Puppy Linux 5.1 Released

The release of Puppy Linux 5.1 has been announced. Codenamed “Lucid” for obvious reasons, the latest release boasts the same features and functionality that made Puppy Linux so popular but the main distinctive feature is that it enables users to install any packages built for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

“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’,” Barry Kauler said in the official announcement.

“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,” he added.

Puppy Linux 5.1 is a minor update focusing on several improvements and newer packages. The user interface has gotten most of the attention in terms of usability but also looks. Puppy Linux 5.1 also makes it easy to install the proprietary graphic card drivers suitable for your computer.

“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,” he explained.

Lucid Puppy 5.0 was the first major release to be built using the Woof “Puppy builder” system which enables the developers to create a Puppy Linux based on any existing distro. For the 5.0 release, the developers went for the latest stable Ubuntu release.

New additions are the Quickpet tool which, along with the Puppy Package manager, makes it easy to install the packages you may need.

Puppy Linux 5.1 is available for download here on Softpedia.