Puppy in the fight against E-waste

[dancytron]

>double message deleted<

[souleau]

So what I'm hearing in this thread, is that PC's in particular, are being declared obsolete for mainly one reason; too slow for the Internet.

But a PC is a tool you can use for so many other things than web-surfing. And Puppy Linux is still particularly useful in a sense that it allows people to run older versions of software on an older machine.

You can still use Inkscape, Gimp, Blender, LibreOffice, and a whole range of other, productive, useful and educational software packages on it.

And as some here have pointed out, you can still traverse the web with an older PC. I have a AMD Athlon 64 3000+, with 'only' 1.3 Gb RAM. I decided with that amount of RAM, a 64bit OS wasn't going to cut it, so I kept running Precise Puppy, which still works fine. I run Firefox 45.0.2 with the Legacy version of NoScript as the only addon.
I can't use YouTube. I probably couldn't use Facebook, or Instagram, but I'm not using those supermassive black holes anyway.
I'm telling you, if everyone refused to run javascript online they'd be back to safe, locally hosted ad banners with simple html tags in no time.

But oh well, people are people I suppose.

[Colonel Panic]

I can't use YouTube. I probably couldn't use Facebook, or Instagram, but I'm not using those supermassive black holes anyway.

Good post. Of those, the one I'd miss most if I didn't have Javascript would be Youtube and there are ways round that (downloading a video file using youtube-dl, for example, and then viewing it with a multimedia file player).

You'd probably need someone who did use Javascript to give you the URL address though.

[souleau]

I did use youtube-dl, and the YouTube url's are easily retrievable in DuckDuckGo, but I do not trust it anymore.
A repeated occurance led me to believe it is a security risk.

You have to update it quite regularly for it to maintain functional. I suppose they play a game of whack a mole with YouTube.
So twice now, shortly after I installed an updated version and downloaded from YouTube, one of my drives 'spontaneously' mounted and ROX-filer opened a window to it.
That is some freaky shit.
So both times I immediately reverted to a backup savefile, and it would not happen anymore.

Not entirely sure youtube-dl is the cause, but I'm not taking any chances.

[wiak]

You can still use Inkscape, Gimp, Blender, LibreOffice, and a whole range of other, productive, useful and educational software packages on it.

Yes, you can, but when you have two or more old machines and one of them can do all of the above as well being fast enough for Internet usage why would you bother with the less capable one? Like I said, most schools around where I live wouldn't be interested either. Most people who might be inclined to use Gimp or whatever, probably want to surf the Internet two and since we only have one pair of hands the likely choice would be a machine that could do all that we want. Old Android phones can certainly be useful. For example, they have a camera they can be used as an IP camera or similar, in a surveillance system, or as a webcam and so on. Many old laptops also have cameras, but they use far more power then an android phone, their batteries often no longer hold charge, and are expensive to replace (so they need constantly plugged into a mains supply). So... I tend to find old android phones useful (for low-power single task scenarios) but not so much laptops, and certainly not old desktops.

I do wish it was the other way round though. That mobile phones all run Linux instead of Android... Then it would all be very different - low powered old Linux capable devices. I suppose the nearest we get to that scenario is when using the likes of a Raspberry Pi, which various Linuxes, including Puppy, can run on.

wiak

[wiak]

However, regardless of the age of the machine, I'd say Puppy Linux is the perfect OS for an easy move from nasty virus-prone, forced-updates-crazy, MS Windows systems. Puppy remains easy for creating a frugal install alongside an existing MS Windows installation. You can happily use Puppy for years thereafter and only use the pre-installed Windows on those rare occasions when you think you have some Windows apps you can't do without.

Fact is, you'll later usually discover that Linux provides good alternatives to most any Windows apps, well supported and at zero cost, so you'll likely end up never using Windows again in later practice. Also, once you are familiar with Puppy, you can try out the various Dogs alternatives - once you know what you are doing with Puppy, these are pretty much just as easy to install and are also well-supported on this forum. Having said that, Puppy is more than enough for most general users' needs and since it has a team of regular developers supporting it you can be secure in knowing it will be around for many long years and perhaps decades to come...

wiak

[rockedge]

I use desktops with Puppy everyday. I build web servers and or home automation and camera security systems based on Puppy or Dog and recently EasyPup. Versatility and the fact I get these really well suited desktops for free keeps the chain going. Some laptops thrown in.

Android phones burn up (literally) from the loads I put them under. There is just too much Android garbage and company specific bloat ware that keeps me from using them much, even as a net camera. I hate small screens to do coding and developing. Hate the keyboards...I don't want a smart phone..I want a phone that will dial a number and is responsive immediately without swiping through menus to do it. I am astounded at how slow Android OS's have gotten and how Google centric these things are.

I've caused phones to burst into flames from hard work. Desktops cool better and can be converted to water cooled systems in extreme cases when live video stream real time object / face detection / recognition is being performed on several net cams and local web cams.

I do like the Cyangenmod OS I have on an old Samsung S3 ACE..total control.

iPhones are not a DIY'er dream box either

[Todd]

One of the things that everyone seems to be overlooking is the raspberry pi. Reducing ewaste can be solved, in some ways, by reducing demand for these large monolithic computers. Schools already have raspberry pi. All we need to do is focus on making the pi work faster and better. Teachers will share this with their admin. Like has been said, a desktop is truly needed for power computing such as papers, spreadsheets, online testing, etc. Puppy and raspberry pi can fill this niche. The first step is building a puppy that will run on pi.

A specific advantage of pi is that it doesn't need a lot of power. A solar panel with a deep cycle battery should be able to work.

[Colonel Panic]

One of the things that everyone seems to be overlooking is the raspberry pi. Reducing ewaste can be solved, in some ways, by reducing demand for these large monolithic computers. Schools already have raspberry pi. All we need to do is focus on making the pi work faster and better. Teachers will share this with their admin. Like has been said, a desktop is truly needed for power computing such as papers, spreadsheets, online testing, etc. Puppy and raspberry pi can fill this niche. The first step is building a puppy that will run on pi.

A specific advantage of pi is that it doesn't need a lot of power. A solar panel with a deep cycle battery should be able to work.

Micko's produced one, described on this thread;

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=116841

[jplt3]

Of course i'am ussing some old hardware too , puppy is a saver.

To browse the web fast i use netsurf and links2 with "-g" to have images .

Also firefox with this extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/ that

Redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives - Nitter, Invidious, Bibliogram, & OpenStreetMap.

Here an example of instagram page with an instance of Bibliogram

I like so much Bibliogram :

About Bibliogram

Bibliogram is a website that takes data from Instagram's public profile views and puts it into a friendlier page that loads faster, gives downloadable images, eliminates ads, generates RSS feeds, and doesn't urge you to sign up.

Here some instances of Bibliogram

Same for Nitter(redirect of twitter) and Invidious (redirect of youtube)

Those services are a prefect fit for old browsers.

[dancytron]

The equivalent light version for youtube:

https://invidio.us

There is one for twitter too, but I can't find it right now. I'll post it later when I remember where it is.