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Homepage > Components and HowTos / PuppyVersionIndex Puppy Version
Which Puppy Linux is best for you?
Page revisions
- 2017-12-30 - Which kernel 4.1 or 4.9 moved to Xenialpup 4.1vs4.9 kernel.
- 2017-12-30 - Specs for puppy on slow media (USB 2.0 or Serial ATA) moved to WhatPuppyLinuxIsBestForYou (Post USB 2.0).
- 2017-12-28 - Previous dates were most applicable to 2012. This older information has been moved to superseded: WhatPuppyLinuxIsBestForYou.
The suggested specs are a starting point for which version of puppy to try. Puppylinux allows several versions of puppylinux to coexist on the same drive by either using either separate SaveFile save files or save folders. A person looking for a lighter weight distribution may wish to try an older version than is recommended below [4] and a person looking for compatibility with newer software may wish to try a more recent version than is recommended below. A person may even use different versions of puppylinux on the same computer depending on their application.
You have 2.5GB of ram or more (~2010 or newer):
Suggest using an unmodified Puppy7 era 7 Pup such as Xenialpup or Slacko7 Slacko 7 (Under Development).
- Xenialpup Xenialpup 7.5 CE, Was officially released on 4-Dec-17 and is currently the newest official version of Puppy Linux. The minimum specs for Xenialpup given on the pupplinux.org blog are:
Minimum System Requirements: 1000MHz CPU 768MB RAM
Recommended: 1600MHz 1gb RAM
However, if one has less than 2.5GB of ram they will almost certainly get better performance by using an older kernal (See Xenialpup_4.1vs4.9_kernel). Also if one only has 1GB of ram or less for Xenialpup they they will probably want about 2GB or 3GB of SWAP on fast media such as USB 3.0 or SATA.
- Puppy6 Era 6 Puppies like Tarhpup are also a good choice for this specification level especially if the puppy is installed on a slower storage medium like USB 2.0 or Ultra ATA. ~
- Some machines that meat these specs are as old as 2004/005 but likely with upgraded ram (see post)
You have 1GB of ram to 2.5GB (~2007 to 2009 hardware):
Suggest using either:
2. an Puppy7 era 7 pup but with an older kernal (e.g. Xenialpup xenialpup with the 4.1 kernal (SeeThread).
- Puppy7 Era 7 Puppies will also work well under these specifications but not from slow media like such as USB 2.0 and may also require a kernal tweek and/or a swap partition for good performance.
You have 750GB to 1GB of Ram (~2006 to 2007 hardware):
Either:
- Tahrpup, originally released in 2014 is a fairly recent version of puppylinux which runs well on old hardware as well as the most recent hardware. It was recently updated (2017-Feb-15). 32bit and 64bit versions are available and it works with a wide variety of kernels.
- Puppy2 Puppy 2, Puppy3 3, Puppy4 4, Puppy5 5 & Puppy 6 era pets work well under these specifications. Later versions of Puppy are more likely to be recently updated and less likely to have issues supporting newer hardware.
- This is the lower end of the spec range for Puppy7 era 7 puppies. Era 7 puppies will not work well under these specifications if installed to slow storage media like USB 2.0 or Ultra ATA. It has been reported that Xenialpup works well under these specks if the 4.1 kernal is used and about a 2-3GB SWAP partiation on a fast storage media (e.g. USB 3.0 or SATA). See post.
Older Puppy5 era 5 puppies like Lucid Revitalized and Carolina are recommended. Puppy6 Era 6 puppies like tarhpup are also a good choice.
You have 250Mb to 521mb of Ram (1.8 CPU or similar ~ Year 2003 - 2005 [1]):
- The recommended minimum ram for wary Wary is 521mb (1.8 CPU or similar). However it will work with less than 256MB of ram in frugal mode if set to not run in ram. A swap file may also be required depending on the application. Wary was a long time supported pup and remained quite popular well beyond it's support life (Last ISO Date: 2013-Mar-02).
- A version of Puppy3 Puppy 3 (Last Updated 2014) or Puppy432 Puppy 4.3.2 (Last Updated Nov 2014) may also be suitable for this range of computer specs.
You have less than 256MB ram (~2003 or earlier) :
- LegacyOS LegacyOS is a puplet, designed for older hardware
- Puppy214X Puppy 2.14X (AKA "Classic Pup") updated and supported continually by one of our experienced developers
64 bit (32 bit Puppys are fine on 64 bit machines)
- Fatdog Stable and solid
- Lighthouse pup 64-bit
- Mariner development of Lighthouse
- Most versions of puppy6 Puppy 6 e.g. (Tahrpup CE & Slaco 6X) have 64bit versions of the operating system. Keep in mind that if you don't have sufficient ram you may get worse performance from a 64bit Operating system than a 32 bit operating system.
Notes
1. Computer memory in a given year may very largely but on average the variation may be small. In 2005 the average ram for a begginners was about 400Mb and expert Users 600Mb according to pcpitstop.com. However, the actual ram capacity of computers was more than this by year 2000.2. Once you start getting to 1GB ram or more a newever version of puppy is strongly recommend then Wary given that support for Wary stopped in about 2013. However, wary was a very popular puppy so it would be worth trying to update it with a newer browser, in which case some advanced users may prefer it due to the lighter weight nature of older operating systems. Some members have successfully got recent versions of palemoon to work on wary.
3. In the article by BarryK on How Puppy Works (External Link) 64MB was given as an exmple Low Ram spec which will work with Puppy 2. As noted above Puppy214X Puppy 2.14X is currently maintained. Puppy 1 only required 32MB of ram.
4. Trying an older version of puppylinux then recommended above may not always work. The older kernel may not support your hardware, or it may not have the required drivers for newer hardware. Additionally if it is not recently updated it may not have a current web browser and this may prevent one from accessing many web pages. Some issues with an older browser could be lack of support for HTML 5 or outdated SSL encryption. A workaround might be to visualizer (or alternatively chroot) either either the newer or older version of puppy if one isn't able to sufficiently revitalize the older version of puppylinux.
