Puppy Linux 3.0: tiny Linux distribution you can run from a thumb drive

by Brad Linder Oct 5th 2007

Puppy Linux 3.0 was released this week, and like earlier versions of Puppy Linux, it's a tiny distro, weighing in at under 100MB. But it's packed with features, making it an excellent distribution for older computers with small hard drives and slow processors. You can also run Puppy Linux from a LiveCD or throw it on a flash drive and run it from any computer that will boot from a USB drive.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that OpenOffice alone is larger than 100MB, so what kind of applications does Puppy Linux 3.0 include?

AbiWord for word processing
Gnumeric for spreadsheets
SeaMonkey for web browsing
Pidgin for instant messaging
XFinans financial management

Of course, if you want to install OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, or other programs on top of Puppy Linux you're free to do so. But you might want to take it easy, seeing as the more apps you add the more memory you'll use, which kind of defeats the purpose of having such a lightweight operating system.

It looks like some Puppy websites aren't responding at the moment, so here are a few alternate download links.

Tags: gnumeric, pidgin, puppy, puppy-linux, puppy-linux-3.0, seamonkey

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bis_tech said 9:36AM on 10-07-2007

easy step with puppylinux http://asialinux.blogspot.com

oil said 11:28AM on 10-09-2007

kool

div style="font-size:8pt;padding-top:10px;" class="comment-text" said 1:31PM on 10-09-2007

nice

Frank Black said 7:49AM on 10-12-2007

I've tested this new version briefly against three recent Slax releases and Damned Small Linux. I have to say, out of the box, this one is sweet. The interface is sparse and 98esque, but it took everything I threw at it without issue. On my X41 laptop it found drivers without issue. Flash worked right away. The browser is nice (although I'd rather have Firefox). For those who need small and fast, this one is the (puppy)sh*t. Figures that the one release I didn't think I'd like would be the one I like.

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