# Sticky  The Linux Software Thread



## Miqw7394

Evening, everybody.

This is a new thread for the 'Linux & Unix' Forum here at TSG. The object of this thread is to create a single point of reference for users of the Linux & Unix forum, in which to post links to any & all Linux software that you feel other users may be interested in.

This is definitely needed due to the fact that so much Linux, 'open-source' software, although often equivalent (oft-times even superior) to specific Windows items of software, usually have such peculiar names. This should be of particular interest to 'newbies', or Windows 'refugees', who are very much beginners on 'the dark side' ! 

--------------------------------------

When posting such links, please try to ensure that you are complying, as far as possible, with the terms of the GNU General Public Licence, as regards to re-distribution. Such re-distribution is usually actively encouraged by 'the Licence', even with modified code.....AS LONG AS YOU PROVIDE LINKS TO THE ORIGINAL SOURCE, and give credit to the original author.

*This keeps*

a) Everybody happy, and
b) Everything legal and 'above-board'.

*Please:-*

1} *Clearly* title your posts, to make it obvious what item of software the post is about.
2) Be as concise as you can with regard to the content. If elaboration is necessary, try to keep to the point of the post.
3) If mentioning an app/item of software on any other thread, please post about the item IN THIS THREAD, and link to it from your other post.

-----------------------------------------------------

Personally, I will be mentioning a fair amount of stuff for 'Puppy' users. Not all Puppy users frequent the 'official', Murga-Linux 'Puppy' Forums by a long chalk; many frequent lots of other forums which also have Linux & Unix sub-fora (like TSG, to name but one example.) The Murga-Linux forums are the very best place to find Puppy-specific software, since so many community members regularly produce/modify software for our favourite canine!

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php?f=63&sid=5fb9cb383d06820ad282703a213f4fa2

That's a direct link to the 'Additional Software (PETS'n'stuff)' sub-forum at Murga-Linux.....which is an absolute goldmine for Puppy enthusiasts.

--------------------------------------------------

Please note:- This thread *will *be monitored on a regular basis. Any links which are felt to be 'non-Linux', or just generally 'dodgy' in nature, WILL be removed.

Let's try to keep this as useful (and friendly) a thread as possible. TIA.

Mike. 

*Edited by Administrator Cookiegal to add that Migw7394 requested permission for this thread before posting and it has been approved by the TSG administration.*


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## Johnny b

Miqw7394 said:


> Evening, everybody.
> 
> This is a new thread for the 'Linux & Unix' Forum here at TSG. The object of this thread is to create a single point of reference for users of the Linux & Unix forum, in which to post links to any & all Linux software that you feel other users may be interested in.
> ............................


Excellent Idea.
Thanks Mike :up:


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## Miqw7394

*BackSeatDriver v3.18
*
Here's an up-to-date one to get us going. As I said in the first post, personally I shall be mentioning a lot of Puppy stuff here.....understandable, since Pup's been my 'daily driver' for a number of years now, and I've built, or 'adapted' a fair number of packages for Pup's unique way of doing things.

*BackSeatDriver* is a featherweight alternative to *TeamViewer*, and is totally 'home-grown', being written, from the ground up, by one of the original Puppy Forum members, with assistance from a few others. It uses a simple GTK2 interface, and runs via a VPN for greater privacy, using *n2n-edge* to generate it. *X11vnc* is used for the server, and *ssvncviewer* is used for the remote desktop control viewing. *Pv* & *ncat* are used for file-transfer operations, and Puppy's own VOIP 'softphone', *PSIP*, is used for both messaging and live chat.....so you can actually talk to the other party, while you're controlling their desktop and showing them how to fix whatever needs fixing.

Grant (Smokey01 on the Puppy Forum) only released the script for this in the Puppy newsletter at the beginning of January this year, so it's still pretty new to most of us.....though I did help with some of the testing back in early December.

I've created a number of packages for this, in various formats; .pets, AppImages, and portable, 'self-extracting scripts'. (These last are very similar to RoxApps, which have been around nearly as long as Puppy itself.)

There's 3 in each format; a 64-bit version, and two 32-bit versions; one for more 'modern' Puppies (Tahrpup onwards, approximately), and one for 'older' Pups, covering pretty much the whole of the 5-series. These last ones contain a number of additional libs, to ensure full functionality of the various components.

The link to my GoogleDrive is here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uC7m8qpqUhLc10sXEXfjEfw6qJsNcHWG?usp=sharing

Navigate through the Back Seat Driver directory, and help yourselves to whichever architecture and package format you want.

To give some idea of how this thing works (insofar as I currently understand it..!), I've put together a wee video clip to try & explain its operation. I haven't been doing this sort of thing for very long, so don't expect miracles, and polished 'post-production' quality.....I've got quite a way to go in order to catch up to the likes of *SneekyLinux*, or *The 8-bit Guy*..! 






Have fun!

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

This post is to add some links that I'm happy to share. It's my personal Puppy software directories at both MediaFire & my GoogleDrive.

G. Drive:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B8qZGvx85BR8ZnVQWUJhWTBvOWs?usp=sharing

MediaFire:- http://www.mediafire.com/folder/cetf5lx07zd28/Puppy_Stuff

Any Puppians who may be interested, dig in and see what you can find. It's a bit like a Magical Mystery Tour; I've added so much stuff over the years, even I can't remember what's there half the time..!

Mike.


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## Johnny b

Article for those that want to set up a firewall in Linux:

* How To Set Up a Firewall with GUFW on Linux *

https://itsfoss.com/set-up-firewall-gufw/



> UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is a simple to use firewall utility with plenty of options for most users. It is an interface for the iptables, which is the classic (and harder to get comfortable with) way to set up rules for your network.


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## Johnny b

Miqw7394 said:


> This post is to add some links that I'm happy to share. It's my personal Puppy software directories at both MediaFire & my GoogleDrive.
> 
> G. Drive:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B8qZGvx85BR8ZnVQWUJhWTBvOWs?usp=sharing
> 
> MediaFire:- http://www.mediafire.com/folder/cetf5lx07zd28/Puppy_Stuff
> 
> Any Puppians who may be interested, dig in and see what you can find. It's a bit like a Magical Mystery Tour; I've added so much stuff over the years, even I can't remember what's there half the time..!
> 
> Mike.


Saw your portable Palemoon 27.9.4 for older computers.
I'm resurrecting an old Dell I had sitting in a closet.
Downloaded and intend to use the portable Palemoon on an old P3 800 Dell with 384 mb memory.
Hard drive is shot and no bios option to boot from USB, so I'll be booting from a DVD.
I already have Racy 5.5 on a DVD, so that's all I've tried on the machine and it runs smooth and fast for a P3 800. 
Is there anything other that you'd recommend to try out?

Thanks for being generous, Mike :up:


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## Miqw7394

Hallo, John.

Yes, that's the SSE-only compiled build, based on the very last of the 27-series Palemoons. It'll be ideal for a P3, since they do at least have SSEs; the minimum 'standard' for the majority of modern browsers is at least SSE2s (Pentium 4s onward.)

With the release of v28, Moonchild Productions have removed the option to compile with the SSE-only 'flag'; the source code no longer supports it. The .pet that I based it on, by watchdog, also incorporates a more up-to-date version of the glibc (the general 'C' library, round which everything in a Linux distribution is built/compiled against). This is Tahrpup's version - glibc 2.19. This portable runs well in my own install of Racy 5.5.....Racy's glibc is a truly ancient 2.10, so under normal circumstances Palemoon wouldn't even get a look-in. The required minimum is, I believe, at least libc-2.13.

Even though the big Compaq desktop runs a 64-bit, dual-core Athlon64 X2 3800+, I've switched to using this version of Palemoon throughout the 'kennels'.....because it's just so astonishingly quick & responsive. And since the Athlon's only processing SSE instructions, it runs cooler, too.

I share a single instance of this, from a remote partition, auto-mounted at boot, and started from a custom Menu Entry in each Pup. Works great!

--------------------------

I also use it on the old Dell lappie; despite having a P4 (SSE2s, of course, so possessing the ability to run the newest Palemoon 28), this is smoother and faster.....and definitely kinder to such an elderly CPU.

I'm working on a couple more Mozilla 'portables' you may find of interest for Racy; FF45.9.0esr, and Thunderbird 45.8.0. I may also put together a portable version of Thunderbird 60, though this'll need some extra built-in libs in addition to a glibc tweak. I'll let you know as soon as they're done and uploaded.


Mike.


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## Johnny b

Thanks  :up:


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## Johnny b

A slick setup for booting Puppy from a USB flash drive on an old computer before bioses had the option to boot from USB.

Not Linux software, but obviously made for us Puppy lovers.

* Boot From a USB Drive Even if your BIOS Won't Let You *

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16822/boot-from-a-usb-drive-even-if-your-bios-wont-let-you/

I've got 3 old computers to try this out on.
A Pentium 166 (  ), a Pentium 2 400 and a Pentium 3 800.
The first appears to be a custom build and the other two are Dells.
None have the option in their respective bios to boot from USB.


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## Johnny b

Questions about Puppy Linux?

PuppyLinux : CategoryTutorial

https://puppylinux.org/wikka/CategoryTutorial

https://puppylinux.org/wikka/CategoryTutorial/backlinks


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## Johnny b

* Boot From a USB Drive Even if your BIOS Won't Let You *

Worked like a charm with a floppy drive, haven't tried the CD version yet.
Easy to setup. Easy to use.


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## Johnny b

BionicPup 8.0 is out.

You can download it and others here:

http://puppylinux.com/download.html


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## Miqw7394

*DPup 'Stretch' 7.5
*
This is the latest in a long line of Puppies built from Debian binaries, as opposed to Ubuntu ones, which many Pups have favoured in more recent years.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=112125

Built by radky, the creator of the 'Pup-xxxxx' series of Puppy utilities, it's fast becoming one of my personal favourites, despite only 'installing it' just over a week ago. Debian-based Pups appear to be somewhat more 'stable' than the many Ubuntu-based ones (Precise Puppy, Tahrpup, Xenialpup, Artfulpup, Bionicpup, etc.), and certainly a higher percentage of items from the Debian repos, accessed through the PPM (Puppy Package Manager), seem to just 'work' straight-away, as opposed to needing 'workarounds' or extra deps to get them running.

32-bit only, I'm afraid, but it's a great way to revitalize an elderly 32-bit lappie or netbook. This is my personal 'take' on it:-










What'cha think of my 'robo-puppies'? 

Posting this from a brand-new SFS package of 32-bit Chromium 73 *OscarTalks* has just built for DPup Stretch.

Mike.


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## Johnny b

I'll have to give it a try out.

Thanks


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## Miqw7394

Morning, everyone.

Here's something truly silly for y'all.

I was at a loose end the other night. I'd noticed that radky has added a Menu entry at the foot of the 'Multimedia' sub-menu in DPup Stretch, called 'CD-Eject'. Does exactly what you'd expect; it ejects the loading tray for your CD/DVD optical drive.

Puppy's default disc-burning app allows you to both eject and re-load. So I got to thinking (bad for my grey cell!!); how about a wee GUI that runs from an icon in the notification area (system-tray, in Windows-speak), and allows you to both open and close the tray? Totally pointless, but.....there ya go.

I did some research via the man pages, and discovered that the two commands involved have been part of Linux as far back as anyone can remember:-

'*eject*' to, well.....EJECT, and

'*eject -t*' to close it again.

So I've adapted the GUI I use for file-permission swapping in my 'run-as-spot' Chrome browser builds, and come up with this:-










It runs from an icon in the 'tray':-










I got some insight into stuff from here:-

http://www.linuxscrew.com/2007/10/24/ejectclose-cd-or-dvd-media-with-shell-command/

Some wag on the above site suggested you could even build your own cuckoo clock, by incorporating those 2 commands into an hourly cron job..!

Anyways, if you're feeling in a daft mood, and fancy a laugh, you can find it here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_3dwu_2NfhwJb7gewcQOvSpRaNvLJj2N?usp=sharing

There's 2 versions, due to the included YAD binary.

Have fun!!

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

_*Easy-to-use VPN packages by OscarTalks*_

Afternoon, all.

I'm recommending the above packages for any Puppy users resident in the UK. The reason?

The UK's upcoming 'Internet Censorship' law, due to come into effect on the 15th July 2019. You can read about why it's such a BAD IDEA, here:-

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/porn-block-uk-wired-explains

It's supposed to be only a 'porn block', but the implementation is expected to be *SO* draconian that up to 80% of relatively innocuous sites may be pulled into the net, too. Plans are for anyone wishing to access any site covered by 'the ban' to have to 'register' with:-

Their *real name*
Their *real address & email*
Their *real credit card details, *and possibly
*Real driving licence and/or passport details*

It'll generate a gigantic database, and there'll be a lot of information on there that many individuals won't want publicised. Picture the forthcoming hacking attempts, plus the use of the contained details by law-enforcement agencies to conduct massive, random 'trawling' operations.....

(What YOU may consider to be 'vanilla porn' may not be so considered by those in positions of power. Be cautious, boys & girls!   )

_And before *anybody* says it, yeah, I know:- if you're not doing anything 'wrong', you have nothing to hide. Now be honest, kiddiwinks; how many of you really DO admit to absolutely *everything* you get up to online, hmm?_

--------------------------------------------

OscarTalks began playing around with this VPN stuff a couple of years ago; at that time, several Puppians were concerned about general internet privacy issues. I tried some of his early efforts, long before this ban was considered, just out of curiosity. The clunky, early 'manual' efforts have matured into a beautifully simple, easy-to-use package that can be used by anyone, newbie or veteran alike.

You can find the thread here:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=113004

.....and the packages at the bottom of Oscar's repo here:-

http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/

"vpnon-off 0.2"

Make sure to read the initial post right through. It contains a lot of needed information, including how to keep the OpenVPN password current.

Enjoy, y'all. Hope some of you find this useful.

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

_*Assorted Puppy utilities*_

Now then; a few more useful little Puppy utilities for you.

'*EasyDD*' was developed, very recently, by Pup's original founder, *Barry Kauler*, for use in his current project, EasyOS. It's a simple GUI 'front-end' for the 'dd' command, known by some as the 'disk destroyer'. It's a perfect method for newbies to access the 'dd' command without inadvertently wiping their OS out!!!

'DD' is a very powerful way to perform byte-by-byte copies of anything. It's most commonly used these days to write .img files to disk/USB drives. Many OSes offer an .img file option; ArnoldTheBat's ChromiumOS builds, the open-source version of Chromebook's ChromeOS, are offered exclusively in this format. Balena's 'Etcher' can perform this task, but it's an Electron-based app (meaning it's built around the Chromium browser).....and uses nearly 100 MB to do so.

'EasyDD' uses around 600kb to perform exactly the same function.....less than 1% of the size, and employing good old GTKdialog.

I've built a wee app around the script, incorporating a statically-compiled version of the very latest 'dd', also provided by Barry This gives you the script, the new 'dd' binary, and a Menu entry to run it from.

There's also an AppImage, for those of you who like these things, and also a 'self-extracting' portable version.....and even a 'RoxApp', for those of you who know what such things are. These can all be found at my Google Drive, here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Zt0C1sxnc5nhKjIrh0_DCpkC92wcE_oH?usp=sharing

------------------------------

Another of our Puppy Forum members, Jake (better known on the site as 'SFR') has recently built a brilliant wee screen magnification tool, called '*MagDock*'.

I've no hesitation at all in recommending this, since it's by far the best of its kind I've ever seen.

I've made a short GIF just to show its operation:-










I do apologise for the low quality; I had to make this with the 'low-quality' option in order to get it under the PostImage upload limit..! But it serves to show what the operation is like.

The icon in the tray, when left-clicked, starts/stops MagDock. Right-clicking gives you access to the 'Preferences', where you can adjust the depth of the magnification area (as a percentage of screen height), choose to place this either top or bottom of the screen, adjust frame-rate, and the amount of magnification.

It's an extremely useful little utility. (I've modified it in my Pups to be in the 'Desktop' sub-Menu, but as the packages come from Jake you'll find it under Menu->Utility.)

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=115930

*Highly* recommended. Another recipient of 'Mike's seal of approval'! (Jake wrote this from scratch, even building his own binary.....which just goes to show how talented some of our Puppy community members truly are.)

----------------------------------

And _*finally*_.....

*Yet* another entry in the remote desktop control stakes. This was discovered by our very own labbe5, who's the unofficial researcher of new software for the Puppy community. It's called '*DWService*', and the brilliant thing about this is that, besides working in just about any current distro, you can view its interface right in your browser.

(And we've ALL got one of those, right?)

Here's the Puppy forum thread for DWService:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=1030578#1030578

Again, far more lightweight than TeamViewer, which these days is built around Qt5...









(The .pet packages were assembled by yours truly, since _dwagent.sh_, as it comes, is merely a shell-script. The .pets give you a Menu entry to control it a bit more easily than having to drag it onto the desktop every time you want to use it.....)

Enjoy, mes amigos!

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

Just FYI:-

I've recently released two new browser packages for Puppy.

_*Chrome 76.0.3809.87*_ is now available from my Google Drive a/c, here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rFhmuRoUWqqwSqvSHLTKPzQVfrDnr5w-?usp=sharing

Available as .pet or SFS, navigate through & help yourself to the one you want.

--------------------------------

And the 'portable' package of the new ESR Firefox release (currently FF68.0.1esr) is also available for download, from here:-

32-bit:- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fW0VU2rOxJsVEUz_TOJODyPlC-jdg9tz/view?usp=sharing

64-bit:- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RJ_ftgAe4-P3KfIMq6HW37tYhwSEpSkD/view?usp=sharing

Usual instructions for these. D/l; unzip the package. Move the resulting 'firefox32' or 'firefox64' directory to wherever you like, and start by clicking on the 'ff' script inside the directory. (This can be dragged to the desktop, to serve as a handy launcher. Tart-up with a suitable icon if you so wish.)

On first run, it creates its profile in a dedicated directory within the main one.....this is what makes these truly portable, since after first run you can copy this to any other Puppy you might be running, and it should work there, too. This applies to all Puppies from mid 5-series onwards.

Just make sure to always use the 'ff' launcher script to start it; this is what tells it to use the internal profile, rather than create one in your /home/*user* directory.

Enjoy.

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

Before I forget:-

Here's the 'portable' Thunderbird 60 packages I promised some posts back. Again, available from my G.Drive:-

32-bit:- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uLkfIl8NYmd6o9nd1T9vKbbDlkfTVNUF/view?usp=sharing

64-bit:- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4yVtxs2acl45gHVxMcQ4AYoeFl_Udcc/view?usp=sharing

Exactly the same usage instructions as the 'portable' FF esr packages in the previous post.

-----------------------

For anyone who, like me, uses the 'FireTray' extension for T-Bird, which allows you to run T-Bird from an icon in the tray notification area, and to get alerts about new e-mails as they arrive, the old version quit working after T-Bird 52.

This is the 'updated' version, FireTray 0.6.2:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ANeZKGoszQelmymUYitGfdDUZeMYD9pe/view?usp=sharing

I discovered it after much back-and-forth on Mozilla's Thunderbird website FAQ section. It's a 'no-arch' .xpi file, so will work with both 32- and 64-bit. Install it via the settings 'drop-down' (the box with the wee 'cog-wheel') at the top of the 'Add-ons' page; TB still uses the 'old' installer dialog.....and select the 'Install Add-On from file' option, followed by navigating to the downloaded file.

Have fun.

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

_*'DogRadio' by Fredx181*_

Afternoon, all.

This is yet another example of Puppy community ingenuity. It's an internet radio streaming app for Puppy & the 'Dogs' (DebianDog/StretchDog/XenialDog/BionicDog,etc.)

(For those who may not know what the 'Dogs' are, they're based on the Debian LiveCD image, with the addition of a squashfs file-system & directory for saving personal configuration changes. However, they're built in such a way as to act & behave in a similar fashion to Puppy itself.)

Fred has built this from scratch, using YAD, and making use of publicly-available listings of internet radio stations. There's 3 or 4 different ways of adding stations, and there's a dozen or so installed to start you off. Full help instructions are provided.

These are 'all-in-one' packages with everything included for the app to run.....YAD is not a 'standard' item for Puppy, despite being super-easy to compile and very small in size.

It all works very well.

The current package, 0.0.9-1, is available from Fred's DropBox a/c. You can find the thread here:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=112858

Fred's published a short video on YouTube, demonstrating how DogRadio works:-






.....and here's a screenie of what it looks like:-










Enjoy!

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

_*New Google-Chrome 77 for Puppy, and new Thunderbird 68.0 'portable'*_

New packages of the above apps are now available. You can find the Google-Chrome packages here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rFhmuRoUWqqwSqvSHLTKPzQVfrDnr5w-?usp=sharing

.....and the new Thunderbird-'portable' packages here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K6w4kHyvIQ5rnFkzREL_ksd9T4qQ8RsX?usp=sharing

_*Please note:- The functionality of the 'Firetray' extension, for anyone who uses it, is, once again, broken by the upgrade. We'll have to wait for some kind soul to decide to 'fix' it again, I'm afraid.
*_
Installation & use instructions as for Thunderbird 60 'portable', above. Remember, for the T-Bird packages, the launch script is labelled '*tb*', as opposed to the '*ff*' for the Firefox portable.

Enjoy!

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

Evening, boys & girls.

Oooh, it has been a long while since I last added anything to this thread. Real life has a nasty habit of just 'getting in the way' of playtime, doesn't it?

Anyways, in the meantime my main desktop finally gave up the ghost and began to do a fair imitation of a doorstop, so.....I treated myself to a new HP 'compact' desktop and migrated from 2004 hardware to that of the current day (including a gorgeous big high-res wide-screen monitor). No more squinting at the screen. Yay!!!.

---------------------------------

After getting used to the new hardware, and setting-up a whole bunch of new Puppies on her, I've got a few 'treats' for y'all. BackSeatDriver has been upgraded so it now just 'works', and I've got a bunch of new 'portable' browsers for your delectation.....including a few Chromium-based items ( at long last!).

----------------------------------

*BackSeatDriver* is upgraded to version 3.19. Smokey01 made a few small changes (not sure what,exactly), but the app has received extensive testing over the Xmas/New Year period, and now works extremely well. This, remember, is Puppy's own lightweight equivalent to TeamViewer, AnyDesk, etc, offering

-Remote desktop control
-Chat messaging
-File transfers
-Live, real-time two-way voice communication, courtesy of Pup's built-in 'softphone', PSIP

.....all through an encrypted VPN tunnel.

New versions (including 'portable' ROX-Apps - long-term Puppians know what these are) can be found here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uC7m8qpqUhLc10sXEXfjEfw6qJsNcHWG?usp=sharing

Navigate through, and help yourselves to the version you want; there's 64-bit - .pet & portable - and both versions for both newer AND older 32-bit Pups. The packages for older Pups contain a set of additional libs, and for these there's also a 'runtime' package which *may* be required (depending on the Puppy vintage). Basically, this just upgrades to the necessary version of the glibc for PSIP & VNC to work correctly.

====================================

_*'Portable' browsers
*_
*Cliqz 'portable'* - https://cliqz.com/en/

A European, privacy-oriented browser for 'Europe's digital future'. It's based around the Firefox Quantum browser; has a lot of privacy-specific extensions already installed, and you have access to the main Mozilla add-ons site to obtain more, as expected. 64-bit only, I'm afraid. WideVine/DRM work OOTB.

Download - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yj1LSny6hyNJRd3omPtHWDzfdV1fSYBY/view?usp=sharing

Download; unzip; put the 'portable' anywhere you want. Click to open, then click on 'LAUNCH' to fire it up. Simples..!

-----------------------------------------

*SRWare Iron 'portable'* - https://www.srware.net/iron/

For a long time this was my favourite Chrome replacement for 32-bit machines. Still is, although Widevine is becoming 'problematical' in newer versions.

Download - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RZjHg6J8HK0il6aO2vxuAyZc6bltZlud?usp=sharing

64- and 32-bit versions of Iron 78 are available. Also, 64- and 32-bit versions of the slightly older Iron 69.....the last version where Widevine was easy to implement.

Deployment, as above. Download, unzip, locate, click, click. Manual Pepperflash updater included.

---------------------------------------------

*Opera-portable* - https://www.opera.com

The Opera 11 and 12 browsers from some years ago were great favourites with many Puppians. I could never get on with the somewhat 'quirky' way of doing things, but the 'Presto' engine had quite a following, it seems.

Like so many others, it's gone 'Blink'-based nowadays. I didn't take much notice until about a year ago, when someone wanted to run it in the first 64-bit Puppy, Tahrpup64. I looked at it, had a go at building a package, and the recipient seemed quite pleased with it. But I wasn't....because Widevine wouldn't work, and with my being a sci-fi nut, NetFlix is a prerequisite. No NetFlix, I kinda lost interest, y'see.....

I've looked at it a few more times over the last several months, and shortly before Xmas, found the DRM low-down over at the Opera forums. Together with the assistance of others, we finally got a fully working Opera package, which I soon built into a 'portable'. And it's darned fast, too.....as well as being chock-full of neat little features, many of which appear to be exclusive to Opera.

Download - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eRa_SuupXBK9BZbqKcquAnELcy-ZXBP_?usp=sharing

Same install instructions as above. PepperFlash updater included.

In fact for ME, it's all but replaced Chrome, which I've used virtually from the beginning......because for Puppy, Chrome packages are getting harder & harder to build so that they work.

Which finally leads me to the one that I'd been trying to build for a long time:-

---------------------------------------------

*Google_Chrome 'portable'* - https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/chrome/

Chrome was, for years, THE 'go-to' browser for me. It came along at a time when Firefox had become supremely frustrating, due to serious memory-hog/memory-leak issues, along with an exasperating tendency to crash at the drop of a hat, seemingly just for the hell of it..! It was lightweight; it was sizzlingly fast, and above all, it was as reliable as the day is long.

In recent years, it's been joined by a whole host of other Chromium-based browsers (the 'clones', as I call them!), some of which are breathtakingly good. A lot of the shine has begun to fade from Chrome's crown.....especially with Opera, which has taken all the best bits and then added a whole heap *more*.

I've quit producing the standard Puppy Chrome' packages - there's only so much dev work any one individual can take on! - but I will endeavour to keep this Chrome-portable available for as long as possible.

You can find it here (this is based on Chrome 79):-

Download - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rfdO7tpr8cxuO_QDW_kS4dfmQFMXy6iA/view?usp=sharing

A word of warning. Out of all the portables, this is the only one not totally self-contained. Since it has to run as user 'spot', its config files, as well as Uploads/Downloads all end up in the /root/spot directory, instead. You can still put it anywhere you want, though.....

Usage instructions as for all the others. Pepper auto-updates in Chrome.

Enjoy!

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

Afternoon, everybody.

Just to add to the above bunch of 'portables', here's a couple more for Puppy.

*Vivaldi-portable 2.1.1*

This is the current release. I've put together both 64- and 32-bit versions of this, although please be aware that the Widevine/DRM stuff only functions correctly in the 64-bit package. This is becoming a recurring 'theme' with these Chromium-based browsers, and with overall development direction coming from Big Brother (who underwrite the Chromium Project, where all the code is developed), I'm starting to suspect this is in line with their overall policy of 'encouraging' everybody to ditch 32-bit as 'legacy', and go 64-bit only.....

32-bit still works fine, though. But *NO* Netflix, etc....

Vivaldi is, of course, an off-shoot of Opera, by a bunch of former Opera devs who weren't happy with the way Opera was heading. It's fast becoming known as the most highly-configurable browser out there, and has a steadily expanding - and surprisingly loyal - user-base.

You can find both architectures here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fL7CninZ3oar1_bq5O4mmI53yYKP87fM?usp=sharing

Navigate to the one you want, and help yourselves.

--------------------------------------------

And my final offering in the 'portable' Chromium-based browsers is the Russian-developed.....

*Yandex-portable 19.12.3
*
64-bit only, I'm afraid....

Again, it's the same type of thing as all the other 'clones'; Yandex have put quite a bit of effort into developing the user interface; it's very clean, tidy and modern-looking, although some items are not quite where you'd expect to find them. The Menu 'hamburger', f'rinstance, is up alongside the window buttons, top-right corner! Be aware that there's also an awful lot of Russian-related links within this one, so you'll need to spend a while in 'Settings' to disable 'em all.

Once that's taken care of, however, it's a perfectly smooth, functional & fast browser. With one exception....

Bookmarks, in particular, are a complete PITA. Yandex want you to save every item you bookmark to a Russian 'cloud', where no doubt the KGB and other state security 'apparatchiks' can pick stuff over at their leisure. Uh-uh. no way.....not for us here in the West!

The easiest workaround for this is, if you have another Chromium-based browser, to do the following:-

_*1.* Run Yandex for the first time, to create the 'Profile' within its own directory. Now, shut it down again.

*2.* Go into the profile of your other browser, and click on 'Default'. Inside your 'user profile', you'll find a plain-text file called, simply, 'Bookmarks'. Copy this.

*3.* Now, click on the Yandex portable directory to open it, then yandex->PROFILE->Default.....and paste the 'Bookmarks' file in here. Restart the browser, and everything should be showing...._​
It's a pain, I know, and you can't actually ADD new bookmarks (it won't import an HTML bookmarks file, because the developers insist on everything going into the aforesaid 'cloud').....but NetFlix and streaming services work without a murmur, so it's a good, secondary browser for some of you. No doubt this is a good example of a 'state-developed' browser, so that the incumbents can keep the population under some vestige of control... 

You can find this one here:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q8I7uop4TjMw5Y4gT_ZzEVwMu3bfHqXj/view?usp=sharing

Enjoy!

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

Morning, guys'n'gals.

Just to let y'all know, I haven't forgotten this thread. Covid-19, unfortunately, got in on the act, so I've been otherwise occupied the last few months...

I've got a heap of new Puppy packages for anyone who's interested - many of them updated browsers - along with various other utilities. I'll be posting about many of these soon, so.....stay tuned.


Mike.


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## Miqw7394

Right, boys & girls.

Sorry for the huge delay; here's a bunch of new, up-to-date 'portables' for Puppy.

*Chrome-portable* (88.0.4328.182) - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KrewI1c9Xr1_hzK3YBRYSDYv90aVkwII?usp=sharing

--------------------------------------------

*Iron-portable* (88.0.4500.0) - 32-bit:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zCNwOxwjgN1NmNBA7cqr2_Pgc_Jnhbd5?usp=sharing

64-bit:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rRqmvGnLxGLmv9iguLEp4Wx5dsLwmItA?usp=sharing

-----------------------------------------

*Vivaldi-portable* - 32-bit:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12HLFtmcmEkwyProJa3scqTCUWxKCPO7x?usp=sharing

64-bit:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1O1VkaUGCw9qOV6Na0oEIwzkj1RvXk05a?usp=sharing

------------------------------------------

*Pale Moon-portable* - 32-bit:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FiVMM2ndt3RqOZBhKoVCrIbH3ORWJfoL?usp=sharing

64-bit:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13EFzaf32Iot6lAcmsvF0aSd8B5OWgm3A?usp=sharing

-----------------------------------------

64-bit portables of Chrome, Iron & Vivaldi have 2 launchers. Use the 'LAUNCH_NL' script for very new Pups like Fossapup64, etc. Anything from Bionic64 backwards still needs the original 'LAUNCH' script.

-----------------------------------------

*Skype-portable* - (64-bit only) - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18N-xGcdIsHp0WvNQjqw6nxVjRlBV2tpP?usp=sharing

-----------------------------------------

*Zoom-portable* - (64-bit only) - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TjN5NDkHRrwC_S5y7dd_ssf2J7IumB67?usp=sharing

------------------------------------------

MD5 checksums included for all packages.

As with all my portables, usage is very simple. D/l; unzip; place the 'portable' directory wherever you want to run it from.....though preferably outside of the 'save'. Click to enter, click 'LAUNCH' (or 'LAUNCH_NL', where appropriate) to fire them up.

Couldn't be easier. Enjoy, mes amigos.

Mike.


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## Miqw7394

Right, gang. I think it's high time I updated this thread again....don't *you*?

Rather than give a whole heap of explanations as to what I've been doing this last several months, and a ton of links to individual apps, I'll just say this....

I've been developing a way of 'portabilizing' many popular apps for Puppy, in such a way that the 'portable' directory is best run from outside the 'save'. When launched, all relevant config files are first created inside the portable directory, then sym-linked out to where the app expects to see them at run-time.

Because these ARE sym-links, everything is basically written straight back to the portable.....which makes these more suitable than ever for running from external media like a flash drive, or external USB 3.0 HDD.

---------------------------------------------

I opened another cloud a/c several months back in the spring, this time with MEGA.nz. To cut a long story short, everything in here is built to work with Puppy Linux, and is all in 'portable' format.....so what I'll do is to give y'all a link to the main Linux directory here. This way, you can browse the directory for yourselves; if you see anything that takes your fancy, help yourselves. Can't say fairer than that.

The "Linux Stuff..." directory at my MEGA.nz a/c can be found here:-

*https://mega.nz/folder/6LYmRTzK#mXaNPN46JIrtUMnCerCy-Q*

Y'all need have no worries about finding crap or nasties buried among this lot. For people like myself, from the open-source side of the fence, there is absolutely no percentage in trying to infect other folks hardware. We have nothing to gain from doing so, and an awful lot to lose; reputations are hard-won, and easily lost.....and once that happens, they're a very hard thing to regain.

Standard practice for all these portables is now as follows:-


Download
Unzip
Place the portable directory anywhere you like, but preferably outside the 'save'
Click to enter
Click the 'LAUNCH' script to fire them up

Some of the browsers have more than one 'LAUNCH' script; a 'LaunchReadMe' file explains which one to use. Most of them now have scripts for adding a Menu entry from wherever they happen to be located. A 'MenuReadMe' file explains how to use these, and what to do if you want to move the portable app.

Anyways; have a browse, and help yourselves if you want to. Hope some of this is useful for some of you.

Mike.


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## Johnny b

* Have an old iPad lying around? You might be able to make it run Linux soon *
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ux-up-and-running-on-old-ipad-air-2-hardware/


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