14 DAY TRIAL // Barry Kauler announced last night a new version of its Linux-based operating system, Puppy Linux 3.00: "This Puppy is a massive upgrade from the previous (v2.17.1). I decided to aim for close binary compatibility with Slackware 12, with the objective of being able to install Slackware packages and have all or most of the required dependencies already in place. To that end, I used all the building block packages from Slackware 12, such as glibc 2.5, gcc 4.1.2 and gtk 2.10.13. Most of the libraries in Puppy are now from Slackware. Note, though, this does not in any way make Puppy a clone of Slackware -- apart from aiming for binary compatibility, Puppy is fundamentally unique from the foundations upward."
Highlights:
All base packages were upgraded, including:
￭ glibc v2.5 ￭ gcc v4.1.2 ￭ GTK v2.10.13
Some applications were upgraded:
￭ pptp v1.7.1 ￭ Isomaster v1.1 ￭ KP2 v0.2 ￭ Pbackup v3.0.0 ￭ JWM v2.0.1 ￭ Busybox v1.6.1 ￭ TkDVD v4.0.6 ￭ Pidgin v2.0.2 ￭ SeaMonkey v1.1.2 ￭ Xorg v7.2 ￭ Unionfs v2.1.2 ￭ Pfind v2.4 ￭ PDF-printer v0.8 ￭ WakePup2 v1.6.9pre7 ￭ NoteCaseHomeBank v3.5 ￭ Pmirror v0.2 ￭ PRename v0.6
￭ A new kernel: 2.6.21.7, configured with 'tickless' option. Initrd.gz is now a cpio archive. ￭ Massive improvements achieved with new boot and shutdown scripts, including pup_save file custom naming, frugal install into a subdirectory, correct recognition of multiple pup_save files at bootup, pup_save file resizing. ￭ NetSurf web browser v1.1 is now the default internal HTML viewer. ￭ True flushing for Flash drives was included. ￭ And of course, a great number of bugs were fixed.
Another major feature implemented in this version is the rewriting of the key scripts that control the way Puppy boots up, is configured and shuts down. Moreover, the periodic flushing of RAM to Flash drive is now working properly and the 'init' script should correctly handle the 'psubdir' and 'pdev1' boot parameters.
You can download Puppy Linux 3.00 now from Softpedia.