I have had it up to here after trying to use a few linux distros and in the end am highly disappointed. I figured it would be fairly easy to put puppy onto an older laptop that does not have a CDROM. First I tried using a USB flash drive via the instructions on how to install puppy onto the usb flash. That fails and the end result from the rude people in the forums (try an older ver of puppy). I then try using a different computer and pulling the hard drive from the older lappy and using a direct connect cord I have. Well it all went well but I get some error in the end (again I ask in the forums with rude remarks in return and the same result (try an older ver.) Why would I want to run an older version. I can understand that maybe there will be some trial and error with installing to a USB flash but to a USB HD come on? Besides I dont want to try an older version, I want the latest release for petes sake.
After that I gave up on Puppy and moved on to trying Xubuntu, another semilite distro that I thought would still not chug on the older p3 laptop. I tried installing direct to the HD but it failed about half way through. OK I thought, so I scrounged through my parts and found a nice 2.5 40gb hd that I could use instead. I formatted to the desired filesystem for xubuntu and set the boot flag and then proceeded through the install. Success, I completed the install or so I thought. I poped the HD into the old lappy and of course it fails of the bat. No OS found, Great well thats enough of trying Linux for the night. I guess the old lappy was better off with Win 98 on there afterall. Whats even better as when I went to restart my computer where I was doing all these installs on its OS (Vista) would not start. For some lame reason Xubuntu decided I wanted to change my MBR on my main pc’s hd even though I was not even installing to that HD. Great so now I get to go look for my vista cd so I can run an MBR repair.
My take on Linux distros so far: Work flawlessly from the live cd’s not so much when trying to do permanent installs
