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Linux on a stick

Many Linux distributions can be booted from a USB stick, but like other small nomadic distros, Puppy runs entirely in RAM and enables you to save an (optionally encrypted) session to the USB stick - documents, configurations, system updates, additional software and all - and allows you to move from computer to computer, continuing at each juncture from where you left off - perfect you might say for the man or woman on the move. However, it is doubtful whether many Puppy users use Puppy in this way, although the very possibility offers endless scope for experimentation.

Puppy was the original creation of Barry Kauler, who has now moved on to Woof, which is still in alpha. The purpose of Woof is to make it possible to achieve full compatibility between Puppy and the major distros, so that a Puppy installation can utilise the full software repositories of Ubuntu or Fedora, Debian or Slackware, and therefore be infinitely extensible. Kauler states that his aim is for "Puppy to become a no-brainer to use (i.e. no need to read the manual). Just turn on the PC and off you go", and Puppy goes a long way towards reaching this ambition.

The one glaring fault is that Puppy is set up with only one user and that user is root. It can be argued, and is often said by fans of Puppy Linux, that this is largely irrelevant because of the expected modus operandi of Puppy. Nonetheless, defaulting to the root user introduces a point of weakness into the network, and a point of weakness is all that is required by those who break into networks.

This is the one long term hangup for prospective Puppy users, and is a recurring cause of angst among the faithful. To get the full experience of Puppy it is necessary to perform a full install. To properly install the system you should be able to create a user and establish proper separation of permissions between the root user and other users. This is more easily said than done, and is easily done wrongly - which makes it hard to recommend Puppy for every possible activity, however much we like the unique blessings of its look-and-feel and ease-of-use.

Next: Damn Small Linux

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