawatha is very small and extremely secure. 1 2 3
- Linux-dvb-apps. I have put this package in by request from the guys who are into DVB. It provides needed infrastructure. 1
- Screenshot utility. Puppy has a screenshot utility based on mtPaint, but with a very basic GUI. Trio has overhauled the GUI, added more features and made it look nice. 1 2
- Pmirrorget, Pwsget. Forum member Gposil has created these great little GUI apps. Pmirrorget is for downloading a complete website, Pwsget adds username/password to our frontend for wget (originally created by Lobster). 1 2
- Aqualung. This is a very nice audio file and CD player. We do of course have other applications that play audio files and CDs, including pCD, Gxine and mhWaveEdit, plus commandline utilities, so there is a plethora of choice here! 1 2 3
- Crop background for widescreen. I have modified the code that places a background image on the desktop such that it will crop an image to prevent it being distorted on a widescreen monitor. 1 2
- NicoEdit. This is a great little text editor written by Nicolas in Genie. This uses Gtksourceview for syntax highlighting and also has highlighting for Vala and Genie code. I have also retained the Geany text editor from before, although NicoEdit is one tenth of the size -- please test NicoEdit, report back -- I will probably promote NicoEdit to replace Geany in the next release of Puppy! 1 2 3 4
- Pictureviewer, EmbeddedBookmarks, PuppyBrowser. These are fantastic applications written by MU in Genie. PuppyBrowser is a complete web browser based on the 'gtkmozembed' library in SeaMonkey. Puppy uses PuppyBrowser as the local HTML help-page viewer, and for viewing CUPS, PPLOG and QUISP pages. 1 2 3 4 5
- Viewnior. We have a new default image viewer. Viewnior is simple, small and also supports slideshows.
- Gtkhash. A nice little GUI for generating hashes. Forum member ttuuxxx has packaged it up very nicely for Puppy, with Rox integration. 1
- Ext4 support. Puppy 4.3 built with the 2.6.30.5 kernel has full support for ext4. I have upgraded GParted, e2fsprogs, disktype, GRUB and guess_fstype. The latter is a utility created by Jesse, one of our hardware interfacing experts. 1
- Xdelta GUI. I have written a drag-and-drop frontend for the Xdelta utility. This is a file difference manager, and is great for those on dialup when it comes time to upgrade to a new version of Puppy -- just download a small "difference file". 1 2
- Ayttm. This is our choice of multi-protocol chat client, because it is small yet capable. One of the main developers, Siddhesh, is very active and responsive to our requests. 1 2
- Gtkdialog text markup editor. In Puppy Linux we make heavy use of Gtkdialog for GUIs written in Bash/Ash scripts. Gtkdialog is easy to use and fairly powerful. One problem though is limited documentation. If you have the 'devx' file loaded, you will find code examples at /usr/share/doc/gtkdialog3, which are invaluable. However, Gtkdialog has capabilities that are not documented or hardly so. Vovchik has provided this aid. 1 2
- Bcrypt GUI. Forum member coolpup developed a GUI tool to encrypt files, using the 'bcrypt' commandline utility. Coolpup has also developed another with heavier encryption named Pcrypt. 1
- JWM window manager. For a long time Puppy has used JWM, except long long ago when we used Fvwm. The developer Joe stopped work on the project, and two of our guys, HairyWill and Patriot, fixed some bugs. Joe came back and incorporated these fixes into the official source plus added some extra improvements. 1 2 3
- ms-sys. I have put this in, but not using it for anything yet. Steve_s was discussing ms-sys awhile back on the forum, and it looks like it could be useful when installing Puppy. 1 2
- BootFlash. This is a GUI application I have written for installing Puppy to Flash drives. It is an alternative to the Puppy Universal Installer and is an attempt to offer all the different means of installing to flash in the one tool. 1 2
- Poweroff after mouse inactivity. Thanks to forum member steel_i who thought of this. I have used the getcurpos utility to detect mouse position. 1 2 3
- FullerScreen. This application is described as a "slide presenter", but it is really a nice tool for creating presentions (like Powerpoint). It does need basic HTML editing capability though. FullerScreen is an addon for SeaMonkey, but runs standalone. 1
- Addons for SeaMonkey. I have already mentioned SQLIteManager and FullerScreen above. In addition 4.3 has Zombiekeys and Adblock. Note that if you open the Help page in Puppy there is a HOWTO that explains how to use zombiekeys. 1 2 3
- SFS Converter. The 2.6.30.5 kernel has Squashfs 4.0, which is not compatible with older SFS files. Puppy will detect incompatible SFS files, and now offers a converter, created by forum member trio. 1 2
- Pcur. I wrote a mouse cursor selector GUI. Especially useful if your eyesight is not so good and you want a bigger mouse pointer. 1
- Network Wizard. Dougal has continually refined our Network Wizard, and there is a very long forum thread detailing its development. 1
- And so much more... lots of improvements in the underlying scripts, bugfixes, application upgrades, massive help from the guys with testing -- I won't even attempt to list names.
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 4.2.1 (May 22, 2009)
- CUPS-1.3.10 regressed from 1.4b2 to resolve ongoing issues with CUPS printing.
- Fixed printing from Geany, Leafpad and Gnumeric using CUPS-1.3.10
- Abiword-2.6.3 with 2.6.6 plugins has been patched for improved .doc & .docx support (Liberation ttf fonts required for some documents)
- Pwidgets updated to 2.0.8
- Pcrypt updated to 17 May 2009 release and now requires Ccrypt to function. Bcrypt has been dropped in consequence.
- Ccrypt-1.7 added as dependency for Pcrypt
- MIME-types updated in Rox-2.6.1
- Patches for gtk+ Xinput and b43 broadcom network driver
- Pmusic updated to 0.6.4
- Pschedule updated to 0.7
- ... Plus previously issued patches for nbtscan, mountcifs, jwm-tray, xsane, network wizard (now at April 4 release), mtpaint-snapshot, gtk+2.12.1-Xinput-fix and pcp (Puppy control panel).
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 4.2 (Mar 28, 2009)
- Many tastes catered for with a choice of window managers, either IceWM or JWM, with extra themes including Clearlooks Gtk+2 theme engine
- Optimized SeaMonkey web browser with MonkeyMenu extension
- Efficient management with Puppy Control Panel
- Elegant, graphical GRUB boot loader using gfx-boot
- Stay informed with Pwidgets running desktop programs (clock, weather, battery, wireless, calender, RSS feed, slideshow, and many more)
- Audiophiles will be pleased with AlsaPlayer and Pmusic for audio entertainment using the latest audio codecs for .flac, .ogg, and .mp3 files
- Access to Internet radio using streamtuner
- Full-screen video playback with Gxine supported by flashplayer-9.0.152.0
- Essential communication via SeaMonkey Mail, Meebo, Psip, and XChat
- Office productivity enhanced with AbiWord 2.6.6 word processor, Gnumeric 1.8.4 spreadsheet editor, and Xpad 2.14 sticky notes
- Reliable printing using CUPS 1.4b2
- Spritely image viewer GPicView with slideshow capability
- Super-quick archive management with Xarchiver
- Puppy Web Desktop
- Enhanced boot-up and shutdown procedures with extra options at shutdown
- Remaster Xpress (RemaX) for superior live-CD/DVD re-mastering
- Access to downloads with Puppy Download Accelerator and Transmission BitTorrent client
- Enormous potential for expanding Puppy via support for utilizing extra .sfs file packages
- Programming versatility with tcl/tk, Glade, and freeBASIC
- New games
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 4.1.2 (Dec 8, 2008)
- Puppy 4.1.2 is a bugfix release for 4.1 and 4.1.1.
- In summary, I fixed a bug when looking for USB drives at bootup, ohci-hcd USB driver was not loading in the initial ramdisk so some interfaces not working at that stage, bugfix for .deb packages extraction, /tmp/versioncleanup fix at version upgrade, Pmetatagger bugfix, some modem detection improvements, tweak for network connection at bootup, can now load 3 SFS files, fixed a Pmount crash, prevented invalid RAM-save-interval, fixed recognition of PCMCIA in the initrd.
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 4.1.1 (Nov 3, 2008)
- Fixes and improvements include: mouse detection, touchpad tapping, loading extra SFS files, DVB USB firmware, old Network Wizard, GPRS message, desktop drive icon renaming, desktop drive icon realigning, check dependencies of installed PET packages, ALSA shutdown, ROX error message when copying from Linux to VFAT file system, improved support for widescreen resolutions, remaster-CD improved, rxvt terminal pasting, and many network setup fixes especially for wireless (including NDISwrapper).
New in Puppy Linux Tahrpup 4.1 (Oct 7, 2008)
- Version 4.1 continues the hectic pace of development, with ground-breaking new applications and under-the-hood architectural improvements over 4.00. Ground-breaking apps include our new Psip VOIP and PPLOG personal blog. Under-the-hood includes faster boot times, much better hardware detection, and new 'pup_event' architecture (including desktop drive icons). Here is a summary of milestones: 2.6.25.16, 2.6.21.7 kernels; more drivers; SCSI kernels; LZMA-enabled kernel; improved PCMCIA support; hardware detection; new pup_event system; faster boot; Psip VoIP; PPLOG blog; Pmusic audio player; Ayttm chat client; virus checker; network wizard; huge number of updated applications....