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I love this. I ran Puppy Linux in USB mode, many years ago, for a year or two (Netbook, load to RAM, save changes to USB). It was the most comfortable I ever fe

I love this. I ran Puppy Linux in USB mode, many years ago, for a year or two (Netbook, load to RAM, save changes to USB). It was the most comfortable I ever felt using a computer. I used my laptop's HD as a pure data drive for large files only. Puppy encrypted the entire OS on USB. So it would boot fine but needed to be decrypted during the boot process. It contained all my apps, system settings and smaller files (docs, html, passwords, personal docs, etc) that I decided to save in the encrypted OS/USB. The laptop's mounted HD contained the larger stuff... tons of videos, pics, etc.. basically all the stuff I didn't really need to protect/encrypt. Someone could steal the laptop and I wouldn't care (all that large stuff is always backed up too on externals). Someone could steal the USB and they'd have to know it was a bootable, encrypted USB. Even so, they'd also need to know how to decrypt on boot. I felt so safe even when traveling. I could also plug my USB into any laptop and BOOM! ready to go:-) It was like a plug-n-play super-power. I saw MiniOS listed here and I immediately thought of my old Puppy setup. Looking forward to giving this OS a spin. I hope it considers my use case in their thinking (though I'm sure I can tweak it easily to fulfill my needs).

kwhitefoot 3y ago
> I ran Puppy Linux in USB mode, many years ago, for a year or two If it was so good why did you stop? I used Puppy too a while ago but found that once I wanted to run something that the Puppy guys hadn't packaged that it was a bit more work to install things. That's probably not the case now that there is a Debian based Pup, perhaps I should consider trying again.
- O1111OOO 3y ago
  > If it was so good why did you stop? This was maybe 14 years ago. I sold the netbook and started using Windows full time again. I was still in this middle state between using Linux and Windows - going back and forth between the two. When I decided the leave Windows completely (Windows 10 spyware release summer/2015), I settled on a full-featured distro. I did some serious homework, a bit of distro-hopping and finally settled on Linux Mint Cinnamon. You are right, sometimes (often) installing must have apps on Puppy was a challenge - this was a factor now that I was a full-time Linux user. As a full time (still newbie user), I wanted access to every tool in the Linux world in the easiest way possible. I didn't want to hit a wall that might cause me to consider using Windows again.
- leidenfrost 3y ago
  Is it me? Or did Linux become boring from a hobbyist perspective? Exploring the system was fun as f*ck in a geeky way. Now I just go the fastest route to a Kde install
  - mbakke 3y ago
    Probably you just grew up. I hope kids today find the weird world of user-friendly operating systems (license- and tinkering-wise) just as interesting as we once did.
    - becquerel 3y ago
      I certainly do!
  - tetris11 3y ago
    I blame systemd for this. Hacking together a few rc.d scripts was way more fun than putting a systemd recipe together, though I do admit that systemd is good and necessary from a stability POV.
- imp0cat 3y ago
  The netbook wave kinda faded away, what device are you considering?
tombh 3y ago
Puppy was what got me into Linux! An old laptop was struggling with Windows and Puppy just breathed the most amazing fresh and sprightly life into it. That was over 15 years ago and I've used Linux everyday since.
- O1111OOO 3y ago
  > Puppy just breathed the most amazing fresh and sprightly life into it. Yes! This was it exactly. Running Puppy in RAM on my old netbook was amazing:-)
- herbst 3y ago
  Same here. OpenSuse was missing a driver or so (can't remember) but puppy just worked on my old, even then, computer. Haven't used anything else than Linux since.

kwhitefoot 3y ago

> I ran Puppy Linux in USB mode, many years ago, for a year or two If it was so good why did you stop? I used Puppy too a while ago but found that once I wanted to run something that the Puppy guys hadn't packaged that it was a bit more work to install things. That's probably not the case now that there is a Debian based Pup, perhaps I should consider trying again.

O1111OOO 3y ago
> If it was so good why did you stop? This was maybe 14 years ago. I sold the netbook and started using Windows full time again. I was still in this middle state between using Linux and Windows - going back and forth between the two. When I decided the leave Windows completely (Windows 10 spyware release summer/2015), I settled on a full-featured distro. I did some serious homework, a bit of distro-hopping and finally settled on Linux Mint Cinnamon. You are right, sometimes (often) installing must have apps on Puppy was a challenge - this was a factor now that I was a full-time Linux user. As a full time (still newbie user), I wanted access to every tool in the Linux world in the easiest way possible. I didn't want to hit a wall that might cause me to consider using Windows again.
leidenfrost 3y ago
Is it me? Or did Linux become boring from a hobbyist perspective? Exploring the system was fun as f*ck in a geeky way. Now I just go the fastest route to a Kde install
- mbakke 3y ago
  Probably you just grew up. I hope kids today find the weird world of user-friendly operating systems (license- and tinkering-wise) just as interesting as we once did.
  - becquerel 3y ago
    I certainly do!
- tetris11 3y ago
  I blame systemd for this. Hacking together a few rc.d scripts was way more fun than putting a systemd recipe together, though I do admit that systemd is good and necessary from a stability POV.
imp0cat 3y ago
The netbook wave kinda faded away, what device are you considering?

tombh 3y ago

Puppy was what got me into Linux! An old laptop was struggling with Windows and Puppy just breathed the most amazing fresh and sprightly life into it. That was over 15 years ago and I've used Linux everyday since.

O1111OOO 3y ago
> Puppy just breathed the most amazing fresh and sprightly life into it. Yes! This was it exactly. Running Puppy in RAM on my old netbook was amazing:-)
herbst 3y ago
Same here. OpenSuse was missing a driver or so (can't remember) but puppy just worked on my old, even then, computer. Haven't used anything else than Linux since.