Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux get updates

I'm gonna be busy, because both Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux have issued updates. Here are the announcements at Distrowatch for Puppy 2.15 and DSL 3.3.

Glancing over the changelog for DSL, things I see immediately, aside from bug fixes, are improvements in the MyDSL package utility, updated install scripts for pen drives and other media, a new FreeDOS utilitities diskette bootfloppy for access to DOS installaton tools and updated man script for hard drive install. Go here for downloads.

Puppy 2.15, however, is a departure from previous builds in that it's a "Community Edition," with much input from the active Puppy Linux user base. Puppy improved its PET package management in 2.14, and in 2.15CE, there's an emphasis on applications packaged in SFS files -- also known as "squash" files. And yes, there will be an SFS for Open Office. I believe that advantage of SFS files over PET packages is that the SFS files won't load into RAM until you launch them, thus saving your available memory until you need it. Since Puppy generally loads all OS files AND applications into RAM for quick access, adding a giant PET package to the mix can really weaken your system, taking available RAM very low.

As with any distribution, one of the things I've enjoyed about both DSL and Puppy is that they've introduced me to many apps that I'd never used before -- and which are considerably lighter on resources than the standard ones. For instance, I've been using mtPaint in Puppy, which is way faster than the GIMP and totally adequate for what I'm doing. The same goes for the ROX filer, Geany, SeaMonkey and Dillo.

Puppy 2.15CE is also BIGGER than the average Puppy. Puppy 2.13 is 86.5 MB, 2.14 is 88.6 MB, and 2.15CE is 131 MB. Go here for downloads.

Update: The main Puppy ftp site is a bit slow today -- try this one, it's much faster.

Here's the announcement from the Puppy developers' blog:

The Puppy 2.15CE (Community Edition) is the result of collaboration of a team of Puppy enthusiasts. It is built upon version 2.14 but with many enhancements. In particular the guys have worked on an improved user-interface and nice out-of-the box first impression. They have also developed some "SFS" files that add OpenOffice, web and graphics applications -- SFS files are "combo packs" of applications that can be installed and uninstalled with a few clicks.

In any case, I'll be burning a bunch of new CDs today, and as far as DSL goes, I will be trying the regular ISO, the syslinux version, which just might boot on the Thin Puppy Maxspeed Maxterm thin client) and the zipped, embedded version to run inside Windows.