Puppy Teen for Fun Linux

[john biles]

Hello Everyone,
I been a Linux user for 11 months and tried all the big names in Linux and some of the smaller versions as well.
I been a Puppy User since 2.1 came out and it is now my number one operating system on my computer.
I currently have Windows XP plus 4 linux distros on 2 hard drives.

I use Puppy 99% of the time and all the others 1% of the time.

Why is this so ?? What makes Puppy so special ??

Because it can do everything I need it to do (Almost! Scanner not working, don't care used once a year)

My nieces like using it as well because it does the following:
plays Encrypted DVD's ,has a Chat (msn, yahoo) program, has enough codecs to open Web pages eg java, flash etc.
Can play or with extra dotpups Windows media player files, mp3's. there's nothing worst than receiving an email with a media file attached and you can't open it.

After enjoying reading the adventures of the forum post "Puppy Professional for Business" I thought I should mention the Teens out there who don't care what operating system a computer is using as long as it lets them do their thing.
Because my dial-up internet connect opens their online chat faster than Windows on Puppy, they want to use Puppy.
This isn't because they love Linux, but because it worked better than Windows.

I thought wouldn't it be nice to create a Puppy linux for teens as they are the future of computing and possible the next user's/programmer's of Linux
They don't care about Open Office as much as a business does (still need it) unless it's for stuff they don't like, Like Homework.
So What should a Teen Linux have in it?
I'll start the list off with what my nieces have said in their words. Mine in Brackets ( )

MSN messenger ( Gain ), DVD player (Gxine/Mplayer with extra codecs), Windows Media Player (Gxine/Mplayer with extra codecs), Real Player (RealPlayer 10),Quicktime (Gxine/Mplayer with extra codecs), Email (Thunderbird, Seamonkey), Explorer (Seamonkey, Opera, firefox), Word, Excel, Powerpoint (Open Office, Abiword),Compatability with the Apple i-pod Mp3 Player (??), Paint (Gimp, Xpaint), Wav to Mp3 converter (??), Mp3 to CD burner (??), Bluetooth (??), CD/VCD/DVD Burner (??)

Plus a cool looking desktop to show off to their buddies. (Even just a cool wallpaper and Icons would be a start)

Originally I said to them that if they wanted to use my computer, they had to use Linux.
They said we will use any windows program you want, just as long as we can go on your computer. I still think even though I've tried to explain to them that Linux has nothing to do with microsoft, that to them Linux is still Windows but a different version of Windows.

Let me know what you think good and bad

[Pizzasgood]

wav-mp3=LAME (an acronym, not insult)

I'm eighteen, so I'll add my opinions. Though keep in mind I'm far from the average teen. For example, my mom had to force a cell phone on me.

Through my entire time in high school, I never needed more than Abiword and Gnumeric offered. My college chemistry class needs OO, and the last assignment needed Excel itself (which has better graphing abilities). Otherwise, I still stick to Abiword and Gnumeric. In my eyes, Gnumeric is superior, but it isn't compatible enough.

I don't chat or use email-clients, so I won't comment on them.

For browser, definitely go with Firefox or Opera. They're "cooler". Opera is especially cool, but I've been using Firefox too long to change (Opera doesn't support as much middle clicking yet).

I'm far from an expert in video-watching, but I've gotten more satisfaction from Mplayer than Gxine. I usually use XMMS for audio, as it has a better interface and as an added bonus has a PSF plugin, which means it can play the soundtrack ripped from Final Fantasy Tactics.

Also, Mplayer likes starting multiple instances, so you'd need to add a workaround. I believe there are some mentioned around here somewhere.

You're also gonna want to use a fancier window manager with a cool theme, such as IceWM or XFCE.

I'd definitely go for Gimp over MtPaint. Both would be handy though.

The biggest problem I saw with Puppy/Linux initially was that my video games didn't work. Some ran through WINE though. I was incredibly happy when I realized I could play StarCraft in Puppy. Now I don't have enough time for many video games, and I play most of them in my Nintendo DS (though most are actually GBA games).

MU's auto-graphic-driver setup (used in Muppy) would also be a good idea, because normal people are lazy, but they want their video smooth and fast.

Maybe a link to a Linux video-game site.

Java is a must (for those addictive online games).

As long as you have Java, you might want TonicPoint. It's one of the only PowerPoint viewers I've been able to find for Linux. Those can be handy for homework. It won't make PowerPoints though, just view them.


That's all I've got off the top of my head. The main things to remember are to keep it cool and easy. We're lazy and impatient, and we like being cool. Or at least thinking we are.

[john biles]

Hello Pizzasgood,
I've read alot of your posts on the forum and thought you were older than 18 so there you go.
I've used Open Office before to open Power Point files emailed to me.
Your comment "The main things to remember are to keep it cool and easy. We're lazy and impatient, and we like being cool. Or at least thinking we are." is what I'm talking about Graphically.
If it isn't cool looking, teens don't want it.

[rarsa]

I totally concur with all the previous points.

Your comment "The main things to remember are to keep it cool and easy. We're lazy and impatient, and we like being cool.
Or at least thinking we are." is what I'm talking about Graphically.
If it isn't cool looking, teens don't want it.

My secret? I have two teens plus me, so computing resources at home are scarse. So when one is using the computer with Windows on it, the other has to use the one with Puppy. They are getting used to it.

Lazyness is a factor for sure, so when they wanted to rip flash applications to play them on the PSP they had the option of installing FireFox on the windows partition or just booting to Fedora and using Firefox... they went for Linux.

Looks are fundamental, I even have a post about that in my blog, Puppy out of the box is not the pretiest. But I've configured it to look much more decently. A distro for teens must definetivelly have better looks and personalization. Even if the CD includes 20 MB of icons, themes and backgrounds. (e.g. my son has applied every hack possible to personalize the PSP interface).

Oh, a very important feature for teens (has to do with lazines and coolness) is to have automount capabilities. They just want to plug in the MP3 player (or Game/cellphone) and have the appropriate application pop up for them to transfer the data they need.

[Fossil]

I agree with everything that has already been said. Children and teenagers are all very much influenced by visual stimulii. If it catches the eye within the first few seconds, and looks 'good', then it evinces further interest.

I've been looking around several of the wallpaper sites with a view to customizing Puppy for a younger audience. One of the best music/chat based images so far, is this one at: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details.php?id=682 which, although based around a Mac theme, is an eyecatcher. Would anyone be bothered over that, or would it seem 'cool' to be running it on Puppy?
Meanwhile, for a slightly younger audience, there's an Icewm theme with a superhero penguin wallpaper theme at: http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/321penguins/ which should grab some attention.

[Pizzasgood]

Yeah, I forgot about Open Office. I've been working on a custom Puppy for this business lately, and Open Office was too big, especially since they just wanted to view the PowerPoints. That's when I found TonicPoint.

I also set up XP to boot with a "welcome to the dark side" message and a picture of Vader and the Death-Star, rather than the "Loading XP" trash. I have a Puppy boot-splash in the works. It seems to work so far, but it may have problems with boot-menus. I'll be working on it some more soon because I plan to put it in Pizzapup A.T.E. (About Time Edition).

[john biles]

Hello rarsa,
I agree that teens are lazy and would want automount for their USB devices.
I love Puppy Drive's mounter. I believe it could be modified graphically to fool them into using it as it is only a click or two to use.

I've notice that if you simple rename a program say for example Gaim to MSN Chat or Chat my nieces have no trouble login onto their favourite chat.

One of my niece's loves the fact that you can use the same program to log on to different chats (MSN , Yahoo etc) as she is a member of many.

Thanks fossil for the links, this should help.

[the_spudster]

Interested to see your comments.
I have an 18 year old daughter at uni who is running Puppy on her laptop, so I can see your point of view as she has asked for similar things.
Maybe you should have a go at using Mark Ulrich's 'mkkde' to build a kde squash file. (search for kde_mini) and dead easy to use!
Kde is about as cool a desktop as you get, and puppy runs this like lightning!
I am at the present trying to integrate the kbluetooth and kmobile tools to give decent bluetooth connectivity.
At the moment the squash file is about 72mb with the Amarok music player the bluetooth connectivity which I know sounds a lot in Puppy terms, but I guess for most people would not be a problem. (very cut down!)
One of the advantages is that you will be able to run kde progams.

Im sure other people have different views, but for me this works a treat!

Good luck all
regards
Simon

[titanreign]

http://forum.puppylinux.net/viewtopic.php?t=74

Seems like a good canditate

Heres a screenshot of it (customized a little, but not much added)

http://i7.tinypic.com/2qtl9c0.png

[can8v]

forget the teens I like all of these suggestions for me and I am 36. I really like the KDE puppy based on 109 CE, but I really need to write to NTFS partitions, which means I need something (I think) based on 2.02 or higher.

[titanreign]

If you need to access the files you use or create while in puppy, make a fat32 partition and place them there, you'll be able to access them from puppy or that other os.

[Eyes-Only]

Beautiful screenshot there Titan! Wow... You ought to think about posting that one in the thread (I believe in "Misc"?) "My Puppy Is More Beautiful Than Yours!" where so many have placed great screenies. This one definitely deserves to be there as "This is what YOUR Puppy can look like!"

Awesome my fellow Puppian Friend! Keep up the great designer work!

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"

[titanreign]

What a nice post Eyes-Only, thank you very much! I put 2 shots of it in that post you mentioned. Though I'm sure everyones puppy is beautiful to them, alot of users do not like kde. From personal experience konqueror is one of the most versatile tools I've ever used, and on puppy it opens in less than a second, as opposed to 3-5 seconds on larger distros. That along with all the easy to use apps like kmail, akregator, klipper, ark, and so many more, along with all of puppys great programs, make this my favorite distro, hands down.

Les meilleurs voeux à vous trop mon ami.

[lvds]

I've been looking around several of the wallpaper sites with a view to customizing Puppy for a younger audience. One of the best music/chat based images so far, is this one at: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details.php?id=682 which, although based around a Mac theme, is an eyecatcher. Would anyone be bothered over that, or would it seem 'cool' to be running it on Puppy?

This can be done with engage. They have used it this way for the new DreamLinux Multimedia edition live-cd. Great Result. Though a few tools are really missing to be useable by kids like Skype, and it does always use the cdrom drive, you can forget about inserting your own music cd. The only choice would be to go buy maximum ram so to load it fully in ram like a puppy. They also have inserted a few more good ideas like volume/tracks control in the windows taskbar (i don't know which tool enable this, do you know ?)

I have tried to install it (DreamLinux) on hard disk so to rebuild a distro but after a global update and install of differents tools it became unstable, not stable enough to build a cdrom distro.

ps: ...i begin to think the more needed tool we are missing is something real to read such a big forum as i lost 98% of everything posted here. I can't figure how are you doing guys to scrute and read the forum ?

Best regards,
Laurent.

[Pizzasgood]

ps: ...i begin to think the more needed tool we are missing is something real to read such a big forum as i lost 98% of everything posted here. I can't figure how are you doing guys to scrute and read the forum ?

I'm not sure I follow you. Do you mean keeping up with all the posts? The method I use is to come into the main page and middle-click all the topics that have new posts. Then I close the tab and enter the next one. I go down the list middle clicking all new posts, then close it and move on. I go through all of them that way, until I have all new posts open. Then I read through them all. When I finish, I go back to the main page and repeat, as there will be fresh posts by then. I keep doing that until I can go through faster than a new post, then high-tail it out before I miss a post.

I suppose I could use the "show new posts" button, but it's easier to remember which area things are in when I do it my way, in case I need to track it down later.

That's also why I wind up with 30+ tabs open at once in Firefox every day.

[lvds]

...That's also why I wind up with 30+ tabs open at once in Firefox every day.

WOW ! And you still have time to code ?!
In which time-space zone do you live ?

...By the way, i discovered other sites running this forum software phpBB have an RSS function so you can browse and read very comfortable the forum with any RSS reader (you can try wizzRSS extension for Firefox very good) ; May someone know if this can be implemented here ?


Best regards,
Laurent.

[titanreign]

I second lvds's idea, I use rss feeds in knewsticker, for the stuff I wanna keep close tabs on, and akregator for all the other "daily" news... it would make it very easy to keep up on whats going on, I already use the "news" feed, though I couldnt find where i got it from, to link to it there, so if anyone wants it, here it is. But yea, a forum rss would be the sweetness.

http://puppylinux.org.nyud.net:8080/use ... news2a.xml

[Pizzasgood]

WOW ! And you still have time to code ?!

At first, I wasn't sure how to answer, because I didn't quite know how I did it. Today I paid attention. So long as I don't miss a day, it doesn't take very long so I jam it into one of the hour gaps between classes (usually 13:00-14:00 when I come back for lunch). After that initial visit, it isn't very bad the rest of the day. Also, many of the threads just have one or two replies, and I also tend to click things I'm not actually interested in, which I skip over when I realize it.

Sunday evenings are the worst, because I usually don't visit over the weekend (when I'm at home and would have to fight my brother to use his machine).

Plus, lots of practice and ctrl-tab and ctrl-w speed things up