Pinguy os

[PtBetsie]

I saw a recommendation for the linux for dummies? Pinguy in CPU magazine. I have tried on several occasions to download it without success. Is it possible this is still not available? I have tried different links/mirrors and it always says your download will start but it never does.

[mjc]

I just tried it...the sourceforge link, not the torrent and it started up fine for me.

Have you tried any other Sourceforge downloads lately?

Who is your ISP?

[PtBetsie]

We have centurytel.net at home. It attempts to use the sourceforge site but never completes. Maybe next week, I can get into the library and try their pc's to see what happens.

[mjc]

Try the torrent...Linux distro torrents are generally safe. They are a very legit way to download a distro and most of the distros are originally seeded by the maintainer, so grabbing the torrent from the maintainer's site pretty much the same as getting it directly from the maintainer himself.

[Paul Komski]

Are you using DSL or Dial-up? If the latter (or even the former) then Sun Download Manager (http://in.sun.com/download/sdm/download.xml) (or equivalent) can help complete difficult or large downloads.

Looks like an interesting Ubuntu fork to try out.

Added: ... big download at 1.3/1.4 GB ... so hard to believe you are trying to grab it with Dial-up.

[PtBetsie]

USing a slow to very slow DSL :-( I finally got the download to complete and have listed the download manager on my things to remember in the future. Thank you. I am adding another question, separate post.

[PtBetsie]

Now that I have the download, will I be able to make a cd from it? The size tells me no. I do have a dvd burner but I don't know what capacity those disks are. I would like to try the PInguy out as a live cd. Is that possible?

[PrntRhd]

It appears to be an ISO for a DVD with file size between 1.4 GB and 1.5 GB (depending on the version) per the info I reviewed on Sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/projects/pinguy-os/files/ and is way too large to be a Live CD.

If you have DVD-R disks, that media holds up to 4.7 GB per disk.
The next question is whether you have DVD burning software on your PC to create the DVD.

[PtBetsie]

I burned the DVD and hope to try it out on my next volunteer day at the center. It was DVD +R though, hope that works.

[Paul Komski]

I believe these two threads deal essentially with the same topic and have thus merged them.

[PrntRhd]

The DVD+R is essentially as functional as the DVD-R, just allows some additional options. Nothing to worry about.
More here
http://www.build-your-own-computer-tips.com/dvd-drive-differences.html

[PtBetsie]

Pinguy does boot with the dvd disk. However it requires a great deal of patience, at least it does for my 32 bit pc. Maybe it would be faster on the 64 bit. I left the grandsons to stare at the screen and tell me if it ever did anything :) They wanted to play games and I read that there were a lot of games available. If there are we never found them or a way to access them. I couldn't find the shutdown either and after listening to the impatience around me, I finally just powered off. Not the greatest idea but it did get rid of Pinquy and we then loaded Ubuntu which they were happy with.

[mjc]

Not so much the 32-bit/64-bit being the problem, but rather, much more likely, RAM, or lack thereof was why it was slow.

Most of these distros can run on pretty limited resources, but to run well they need a fair amount (2+ GB) of RAM. Basically, if they have enough RAM they will load into it instead of trying to run from the disk (which is one reason they are super slow). Hard drive installs will often show the difference, on systems with not quite enough RAM...I've seen some LiveCD (DVD) distros run 10x installed to the hard drive (only change) than when run from the CD/DVD. I've also seen them run much faster after bumping up the RAM.