Puppy Linux is one of the earliest lightweight Linux distributions, originally developed by Barry Kauler from Australia in 2003 (which is still active today). It is a very reliable operating system for both old computers and new Linux users! It is small in size, simple in structure, fast in speed, and comes with a wealth of drivers and applications. Even better, it can be installed and run directly on storage devices like external hard disks and USB flash drives (that is, it can be booted from any computer that supports BIOS and UEFI).

Puppy Linux has a number of obvious advantages over other Linux distributions:

  1. It is small enough to be installed and run on a device that supports almost any media format (USB flash drive, hard disk, SD card, CD/DVD, and more)
  2. Many Live CD editions of Linux distributions require constant data reading from CD/USB to run, but Puppy Linux is designed to copy the entire system into memory to run, meaning that the system does not rely on external storage devices any more after being booted up. This also means that both its system and software can run extremely fast.
  3. Its software repository is rarely short of any Linux package. The applications inside are numerous, safe and reliable
  4. It integrates a number of drivers and utilities. So the same OS image can be used in different hardware environments with doing hardly any modification.
  5. Many volunteers continue to write software for it
Puppy Linux is well compatible with a lot of hardware and has always been one of the first choices for DIY enthusiasts. Because it is able to run in a variety of harsh hardware environments, such as early x86 and Pentium processors. Although Puppy Linux is just a proprietary operating system for low-end, old hardware in the minds of many users, it has been updated for more than a decade. As a result, as one of the most popular desktop edition of Linux distros, many people even use Puppy Linux directly as one of their daily operating systems like using Windows.

Key Features

  • Ready to use: all tools for common daily computing usage already included
  • Ease of use: grandpa-friendly certified
  • Relatively small size: 300 MB or less
  • Fast and versatile
  • Customizable within minutes: remasters
  • Different flavors: optimized to support older computers, newer computers
  • Variety: hundreds of derivatives ("puplets"), one of which will surely meet your needs

Official Demo Video

Related Links

Download URLs

License Version Download Size
Free OS Latest  (mir) n/a
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