I gave Puppy a test drive back in its 4.2.1 'Deep Thought' days, and was not impressed, but some have been encouraging me to give the new version a try, so next month I'll be buying a CD from OSDisc here:

https://www.osdisc.com/products/puppy

I'll be buying a Live CD, and 64-bit. The options are Bionicpup 8.0, Xenialpup 7.5, Tahrpup 6.0.5, or Slacko Puppy 6.3.2. I'm running a Dell Optiplex 755 with 8 GB RAM. So which one is best suited to me?

With your machine, I'd stick with a regular distro.

Puppy is mainly for older computers, for which it works well, if a little bit quirky.
There are several better distros to use on older machines, but some people just like to be different.

(But if you must, I'd suggest looking at Slacko Pup.)

Thanks for the tip. I'll give Slacko Pup a try next month. Been using MX Linux 17.1 as LiveCD for at least a year, but already given it enough of a test drive to know I want it on my secondary HDD...plus it's not really designed to run in RAM, which is what I'm looking for right now. I got TAILS working, but apparently it gives Big Bro the hots, so I just use it for exploring the Deep Web/Dark Net. Puppy is the only distro I know of that's really intended for use as Live CD, but if you know of one better, let me know. My only real requirement is it has to connect to the internet on its own, like MX Linux, TAILS, and Linux Mint does. That's where Puppy 4.2.1 failed, along with a lot of other distros....having to fool with the internet connection grinds on my nerves, so any that require this is of no interest.

You have to enter your ESSID & password for all distros to be able to connect to the internet.

AntiX can be run from memory/ram, or you could create a 'live' with persistence on a pendrive - but the smallest is Tiny Core Linux, get the CorePlus version, (I like to keep one around).

Have used Xenial Tahrpup and Slacko 5.7.
Biopic would be my suggestion.

Another would be to chec out the new Porteus (openbox for performance). It may or may not be along the same lines as what you want.

Best wishes!

You should install Plan 9!
It would be perfect for what you want from an OS!

Depends. On the user. What I did once. Because of hardware, junk size, limitations.
https://forums.solydxk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1858

Looks like others covered generic druthers.

1 members found this post helpful.

@ Tecolyte:-

Personally, I'd go with Bionicpup. Are you looking at the 32-bit, or the 64-bit version?

Phil Broughton's take on Bionic Beaver 64-bit is turning out to be a good 'un.....and is highly recommended for Puppians. It's now in its 'stable' phase, and is a very good Puppy for all hardware, new and old.

peebee's take on the 32-bit version is just as good, IMHO. Although I have 64-bit capable hardware, I prefer the 32-bit Pups, 'cos they just seem to have the edge in overall speed and responsiveness.

The Slacko Pups, although they're very stable, tend to need more 'titivating' to achieve the same result as the 'buntu-based variants.....a legacy of Slackware's famed conservatism, and of supplying a minimum of stuff by default.

The eventual choice, however, has to be yours. No-one can make that decision for you.

Good luck!


Mike.

1 members found this post helpful.

I like Bionic Pup too, its pretty cool and can run on usb friendly or hdd with other distros, or even inside them.
I made one called RescuePup a few years back it was awesome

1 members found this post helpful.

He has 8GB RAM on the board - that's not much of choice. Still don't understand while to run such dangerous distro - in terms of do not broke everything on hardrive - default user in Puppy as I remember is root. Or maybe not root but is like in Knoppix 'su' without any password switches to root account. In conclusion - these distributions are not meant for everyday use in my opinion - or you want to break to someone' other system - or you are experienced and aware of possible harm you may cause.